Summer Vacation!

The girls and I had our last day of school last week Wednesday. Jayson and I are very, very fortunate to have jobs that allow us to be home with our girls all summer. We were so excited for this summer because the girls are finally at an age where we can plan activities with very few restrictions. No diapers, no nap times, no strollers. I have a whole list of things to do stored on my computer. Here is what we have done so far.

Wednesday: After school, I went out for a beer with my coworkers. We do it every last day of school and it's a nice kick-off to the summer. When I got home, the whole family went to Orange Leaf for a fundraiser for The Scenic Shore 150.

Thursday: I had to clean the house. I have a good dose of OCD and ADD in me and I simply cannot live in a good head space when my house is messy. Once I was able to finish cleaning, I felt like summer actually started. I ended the day with a meeting for the cross country team to kick-off our summer training.

Friday: Jayson had a doctors appointment in the morning, then we made a family run to Target. We took the girls out to lunch at one of their favorite pizza places.

Saturday: Audrey had a birthday party to go to, and then we went to a party at a friend's house. They do yard olympics. I had to miss it last year with my emergency appendectomy, but this year Jayson and I won! I also ran into a former student, who was a senior my first year teaching, and is now 24, out of college, and a real person, which is weird. The girls had so much fun at the party playing with the other kids, and again, Jayson and I were reminded of how nice it was for them to be old enough to go off on their own.

Sunday: Father's Day! The art museum had free admission and the girls' favorite band, Fox and Branch was playing. They had a lot of activities for kids and we had a blast. Then we went to the Third Ward to have lunch at the Ale House. The service was terrible and the kitchen was backed up. We waited forever. Luckily, the girls were still going strong and we didn't have any meltdowns.

And today... We began Lydia's baseball season. She got her favorite coach from last year, Coach Nick, and was absolutely ecstatic. Then we began a two-week swim lesson session for Lydia and Audrey. They are the only ones in their class! So, they got a lot of attention and had a blast. They can't wait to go back tomorrow. We had planned on using a Groupon that expired today for pizza and bowling, but the place was closed. A bit of a bummer, but we were close enough to Uncle Kyle's shop to stop by for a visit, then came home to play and mow the lawn.

The girls already are slightly bronzed and exhausted every night, which is how summer is supposed to be! After weeks of getting up at 6:00am, Charlie slept past 8:00 today.

Mid-Summer Update

Oh. Remember how I was going to post more during the summer? Sorry about that. But, we've been busy. We seem to have had a long run of parties.

June 30th we went to a housewarming party for some good friends of ours. My mom, the Granny Nanny, came with and took the girls home at a reasonable hour so Jayson and I could stay later and enjoy ourselves. It was a good thing, too, because it was really, really HOT and I don't think they would have lasted much longer than they did.

July 3rd we went to the home of a friend of ours who lives in a little neighborhood out in the country. Every July 3rd, he does a huge fireworks show in his backyard and there are probably around 150 people there. Every year, I seem to end up watching it in my car because one or more of the girls are afraid. This year it was Charlie and Lydia. They sat in the car and watched and I stood outside the car. Every time I opened the door to see how they were doing (it was HOT), Charlie screamed at me to shut the door. So, that was fun.

July 4th we went to the parade in New Berlin. Again, HOT. Every 2.5 seconds, I was shoving water bottles in the girls' faces and telling them to drink. After the parade, it was home for naps and then to a 4th of July party at a friends house who lives close enough to the park that we can sit on the sidewalk in front of her house and watch the fireworks. Just like the party the previous night, there were oodles of kids running around and the girls had a blast. We were farther away from the fireworks this time, so Charlie initially freaked out, but then did fine. She even told me the fireworks were cute.

July 6th we went to Jammin on Janesville with some friends. Again, HOT. Again with the water. The girls just adore the other family we went with, so they had a blast and got absolutely filthy dirty from walking and playing. The got their faces painted early in the evening, but after a few hours in the heat, they looked like their faces were melting.

July 8th we went to a party at another friends house. They had one of those big Banzai water slide sprinklers and again, tons of kids. The girls just loved it. I loved that the girls are finally at an age where they can pretty much play without us and Jayson and I can just sit and relax and enjoy ourselves.

July 9th, Charlie woke up and asked me, "Mommy, party today?" No, we were partied out.