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.

Back Attack

Over the weekend I was typing and my whole left leg went numb. It didn't fall asleep. There weren't pins and needles, I just couldn't feel it. I stood up and after a few minutes I felt burning in the bottom of my foot. Mike rubbed my leg while I tried my best to stomp my foot. Stomping has never been easy for me, bad balance. It was a long time before the burning spread up my calf. Once the burning ended I had feeling in my leg again in time for it to be hella sore! After an hour or so I was fine and I almost forgot about it entirely.

Then on Tuesday night I was sitting on the edge of the bed helping Miss Roo turn her pajama shirt right side in when I was struck by the most intense pain. My eyes welled up with tears and I had to lay down. It was a deep spasm, somewhere in between my back and my stomach. I'm not a wimp. I've had back spasms tons of times, but these were serious buggars! They just keep going all evening, waking me up during the night and on into the morning hours.

My back was raw when they stopped. I always have pain after I've had spasms. I call it the "spasm hangover". After an involuntary 10 hour workout...sore doesn't even touch it. I sucked it up and got the kids off to camp, but by the afternoon it was clear my normal coping technique of ignoring it wasn't working so well. I called the orthopedic while I waited in the car for Isaac. To my astonishment, after a little financial business was concluded, they got me an appointment for 48hrs later! Unheard of.

Their concern and prompt appointment slot kind of scared me. Later that night I wondered for the first time if my leg issue over the weekend could be related. Pinched nerve? Had I broken something? Then again, maybe it was nothing. I was still hurting when I marched into the doctor's office with Isaac in tow Friday morning. I waited ten minutes past my appointment time, nothing serious. The x-ray tech was amused because not only was I completely metal-free in my attire, but I assumed the position for each x-ray without any instructions. "I guess you've done this before." Yeah, once or twice.

The ortho said everything looked good bone-wise. Phew. He said his "red flag was slightly raised", but for now I just needed to calm the pain down and let him know if it happens again. I sure hope not. There's a possibility of something else going on that wouldn't be visible on an x-ray, but he seemed happy which made me feel better. He gave me a prescription for something new. A topical anti-inflammatory/muscle relaxer cream. I don't take pills if it can be at all avoided. I don't like to feel dopey. I'm a mother of two I have to be alert. The idea of circumventing the conventional pill sending medicine soup into the bloodstream (and long term damage the kidneys or liver), but a cream that absorbs into the effected area is exciting. He assures me only 10% gets into your bloodstream. The downside is it's very new and has to be specially made so I have to wait for it to come in the mail.

Ready, Set, Read!

Every summer the library launches a summer reading campaign. They have special shows and activities to encourage kids to check out and read books. They even have an incentive chart school age kids can fill out to earn prizes! The kick off event this time was an awesome science demonstration complete with liquid nitrogen, fire and rockets!

It was a great show. It was sponsored by the science museum I had just taken the kids to over Memorial Day weekend. Those are my little scientists front and center in the pink and green. They really enjoyed themselves! After the show they had a raffle and gave 10 lucky kids a brand new chapter book! Guess whose number was the first one picked!

Isaac got a new Geronimo Stilton book called Curse of the Cheese Pyramid. He was over the moon! That's the second time he's been the first winner called at a library raffle, lucky boy. Riley didn't get called, but I had just given her my last free book from the Kellogg's rewards free book program. It's a Ready Freddy series book about Sharks. She had been looking at it on the way to the library so she was ok not getting called. Oddly enough they called the number right before and right after hers.

After the raffle Riley made a rocket ship with shiny star stickers while Isaac read his new book. I've said it before and I say it a thousand more times, I love the library! Where else can you have this much fun for free? Aside from the fun summer programs and shows the kids and I agreed we'd visit the library once a week this summer (at least).

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!

Growing & Graduating

Isaac's official last day of elementary school picture! Goodbye, fifth grade!

Riley's last day of pre-k 3! Conversely, Riley's first ever official last day of school picture! Big Girl.

That beaming boy has just graduated the fifth grade with all those awards! I'm so proud I'm bursting!

Perfect Pitch
Super Scientist Competition
Battle of the Books Team
Perfect Attendence
Principal's List (Straight A's)
Pride Award Winner

I told him when this school year started that it was very important to make the most of this school year. I knew he'd have a lot of opportunities to have fun and make memories. I reminded him often that he'd get out of it what he put into it. I feel like it sunk in at some point because he sure went out with a bang! I couldn't be more excited for him.

Miss Roo's last picture with her wonderful teacher. I'll miss her as much as Roo will. I'm glad she'll only be across the hall next year.