AROUND HERE

It's SUMMER!  Brian was done with school on the 18th.  Sam's last day was the 24th.  We've made the quick transition from school year routines to days that feel kind of chaotic - at least to me. Our days have been broken up with a lot of appointments, errands and commitments that we had been pushing off until Brian was home.   I have hopes that we will find ourselves a groove of sorts in the next couple of weeks.

One fun thing I got to do this last week was have book club at a Saltdogs baseball game.  Our group rotates hosting, with the host choosing location.  Most often we meet in our homes, but sometimes we will meet at restaurants and we usually have one winery outing each summer.  This was our first ballpark meeting and it was really fun.  We didn't watch much of the game, but we enjoyed beer and snacks and talking.  And we did watch most of the last inning and had the chance to cheer for the surprise win at the end of the game.

The idea of hosting a "Rainbow Party" toward the end of my 100 Day Project has been floating around in my head for the past several weeks.  I keep alternating between being excited by the idea and wondering what exactly a Rainbow Party entails.  I decided, this week, that I'm just going to do it.  I will send out invitations today and then I will be on the hook for figuring out what a Rainbow Party does entail.  I predict it will be fun - both the planning and the party itself.  (Also, Brian thinks this is weird / crazy, which it is - but that just makes me want to do it more.)

We've spent time with all three sets of our parents this last week.  I feel like this is a funny, but somewhat regular occurrence.  We seem to go through long stretches where we don't see any of them and then calendars work out just-so, andt we get to see all three.  We - Brian and I and our kiddos - are incredibly blessed with all six of these people that we love and that love us back.

Next weekend begins our Petermann Family Camping Adventures.  I'm not sure if I've written about this before or not.  Basically, we are not campers, but we decided that we want to be.  So, this week will be all about basic preparations (trying out that camp stove we got for Christmas, setting up the tent in the backyard to make sure we can do it and that we have all the pieces, etc.) and next weekend we are giving it a go.  We are only staying one night for our first trip.  We will see what things we forget and what things we bring but don't need.  And from there, we can adjust and try again.  I would love for this to become a regular part of our summers and maybe even to someday camp our way across the country on road trips.

And now we are off to yet another graduation party.  'tis the season.  Cheers, friends!