today was very summer-y. carter went around the lake on his bike with peter, and ava nad i met up with them at the beach. then peter left and the kids and i stayed at the beach for 4 hours. very nice.

however, my little speech to carter about sharing backfired on me. i told him that if one brings toys to the beach, one must share them. period. if a toy is precious, then don't bring it.

i forgot to add, "if you want to use someone else's toys, you must ask"

he marched right up to a mom and kid with some very compelling toys and said "you know, if you bring a toy to the beach, you HAVE to share it."

oh god, ground swallow me now.

so we revisited the topic, with a little more nuance to the conversation.

then we came home and made rhubarb crisp. that was fun. messy though.

the whole time, anna slept. basically she was asleep from 9 am to 3 pm. this is disconcerting, but she has no fever and is happy and laughing and trying to get my attention right now by blowing bubbles at me.

school is almost over--pk3 graduation is tuesday and kindergarten graduation is wednesday. this is both superb and worrisome. i am fairly certain that emotions will be on a more even keel when we do not have to get up and ready to go, and ava is not subjected to her self-imposed perfectionism for 6 hours a day. that tends to exhaust her and she comes home ready to explode. i am so ambivalent about this whole school thing--i loved school as a kid, and still do, but as a parent i can now see what a tremendous drain on a kid it actually is. i can't stand that we have no time to do things together, and i despise that her best behavior is reserved for other adults. and it is only just starting.

however, i am definitely going to miss the time with only 2 kids, or 1 when carter is there, and i have to admit that i enjoy tapping into other people's creativity. it lessens the pressure.