Time at the lake with friends and family, time with numerous cousins (and other extended family members), a wonderful trip to Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, including horseback riding and Yellowstone Park, an Olympics Tea Party, a 2-night stay at Rachel's, including a day at Canobie Lake Park, a pedicure downtown, perfecting her handstands and cartwheels....this list of activities for the first half of summer vacation is jam-packed! Yet, when I asked Bea at the halfway point what her favorite thing of all has been, she shocked me by saying "Summer Reading program at the library."
This summer has been one of my favorites ever with Bea, second only to our first one together in 2009. We have had lots of swim time at the pool and lake, time with friends (some of whom are also family,)
time with relatives whom we rarely see,
hours and hours of reading, aloud, and quietly for us both. Beatrice fondly remembers last summer's read-aloud, Cricket in Time Square, and this year we really enjoyed The Wild Robot and The Penderwicks series.
Our trip out west, started on my very last day of school, was incredible.
We saw so many sights we'd never seen before,
and tried new activities too!
We felt the majesty of the beautiful nature in this part of our country,
rented a car that who we will never forget ("Mr. Green"),
and spent long, wonderful days with these four kiddos on their farm. It was so very sad to say goodbye to these cousin-friends! 2400 miles is just too far away!
( and 1:45 a.m. is too late to be up waiting for your flight home to depart!)
After readjusting to life back home, we settled into some Putnam summer fun, including many Creativity Camp classes at Michael's with Weezy, a pedicure downtown,
and, inspired by her cousin Sadie, practicing hundreds of cartwheels and handstands.
Near the end of July, we headed to Rachel's for a couple of days, stopping by Pho Sure on the way, our new favorite Vietnamese place. Their bubble tea did not disappoint!
Nor did 48 hours with one of her bestest buddies!
For years, Bea has been begging me to host a "tea party" a la the Fancy Nancy book that she loves, so we spontaneously had one. She threw in an Olympic-theme curve ball right before, so we went with it.
Gold medals all around! We are very excited to watch the Olympics on TV.
But, after hours of putting in these photos and figuring out when/what to write, these last two sum up Bea's favorite part of Summer 2016 so far, time at our local library. The Summer Reading Program, for which she earns awesome prizes from local businesses, along with yoga club, summer lunch, and the smoothie club, make it her favorite place.
Off to Maryland tomorrow!
