Kymberli Mulford is the proud mom of a grade-schooler and high-schooler in the Chicago suburbs, and the proud grandmother of her now-grown stepson’s four children. When she’s not shuttling her sons from one activity to another, she works in the world of educational technology – as a district administrator, a learning facilitator, a consultant, and as a blogger at Onionskin. For more of Kymberli’s “mom” posts click here!

I spent the day yesterday with my youngest son and his new buddy.

Actually, my son has been friends with him for a while, but I’d not yet met this particular little guy until a few weeks ago. The summer has provided a nice opportunity for us to invite classmates over and get to know them better before third grade next fall.

After the obligatory hour on the computers, and after a little backyard play, they were ready for something different. We headed to a favorite local spot in town, where I hoped the boys would get “pulled in” to ordinary boy activities - and I packed my book (Brain Rules).

First stop was the creek. The boys ate lunch on the bank and were not even finished eating before the lure of nature called them to do what boys do - wade and try to catch the streamlife beneath the surface.

Eventually, they decided that they’d throw a few poles in the water, and my guy caught his first fish. (Really his second, but the first was at a trout farm, so I’m not counting that one…) Bait of choice? A small pinch of leftover bean burrito. Snapped the photo and threw that tiny little guy back in the pond.

The boys returned to exploring the stream, and I went back to reading Medina. Somewhere in the middle of the chapter on Attention, they decided that feeding the ducks and swans across the pond would be more fun. We packed up everything and trotted to the other side of the pond to feed the waterfowl some wonderful stale white bread.

The boys climbed on our favorite landscape art, and then moved on to walking along the “logs” which are really trees that just grow horizontal trunks. Always good for great photo opps.

I guess I was happiest at the end of the day that this was a somewhat “wholesome” and “boyish” day for these two kids. They did the things I think that boys are supposed to do during the summer. And best of all, no one said - ever, not even once - that they were bored.

I’d call that a great summer day.

So, I went on a trip to Northern Wisconsin to see family - you already know ALL about that………

To sum up the trip, let’s just say that it was exactly like I expected it to be, with the expected hardships (long car rides with potty stops on the side of the road, tough sleeping, clingy kids with not enough mom to go around) but there was also tons of great stuff. We had lots of good family time - and the highlight?

My kids got to go fishing for the first time! They’re only 1 and 2, so this was SO cute. The highlight of the highlight? They both actually caught a fish! No lie - they were even holding their own poles and held on when the fish bit! I had to reel them in, of course, but this was just too fun. The pictures tell the story……..and fisherman Daddy was awfully disappointed that he missed this! Experiences like this remind me yet again of why I love living where we do, close to lots of fun outdoor activities - and why even though I don’t want to LIVE in my hometown (Phillips, WI), it’s a really neat place to visit.