Home Run

I found Bobby Cox!

So, how's summer going, you ask? We are now more than halfway through June, also known as the month I don't think about school at all. Come July, it starts creeping in. But June is held sacred. Professional Development books to read? July. Open House materials to make? July. Thinking about school in general? July. This year had a slight exception, in that I went to the school's Leadership Retreat a couple weeks ago. We gathered at the new Braves stadium conference center, worked hard, played some hilarious team-building games (there were blindfolds involved - but no trust falls!), and then got to enjoy dinner and the ballgame afterwards. And if you must work in the summer, it's good to be amongst some of nicest, dedicated, top-notch teachers at the school.

We are now two weeks out from the famed Peachtree Road Race 10k happening on July 4. My training has been... varied. See, it turns out my knees start hurting if I run to much. Every time I increase distance (example: first time I broke four miles), I pay for it afterwards, often putting me in a no-run recovery period for up to a week or more. Stupid knees! When it happened for the first time back in May, I was super bummed. So I started doing a bunch of workouts focused on building leg strength (I use the Nike+ Training app). Slowly I added in some runs, most around one to two miles. I've worked out a little system where I take the girls to swim practice and in the 30 minute window while they're both in the water with their instructors, I run around the neighborhood. I've noticed this method has been increasing my pace as well, since I'm so paranoid about getting back to the pool before they're out of the water! My goal has been to do some type of workout/run/both every day leading up to the Big Day (I'm also a little obsessed with closing all my Apple Watch circles). I ran 5k on Saturday while Matt had the girls at the playground, and I figure if I can pound out that distance without too much struggle, I can probably go the full distance on the Fourth, even if I have to grit my teeth and blow out the knees to get there. I've found, as I've gotten better at it, I actually enjoy running. But I'm already wondering how on earth I'll be able to keep it up once the school schedule starts again. Short of getting up at four in the morning, there's no way to squeeze in a run before work. Ah well, it's still June. I don't have to worry about that yet!

Kicking Off Summer

BFFs at CAA!

My favorite way to usher in summer is by forcing my kid to wake up early, pack a lunchbox and backpack, and disappear for the entire day. I kid, a little, but honestly it's kind of nice to keep Violet in a routine to help ease the transition to schedule-free days. We headed back to Camp All American (or as I like to say - Six Flags Over Jesus) and once again it was awesome. Violet went for the first time last year, but this year, being both older and having some experience under her belt, she marched in without a look back! I am always so impressed with CAA. The counselors are 110 percent committed to this camp, evidenced by the wrap-up event on Friday. Their energy is amazing and mind-boggling when you consider that they do this ten weeks in a row! Also I get little flashbacks to my own summer church camp experiences (although they weren't nearly as flashy). Violet is already asking for two weeks at CAA next year, and to me it is worth every penny. Camp gives her something to look forward to every day, they make it a blast with pools, games, camp-wide competitions, the always important opportunity to buy candy at the canteen... Violet says next year she wants to do the Wilderness specialty (you pick a different specialty each week to focus on) and wants to eventually do the ropes course.

Yay Jesus!

While Violet was at camp all week, it gave me and Annie some one-on-one time, which happens next to never. Having just one kid at a time, when you are normally used to two (and the whining and competition and fighting that goes along with siblings), is a strange yet wonderful experience. It was nice to be able to focus on just Annie for a bit. She can be so sweet. She was my "coach" during my morning workouts, inserting random helpful statements like "keep going mommy" and "use your strong muscles". Every now and then she would attempt a move, which cracked me up. "Look at my body squats! I'm doing it!" Most days I even got her to take a nap by putting on an episode of Good Eats (she calls Alton Brown her "buddy"). She was a fairly good little errand-runner too.

A no-nap day as we waited to pick up big sister from camp.

We capped off the week with our neighborhood's first Swim-In Movie Night. It was awesome! I was surprised at how huge the screen was! There was free pizza and popcorn and even free floats to use in the water. I don't know how Violet managed to stay awake through the whole thing, after a week of camp plus the swim meet the night before! Speaking of swim team, Violet has continued to rock it, coming in second overall in the freestyle.

Movie Night!

Finally, I got my yearly haircut, and this time threw a little color in the mix just to make things fun for the summer. I love how the ladies at the salon always insist on straightening my hair. It always looks so different! Fear not, it only lasted until my next shower. And even the stylist admitted that it's way too much hair to straighten on a daily basis.

Straight hair, don't care!

Other than swim practice every morning and the meets on Thursday, our schedule is pretty open this summer. Swim runs through June, and the girls are signed up for gymnastics camp in July. But schedule-free summer has officially started. I've got to figure out a way to limit the girls' technology time and habit of asking for snacks every 20 minutes. I also need to figure out what I want to accomplish this summer. So far I tackled the girls' closets. I sorted ALL the clothes into their respective bins (things to save for Annie, things to donate, things Violet hasn't grown into yet, etc) and found a whole tub of baby clothes in the back of Annie's closet that got immediately driven to my friend's house. The faster I can get stuff out of here, the better! I'm sure I could make another pass through my own closet as well. And of course, I'm trying to train for the big race coming up on July 4. I'm sure we'll find a way to keep busy...