Picture fun

First up, let's all say a quick prayer that I don't permanently damage my back or break any toes--I'm off to start moving furniture as soon as I'm done posting. I've bought us a little time with Bobby--I've offered him Caroline's bed as a temporary measure. He refused at first (it is a white and girly bed), but then he changed his mind when I showed him the new Spiderman sheets (that I bought in January on sale). Wish me luck.

These are what we picked last Saturday:

And here is Caitlin with her teacher at the kindergarten picnic on Tuesday.
Last day of second grade for Caroline:
And I decided to do the Tie One On project for summer. The theme is gingham summer, and since I have an unnatural love of all things gingham, I had to participate. I couldn't really see making myself another apron (since I just received two through swaps), so I made aprons for the kids. The picture is silly, of course. Caroline was in the middle of teasing/torturing the dog with a biscuit. And you can't really see the gingham from so far away--or the bias tape detail. I made my own bias tape and I'm really tickled with how cute it turned out! Caitlin wanted to sleep in her apron last night, so I haven't been able to take it away from her so I can take closeups.
So we're all aproned up--I guess we need a cooking project to work on! Right after I finish my stint as a furniture mover...

Here we go!

What next?

Now that the lazy days of summer are almost upon us, I'm feeling like I don't have time to accomplish anything! What's going on this week? Caroline was supposed to have an orthodontist appointment this afternoon, but I moved it to next week so she won't have to miss the end-of-year party. She was diagnosed with swimmer's ear yesterday, so we're having all sorts of ear-drop fun.

The girls are ready for their own rooms, like RIGHT NOW. I don't think they have a clue about how much furniture is going to have to be moved to accomplish this. Plus, I don't have any pretty bedding ready for Caroline yet. I think she's old enough to handle using the old guest room stuff while I wait for the fabric to be available in stores. And now Bobby wants his big bed like today. We (and by we, I mean, I am) are still on the fence about the bed situation. Right now, we could give Caroline the queen from the guest room, give Caitlin her bed (a twin) and get a headboard for Bobby to use the other twin mattress. But Caitlin says she wants a bigger bed (you know, because she's just spilling out of that twin)--we could use my old full bed and just buy a new mattress for it. Then we'd have two twin mattresses--we could get a trundle bed for Bobby. That involves spending more money than we'd like to right now. At some point, we'll have to actually do something about this. I can move the furniture by myself, but solving all the bed requests is going to involve both parents. And a credit card...

Next up, I decided yesterday that taking on three or so sewing projects was a good idea. Sigh. One day I'll learn. I wanted to make aprons for the kids. But I decided to make my own bias tape. There's a multi-day project in itself!

On to something fun...our trip! Last Tuesday, Rob and I skipped town for a couple of days. We went up to Hyde Park in New York. It was beautiful. We are all full of FDR information now, and we still can't fathom how obscenely wealthy all those Vanderbilts were--they had a little 25 room "cottage" that they used for a couple of months a year...you know, a weekend place. (!!) We ate a couple of meals at the Culinary Institute of America. Very tasty. I was expecting more of a scenic drive along the water. If it exists, we didn't find it. Also, we wanted to do a river cruise, but they weren't running one on the day we wanted to do it. I bet it's just beautiful in the fall. But still, it was a couple of days away from all the little people, and those don't happen very often, so it was nice. It was also nice to come back to all those little welcoming arms.

I am debating on what to do next--start moving furniture, or work on sewing. Sewing is probably going to win out, because I know that once I start on the furniture, the girls will hound me until it's all done.

Happy Summer!

Catching our Breath

So we've been back from our getaway for a few days, and I still feel like I'm way behind. I have received two beautiful aprons from the apron swaps, and I haven't been able to photograph them or post about it. We've been running around some more--my mom left on Friday, and then Rob's mom came into town that afternoon. I'm catching up on laundry as I type.

The girls have only a few more days of school--Caitlin's last day is Tuesday and Caroline finishes on Wednesday. Then it's officially summer around here. I think I'm ready. Goodness knows I've downloaded just about every kid-friendly activity there is from the internet and I've checked out a stack of books from the library for anything else. We should never run out of things to do!

We went strawberry picking yesterday and I followed Erin's recipe for freezer jam today. We should know by tomorrow whether I was successful!

I'm also making some bread this afternoon--because making bread is way more fun than cleaning the floors.

And it's Father's Day. Rob is driving home from New Jersey right now--he returned his mom and they stopped by the cemetary to visit his dad and granddad. Rob had a mini-Christmas this morning from the kids. Now I've gotta go scare up a recipe for dinner, and my washer is beeping an error message at me--I'm guessing I shoved a few too many towels in there...

Ten

Fasten your seatbelts...

We're off to the airport to get Grandma! My mom is due to arrive this afternoon--I'm hoping that all the weather yesterday hasn't put today's schedule off by too much because we're on a tight schedule! After we get Mom, I have to get the girls ready for their dance dress rehearsal. Then the recital is on Saturday, final soccer game on Sunday, and Tuesday, Rob and I leave town for a few days!

Now, instead of running around cleaning, I'm debating whether to leave for the airport early so that we can stop in that giant Ikea that I always pass by on the way...I'm never over that way, so it makes sense to stop there today...

So I'll probably post maybe next Monday with some recital pictures, and then I'll be back by next Friday--all relaxed from some kid-free time.

Full of Ideas

I've been in summer planning mode for the last couple of hours, and my printer is screaming at me to please stop printing out things because the black ink is almost gone!

Anyway, I've mentioned how I have a schedule set up for the kids this summer, complete with theme weeks, etc. I'm relying heavily on Brownie try-it activities to fill the time. I've found a website that lists all of the try-its and what activities you can do to earn the badge. I think they're great, not just for the Brownie to do, but also to include siblings. For example, we're going to work on the Brownie Girl Scouts Through the Years badge. One of the activities is to make/eat/study different snacks or meals that Brownies ate in years past. I'm going to have the kids make a snack for the week on Mondays, and we're going to use a snack from a different decade each week. That gets the kids in the kitchen making stuff (which they love) every week. And we'll get to explore different decades this way.

Other great online resources I've found are the U.S. Mint and the Danger Rangers websites. They have great activities--the mint has loads of games and lesson plans, and they involve history, math, etc. It's very easy to get excited about this stuff!

Our weekly schedule is going to look something like this: on weekday mornings, we'll do an activity either before or after swimming lessons. Wednesdays we have no swimming, so we'll be at the free movies. After lunch, I'm going to try to impose a one-hour quiet time. Hopefully, the kids will get used to spending an hour in their rooms reading or (if I really luck out, sleeping). I'm going to allow them to stay up until nine if they agree to the quiet hour. Afternoons, we'll do another activity and then hopefully go to the pool around five (I just don't want to be out at peak sun time) and then home for dinner around seven.

The "activities" will include a couple of try-its per week, the weekly snack, a writing activity, a math activity (for this I'm relying on the Mathemagic volume from the Childcraft Encyclopedias), a safety activity (for earning the Brownie Safety Award) and library time. Our school district has the curriculum online, so I'm also going there for ideas.

I've made up all these schedules before, but I'm hoping that this will be the year that we can actually accomplish some of it. It's structured (which we all need) but also leaves plenty of time just for play. Wish us luck!

Eight

She's eight today. My first baby, my little girl. Where does the time go? Oh, can I slow down the clock for the next eight years?