Summer is here!

Once I live through tomorrow's PD day, I will be free for the summer.  Although, it seems to me my summer is already full of things to do.  It's always daunting to see just how much has to be covered over the summer.  How does any normal person do it?  Without the summer off to catch up, I am afraid my house would crumble and our friendships would fail. 

I just made a list of all the playdates we would like to have over the summer and I have 24 seperate dates listed.  Hmm, how will I ever fit that into my summer?  I guess 8 of those are adults I want to see, so potentially I could do a kid playdate during the day and then grown ups at night.  It could be a crazy schedule to fit them all in.  I may just have to have a JK party here, with 3 or 4 little boy friends of Devin's over at once. 

Then of course there is the TO DO list and it is crazy full.  It includes everything from: go through all the closets (yuck, totally time consuming), dig trenches in the back for new bushes to be planted, fix the garage door, re-caulk the shower, buy a new vehicle and on and on for about 30 other items. 

And last, but not least, all the fun stuff.  We have 2 holidays booked this year and hope to do some camping as well.  We also want to get to the Museum of Nature and Calypso Water Park.  We are planning a ride on both a double decker bus and the O-Train, too!  So, when will I get all of this done?  Did I mention swimming lessons every day for two weeks for both kids?  No, well yes, that too and it is right beside the public library, so we are hoping to visit there daily for those 2 weeks, too.  

Right now it feels overwhelming, but once we just get into it and go day by day, it won't be so bad.  It won't be bad... it will be great!  Lots of time spent hanging out with friends, crossing things off the TO DO list and just having a good time!  

What are your summer plans?

A picture is worth a thousand words?

Well, if that is true I have nothing to say!  I dropped my camera a little over a week ago and feel slightly naked now.  Although I haven't been taking as many pictures as I used to, mostly because I know I won't have time to scrapbook them all and I already have so many of similar situations, but still I want to take some pictures. So far I missed taking pictures at the 2 km family run last weekend, the kids first soccer practices, rock band with the Howley's, Devin holding hands with baby Thomas and tomorrow is the street BBQ. 

Problem is I'm not sure what kind of camera I want.  I've always had a simple point and shoot camera.  I'm terrible at taking good care of my camera, it's almost always in my pocket, in my purse, in a backpack amongst water bottles and snacks, etc.  It's amazing it has lasted this long.  I do however have this longing for a nice camera, one that I can take close ups with.  I always use the excuse that I should have had it when the kids were babies and now there isn't as much point, but ... I still think I want one.  Trouble is I don't always want to carry around a big lug of a camera.  So...

I think I need both: a point and shoot camera for the day to day type events and a nice camera to have fun with when I am in the photography mood.  What kind of camera should I get?  Recommendations for both are welcome.  What do you have?  Do you like it?  What would you not get?  Do you know of any cool camera features? 

I'd like to say it is part of why I haven't blogged lately, but it's only been broken for about a week, so I can't use that excuse.  Summer time is coming though and it should be a good time to catch up.  We'll be starting with the trip to BC and gramma and grampa's 60th anniversary party - can't wait to blog about that.