It's taken a while, but I think it's safe to say that the weather here in Rhode Island is finally "seasonable". We've been blessed with 4 days in a row of beautiful, sunny, warm weather!! The kids have been spending a little more time in the pool now that the water temp is slowly but surely creeping up into the mid 70's, with yesterday being their first real "pool day" of the year. We were outside from 9:15A-4p and, with the exception of me having to reapply their sunscreen ten million times, serve food and drinks and play lifeguard, very little was required of me. I mostly sat in a shady spot and supervised! I've always said how lucky I am to have kids who truly enjoy spending time in our backyard. Like typical siblings they sometimes get on each others nerves and have major meltdowns over minor incidents (i.e. yesterday Savannah "accidently" dumped out Bella's "Bucket -O- Bugs", Oh the horror!, so in turn Bella "accidently" dumped a bucket of water over Savannah's head..). And sometimes Kyle tries to get the girls to play with him, forgetting that they are much younger than he is and aren't too likely to follow his "rules" of the game.. But I have to say that they usually get along "well enough". All 3 of them know how to entertain themselves and have no problem playing independently from time to time. In fact, there are definite times in which they clearly would PREFER to play alone.. In any event, as I've stated in the past, our backyard comes alive with noise in the summer and is definitely the loudest in the neighborhood- especially during the day when all of the other kids are in school! I'm sure there are at least a few neighbors who don't appreciate the noise level but, after being cooped up indoors all winter long (with this past winter being exceptionally long!!), there's no way you'll spot us inside unless it's raining out! Summer, for my kids, consists of the following: A whole lot of sunscreen, sweat, swimming, running, swinging and playing mixed in with laughter and some tears (depending on the second, minute, hour, day..).
Yesterday our backyard really came alive when the kids had friends over to play. Bella's friend Myles came over during Savannah's nap followed by Kyle's friend Riley who joined us a few hours later. All of the kids had a blast swimming and playing! Kyle was especially excited to have Riley over, as he hadn't seen him since well before the long winter arrived. Riley is very athletic and is involved in both hockey and baseball so he's pretty busy most of the time. I keep in touch with his Mom during the school year and as soon as I see that there might be a break in his schedule I try to plan something. He's such a great kid and is really a pleasure to have over!
As I've blogged about in the past, Kyle does not have many friends in our community. There was a time when he had a fairly large circle of kids that he spent time with but, at the end of summer last year, I decided to re-evaluate many of those so-called 'friendships'. They appeared to be very "one-sided". When the public school year began I decided to sit back and see if anyone would keep in touch with us. Very few did/have. I tend to go back and forth with how I feel about that because I know it has absolutely nothing to do with the kids - it's all about the parents. We live in such a click-y community, which is exactly the opposite of how I am. I have no want for my kids to be part of the "in-crowd" because all of those kids are followers. My kids are being raised to just be themselves and, because of that, they're "just a little different" then the others around here. At 10 years old Kyle is perfectly content to run around with an army hat on his head and a pretend gun in his hand. The sneakers upon his feet cost less than $20 and many of his clothes are hand-me downs that come to us in excellent condition from family and friends. He asks for very little and wants for even less. All that being said, he is a definite "people person" who LOVES to interact with others. He truly gets along with everyone and genuinely enjoys hanging out with other kids. This is why I'm signing him up for one week of camp at the local Parks and Recreation this summer. It's only $50 for the week, from 8:30A-3:30p! He'll be hanging out with kids his own age and participating in all sorts of fun activities so I'm hoping he has a fantastic time!
No comments:
Post a Comment