The summer is in full swing, or jeté, as it were

Not two days after we return from our lakeside retreat, Annie begins her first day of week-long ballet camp (it's only 2 hours long and involves snack and craft time, so apparently, we're easing ourselves into our tutus). Annie loved it and at the end of the week we had a recital where they showed off their "Under the Sea" themed moves. Annie was an excellent shark and turtle. She also tackled walking like a crab with gusto. There's a video of her warm-up dance on our Shutterfly site if you're interested in seeing her in action (pw: annieandoscar). Now, she's on to good old summer day camp, complete with sunblock, bathing suits and her name written on EVERYTHING. I will pick her up from her first day in about an hour, so I'll keep everyone posted on what she thinks. She looked a little apprehensive when I left her, but that usually lasts for all of two seconds before she starts beaming and bossing people around.

Father's Day came and went with not much fanfare, I'm afraid. Jay had to go into work for the day, but we started the morning off with some presents. The cats got him some grill tools since we're about to receive our first grill ever in the mail any day now. Annie and Oscar got him some running shoes as he's started to go jogging again and his old shoes could have easily been mistaken for roadkill. I made Jay's favorite tomato basil quiche for dinner and we ended it with Cherry Garcia frozen yogurt cones and Oscar got to meet his new best friends, Ben & Jerry. He's a fan.

Speaking of Oscar, he'll be trying out for the U.S. Olympic gymnastic team any day now. Unlike his sister at his age, the boy can't sit still for one second. He's rolling like crazy, on carpet, hardwoods, gravel (that last one, I kid, but I wouldn't put it past him). I'm pretty sure he'll be crawling in less than two weeks. He loves to eat, talk (I think Roscoe understands some of what he's saying), smile, laugh, and STARE at his sister for hours. Napping? Not so much. Like his sister, he hates sleeping in the car which, when you're a second child, is sort of a necessity, but I guess that depends on who you ask, right, Oscar? But even when exhausted, he's a happy kid. His leg is healing nicely and he's starting to bear weight on it again. No cast. The doctor left it up to us. We decided that with the lake and the upcoming summer heat, it would just be so uncomfortable for him. So we've just been ginger with it and he doesn't seem phased a bit.

Annie Ballet and others 6-10

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More May 2010

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Away we go

For the first time EVER the Ferrara family of four headed for a week-long vacation alone. We went to Winchester, TN, about 4 hours from Louisville to Tims Ford Lake. A friend of ours kindly offered her family's cabin for us to use and enjoy as a small getaway to celebrate the coming of summer. What better way to justify the need for sunscreen than by sitting at the edge of a beautiful lake surrounded by trees, water and the sounds of your children laughing? I had just wrapped up a pretty brutal week, kidding myself into thinking I could freelance and mother two children at once. The respite was a welcomed one, to say the least. The drive down took a bit as we headed back into the good ol' Central Time Zone (without us realizing it until we got there and our cell phones and GPS notified us). The kids did their best, and their best is pretty good when taking into account that said children are three years and 7 months of age. Once we got there, it was like every bone in my body gave a collective sigh of relief.

I kept a journal of the entire vacation but I won't bore you with that. Quick summary: We slept. We ate. We swam. We went to the grocery store (a ridiculous amount of times). We swam. We ate. We slept. Rinse and repeat. We did make it out to Chattanooga, TN to visit the Incline Railway and Rock City at Lookout Mountain. We found it sadly amusing that at the gates of Rock City, among the geological wonders in the far reaches of nature, you can also observe the urban homo sapien sipping lattes at its native Starbucks. You'll see all of these wonders represented in the pictures below. Even the Starbucks. Truly a site to see.

Now we're back and Annie has started her first week of Ballet Camp. She looks very cute in her leotard and about 2 years older with her hair back. I'll get some pictures at the recital on Friday. Stay tuned for cuteness in spandex. Then it's on to two weeks of regular old day camp at the JCC and then back to ballet for one more week. That's it for scheduled programming for Annie this summer. We head to Connecticut at the beginning of August to visit both sides of our family and we can't wait. Vacations alone are nice, but I think Annie was craving some kid time by the end of our trip, so a visit with the cousins will be a great way to round out the summer fun.

Lake Vacation 6-10

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