Summer Revs Up

Last Tuesday was one of the rare days I missed publishing on this blog. I'd been a day off all week long, and it's easy to understand why.

Our annual block party, which I organize for about 25 households, was supposed to be last Saturday. But due to the rain in the forecast, we pushed it back until Sunday. So understandably Sunday definitely felt like Saturday.

Anyway, Saturday turned out to be a lovely day after a long rain shower in the morning. So we ended up largely splitting up the block party activities, basically making it a weekend-long event. Our neighbor collected for a keg, and we ended up tapping it Saturday night. So we ended up staying out way past our bedtime two nights in a row. So not only did the day feel wrong, I was pretty tired too!

Of course, we had a delightful time like always. Lots of laughs and conversations with neighbors we don't always see, and enough activities for the kids to help them sleep late the next morning -- bike parade, pinata, temporary tattoos, craft table, colored hairspray and a million other things.

I think I'm finally recovered, just in time to enjoy the second third of the summer!

Swim Lessons!

Finally, both kids are learning to swim. 

Edith took lessons two summers ago and made some progress, but not being in a pool for two years put her a few steps back again.

The pool being closed last summer didn’t do Atticus any favors either — he was too young for weekday lessons two years ago, but he was learning to float on his back with me. Now he is nervous. But last week was only his first week of lessons, so he’s not doing too bad.

Neither Edith nor Atticus were looking forward to lessons AT ALL. But it took one day to go from dreading it to looking forward to it. Five or ten minutes of free time in the water helps!

A Visit to Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park

 

We've seen one or two cicadas in our yard, but before this weekend I'm not sure we had actually heard any. That changed on Sunday when we visited Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park just west of Columbus.

This is about a half hour from our house, but just a few miles from the first home that Paul and I lived in. Still, I hadn't been there since we moved in 2007. Ironically, Edith has been there since I had, for a field trip in kindergarten.

The park has some acclaim in Columbus because it is the home of some bison -- and currently, some baby bison. We didn't get a great view, but we did spy them in the meadow.

We also took a short walk to the creek, where we saw quite a few kayaks and surprisingly fast rapids. And the cicadas were truly deafening. We even got a close up view when one landed on Atticus and I nudged it onto a branch.

The visitors center was still closed due to Covid -- scheduled to reopen today -- but we managed to have a picnic lunch in another section of the park with Paul's mom. It was shockingly busy. So many parties and picnic tables and shelters! Rain cut our visit short by a bit, but it was still a nice reintroduction to the park.

Do you spy Edith?

Bison in the distance.

Another Summer Begins

Yesterday was Memorial Day and today is the kids' last full day of school, so I don't care what the calendar says: Summer has begun.

After last year's fiasco of a pandemic summer, I'm even more appreciative of what's ahead. Our annual block party is in a few weeks, and my 40th birthday party is a month after that. We're planning to go on vacation in August (location TBD), and our annual crap swap is in September. This year we're actually putting things ON the calendar, while last year we were only taking things OFF.

I would never want to repeat last summer, but some good things did come out of it. Since everyone's summer plans were simultaneously cancelled and many people were even working from home, nearly everyone was home all of the time. We got to know some of our neighbors much better, and the kids always had someone to play with. My neighbor-friends become more like friend-neighbors.

This summer we have a list of things to accomplish (ask me in a month if we're still working toward those goals!). Edith hopefully will be practicing archery, while Atticus wants to learn more about chess. I have a list of new-to-us playgrounds to visit, and a separate list of movie musicals I want to introduce them to. Summer, here we come!