Summertime And The Living Is Easy

The holiday weekend just passed and now we are two days into dance camp and the show is tonight, so excitement is in the air! We had a truly lovely Fourth, spent with family and friends. We attended the town parade where the kids rode their decorated bikes and the Beach Chair Brigade lost all sense of important chair formation and cracked up the crowds lining the street. It's a pretty laid-back affair and it definitely still has that small-town-America-feel, which is what we love most about the parade. We followed the parade with a picnic and swim on the beach that lasted until it was time for dinner or we got cold, whichever came first. We had friends visiting and it was so much fun to share the day with them and hopefully create new traditions. We had always said no to sparklers in previous years but we decided the kids were capable this year of being safe with them, and they were, to their delight and ours. The kids walked down the hill with the dads to watch the town fireworks but the moms stayed at our house and watched from our deck. Living in a beach town has it's benefits, for certain.

We tried to go fishing on Saturday but mostly we just enjoyed the beautiful scenery and chatting with other unlucky fishermen. We ended the day by going to the movies, and though it wasn't the drive-in of my childhood (though there are two nearby), it evoked nostalgia regardless. How I remember the summers where my sister and I would spend the day outside swimming and eating picnic food and getting a little bit sun-crisped then going to the drive-in or fireworks with butterflies in our bellies. I think our kids felt that way this weekend, given their non-stop chatter about how much fun they had.

By Sunday the sea-fog was intense and it lasted all day, but it was hot and sunny and for a change we didn't feel pulled by a looming house project, so back to the beach we went. Except this time we went to a different spot where there is a tidal brook. We arrived just as it was approaching high-tide so we exhausted ourselves by jumping into the water where the ocean met brook and we rode the speedy current almost all the way to the marsh. Then we'd fight the current and crawl back up the bank, run down the beach and start again. We did the reverse when the tide was going out. Alex spent some time in goggles searching the bottom of the brook at high-tide for crabs and starfish. He found hermit crabs that somersaulted in his palm until he returned them to the water. He let the kids examine these starfish for a bit.
It was a treat to make these discoveries. We soon went back to floating on the current until once again, cold and hunger drove us home.

So this week the kids are at dance camp and our routine takes on a new rhythm with new songs, new and old faces and preparation. It's all familiar and is a much aniticipated summer tradition now that we have been involved with dance camp for the past five years (and third year with the company). Was Adam just six when he started as part of the Lollipop Guild? Wow, they've grown and changed so much. So this evening, Alex and I will sit there and be further amazed by our children and by the changes we see in them. And next summer we'll look back on pictures of this show and think, wow...look how they've grown! Break a leg, kids! It's showtime!