It's hard to draw a good line between keeping the kids from getting bored, and letting them have enough time to goof off. If I totally let them go, they end up feeling their summer is wasted. If I schedule and monitor them, they haven't had enough free time and are mad that they didn't get to relax.
I was going to write down what we did each day, so I can wave it in their faces when the tears come for "Back To School" night that "The whole summer is GONE and I didn't do ANYTHING!!!" I haven't kept up with this, either.
I vowed we'd go through the multiplication and division flash cards every weekday morning. We started really well, but have been slacking off. In fact, I should break to go do that this minute...
There are two weeks in the middle of June that I can't exactly account for... I do remember that we met with the weekly playgroup at Chuckee Cheese, just my girls and the girls of the mother who's been arranging things, all of whom I like, so I was fine it worked out that way. We spent a weekend at my mother's while Hubby had a conference, and celebrated Father's Day at my brother's with a big pool party. Between Spanish lessons (see below) and birthday parties for their four summer born daughters we've spent quite a bit of time at my brother's, often playing in their pool. The real bonus here is it doesn't use chlorine in the filter and so it doesn't turn the girls' hair into straw.
The first week of July was pretty busy. My cousin is teaching the girls and their two cousins Spanish on Mondays at my brother's house (it's roughly halfway between her house and my house), and my mother arranged to take all the girls who could go to the new Natural History Museum. So after Spanish we went over to the museum, and had a nice time looking around there. Thing 1 got very excited and wants to make some Native American crafts of her own. Then we met the dads (my brother and Hubby) at the Old Spaghetti factory for dinner.
Tuesday was fireworks! My brother lives right by some of the best fireworks in the valley, and walking from his house means we can avoid parking and traffic nightmare. He hosts a party in his back yard, which is a little hard for the girls since all the other participants are neighbors, and they all know each other. But it all turned out okay when the cherished cousin came and snuggled between them to watch the fireworks.
Wednesday was the 4th of July parade. Thing 2 got to walk down main street with the other spellers from the spelling bee. It was a busy day, and Thing 2 had a great time waving to people and spelling out words like "PARADE!" that they'd shout at her. The only problem came when Hubby's cell phone died after he walked to the end of the parade to meet Thing 2 while I stayed with Thing 1 and watched the parade, we hadn't made plans on where to meet, and I ended up walking to the end of the parade where I thought he'd be while he walked back up to the top of the street where we'd been... Finally he stopped in a boutique and borrowed their phone to call me.
Thursday... Hubby fixed the mower and mowed the lawn.
Friday we went to a matinee. Tomorrow my folks will come down and we'll celebrate Hubby's birthday. We celebrated Father's Day last Saturday by having breakfast downtown, then going to Costco where Hubby picked out a bigger TV that will just fit the space in the redone basement. I hadn't really planned that, but kind of half expected it. So his father's day and birthday presents are combined. I feel it's fair that I can fall back on electronics for presents for him, since he's so hard to shop for, and he falls back on jewelry for me. And he doesn't just buy department store jewelry... he buys jewelry store jewelry. The really nice stuff. Not that I am complaining, it's just that I can never match him for dollars spent, the best I can do is something like this, let him buy a major electrical whatever for the house and tell him it's his. But I feel like it's cheating because we all use it. Not like the jewelry he buys me, which I don't share.
And while it's just a boring recounting of last week, it is an entry, and I'm looking to rack up accomplishments, so there's one. Boring yes, but done? YES!!
