Yes, we’ve been busy. Which might be part of the reason I haven’t posted practically all summer. Or it could be that I just was too tired to post when I did have the time. Either way, you’re going to get the quick version of our summer so that I don’t feel bad. Then tomorrow I can post about our first week of Homeschool!
June–
June is always super busy because of birthdays. The first weekend of the month we went down to Houston for their cousin’s 6th birthday party (at a dinosaur museum! Coolness!). Then the following weekend the family all came here to celebrate Kyla & Lucas’ 4th birthday. I believe I did write that one up, so I won’t go into detail.
N and I actually got to go out of town for our anniversary (12th) this year. We went to Fredricksburg. We were only there 2 nights, so we didn’t have a lot of time, but enjoyed it nonetheless. Before you ask, no we did not do any wine tours. Instead we got gypped by the main street shops! LOL We bought way too much wine and the real kicker was when N found almost everything we bought there for WAY cheaper here at home. Ugh! Oh, well. Fun was had anyway, so that’s the main point.
The kids and I then went to San Antonio with my sister and her 3 kids (ages 6, 22 months, and 22 months at the time). We stayed in a cabin and did a day at Sea World, rode a train through a petting zoo, rode a glass bottom boat, went swimming, and just spent time together. Overall it was a lot of fun and I know the kids enjoyed it. My sister and I were, of course, ready for a vacation from our vacation, but we knew it would probably be like that going in. I love how close in age our kids are and that they get to see their cousins frequently. The best part, though, was that after all that time spent together, her twins and I bonded. 😉 They used to be kind of afraid of me, but now the immediately recognize me and play our own little secret games. I love those little guys!
To cap off the month we got to celebrate my father-in-law’s birthday swimming in his new pool! The kids have become amazing swimmers now that they have Papa’s pool to play in! They are such fish!
July–
July started out with a fun 4th of July celebration with N’s cousins and their families. We don’t get to see them very often, but N was close to his cousins all through growing up and feels like they are his brothers more than cousins. The kids got to see fireworks on the way home and still talk about it!
Kyla started taking a ballet/tap class at an actual dance studio and really enjoyed it. She says she really wants to be on stage. Part of me would love for her to try it, but at the same time I’m pretty sure she’d freak out when it came time to preform.
The kids had their first ever dentist appointment. Our insurance makes us use a primary dentist (who won’t see them until they are 4 unless there are problems) and if we want to take them to a pediatric dentist we have to get a referral. Thankfully, they seemed fine with the regular dentist, so unless there are problems later we’ll just stick with them. Neither of them had any cavities! Woohoo! They took them both at the same time, which was great for neither getting bored waiting on the other one, but meant that I was in the hallway between the two rooms trying to catch what was going on in both at the same time. I felt like I must have missed something, but the kids did great, so that’s the important thing.
I got to spend time with many of my pre-kid friends in July, which was great. I don’t see any of them nearly enough (maybe once a year if we’re lucky). I feel like such a bore, though, because all I have to talk about is my kids. LOL Thankfully, they all like hearing about them (or at least, they pretend they do), so it’s not too bad. 😉
August–
The first day of August was very different for me this year (compared to the last 4). I went to work. Sort of. I had substitute orientation. I’m still waiting to get the go ahead to set up my SubFinder account, but in theory I’ll be subbing for the local school district this year. I should be able to work at least 2 days a week. More if I can find a sitter on days N works. Of course, if I never get that darn email…
The kids and I all had VBS the second week of August. This year was very different for us. I was asked to do the preschool story time this year (I did the K-3 story time last year) and the kids were finally old enough to be in the actual VBS classes and not just the nursery! Of course, with me doing the preschool groups, that meant they came to me every day. I was nervous about that at first, but it worked out fine and I enjoyed seeing how they behave in that sort of setting. The other part that made it different is the fact that we now have friends at the church that we hang out with outside of church! We actually went out to lunch with a huge group of moms and kids 3 out of 5 days. I know we all loved that.
Right after the last day of VBS we got in the car and drove down to Houston for the “little twins” birthday. We got to spend Saturday with my mom, sister, and her 3 boys, then Sunday we celebrated the birthday at Chuck E. Cheese and got to see my brother, his wife, and their two girls. I’m not generally a baby holder, but I did enjoy spending time with my littlest niece (5 months old). Big sister (2 years old) had never been to CEC before and absolutely LOVED dancing with the mouse! It was adorable. And the even better part is that she’s finally warming up to other people and not clinging to her parents like she used to. She came up to me! 🙂
We had to head back home right after the party because Lucas was signed up for sports camp the following day. He spent 3 hours playing games and learning various sports Monday-Thursday. He loved it. Kyla, on the other hand, was not so fond of being away from her brother for that long. I tried to come up with fun things for us to do while he was busy, but even sitting in a movie she whispered to me “Can we go get Lucas now?” And while we were at their friends’ birthday party she cried for her brother rather than going to play with the other kids at the party. The one day that she didn’t ask about him was when we went to get a mini/pedi (her first) and then had a tea party with N’s grandmother and aunt. Can we say girly-girl?!
We got to go see a children’s theatre performance of Alice in Wonderland, which both kids thoroughly enjoyed. For days afterward they pretended to put on a show (usually Alice in Wonderland) and have both said they want to be on stage. As thrilled as I am, I think they may need to wait a few years.
Things looked like they were going to wind down, but we still seemed to find ourselves with something do do almost every day. Play dates, trips to the movies, family visits, and more! Is it sad that on the few days we didn’t have anything to do my kids asked “Where are we going today?” and when my response was “nowhere” they cried? They love to be out and about. But sometimes Mommy just needs a PJ day!
Coming up–
Kyla ended up deciding she didn’t want to continue in the ballet/tap class she was taking. I’m pretty sure it was because she is so shy. But I let her try out the ballet/jazz class one of her friends is in and she decided she liked it, so she’ll be doing that this year.
Lucas wanted to be in soccer with his friend (the twin of Kyla’s dance friend), but the teams were already full. So instead he’ll be playing soccer through the church.
They start speech again September 3rd (2 days/week) and are enrolled in the whole series of Zoo School this Fall which starts September 12th (I’ll have to fill you in on that in a later post).
Because we still can’t afford to put the kids into preschool I decided I should buckle down and get more serious about our homeschool efforts. I’m trying to plan literacy, math, dramatic play, art, science, and social studies activities each week around a theme. I’ll try to post at the end of each week what we did and how it went. We’ve already completed our first week (which I’ll post about tomorrow) and I’ve got weeks 2 and 3 pretty much planned as well as themes through the end of October. I’m really hoping I can stay on top of this and that the kids will stay as interested as they have been this week. They keep saying that today is the “last day” of homeschool, even though I’ve told them it’s just the last day of this theme. Hopefully they won’t be too upset when we start up again on Monday! LOL
This “quick” update has ended up really long. Sorry about that. But at least now you know I wasn’t lying about being busy! 😉 As we fall into our school year rhythm I hope to be better about posting again. Thanks for sticking with me through the dry spells!
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