Here's the Thing: First! Week! Of! Summer!

Sunday, June 14, 2020

First! Week! Of! Summer!

I don't know if I've ever been so excited for summer vacation. Even though we have ZERO plans for this summer, and we've already been home for three months, I'm so excited not to have online school anymore. Wahoo!

This first week of summer vacay, we had no routines in place. We didn't even do piano lessons, which is unheard of around here. As soon as I told the kids that we wouldn't have piano for one week, they rejoiced. And then they ran to the piano and played some songs. Huh? Go figure. I'm beginning to think parenting is psychology in action. Parents want control. Kids want control. Parents relinquish control, and kids fulfill the intended goal. Why am I trying so hard? Will my kids just raise themselves?

Hahahahaha no they won't. And yes, I'm going to make them do piano this week.

And while no school and no piano was the big treat this week, the icing on the cake was that the library opened back up! For curbside pickup, anyway.

So that's where we headed first thing Monday morning, dropping off the 40ish books and movies I have held onto for three months and picking up the 40ish books and movies I've had on hold for awhile.

Why is it that the movies you have for three months are the ones you wish you hadn't rented in the first place? We've had Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for three months. I loved that movie as a kid so I rented it for my own kids to see. They loved it, but the whole time Dan and I were throwing glances at each other over the kids' heads, wondering what in the acid trip was going on.

I had also rented Evita, which I love but Dan abhors. He's wrong; it's a great film. But he still won't watch it with me.

Anyway, we were excited for new library stuffs, and the girls read most of the day and week.

June's really into the A to Z Mysteries series, and Gwen is just learning how to read so she mostly looks for words she knows in stories she has already heard.

One of the favorites books of this week was this:

I highly recommend.

Other fun first-week-of-summer things:

We have a neighbor who is crazy good at making balloon animals, and he made my kids a bunch. I'm not talking about your average puppy balloon. I'm talking about:

A fishing rod, complete with fish.

A bow and arrow:

This amazing princess for Gwen:

A fully detailed pug for June:

and Spider-man for Harris:

We had a play date. This is the only picture I took, but the kids were in heaven. Gwen cried when we left.

And then yesterday we headed back to Gettysburg. We've been there twice now but feel like we could go back 100 more times. We've only made it through 4 of the stops, and there are 14 or 15 total. And the visitor's center isn't even open yet!

We always have to stop at Devil's Den so the kids can climb the rocks and Mom can have her weekly heart attack.

I hope you love the "mom" finger in this next photo. It means I was there! This is also the picture where I almost had my heart attack. Kids near the edges of cliffs--my favorite exercise in seeing how loud I can yell in public.

And I had to capture a photo of Dan in his happy place. Listening to the audio tour while looking at the tour map at his favorite battlefield of Gettysburg. He was seriously so happy.

The rest of us. Also happy, but kids were tired and we all had to go to the bathroom. June and I ran and ran to use some porta potties and then she was so grossed out she wouldn't use them. And then I made her. Maybe I need to reread that parenting psychology paragraph again.

Side note: June went through the backpack I had packed with stuff for the day trip where she found an extra outfit for Beck, which she promptly put on and is wearing in this photo. It's size 12 months. She's a kook.

And church today. Harris isn't pictured because he's in timeout for running outside of the house. Make that two heart attacks a week. He loves be outside, and we don't have a fence yet, and it's stressful.