So Long, Summer Camp!

Miss Roo

Monday: Dragons

Some cardboard, masking tape, a few glittery brads, and sliver spray paint later, Lady Riley! Much thanks to big brother for lending her the sword and shield.

The cutest knight in all the land!

Tuesday: Princesses & Pirates

Riley went as Zarina the pirate fairy. I had this costume in the closet for Christmas, but I had to let her have it when I heard they were having a pirate day. Can you blame me? The adorable was off the charts.

Wednesday: Circus, but she stayed home to see Rio 2

Thursday: Superheros!

For superhero day we decided Riley should be Princess Presto from Super Why. I re-purposed her Princess Sofia dress and shoes. Riley made me promise not to anything I couldn't undo (I wouldn't have of course). I printed tiny Princess Prestos to cover the Sofias on the dress and shoes. I made some green accents with ribbon and safety pins. I used fabric glue to attach green sequins to her purple star wand. She already had a cardboard Princess Presto crown from a cereal box. Mike drew the Super Why logo on a spare purple curtain to make her cape. It turned into a bigger project than I imagined, but she looked amazing.

Friday: Favorite Character

Riley went as Princess Belle. She had a lovely last day.

In order for Riley to continue to continue on to kindergarten at her school she has to be drawn in their lottery. I've know that was the procedure since we enrolled in PreK3. When I got home I had an email informing me that the application process for kindergarten for the 2015/2016 had begun. I was stunned! Needless to say I submitted her application lickety-split. Unfortunately, along with the dose of suspense turning in her application brought there was certainly a dose of reality for me. When did she get so grown up?

Isaac

Wednesday was a big day this week. I kept Riley home from school and we all went to see Rio 2. It was the last free kids movie of the summer. I told the kids that they had to earn the movie and if they where super listeners we'd get snacks at the movie. My children have never been to the concession stand with their parents before so this was huge. During summer kids movies they have a special deal, the kids get popcorn, fruit snacks and a small drink. The trays have little dinosaurs on them! They felt so special having their own popcorn to season as they pleased. Isaac dumped the nacho cheese seasoning on. I also smuggled in a small candy bar for each of them. As we were leaving the kids were given free Guardian of the Galaxy comic books, it made Isaac's day! After nap that same day I took them out for free root bear floats too.

Week Nine Video Wrap Up

Weekly Wrap Up Questions
1. What did you learn that you didn't know before?
2. What was the worst part of your week?
3. What was the best part of your week?
4. What was your favorite meal?
5. What was the weather mostly like?
6. What was your favorite activity/project?
7. How many books did you read?
8. What were they called?
9. Which book was your favorite?
10. Where are some places you went this week?

March-ing On Part 2

Jump in your time machines fellow travelers and let's go all the way back...to mid March! We'll all pretend I totally skipped almost two whole months of posts on purpose so I could do a few cute recap posts. Here we go...

We celebrated two years of marriage and almost seven years together (it'll be seven next month). We rang in this milestone in our usual super cool style...with board games! Cards against Humanity and such, chips and dips and some drinks. It was actually a lovely evening, not in the top ten most romantic nights of my life, but exactly what we were in the mood for. Here's to fifty or so more years!

Right on the heals of Isaac's character day Roo's school had fairy tale character day! It was conveniently the day after Epcot so she had just received her brand new Mulan dress (not that she has any shortage of options before that). I was thrilled that she wanted to be Mulan because I was sure the room would be full of Rapunzels and Belles, but she was bound to be the only Mulan. We found her a white flower from the garden for her hair, gave her some purple eye shadow and red lip gloss and even managed to find her "beads of jade". She looked perfect. Let's face it my kids kick butt at character days!

Scenes from Spring Break

I talked a lot about spring break an earlier post...But let's just sum up here as well. Children's Museum, library, movie nights, board games (Disney Sorry FTW), coloring, car sing-a-longs, play dates!, dress up, out to lunch, Easter decorating, playing "quietly", puzzles, books, running around in the backyard and making a pony at build-a-bear!

We snuck a date night into the mix right at the end our spring break. More board games and adult conversation for us. Good times.

The kids had their first and second night sleeping away from home about a week apart. Their grandparents took them out to dinner, to the Lego movie and then swimming the next morning. They gave them back happy and tired. The next weekend I asked Roo's Bestie's family to watch them so Mike and I could go out. She kindly volunteered to let them sleep over. It was very nice and super weird. It's odd, but when Mike and I are alone I always dream up all these fun things to do and then we end up happily doing nothing. I just always feel the full weight of being tired when I stop moving. It's why I don't stop moving too often if I can help it, so I can keep ignoring the tired. That being said I enjoyed my time off very much almost as much as I missed them.

Miss Roo and I took a stroll through one of the world's biggest Disney Stores and we found her the wig for her Halloween. It was late March and she just happened to demand her skeleton tights. My silly girl. She got compliments all day on them. Then we got home we tried on the whole ensemble. Amazing, right? Now we just have to wait seven months....

And now my friends you have been brought up to the present, hurray!

A Strange Thing...

No, the title does not refer to either of my children. It was spring break this past week. I decided since we're not doing summer programs this year to treat Spring Break like the dress rehearsal. I got some Groupon deals and had a loose list of things we could do, but didn't commit to specific times for anything. It seemed like a completely reasonable plan, right?

We had a busy end of the week the week prior so I was a little run down, but still confident. We hit the children's museum and the library, had movie nights, played board games, went out to lunch, had play dates and even hit Build-A-Bear to make a My Little Pony. I'm not saying I failed at Spring Break. I think we pretty much crushed it especially considering the dreary, rainy, chilly weather. I guess as usual I just wished I could do more.

I was laying in bed after one of these play dates. Roo was snoozing in her bed, Isaac was working on science homework at the table and rain was falling outside. I thought I'd have a nice rest and then get up and decorate the house for Easter with the kids. I also thought we'd go swimming this week, so that's how much I know. After nap I expressed feeling "not right." I instructed Isaac to put a movie on for Riley and himself.

When the movie ended they were playing quietly (probably making a huge mess) and I was in agony. I had a massive migraine. When Mike was done working he had to cook dinner. I felt awful in every way a person can feel awful. It was a horrible migraine, but the guilt was worse. I'd be proactive in keeping myself hydrated and hadn't been in the sun too much. I couldn't explain why I had the migraine or why none of my usual methods were having any effect. In fact it seemed to just keep getting worse!

As I was laying in the dark in pain I started to cry. I kept thinking about how much there was to do. I kept thinking how I was letting down my kids. I must have cried for a while because it got very dark. That's when I felt it. I could hear Mike and the kids in the living room and the wind was blowing hard enough to cause the rose outside my window to scrap against the glass. It wasn't a sound. It was a strong feeling. I felt her there, my grandmother. My grandmother passed away when I was younger then Roo is now. She sends me rainbows whenever something significant happens in my life. I've felt that she's with me before, but this was something else.

She was sitting beside me in the bed and she took my hand I felt it. I've never spoken to her out loud before. I said "Grandma?" and I felt her squeeze my hand. I asked "Why, can't I be stronger?" and then I cried until the bed shook under me. I felt her hug me and then she was gone. I think she just needed me to know she's still watching over me. I don't think she wanted me to beat myself up anymore. When I relayed the story to my husband he delicately suggested that I was "tripping on headache medicine."

Perhaps, I got the message from some other part of my brain that recognized the frustration as un-productive. Maybe the whole thing was some kind of dream, but I gathered myself up after that. No more guilt. I showered and ate dinner and the migraine FINALLY passed.

I wonder if it wasn't hormonal as I'm still working on a naturally obtained balance and detoxing from the pill. So far the cysts have been present, but (knock on wood) not bursting. I know I'm more emotional and less focused than usual.

This morning when I dropped Roo off for her first day back to school and I saw all the cool art projects the kids who had attended over the break made and I felt horrible! I should have let her make art with her friends all week. As I walked to the car I reminded myself of all the fun stuff and quality time with Mom and Big Brother she had instead.

It's hard to know if your making the right decisions for your kids, but I'd like to think my loved ones who have passed are looking down with approval. Even if no one on earth believes me I'd like to think that heaven knows I'm doing my best.