Summer in Bucks County

Ah, the last day of a month in Pennsylvania! I should be cleaning up and putting labels in Yamini's camp clothes, but instead I am sitting on the porch because it is a beautiful (not too hot) day, and I am just happy to have a porch on which to sit!! Thought I should update our blog with a little of what we do out here in Bucks County. . .

On the weekdays, the kids have fun at camp - Trevor and Yamini at the most awesome Camp Briarwood, and William at the Doylestown Tennis Club. Once everyone gets home we like to take a swim, have a nice dinner, read, watch some TV -- basically the house is all about relaxation and fun!! As for me, I am a bit of a stay-at-home mom during the day -- food shopping, cooking, laundry, exercise, cleaning house -- though I do manage to do some lesson planning and catch up on my "to do" list. On the weekends, we try to just enjoy being out of the city by getting outside a lot and making good use of our barbeque grill!

We swim, go for walks in local park

s (lots of 'em) and do some fun activities in the area. July 4th weekend is great because there is a great symphony concert with fireworks at Tinicum Park and then an Old-Fashioned 4th of July Celebration at Fonthill, the old Henry Mercer estate in Doylestown. They have everything from sack races to watermelon eating contests. Our favorite is the "cake walk" where they have a circle with 20 numbered spots. 20 people walk around, a bit like musical chairs without the missing place, and when the music stops, they pick one number from a bowl and the

winner gets to pick a cake from a big donation table! The cakes include delicious home-made treats and disgusting-looking supermarket made objects, but it is fun to imagine which one you would pick if you win. (Of course, we never win!!)

On regular weekends, we love to have friends and family over for a swim and to make some of our favorite meals with food from our favorite local places - Haring Brothers Butchers, or None Such Farms for meat, Carroll's Seafood Market for fish & clams, and Penn Vermont Farms for PEACHES and other fruits. We finish it all off with a drive to Owowcow Creamery for the best locally made ice cream.

As for restaurants, our favorites are Luberto's for brick oven and the best (and least expensive) home-style Italian food and El Mariachi in Plumsteadville, PA for yummy homestyle Mexican.

This summer, Yamini and I found a local potluck farm dinner to attend where everyone brought a dish (we made colorful carrot salad) and then we got a tour of the farm.

There's often a good CARNIVAL going on to support one of the local fire stations and we hit at least two of those every summer, so we are honorary "carnies". On one weekend, we take a drive into Philly to hang out with some friends there, and maybe catch a baseball game there or in Trenton (Yankees Triple-A Thunder).

For the past couple years, I've taken the kids to see Philadelphia Freedoms tennis at Villanova University (met the Bryan Bros. on "twin night" and got Billie Jean King's autograph). This year, I took the kids to a Hollywood Classic Movie night (Kids are free!!) at the County Theater in Doylestown for "Rear Window". Basically, if we didn't already live in the greatest city on earth (go NYC!), it would be nice to live here, so we really enjoy the time we have "in the country".