Up with Summer!
I am so glad the school year is almost over. Sure, we have to pay more for childcare over the summer, but I won't have to worry about packing lunches and sorting through a backpack o'crap every day. At least I was able to stop packing (and repeatedly washing) the kids's snowpants a couple weeks ago. What was I thinking, buying her light pink snowpants? I don't know why the backpack job is exclusively mine, but it is. Every day I have to dig out a half-eaten lunch (funny how the dessert is always gone, though), locate whatever she smuggled to school that day (usually a zooble or a Barbie), and sort through all of the paper, library books, guided reading books, and so forth. For art projects, I either post them on the refrigerator or put them in a plastic storage tote (I expect to have at least a dozen of these by the time she graduates, depending on how much art she does in high school). For worksheets and such, I (gasp!) recycle them. Then we have scenes like this:
(at dinner the other night)
P: What did you do at school today?
A: I did a word search about dolphins. Mommy, show the paper to Daddy.
Me: Ummm . . .
A: Mom! You threw away my work?!
For the last 26 days of the school year, the kids are focusing on a different letter of the alphabet each day. Wednesday was hat day (H, in case you missed the connection) so she represented the Corps in all its purple finery. P got her this hat at the USMC museum in Quantico a couple years ago, but it only just now fits her noggin. Today was jeans day, which went over like the proverbial lead balloon - she is holding firm on her dresses-only policy. She has a lot of her own policies, now that I think about it. Her husband will be a lucky, lucky man.
Anyway, yes, my wee one has nearly finished Kindergarten. It's hard to believe, but there it is. I'm planning to make sure she keeps reading all summer. Now that she can read so well, some of the books she brings home are actually pretty funny (certainly an improvement over the one-word-per-page toddler books we were reading a couple years ago). "Don't Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus" actually made me laugh out loud ("Your mom would let me!").
We do have lots of plans for the summer, as usual. We're headed to Northern Virginia in July to visit my family. We may have to sell our very souls to afford the gas, but we're going for it. Here's hoping the kid's new DS keeps her occupied for oh, 16 consecutive hours or so. In August, we're headed to my friend's cabin for a week or so. My wee baby sister says she is coming for a visit in August. She has two sons, 16 months apart, and another child on the way. I do not know if they will survive the drive. My sister refers to her sons as "The Murder Club" because they spend most of their waking hours trying to kill each other. Should be a fun visit!
Other than that, there will be lots of festivals, the state fair, the county fair, farmers' markets (kettle corn!), pet expos, and whatever else we can find. We talked about teaching A to ride her bike with no training wheels. She refuses to hear it. To her, this was akin to suggesting that she eat a green vegetable or that she put her underwear down the laundry chute voluntarily. In fact, she hasn't ridden her new bike once. She's pretty content to ride "Pinky," a Big Wheel given to her by a friend of mine. As for me, I'll be on my Craigslist bike again this summer. A girl's gotta find some way to work off all that kettle corn.
(at dinner the other night)
P: What did you do at school today?
A: I did a word search about dolphins. Mommy, show the paper to Daddy.
Me: Ummm . . .
A: Mom! You threw away my work?!
Anyway, yes, my wee one has nearly finished Kindergarten. It's hard to believe, but there it is. I'm planning to make sure she keeps reading all summer. Now that she can read so well, some of the books she brings home are actually pretty funny (certainly an improvement over the one-word-per-page toddler books we were reading a couple years ago). "Don't Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus" actually made me laugh out loud ("Your mom would let me!").
We do have lots of plans for the summer, as usual. We're headed to Northern Virginia in July to visit my family. We may have to sell our very souls to afford the gas, but we're going for it. Here's hoping the kid's new DS keeps her occupied for oh, 16 consecutive hours or so. In August, we're headed to my friend's cabin for a week or so. My wee baby sister says she is coming for a visit in August. She has two sons, 16 months apart, and another child on the way. I do not know if they will survive the drive. My sister refers to her sons as "The Murder Club" because they spend most of their waking hours trying to kill each other. Should be a fun visit!
Other than that, there will be lots of festivals, the state fair, the county fair, farmers' markets (kettle corn!), pet expos, and whatever else we can find. We talked about teaching A to ride her bike with no training wheels. She refuses to hear it. To her, this was akin to suggesting that she eat a green vegetable or that she put her underwear down the laundry chute voluntarily. In fact, she hasn't ridden her new bike once. She's pretty content to ride "Pinky," a Big Wheel given to her by a friend of mine. As for me, I'll be on my Craigslist bike again this summer. A girl's gotta find some way to work off all that kettle corn.
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