I just looked back at my last post of the school year and my lofty plans to make sure kids were on a schedule, practicing handwriting and violin and reading all summer . . . wow was I optimistic! None of that happened. Zero. Zilch. Nada.
I could give you lots of excuses, but I won't. Instead I'll just fill you in on what DID happen:
Before school was actually out, we enjoyed a weekend at the family lake house, relaxing with family. My sister came up for a day, which made the boys super happy. They love fishing, swimming, playing and just being there.
Scooter and Riley jumped right back into weekly swim lessons the first week of our summer break. They had only had one week off between sessions and it fell during Memorial Day week. This marked a full year of lessons with Miss Paige. The consistency of weekly semi-private lessons throughout the year was undertaken for Scooter's benefit and he has certainly blossomed. He's still not a big fan of swimming by himself through the water from point A to point B, but he loves going under and diving to the bottom to retrieve toys while lightly holding onto an adult's finger for a sense of security. It's slow going, but a year ago Miss Paige spent weeks getting Scooter to put his face in the water willingly and this summer she was working with him on jumping off a platform three feet above the water into 18 foot depths with her assistance. Both boys now warm up each lesson by swimming with a floating barbell across the length of the pool (with Ms. P. of course). We are getting there.
Riley, being the youngest doesn't have Tyler's "first born" sense of cautiousness nor does he have Scooter's natural anxiety. He is usually ready to try anything and he's also very much a Barrow, which in my house reads as 'natural born swimmer'. Once the idea of holding breath plus kicking and moving arms at the same time clicked for Riley, there has been no turning back. He is now progressing into a pretty decent swimmer, far ahead of where I would have thought a 4 year old without a pool in his yard could get to.
Here's a video of Riley swimming across our friends pool in early July and one of Scooter jumping with Ms. Paige at his lessons. They have just gotten more brave and ambitious as the summer has progressed.
(I hope these loaded correctly. I've had issues with this in the past, I am trying y'all!)
The second week of summer found me and all three boys trekking to church each morning for VBS. It was Scooter's first year to participate and I volunteered so that Riley could go along as well. Tyler is, of course, past the age for VBS, but he is old enough to be a helper. Tyler assisted in recreation and games and after helping with registration and gift shop the first day, I became a floater and got to help in some different areas, including preschool as Riley's teacher a couple of days. It was a lot of fun for all of us and I was so proud of how brave Scooter was for the experience.
After VBS was over with, we had a whirlwind weekend getting Tyler ready for both camp and vacation since they would occur back to back by minutes. So we bundled Tyler off to camp on a Monday and I watched Twitter feeds and Facebook posts for pictures of him and his friends and literally yearned to be at camp. The yearning had little to do with Tyler and more to do with always knowing that since Junior High was so hard for me, I was going to be really good at helping others through it. I guess God has decided the time has come because I know that if it is at all possible, I am going next year to middle school camp as a counselor, whether or not Tyler goes back. Tyler had a pretty good time too despite preferring to sleep in pitch dark and ultra quiet rather than in a big room filled with bunk beds occupied by 12 year old boys. I don't blame him for that.
While Tyler was gone I took Riley for a dental check up and cleaning and discovered that all those close together teeth with areas we were supposed to 'watch' developed into cavities. Eight. Cavities. Seriously. They are recommending silver caps to protect the teeth from further problems and they want to put him completely under at Children's Hospital for the whole thing. I cringe just thinking about the bill, but I haven't heard from them since they started working on coordinating dental and medical insurance issues so who knows when we'll get around to getting the work done.
Somehow I got everything ready for the five us to travel cross country by Friday. My parents picked up our rental car, we had some drama involved in less trunk space than expected, Dad and Scott got the travel igloo propped on top of our Expedition (which wasn't the EL that was ordered, hence the drama), I picked up Tyler from the camp bus and we hit the road. We arrived in Appleton, Wisconsin about 21 very looooong hours later. Thank goodness the hotel had a pool, and thanks to the social story I made for Scooter before we left he did a pretty good job of making some new friends.
After one night in Appleton with some much loved family and friends, we headed to Waupaca for a memorial service for my sweet Uncle Wayne and a family get together. I was too busy talking all day (hold all laughter please, lol) to take many pictures, but I did get one of Tyler with his Grandpa and our cousin Tyler, his two namesakes. I try to grab one of these each time the three of them are together so someday I can put them all together in a frame:
From there we headed down to Milwaukee and almost immediately had lunch at Solly's, our favorite burger joint followed by checking out the brand new Beer Garden at a park on the Milwaukee River. And yes, that is a jacket Riley was wearing. In late June. Oh it was gorgeous.
Scott and I also took the boys to the zoo I had grown up visiting. For some reason I had become obsessed with my kids being able to see a real live Polar Bear, which they cannot do in a Texas zoo, among other things. It was a really fun day though and it turns out they sell beer there too, something that would be shocking down here. Scott and I did have one and also enjoyed a good laugh when Tyler said 'You can't buy beer at a ZOO!' and I told him 'You can in Milwaukee!' A favorite moment was watching the Tigers in the new Cat House where one kept coming face to face with Scooter through the glass. It was impressive.
We did go to Summerfest too, where I forgot to take my camera. It was so hot, but it was so much fun and the boys really enjoyed the live music and the opening night fireworks over Lake Michigan, for which we had a front row picnic table. The best part of the week though was seeing my kids get reacquainted with all their cousins and my yankee (and some of my best) friend's kids. We hosted a picnic one day (yeah, either no camera or too much talking, but no pics of that either!) where the kids played together and adults got to visit. We also went out for a fish fry on our last night in town with my cousin and her boys who had become fast friends with our kids. My favorite picture of the week was this one of Scooter and cousin Brady who is also 6. Those smiles are priceless.
The next day we had one more lunch at Solly's and then got on the road to go home. Who do you think was the most worn out from our trip?
Once we were back home, I barely had time to unpack and do laundry before I was working on getting our house in order to host my mother-in-law's 60th birthday party with Scott's sisters. The party was that next Saturday night. The girls did most of the shopping for food and decorations and we held the party at my house, so Scott and I were busy cleaning and prepping. Overall, we did a good job of dividing the work and pulling off a fun party. I think the birthday girl was pleased. Even Bella ended up with a party decorated collar and painted toenails, but that was not on the original agenda.
Tyler left the day of the party for his month with his dad and the little ones and I began July with some weekly visits to see their brother in Denton. The second of those visits included an extra passenger in my van, my niece who was up from Austin for the week. It was a lot of fun having the kids together, but little Jocelyn sure likes to try and keep the boys running.
After being gone two weeks, Tyler was returned to me because he was suffering from a severe ear infection and as big as he is, when he's sick he still wants good old mom. It was so bad, I am glad his dad and I opted for this choice so we could see his normal doctor and I (his worry wart mom) could keep an eye on him. It was so swollen the doctor couldn't even tell what kind of infection it was or where in the ear, so we attacked on several fronts and covered all bases. Just as Tyler started feeling better, Brian got switched to all overnight shifts for three weeks so it worked out better to keep him here at home and see his dad on weekends. This is our first week of back to normal on that front and I know everyone is relieved, especially Brian.
The rest of the summer has been spent in renovation mode. I had got trim in my main rooms at the end of the spring semester and had emptied the front bedroom that had been serving as play room for the last year and a half since the big 'boys' room had been finished. The plan, though, has always been to redo that room for Tyler as a 'teen' room sometime before he went to Junior High. Well folks, school starts next week and Tyler finally moved in last week. I did his room first, but then Scott and I moved in there so I could do our room and then the office moved in there so it could get done and now, finally, all is done. Well, almost done. When I say done, I mean walls patched & painted, electrical outlets, fixtures and switches replaced and floors in. No trim or curtains or anything yet.
So here's the before and after of Tyler's room. Trim is done in his room, but the closet is gutted in anticipation of new closet rods, shelves and doors. His bedding, which is solid red, will be here next week and eventually the dresser will be gone because the bed will be built as a captain's bed and take it's place.
Our room had not been touched since Scott bought the house. The owners had slapped flat paint on all the walls. You should not use flat paint in a light color if you have either dogs or children. Here's why:
Urgh. I can still feel the grunge. Also, please note that washable crayola marker is not washable on a flat paint surface. It will require two coats of primer and 3 coats of latex paint to cover it up. That's green up there if you can't tell through the five hundred layers of dirt. Anyway - our new bedding is on it's way as well and trim is coming, but we are already enjoying having clean, painted walls in a soothing color. What an improvement!
It's hard to tell, but it's a slightly purplish grey color and it might not seem like much to you, but you are seeing two new rods and an added shelf in that closet which more than doubled our closet's functionality. I am one happy momma!
The office was once the baby room. It was yellow, with blue diamonds that I painstakingly measured, taped and painted when I was waiting for Scooter to be born. That was the hardest thing to paint over. I am finding my way to being okay at not having more babies. I really am enjoying my nieces and nephews and then I'm enjoying sending them home. But it was still sad to let this thing go, especially because Scooter was sad and wanted them to stay.
I am hoping to add some kind of sleeper sofa or futon for the occasional guest in here and a new desk is in my very immediate future, but I'm very pleased with how it's turning out so far. I don't miss the diamonds either. Well, mostly.
So for the last week I've been moving furniture and stuff to spread us back out into all of our space again. I've purged and cleaned and organized, all in an effort to be somewhat ready to go back to school.
Changes are coming. Tyler will be in Junior High, which I've come to terms with, I thought. Then I drove by the high school yesterday and started hyperventilating because I realized he would be a freshman in two short years. Scooter is worried about first grade, but not for his normal reasons, only because the neighbor kid told him he wouldn't get clues from the teacher on his math tests. Whatever that means. Riley will be in Pre-K 3 days per week with an optional 4th day at my discretion. I'll probably opt in for a lot of those extra Fridays because I will actually be taking some classes myself. That's right, come Monday I am a student again. I'll be in class 2 mornings a week and for one lab and the rest is on line. I'm sure it'll be an interesting change around here and quite an adjustment, but we're ready.
School supplies are bought. Bedtimes are slowly backing up. Everyone's had a back to school hair cut (and color for mommy!). Next week it's time to bring back alarm clocks and navigate school zones again.
This summer was so busy, but it was also very nice. I'm sure if I gave it 30 seconds I could remember all the drama and issues and problems we had over the summer, the anxiety, the worries the crazy. Certainly I could tell you all the things I wish I would have gotten done or that I'd done better. But I don't want to remember our summer that way. I want to remember the fact that I actually made cookies 3 times this summer just for the heck of it and so I could have a cookie with my kids. Who cares if we didn't practice handwriting and violin? We did have moments like these:
Those are all priceless moments and they made Summer 2012 one I wouldn't change and hope to never forget! I hope you had an unforgettable summer too.
Thanks and God Bless!
