my heart goes out to the people of Burma, who this past weekend, experienced a terrible cyclone, which claimed the lives of at least 3,000 people.

Where do you live? How old is he?  In Silicon Valley, there are tons and tons of options and many offer full day camps.  My son will be in two full day camps which are called the traditional camps--outdoor, sports, swimming, games, some indoor science and art and crafts...just about having fun.  I have signed him up for one week each.  Another week of science camp that is full day as well.  The rest are half days--two weeks of music camp at a local symphony and one week of lego camp.  The cost starts from $325 for two weeks of half day music camp (good deal!) to one week of full day camp for almost $600!!

Even with this schedule, there are still weeks that he is not scheduled for anything and those will be his free, unscheduled time to hang out.  I have the luxury of my mom helping him:-)  Good luck in finding the right summer camps for your son.

for my older two.  I went to camp as a kid and loved it so I'm hoping to give them that experience.   There are things they want to try as well - my daughter thinks she wants to go to gymnastics day camp.   That and trips to my parents' cottage should fill the summer.  

and I was complaining about $165 for Camp Invention and that's from 9-3 for a week!  Grant's doing Camp Invention in late June, and Madeline will do playcamp at her preschool for 2 weeks/3x a week for $125.  I am probably going to sign Madeline up for princess/ballet camp for a week.  It's an hour and a half, 5 days for $45.  

Grant's in baseball, and that'll take up a huge part of our summer.  We'll join the local pool... a great deal at $115 for the whole family for the summer.  We go to the zoo a lot, and this year a new waterpark is opening up next to the zoo called Zoombezi Bay.  We are batting around the idea of a membership there too, as I think we'd end up going quite a bit.  

thanks to our snowy winter of 122 inches of snow.  She will start day camp at her school on June 23rd and do that for four weeks (it's 95 a week so you can't beat it and all her friends go) then she'll do four weeks of acting camp which is $550 for the whole shootin match.  Then I'll take two weeks off the end of August-- we'll go to the cape for fourdays with Kelly and then I'll be home that wacky first week of school with all the half days that make me crazy...!

about summer.  We're going to Schaumburg to see my cousin get married, and after that my dad is as excited as a kid about showing Simone Chicago.  After that, Austin.  In August, we have a beach cabin in Oregon for a week and we're going to pop over to the Redwoods, so I'm even more excited about that.

This past weekend we got a swing set that's bringing hours of fun, and I found a breed of four leaf clovers in our backyard.

in our family. Our kids go to camp with our church group [sleep away camp for kids who have completed 3rd grade] and they love it, and we love it.

But, both DH and I grew up in a household with at least one parent who was a school teacher. We grew up doing nothing all summer, basically. So, for us, summer is about hanging out, sleeping late, riding bikes and going to the pool -- doing a whole lot of nothing. DD will continue her weekly hip hop class, and DS will do tennis for an hour three mornings a week [getting back into it since he had the broken leg all spring]. But otherwise, we are super lazy.

But, I think we are a family that really enjoys down time. YMMV.

As a working mom these things annoyed me to no end! Both Nick and Alex ended up in the summer at the Boys &  Girls Club since that at least gave them a change of scenery and different kids, plus there were weekly field trips and movie and pool outings. I would sign them up for a themed camp maybe twice in the summer when I could more easily arrange to leave early to get them. At least Alex goes to Sweden for 6 weeks - that's a huge relief to only have to cover the month of August.

My rant for the day: It's so annoying that these camps are half days, only a week long and cost $300. What's up with that?!

1. You live in Berkeley

2. He's at the bottom age for summer camp.

Next year, and the year after, you'll have more options for longer days and more affordability.

I just found out that DD's favorite summer camp is going to be the week of Netroots Nation. Sigh. It's a great camp, very close, and very affordable.

She's old enough for sleepaway camp, but now I have to find her a buddy. I don't think she's ready to go for multiple days knowing no one.

Liza announced last night that when Kelly moves in (we think maybe next year?) she is going to call Kelly Mama #3 -- her reasoning being she has a mom (#1) a step mom(#2) already - and then she said "but Kelly to make it shorter when we're in public I"m just going to call you "three""  

you know the kid DOES bring the funny.

I would love to enroll my kids in a class but they're too darned expensive.

An art class I would like my son to take is $410 for 3 hours per day, 5 days a week, 6 weeks total.  The problem is, it's in a different city and with gas at nearly $4/gal I estimate it would cost $160 in gas...so that's $570 for 6 weeks for only one kid.

Summer school through the district costs $204 for 2 hours per day, 5 days a week, 4 weeks total.  That's right by our house (no gas) but it only fills up 2 hours each day!  It has an 8am start time (ugh) and the class for my DD is already sold out.  Oh, well.  I didn't have an "extra" $408 anyway.

For my son, I may pay a small fee to let him do Taekwondo 3 days per week instead of 2 days per week which is what he's doing now.  Plus, my daughter may want to try it, that's yet to be determined.  

Summer is going to be LONG.  I'm kind of dreading it, actually.

I know one thing I'm not going to be doing and that's petting any neighborhood cats.  The cat that bit me on April 25 caused me to need 10 days of antibiotics.  The punctures looked infected for a couple of days until the medicine really kicked in.  Chatting with a dozen or so neighbors revealed that the "friendly" cat had a reputation for biting and I was the last to know.  He had never shown me or my kids anything but sweetness. My advice would be...don't pet cats unless you know they don't have a history of aggression!

I'm still very thankful it was me he bit and not a child.  My arm will heal - although I clearly have a scar from one of the punctures- but I still worry a child will have their eye scratched by that monster.  

I always enrolled Zach in day-time summer camps, and they were well worth it (especially when he was in grade school). He attended ones at the YMCA in whichever town we were living in at the time since kindergarten, and learned a lot ... like swimming, lots of funny songs and we still joke about the "ghetto bus" that one YMCA had for field trips (which was missing a footrest on one of the pedals, and once had to stop on a rural road when its great-big-long muffler fell off. They abandoned it and keep driving!!!!).

He also did sleepaway camp once, for a week, but didn't especially like that.

Some camps are expensive, but I always thought they were better than parking him in front of a TV at a sitter's house all summer.

Hmph. We're locking  down for winter - or what passes for it in Melbourne. I made my mom laugh when talking about the winter flowers I'm planting.

We're finishing the cycle of colds here; DH is officially sick and, ye gods, he's taking a sick day today. God help me, I hate it when he's home and underfoot. Jess? No worries. DH? OMFG. If he's not demanding hot drinks and cosseting, he's taking the computer when I need to work, demanding various chores of me that I'd have no intention of providing were he not home, and generally getting in my way. I think I might just leave the damn house after I get the weekly clean out of the way.

I totally agree Elisa, they are way over-priced! In Seattle it's a little less than Berkeley - generally $200 for a week of half-day camp. I couldn't stomach it. Luckily I found a reasonably priced program that runs half-day sports camps for kids in the local parks. They even offered a season pass for the cost of a couple weeks of pricey camp and he can go as many weeks as he wants. Yay! I signed him up for a bunch of weeks thinking he can decide to skip some days if he doesn't feel like going or the nanny decides to take him and DS#2 on a special adventure.

So, I bought the Disney Princess panties.

I told DD she could only wear them if she went all day without an accident.

We are on DAY TWO of no accidents.  Today she wore Princess Jasmine panties to school.  And lasted the whole day.  Even did poopy on the potty.

Disney's power is just godd*mn scary.

Wow, that is a lot.  We live in WDC and even the camp at the swanky school near our house is a less than $400 for seven hours/day, lunch included.  My kids attend a camp in Georgetown run by a fabulous woman with a great staff -- the half day cost is half of Ari's camp fee.  While I loved the three-month summer concept as a kid, it really presents a child care challenge for families.  

Hey...My daughter wants a doll for her birthday. I don't do dolls. Never have. So I need help. She's four and wants a "baby" doll. So far I'm thinking the American Girl "Bitty Baby" (pardon while I vomit quietly) or one of the Corolle dolls. I like the American Girl one because we could get a different outfit for presents on birthdays, Christmas, etc. And you can get lots of accessories (hey, if I have to play with this thing too, it needs stuff. Otherwise I won't know what to do).

Anybody have a favorite, good quality doll that they can recommend? Or an opinion on the two above (besides the obvious "they're bleeding expensive")?