Summer, Week 1

I'm doing my summer recap sessions again!  This week would technically only be half a week, but we'll go ahead and start now.  Why not?

Monday:  Monday consisted of us coming back from the mountain house, unpacking, doing laundry, hanging around the house, and watching the Bachelorette. :)

Tuesday:   I had my first day of post-planning today.  I honestly didn't have much to do- I had already moved everything home and my students helped me move furniture, take stuff to the trash, etc.  But, I put in a full day anyways.  A few friends took me out to work today for a going-away celebration.  I'm going to miss my awesome co-workers!  I went to my principal's retirement party after work that day, which was fun.  He's the best.

Peace out, CMS!

Wednesday:  Last day of school!!  I was able to leave by... 10:30 AM!  Woot woot!  I went for a run,  got stuff done around the house, and then picked the kiddos up from daycare.  We ended up playing outside for a couple of hours, which was a blast.  A wonderful first official day of summer for us!

Thursday:  I took the kids to daycare again, and I got a lot done around the house.  I cleaned out closets, got stuff ready for the kids to do this summer.  Not very exciting sounding, but definitely necessary!  It was really stormy today, so I got the kids early to beat the bad late-afternoon storms.  We watched a movie together and stayed in.  Stephen was in California, so he was texting pictures of beautiful, sunny Orange County beach while I was texting him storm cloud pics.  Not fair, right?

Tickle time.

Yahtzee has been our game of the week.  I dominated tonight... 4 total yahtzees!

Friday:  Took the kiddos again to daycare... their last day!  Got the groceries bought, got a run in, laundry done.  We grilled some shrimp, the kids played outside, and we ate on the patio.

Saturday: Stephen went and helped a friend from church move this morning, and the kids played outside while I was doing a major cleaning of the garage.  I'm talking, vacuuming out the spider webs, wiping down the baseboards... uggh.  Yuck.  When we were inside making lunch, our former neighbor knocked on our door!  I invited them in for lunch, and then they invited us to the pool that afternoon.  Once Stephen got home, we headed over to their country club and the kids had a BLAST!  Ahhh, that dreaded pool.  The kids love it and want it so badly, but it is nothing but stress to me.  Having 2 parents and 3 kids (one of whom can swim, but you still have to always watch her!) is absolutely no fun.  For me.  Them, yes.  Me, no.  We went back to their house for the evening and ordered pizza and hung out, just like the olden days (ahem, last year) before they moved!

This boy had no fear!  His mama did, but not him!

Going underwater!

A golf cart ride back at their house!

weeeeee!

Sunday: We went to church, then I took the girls and myself to get haircuts.  Our neighbor had all the pine trees in their backyard cut down, so he's had all this different equipment back there this week.  Whatever it's called that he had today, he let the kids sit in it with him.  Parker was so excited.  Probably the golf cart excitement x3.  Luckily, he didn't hit this gas pedal.  I had a VBC meeting at church this afternoon, and it started storming badly in the afternoon, so the rest of the evening was spent inside.

Taylor before.

Sydney before.

Taylor after.

It's so cute!!

Sydney after.

Their new summer-dos.

Best. Day. Ever.  (for Parker) :)

Looking forward to a full week with my kiddos!!!  I guess I should probably go to bed...

Memorial Day Weekend

We ventured up to the mountain house for Memorial Day Weekend!  We got up around noon on Saturday, and, first thing, the kiddos hit the lake.  They had been talking about it all week!  Luckily, the lake has little divided sections, so there's a baby area (up to about 1 foot deep) and a middle area (up to about 2-3 feet deep) so the kiddos can play around without too much stress on the parents. :)

Hopping on the golf cart to go to the lake.  Parker talked about the golf cart ALL YEAR long. 

Remember this picture in a minute.

That night, we had our annual Memorial Day picnic/square dance.  All was great until my little golf-cart loving boy decided to climb into my parents' golf cart, hit the gas pedal (which removes the emergency break), and roll down the hill it was parked on, sitting on his knees, sucking his thumb, aiming for a car.  Thanks to my life-saving sister, who pulled Parker off, and my car-saving dad, who somehow managed to stop the rolling golf cart a few feet from a mini-van, he was perfectly safe. (despite two people telling me it looked like the tires ran over his legs/abdomen)  The details of this story would be really entertaining (now), and I would fill you in on it if I wasn't still scarred from it.  It was traumatizing, thinking about the "what if?"s.  Now, when I ask him if he's ever going to touch the golf cart pedals again, he shakes his head and says, "No, Mommy!"  We shall see...

Anyways, I skipped out on most of the square dance because I honestly wasn't in any kind of mood to be around it.  Parker did get to dance one dance, and the girls did, too!  I laid down with Parker and we went to bed early.  Stephen and the girls stayed at my sister's until a little later.

Parker and Anna Kate!

Taylor and Dee Dad.

Sydney and Madeline.

Sunday morning, I went on a long walk with my sister and a friend.  We went to church, ate lunch, and then we went on a little "Tour of Homes" in the colony.  This one girl that I grew up with, though she's probably about 3-4 years younger, lives in her parents' old house and had totally redone it.  There was an article in a magazine about what all she's done with it.  I knew it must've been cool, but actually seeing it... wow!!  It was incredible!  And the view was unbelievable!  We got to see a couple other really cool cabins up there, too.  It was fun.  We then hit the lake, ate dinner, made s'mores around the campfire, Sydney spent the night at my sister's house, and we called it a night.

Another golf cart ride... this would always cheer Parker up.

I had lots of selfies like this on my phone!

My niece captured this shot... wow!

the view from the cabin!

The article about the house.

The next morning, we hit a local breakfast spot, and then our family made the trek home!  It was a great weekend, can't wait to go back.

I think they had fun.

Well, dang...

Just like that, I am D-O-N-E!!!!  Retired!  No longer employed!  The CEO of my own household!  I seriously did not think this year was ever going to end.  After a year with kids from... well, it wouldn't be nice to say, but you know what I mean..., (OK, that's just mean.  Let me put it this way- as a group/combination, these kids were rough!)... a year full of unexpected staffing drama, negative people, personal health issues, crazy travel work schedules, and more, this school year is finally in the books.  Hallelujah!

I can tell in the 2.5 days this week that I've been unemployed, the stress weight has subsided.  The kiddos finished up at daycare this week, so I had those 2.5 days of just me time.  I got so much done!  I wanted to start Monday (the official first day of summer with our household being together) with a bang.

How, you ask?

Well, I've been working on calendars, trying to plan our days.  I'm trying to come up with fun things to keep the kids busy.  Crafts and learning time are going to be incorporated into each day.  I've been printing some great organizational sheets from Pinterest.  Here are some of the things I've done:

You can't tell very well, but I asked Taylor what the "brush teeth" line said, hoping she could tell from the picture.  She paused and said, "Put on your cold winter clothes?"  The girl is wearing a nightgown but it is a little puffy.  That girl cracks me up.

These will be cut up and arranged in order each day for our daily schedule.

Our weekly schedule at a glance!

 These next few printables I put in frames and I can write on the glass with an expo marker, and erase each day.

Yes!  Water!  My kids are so used to drinking juice at school, that I'm trying to narrow it down to milk and water only.

Weekly meal planner.

Things got real when my student teacher was teaching (and I couldn't use the computer because she was!)  Medicine cabinet inventory and...

...pantry inventory!

Since my kids are ALL about eating... I mean, they could eat 24/7/365/lifetime without stopping... (we have to lock both the fridge AND the pantry)...I have pre-packaged little snacks into small baggies.  That way, they will have a choice of pictures to choose from and then they will pick a snack from that.  They will get what is in the baggie and that is it.  We'll see how that goes.

These are the options they can choose from.

What else?  It's been so nice not having my work email on my phone anymore!  I have taken Facebook off of my phone.  I'm not giving it up, but I don't want it at my fingertips... literally.  I've upped my FitBit goal to 15,000 steps per day, and I'm one determined goal-meeter,

I see great things in our future.  It'll take a little adjusting, I'm sure.  Things I'm not foreseeing will come up, and probably things I'm planning to happen won't.  All I can say is... I am HAPPY and FREE and EXCITED about my new adventure. :) :)