One morning Arwen and I paid a visit to her kindergarten teacher. Arwen had been looking forward to this in a huge way. When we first drove up, her old shyness came out for just a second, but before long she was hugging Ms. Sarah just like she did on the way out to the car after school last year. 
We had a great time seeing Sarah’s beautiful home, yard, and garden and enjoyed a delicious lunch with her and her husband. Arwen was thrilled to see Molly, whom she’d first met when we got together at our place for lunch a few months ago. One of the beautiful things about the kids’ school is that each teacher loops, takinge same class for two consecutive grades, so Arwen has another year of fun to come with Ms. Sarah. We’re so glad. 
A couple of weeks ago Gavin’s Boy Scout pack held their final hurrah of the season – a pool party. Arwen was less shy around the water than she can be around people, jumping right in and making her way around the pool in her float ring. I caught up with the moms while Gavin and Chad took dips of their own. We all enjoyed a delicious picnic spread. 
Many thanks to our friends who hosted – this is what summer should be.In a lamentable turn of events, Gavin and Arwen have taken to asserting that playing outside in the yard is ‘boring’. No matter how much I plead with them to see the benefits of the sunshine and warm temperatures, they opt to play with Legos whenever they can get away with it.
These past couple of weeks I’ve discovered one sure way to get them out without the pandemonium of the playground. The field overlooking the pond at the college’s arboretum provides the perfect setting for exploring, running, and building forts with friends. And last week Gavin discovered another benefit – his new friend Trevor whom he begged to bring home with us. 
Alas, Trevor is back in the pond, but we’ll be back again soon to visit.One more adventure from our summer days – a couple of weeks ago we were having one of those (thankfully rare) series of nights when the kids just wouldn’t seem to stay in bed, even after we had hit the hay ourselves. One night, Gavin woke up to discover the power was out. I returned some groggy answer when he came down a second time to tell us there was a big moth in his room. Chad was quicker respond when Gavin returned a minute later to inform us that it was a bat. Hero Chad somehow managed to capture the poor creature in the dark and return peace and quiet to the house.
