Summer Stuff

During the summer there are lots of things we do frequently, and they're just part of our summer routine, so I thought I'd give you a little sampling and tell you about them in one post (rather than doing a bunch of little posts). 

One of our weekly activities is going to the library. We all love to read, so it's something we always look forward to. We are very fortunate to have several libraries close by, so we have great access to lots of books, movies, and music! The libraries also put on fun educational programs for the kids. We attended one on bats (but my phone erased all the photos from it) and we even got to see a live bat. 

In America, libraries work together as systems within the counties of each state. We live in Chesterfield County, which has TEN libraries, and since we have Chesterfield County library cards, we can check out books from any of those ten libraries and return them to any of the libraries in the county. And you can check out up to 30 items at one time! But because we aren't always great at remembering where we put our books, I usually only let the kids check out 5 books at a time. That's usually all they need for 1 week anyway. :-)

Do you have a library system in Japan?

Here is Christine reading a book to Moppy. Some of our family's favorite picture books are Berenstain Bear and Curious George books. My older kids like to read Junie B. Jones, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Harry Potter. What kinds of books do you like to read in Japan?

Another thing we've done a few times this summer is to go to the pool at Pocahontas State Park. This pool is really fun because it has a great water play area. It's kind of like having a playground IN the water! There are slides and water cannons and it's not too deep, so even little ones can play.

Charlotte loves to play there.

Here's Christine relaxing on a lounger by the pool. We usually pack a picnic lunch with sandwiches, chips, and fruit, and eat there at the pool.

Here's a better view of the play area. We're planning on visiting this pool one more time before summer ends!

Another thing we've done a lot of this summer is volunteering at our local food bank. In America, people who don't have enough money can get assistance from the government, but sometimes they still need more help, so we have food banks.

 We helped with a special program to provide food to schoolchildren over the summer. During the school year, many children can get free lunches at school if their family doesn't have enough money to pay for lunch. But during the summer, many of those children can go hungry unless their family gets some extra help. People and businesses donate food to the food bank, and we helped to divide it up and put it into bags for the food bank to distribute to the children. It was actually really fun for us to work together with the other volunteers (just ignore Audrey's blah face- she had a great time!) and it made us feel good to know we were helping children in need!

On the day I took these photos, we were actually at the food bank with some members of Tyson's robotics team (they're wearing the blue shirts in the background). When they're not in competition season with their robot, they try to find ways to get involved and help the community.

Moppy loved helping us "give the gift of food!"

We hope you enjoyed seeing some of our more fun summer routines. Is there anything you do on a regular basis in the summer?