Kids Summer Fun Guide

when we're young, everything's simple. Nothing has driven that home for me more than working on this year's Austin Chronicle Kids' Summer Fun Guide, as monumental as the task of compiling it was. There's so much amazing, exciting, playful, fun stuff for kids to do this summer. At first glance, some of it may sound too grown-up for kids, like recording music in an actual band, or maybe a bit out of place, like ice hockey, or just plain weird, like dissecting owl poop at a camp called Mad Science. But as campfire-common or totally out-there as any of these activites may be, they're all geared toward one thing: letting kids be kids. Plain and simple. Summer's the best time to run around barefoot and jump through sprinklers and lick the ice cream as it runs down the elbows and stay up too late. It's hugely ironic, then, that I find myself stressing about writing this guide, not to mention that every year around this time parents find themselves stressed out and scrambling to get their kids registered for this camp or that class. Fortunately, not everything listed here is just for kids, or just for families, for that matter -- peruse these pages and you're sure to find something, like the Deep Eddy Summer Splash Parties, that let us old fogeys run with the toddlers and harken back to the days when summer meant more than high utility bills.

While this section can by no means cover everything the city (and beyond) offers kids this summer, we tried to represent a sizable sampling of kids' activities. If your organization was left off these pages, let us know, and we'll be sure to run them in the kids' section on our weekly Community page. See p.98 for more information about submissions.

A million thanks are due to the two people who helped to compile and write this year's guide: Barbara Chisholm, our regular Community page writer (and her daughter, Rosalind, who has undoubtedly influenced the content of this guide), and intern Elizabeth Skadden, who has taken time from her busy college schedule for more days than she should have to help us out. We cannot thank you enough.