What the Right Decision Looks Like

After three weeks of school I transferred Riley. The details aren't important because after three weeks at her new school it is clear I did the right thing. Thank God! My heart is overflowing with gratitude. Look at the evidence, I found my sweet happy girl again.

There was a new first day sign for our fresh start. She's collected leaves for a nature collage, learned new songs, discussed science topics, practiced her handwriting, made friends, made art, taken a field trip, befriended the stuffed dinosaur in the front office (Diney), learned about a different culture, practiced her musical scales, been to a party and danced a lot! The bulletin board inside the door says "You are artists! You are bright! You are explorers! You are loved! You are the reason we are here." Isn't that great? I'm glad she's happy and learning again.

Ready, Set, Camp!

First Day Smiles!

Miss Roo's summer camp is at her regular preschool. She gets to be with her friends and teachers from the school year, but this time...she's in the VPK classroom. She's thrilled to be a big kid! Their theme is Cruising into Summer! They have a big cruise ship on the wall and they go to a different port every few days. They even have a suitcase with objects they can velcro on to pack for the trip and a passport they get stamped. Fun stuff, right?

Here's Miss Roo on her first day. Her teacher had attached star balloons to each seat with the kids names to help them find their seats, cute and clever! At the end of the day she got to take her balloon home. That wasn't her only swag during the week either, on Wednesday she brought home leis for her and I. Such a sweetie. They are super on the ball (which I've come to expect after a pleasant school year.) and even had a photo collage up when I came to pick her up on the first day.

Wet Wednesday

Another fun change for summer is that every other week is wet Wednesday! She got to wear her bathing suit to school thrill beyond thrills! They had buckets of water and a bunch of sponges on the playground. Fun stuff! Riley drew her friends having Wet Wednesday on my chalk board. Later in the week she kept drawing herself and a friend holding sponges dripping water, so adorable!

Happy Friday!

Isaac's Week

Isaac and I decided we would do a weekly video wrap up this summer. Wrap up questions:

Weekly Wrap Up
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?

Here he is to sum it up. I thought about editing the noisy 4yr old, but I decided to leave it uncut.

First Summer Play Date!

Our next adventure between school ending and camp beginning was to have some friends over. Miss Roo wore her Minnie Mouse dress and requested her friends do the same. Adorableness ensued:

After some bubbles, sidewalk chalk, tea parties and dolls it was time to beat the heat so we headed out to the pool! My pool was absolutely full of mermaids! Leeloo beat the heat by laying under my chair. It was beautiful day, the butterflies were out in force.

After the pool party broke up there was pizza and another viewing of Frozen. It was a wonderful day. Good friends are the best. Welcome summer!

After Roo's friends went home she had a nice long nap. It was in a nest again, in case you were wondering. After her nap she and I did puzzles. She's getting better and better at puzzles all the time. Her proud puzzle completion moment!

Summer Vacation Day 1: Pat the Bunny

First stop the first morning of summer...the library! We were there when the doors opened. Yay! Riley turned in her Halloween books and picked out a few new Disney ones. Isaac got a few of the best looking options from his summer reading list. I picked up the play I requested for my audition in July and then we colored for a bit before we left. We were off to visit Grandpa and his baby bunnies!

We said hi to Grandpa and his dogs first. After a nice visit inside we went out to see the bunnies and chickens. Grandpa's bunnies had three babies. They're adorable. They're also without forever homes, but Mike says I'm not a lot to bring any home. I so want one with every irrational little kid part of my being. I think it would have to be the little brown guy whose ears point opposite directions. He came right up to me while his brothers/sisters huddled in the back of the cage. Sigh...

We had a lovely visit. After a long, fun morning Roo insisted on taking her nap "in a nest." It was a dinosaur nest!

Ready, Set, Summer!

We originally thought everyone would stay home this summer, no camps or programs at all. While I sat back, NOT doing my usual chicken-with-it's-head-cut-off stressed out summer prep (researching, deciding, scraping pennies together, etc) it all fell into place by itself. First, Roo's school had said that there wouldn't be a a summer option at their location. We were fine with that because we took stock of Isaac's options and decided he done most of the things worth doing around here camp-wise anyway.

Everything changed when we went to an orientation meeting for Isaac's new school and they told us there was a free four week program over the summer. It's S.T.E.A.M. (Science, technology, engineering, art and music). It's set up for kids entering the magnet program. It is 4 half days a week for the month of June. So, of course we jumped on that. He'll get to make friends and get the lay of the land for next year. I think it will be great for him. Plus, it's only 8:30-12:30 four days a week so he'll still have lots of free time.

After that we were told Riley's school was doing a summer program at their location after all. Roo gets to be with her friends from the school year and her teacher for next year all summer. She is beyond thrilled. They're going to have the staff we already love and fun Summer Only things like "Wet Wednesdays" too. I think it'll be great for her.

We're blessed this summer for sure. Programs are handled (budget and schedule flexible schedule in-tact), the inflatable pool is up in the back yard, my list of cheap and free activities is filling up and invitations are trickling in. I started talking to Mike about a short, cheap couple of days away from the house. We're still batting around some ideas, but it's kind of nice to do a low key, low budget trip because the preparations are much easier. I think it's going to be a good summer!

3rd & 4th Day: 30 Days of Gratitude

Day 3: We are eating lunch outside on the patio in November!

Day 4: I hit a couponing milestone today. It seems I've cut my weekly shopping trips from $40 when I started couponing (a little over a year ago) to $20 now! Both of these trips were $18 totals for $60+ retail value of groceries. I've definitely come a long way. I had been feeling so much guilt about having surgery and not being able to shop or cook. Then when I did feel better I was ashamed that my stockpile was gone. It took me a while to realize that's what it was there for! My family ate pretty well while I was healing. There were minimal store trips for Mike to make during that time which we're both thankful for! Most importantly, there wasn't a single morning with nothing for breakfast before school or lunch packed without fruit. So, good job me. I'm so grateful that I've not only learned, but continued to improve these skills. I love it you can see hard work paying off!

Puppy Play Date

LeeLoo & Wilson

"There's no trouble in a bubble as you're floatin' along..."

singin' dibble, dabble, double--it's a bubblin' song

We had a lot of fun stuff at Miss Roo's party, but right up until it started we were worried about a possible thunderstorm. It never happened, thank goodness. In light of the possibility of not having outside entertainment we did not put out this thing. So this morning while killing time between breakfast and story time at the library Roo climbed on in.

She was pretending to be Pluto in the Mickey's Clubhouse episode in which he floats away in a bubble. I particularly like the picture of Leeloo checking to make sure she's ok in there. As I watched her play I thought about a few years ago when I would have climbed in there without a second thought. Sometimes, I regret the spinal fusion. It was an adorable game. Try as we might neither of us could muster the words to the "there's no trouble in bubble as your floating along" song.

After some bubble blowing and a thorough stomp on her new tower floor it was time to go. Last week was truck week at story time, it didn't do much for me. This week was colors. Much more fun. She even read Press Here which is one of our favorites. When it was time to participate Riley got to bring up the color pink. To finish things off she brought out colorful ribbon pom poms to dance with.

Sometimes I think I miss being a librarian when I sit through story time. Not that I ever got to read to children. Technically, I was a "reference assistant." It was my work study in collage and an amazing gig. I digress, I think the tug I feel is a longing to get back to performing. I'm just not sure how I can rely on my brokendown heap of a body yet...

Roo on the other hand is the ballerina I always imagined being.