A Successful Summer

This morning I woke up naturally at around 7:30 a.m.  I made a pot of coffee and spent about an hour reading.  Then I spent another couple of hours working on my posts for the Mr. Popper's Penguins movie press junket, which will start posting tomorrow.

That's a pretty good way to spend a summer morning (into afternoon), no?

We're a week into our summer vacation here, and I'm judging it a success:

• Not only have I been reading, but Kyle has been reading!  Kyle's reading ability has always been much higher than his desire. I was waiting on emotional maturity to kick in and hoping that would do the trick.  This year, his reading level shot through the roof, so he really has no excuses.  I was/am determined to get the right books in his hands this summer.  He's loving it.  In fact, he told me, he was "obsessed with reading" now! He's still doing a fair amount of video-game playing, but the fact that he's not balking against enforced reading has made me a very happy mama.
• We've also been swimming in our pool almost every day.  Who can argue with vitamin D, exercise, boisterous fun?  And yet another milestone for Kyle -- he's actually swimming! He "decided" a week ago that he could swim, and so now he's dog-paddling his way across the pool, jumping in (again and again) and enjoying himself a lot more than when he was grasping his noodle for dear life.
• We've also been a little crafty. Kyle and I checked out the Klutz Fabulous Flowers book. Click through to read my review and enter the giveaway.
• Amanda has been acting like the adolescent that she is, and I've been letting her.  She sleeps until 9:30 or so, then usually stays in bed reading for another couple of hours. Seriously, some days I haven't seen her until close to lunchtime.  Must be nice.
• She's also done some baking, starting with a sugar cookie mix she asked me to buy, and Amanda-fying it by adding some peanut butter and Reese's Pieces to the mix. Usually Terry shies away from her "creations," but he's eaten a lot of them!
• In addition to individual reading, I've been enjoying a read-aloud with both of my kids. I remembered that Amanda was about Kyle's age when we first enjoyed The Penderwicks (linked to my review), and I hadn't re-read it, so we are both enjoying it together.  I don't know if Kyle would enjoy the second one,The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, as much, because they've aged, but I'm going to re-read it to get read for the third book,which came out in May, The Penderwicks at Point Mouette, which Amanda and I will do as a read-aloud.
• Amanda and I got back into the read-aloud swing before school was out. We just finished Nerd Camp (linked to my review). I highly recommend it. It was sweet and funny. We both enjoyed it.
• Before school was out, I had managed to get back into a good exercise routine. While theoretically having a reduced activity level should make it easier to exercise, the reality is that it doesn't always. But I'm happy to say that I'm still sticking with it.

I know that for many of you, summer has not begun yet, but whether it has or not, what's your definition of a successful summer?