This year was Abby's first time to get to go to camp. Santa Barbara Parks and Rec had a princess ballet camp that I sent her to.
Do you think she enjoyed herself?
She did for the first two days. After that it was only because she was dancing on a stage on Friday that she went to "practice camp" on Wednesday and Thursday.
Maybe it was because the camp is during the time that we normally have downtime and reading time. Maybe it was because she never wanted to eat lunch before her camp. She just wanted to take a bunch of snacks and eat them there. And maybe it was because she had her grandmother here and wanted to spend more time with her than at camp. But regardless, she ended up being so happy with camp after camp. It was just the getting to camp that was a problem sometimes.
For her this was a big deal. She went to camp with other kids. She had to interact with other kids. She had to wear her leotards. She had to have her hair up. She had to follow the rules and deal with all the noises inherent when you have 8 little girls dancing to various princess songs. She had to deal with the teacher telling stories she might not have liked (they learned and listened to a different classical ballet each day).
Abby also had to deal with her anxiety. I sent her with her chew necklaces (those teething necklaces), that are her go to thing to chew on when she gets nervous. She didn't use them. According to her teacher, when she got overwhelmed, she just went to the side of the room and danced by herself. That's a good coping mechanism. I'm good with her learning that. It was a really big deal for her to go to camp for 5 days in a row. And get on stage and do all the dances. She did amazing.
Maybe the best part of the production was the Popsicle afterwards. After every dance they asked their teacher if it was time for frozen treats yet. It was pretty cute. As were the pauses in the productions so the kids could drink water. Or put on lipstick that they ran to their moms to get. Or watching them all peek from behind the curtain to wave at us before the production.
Best of all was watching Abby and her love for dance shine through.
She doesn't know it yet, but she's got a ballet video coming for home - two actually - so she can dance at home while we wait for her ballet class to start in September.
We spend a lot of time at the beach. A lot.
We are there at least three or four times a week. In the past 7 days we have been to the beach 6 out of 7 days. We tend to go to Goleta City Beach. It's about 5 minutes from our house by car. It has free parking. And it is not a place tourists go.
The beaches in Santa Barbara proper are where tourists go. We have been there this summer, and we are going to avoid them for a little while longer. We like uncrowded beaches. Filled with sand and ocean views. Not views of other people.
Nicholas likes to build sand balls, then a wall, and then crush the wall with the sand balls. Abby just builds. Neither of my kids are big sand castle builders - which is fine. Both are huge hole diggers.
On Saturday we totally went and sat by a family that already had a big hole. My kids just joined in the play there. It was nice to not have to dig our own hole, and simply help with someone else's hole. It gave my kids a bunch of fun and social interaction. Abby is getting better about working with people in new settings. Nicholas just runs up to people and asks if he can play too. Abby hangs back for a bit.
We are lucky that no one has had a sun burn yet. It's a real miracle because my red headed daughter is also pasty white. Like florescent. So we use a ton of sunscreen. It's a regular purchase at Costco. Almost as regular as milk.
What do I do at the beach? Well, I'm kind of a nerd. I do some ab work, then some yoga, and then I just chill out. Sometimes that means I read a book. Sometimes I do Sudoku. Sometimes I get in the ocean. I only get in if the kids are there. And if Jon is there, we take turns swimming in the ocean. It's really peaceful just taking the boogie board out there and floating past the breakers.
We love the beach. I think it's one of the most amazing things about living here. I'm not sure how we would deal if we moved away from the beach at this point.
And Nicholas is getting to be quite the boogie boarder. Even Abby is taking it up. It means they practice swimming more in the pool at the condo. Which is a nice side effect.
