summer fun

The project for this summer was to get Sissy out in the world, get employment for the boys and get Pike out in the world, interacting.  Since Jesse and Ellen are both in school and they're not the hermits their siblings are, they were left alone.  So for MONTHS I'd been promoting the idea of sailing (no takers) and windsurfing (no takers).  FINALLY the boys realized that windsurfing was not the same as parasailing (head-brick wall) and professed interest, but alas, it was too late.  The girls ended up going to the sailing class with first 2 of their horse-riding friends and yesterday, 3 of their friends.  Yesterday I decided to scope out a way to see the class (as Jamie had simply left the kids at the dock where they were taken by panga to a more remote area) and perhaps combine my swim workouts there if the area ended up being constructive to swimming.  (in the picture, sissy and ellen are in the boat on the right)

Yesterday, Jamie got the kids formally enrolled in the class (they just showed up for the first one and the instructor let them participate) and work was quite light so I headed off with him.  I really should have brought my swim suit because I'm still fantasizing about how great the swim there looks to be.  I really should not complain about my options here as I have a 150m bay outbound and 150m inbound route I can take or a 12ish m pool (all measured with Google Earth) but I hate the barracuda that follows me around incessantly and yesterday while watching the kids class we all saw a turtle and I'd much prefer tortuga to barracuda.  So there's that.  It also looks like there is windsurfing instruction going on during the sailing class (instead of 10am, which is not attractive to Jesse due to time, kinda like Middle of the Night to him) so he might be on board with that.  It is a little bit concerning to me that Jamie and I are both more athletic than our children, and especially our teenage sons.  Something in my mind has a big problem with that as well as concerns for their cardiovascular systems.

We have dubbed this month the Month Of Birthday and have been celebrating Jamie's 50th all month.  It started basically because I'm senile.  Jesse came to me one day in June and asked if Jamie's birthday was coming up and I mumbled "yes" while paying attention to something else, but honestly, I can't blame it on that as we had MULTIPLE discussions about what we were going to do and get, etc. and it wasn't until the actual NON-BIRTHDAY that Jamie let us in on the fact that we were a month early.  So I figured we'd just turn it into a month of birthday (as he turns 50 this year) to celebrate this milestone.  We have had root-beer floats after hard bike rides, a week of "Dad does no dishes" and other stuff.  I think by the time his birthday rolls around he's going to be a little bit too used to the glory and glamor so we'll have to figure out something there.

I think I have Sissy convinced to go to school in the fall.  She knows some of the kids in her proposed class (1st of secundaria) and will have Jim, the teacher Jesse liked so much, for English and History.  she is doing well with homeschooling and she really enjoys it but she interacts with No Children and she needs interaction.  I'm not convinced that SCHOOL is the answer but she is so timid and afraid to try anything new I think she really needs a nudge to start trying new stuff.  I'm worried she will continue to self-limit due to not being completely comfortable and hope having friends already attending there will help her along.  Ellen LOVES her school and just yesterday said she missed it already.  It really speaks to her soul and they are die hard Waldorf there.

I need to see if I can find backups for the old hopalog and see if I can restore it but for now I hope to start updating here.  Pictures to come.