The Heat is On – Our Summer Schedule
Ahhh, Summer – school’s out, sun’s out and the pressure is on for parents (well, at least that’s how I feel).
Summer in the Ratterman household includes the kids going to various day camps for most of the day, including tennis camp. This is both fun and builds skills plus teaches sportsmanship, so it’s a great activity. Plus, it’s good exercise. It’s always good to keep the kids busy because otherwise there is what seems to be a never ending chorus of “I’m Hot” and “I’m Bored” and because it does get so hot here, outside activities all day (even swimming in the pool) aren’t practical.
Jack has a 5-day soccer camp and then, if his team wins the Regional Tournament in June, there’s a National Tournament in July. But, we won’t know until the Regional Tournament has been played, whether his team will go on to the National Tournament. Until his soccer camp Jack’s typical day is: waking up late, playing Xbox, watching soccer, talking to his friends and some soccer tournaments here & there. You know, typical teenage boy stuff. Later on in the summer Jack will go off for a week-long camp in Idaho, so it will be pretty quiet in the house most days.
Summer Camps and Vacation
Two of the kids go to Wisconsin for sleep-away camps for a month. This is a fabulous opportunity for them to reconnect with old friends and get to build new lifelong friendships. Mid-July, I’m taking Molly to pick up the kids from camp in Wisconsin and then we’ll go on our annual family trip. This year we’ll drive through northern Wisconsin, over the Michigan U.P. and down to Traverse City which is a beautiful trip. Jack and Jeff may join us depending on how the soccer tournament goes. So, on one hand, of course you want the team to win the Regional Tournament. On the other hand, we will really miss them if they can’t join us in the Midwest for a vacation together. UPDATE – Unfortunately Jack’s team lost, but that does mean they’ll be joining us in Michigan.
For Jeff and I, we will still have our “grocery dates” on Sundays, but will probably need a bit less food. There’s even a chance of getting a REAL “date-night” put back into our schedule!
There’ll be a little flurry of activity before the kids go away to camp as we will need to get some clothes as most of the year the kids wear uniforms to school and then when summer comes, everyone has, of course, outgrown what they were wearing last summer. When summer camp comes everyone needs three new pairs of shoes because they can’t just wear their uniform shoes!
On most days in the summer, though, things are pretty mellow and we just go with the flow. What’s your summer schedule like? Do you go on a family vacation or just go with the flow? I’d love to know so please share in a comment!
