How is it that I am even busier on summer vacation than during the school year?? These long evenings beg to be filled with Festive Summer Events, and the string of "free" days beg for house projects. Meanwhile I am busy filling the hours in between with tutoring, summer curriculum work, and a few college credits.
I'm tired just typing this. Or maybe that's the 6 miles of running still talking from yesterday.
At any rate, here is a brief sketch of our wonderful weekend, in pictures and a few words, mostly copied from my daily journal..
Friday:
A day off! This week has been so busy it only just this afternoon started to feel like summer vacation... A relaxed morning of running, making cards, and hanging out at home, as Jack's swim lessons were cancelled. Again. Because its been too cold. You know, cause it's June. Seriously.
At any rate, there is something to be said for a morning at home. The kids were cute working on the Father's Day cards, Ivy oh so carefully gluing piece after piece of paper into a stack, Jack crafting a card with some similarities to my usual style... We worked in there, the 3 of us crowded onto the floor of my office, full of boxes as we work towards changing it over to Ivy's room. Of course Corydon was I there too. :)
Ivy and I went off to get haircuts after lunch. My little girl has a bob and looks so grown up. Se loved the whole haircut experience. Fascinated with Cameron, our pierced and tattooed stylist, and in love with Larry, the gold glitter unicorn she was given to play with. She sat so still, shy smiling and pleased. And she loved sitting under the hair dryer.
This afternoon we took the kids to my mom's for an overnight and Nat and I managed to visit 3 new places in the span of two hours, on a whirlwind and impromptu vacation at home... The habitat for humanity restore was first on the last-- all of 7 minutes from my moms house-- how have we not gone before this? Then little Italy on the way home where we discovered a converted school fill of galleries and a brand new coffee shop in what once was a gas station, of course we also had to stop and pick up a few treats at Presti's...
Here at home we've been project dynamos, clearing out my office ANC hanging lights outside and spray painting Ivy's dresser and finishing the paint in the hall... Of course we've yet to begin the basic cleaning and its a busy weekend to come with dinner guests to come on Sunday. By we've got tomorrow morning and all the energy of not having kids around. We did a bit of reminiscing through old photo albums, remembering a time in our lives when we had this much free will all the time. Crazy.
Saturday:
A lovely day. Working like crazy on house projects and cleaning all morning, then we went and grabbed the kids and spirited them off to Hiram for a great 8 hours of Alumni weekend. I sang with the little, impromptu alumni choir, even taking on the first alto part ( I'm a helper!). We played frisbee and spent some time in my old room in Booth, where the kids pretended to nap on the beds. We mixed and mingled at the reception. We went out for dinner at the G ville dairy queen, which has not changed a bit in these 15 years. We took a total of 6 golf cart rides. We crashed the 98 reunion dinner for after dinner drinks, then danced on the patio ( that boy of mine has some moves!) before going to the B-side, which was opened for the night. The kids were perfect, and little dynamos, up til 10 and full of energy and joy. I think they had a fun time. Or at least ate a lot of cookies. .
I do love Hiram.
Sunday:
A morning of running! For everyone. Poor Nat was roped in to running a mile, on Fathers Day no less. Nat hates to run. But Jack wanted to run in a race, and this one was close to home and benefitted Family Connections, an organization I am most happy to support. So running we went. I did the 5 mile run, which was pretty brutal in then100% humidity of the drizzly morning. But I made it, 48:29, just in time to help get Nat and Jack registered and off for the mile. I plodded along with ivy in the stroller and Jack ran the better part of a mile, despite Nat's hope that he'd need to walk a lot. We finished the morning with Kidsprints for both Jack and Ivy. Our tall boy tied for first in the 5 year old heat. And I can't even describe for you how cute the 3 year old group was. Soooo happy and proud, they ran their hearts out as everyone cheered. Ivy was over the moon about her ribbon. Jack ended up with two ribbons-- but spent a good part of the evening disappointed he didn't get a trophy. That's our boy....
Resting and cleaning then company for dinner-- a friend from Jacks pre-K class, and her family of course! We had a lovely evening, perfect sunshine and happy friends disappearing to play as we drank beer and talked about travel. Life is good.
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| Ivy's new table, a grand garage sale find |
And today:
(Well, is evening really. Not too much to tell about a day working on Common Core grade 8 Math curriculum...)
Our inaugural visit to Kiddie Park! Magic as ever. Corn dogs and mini golf and giggles and joyful sunlit faces. With the added perfection of sending the 4 kids off on the train ride all on their own while we enjoyed ten quiet minutes of chatting with Melinda and Will. That's the good part of the little ones getting bigger. The bittersweet part? This is most likely Jack's last year for the rides. Our tall boy. I can't believe it.
