summer begins

I found this photo on a blog that I was visiting last night. I don't remember which one, but needless to say, I did not take this photo, I just find it beautiful and wish I was there. This is what summer looks like to me.
Yeah, I know, it's half over, but not a lot changed for us in July. Martin and I continued to go to work and Shel was in day camp, so not a lot was different. But day camp ended on Friday and Shel is off for the rest of the summer. Not that I am, but I am going to take a little time off in a few weeks.

This is a picture that Shelby's grandfather drew (he's a painter) and Shelby painted in. I love this picture.

I can't say enough good things about the summer camp we chose this year. It started out as a camp for gifted children and it offers an incredible array of activities. Some don't agree with putting your child in an academic camp during the summer, but we thought we would try it out and it has been an amazing experience for all of us. I went to the 2 open houses where the children demonstrated what they learned from their home room, science class, and music. Most of the parents were blown away. Not only because the children learned so much, but because they really seemed to be having "fun" doing it. In science they all demonstrated their favorite experiment. This was the first time that these little 5 and 6 year olds had a captive audience listenting to them, and they were teaching us something. We are definitely signing up for next year.

Here's a picture with one of Shel's activities (he was in the castle and dragons group and made this working helmet himself. Today is our first distance biking trip using the bike attachment. We are going to Oka. This is about 45 minutes outside Montreal and it used to be a monastery. The monks made this incredible Oka cheese (they still do) and chocolate covered blueberries. If you ever get a chance to try Oka cheese I highly recommend it. There is also a beach nearby. Although being from Nova Scotia I use the term beach loosely. I have to try to find my bathing suit, it hasn't been used since last summer.

Lately, I've been visiting some amazing blogs. I am blown away by the talented craftswomen out there. Not to mention their beautiful blogs that keep me going back for more. I am going to start featuring a weekly blog. From the look of my favorites list we will be doing this for a while. If you know of a blog that you think I should feature, send me an email and I will take a look at it.