Summer vacation is a learned skill

Last Thursday we officially finished school.

By Monday morning, the girls were asking what we were going to do now?

By Tuesday morning, the girls were asking if they could please go ahead and start school again.

By Thursday morning, they seem to have gotten the hang of this thing called "summer vacation". We hang out all morning in our pajamas, do some crafts, do some housework, check our schedule to see if we've got a playdate or dentist appointment, and just generally slow down and let them *be kids*.

As much as the girls resisted the idea, they really need the unstructured time. Time to figure out their own games and activities. Time to spend with friends hanging out at the pool or the park. Of course, the cool weather moved back in this week and we haven't been able to go to the pool since Saturday. But we're meeting friends today at the grassy area of our local shopping center so the kids can just run around and the moms can talk.

I'm loving the chance to catch up on all those home administration tasks that get pushed to the back-burner during the school year. Like backing up photo files and going through all the video camera tapes, pulling off the good stuff, and getting all of the tapes ready to be recorded over during summer vacation. Like introducing the girls to the deliciousness of carrots dipped in peanut butter, which caused some strange looks, but K is now eating a PB&shredded carrot sandwich and L is eating a deconstructed version. Because running a carrot over the cheese grater obviously makes it much cooler.

See? More time to do the important stuff in life.