Damn I wish I had hung on to my old diaries.

Being 20+ years removed from my own school days, it’s hard to conjure up those feelings we all had as kids when the school year came to a close. I’d love to be able to look back at my own words, probably written to the strains of Alice Cooper, detailing how exciting it was to have another year behind me and a summer full of fun (which, depending on my age, was either summed up by going to the pool with my Brownie troop or macking on my boyfriend) ahead.

Now that I’ve got kids of my own, I can only listen to them excitedly count down the days until “SCHOOL’S OUT!!!” as I try to relive the moment along with them. Little do they know how much I look forward to those precious few weeks too. (Of course, come back and read my blogs in mid-August, and we’ll see how I’m feeling then!) For me in my “Mommy” mode, it’s all about sleeping in, going to the pool, taking field trips, tooling around the North Shore, heading to the beach, riding bikes to the library, baseball games, going to the zoo and hitting the Dairy Bar to work on the baseball helmet sundae collection.

So, with mere days left to prepare, I’ll share my to-do list. Maybe it’ll get you off the stick and ready for the season, too:

Target Shopping List
* Two new beach towels to replace the ones used over the winter to clean up cat and kid barf accidents.
* Band-Aids for the field trip backpack
* Lots and lots of spray-on sunscreen (It’s faster and cuts down on the “But you said you’d put sunscreen on ME first!” whining.)
* Back-up pair of goggles for when the kids lose a pair and when I’m motivated to swim laps. Ok, mostly for when they lose a pair.
* Pool tote that will last longer than the 3.5 hours last year’s purchase did before the handle snapped in two while lugging it through the parking lot.

Borders
* Summer workbooks for kids (Yes, I’m evil. Why do you ask?).
* A couple of trashy mags to kick off pool season (Hey - I finished my education already - now get back to work and finish that worksheet!).
* One of those way cool laminated maps of the North Shore so I don’t get lost in Bannockburn while the boys beg my to drive past Michael Jordan’s house.

Beat Street
* Three way cool goofy toys for the kids as part of their “Summer Goodie Bag” - it offsets that nasty workbook.
* Candy necklaces - gotta have the candy necklace.
* A couple new travel games to keep the kids from giving me that “temporary insanity” defense.

Oh, there’s other places to go to - I need to hit up Costco for a summer season’s worth of snacks and goodies to grab when we’re taking off to Brookfield Zoo or Starved Rock for the day, Dick’s for a new pair of baseball pants so the boys aren’t having to share the only pair that fits anyone right now, etc. And I trust that I’ll get it done before next Wednesday, so we can all walk home from the bus stop singing together, “…no more teacher’s dirty looks!”

Technorati Tags: North Shore Chicago summer, Beat Street, Winnetka shopping

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 at 2:05 pm and is filed under Thoughts(t) , Check this out!(t) . You can leave a response.