summer fun: one child at a time

{photos by 11 year old Boy #2}

Both boys are off at sleep away camp this week. They are at different camps, one is at youth group camp and the other at soccer camp. The dynamic is so different with only one child at home. When this does happen, it is not usually the Girl that is the one at home. But this week it is and I want to soak it up. The Girl is sixteen and I am painfully aware that she will be off to college in not too many years.

So, while the boys are away, we are planning on some Girl Time. She is actually at theater camp until 2 pm everyday, but after that, we have some simple plans. Yesterday involved a stop by Jamba Juice for a smoothie and a little summer wardrobe refresher shopping. Her favorite dinner–Moosewood Mac and Cheese and Twelve Years a Slave, a movie that we would not have watched if the youngest boy was home.

Today will be a stop by Starbucks and then Mother-Daughter pedicures at a local nail spa. Not sure what dinner will be yet, but if I let her choose it will most certainly contain cheese and bread or pasta. Having the lactose-intolerant boys out of the house has released all restrictions on cheese.

Tomorrow may include a nice long afternoon at the bookstore and maybe another movie that we have said no to because of younger brothers. Maybe a little sketching out on the patio with a cup of tea. And talking about books, summer plans, and life.

Whatever we do, and it doesn’t really matter, I am loving this one-on-one time with my girl.