Monday, June 23, 2014

My happy place

Whooo!  This week marks the official start of summer, and it really is my happy place!  I feel like I've really gotten a jump start on summer this year, since I have been able to do a few things that normally take me until end of June/early July to do when I have been wrapping up the school year in the past.  I was able to meet up with my work friends who were celebrating the end of the school year last week.  It was good to see them, and I am just as happy for them that the school year is over.  But, I can not believe it has been a full year since I have been off of work!  In some ways it feels like forever that I have been away from teaching, but a short time that I have been home with the kids, if that makes sense.  My new job is going good so far! Much different from the teaching world, but much easier and no stress!

A few weeks ago, my mom, sister, niece, me and the kids headed to Shipshewana Indiana, an adorable little Amish town.  We had a great little get-away filled with shopping, eating out, and a visit to a farm.  We were all piled in my dad's Tahoe with 3 car seats, stollers, pack-n-plays, diaper bags, suitcases, etc, so just getting in and out of the car was an adventure in itself!  The kids were really good, and we had fun staying overnight in the hotel together. 

I've been taking the kids to lots of local summer event these last few weeks, and we have already been to the farmer's market, a butterfly fesitval, lots of parks, and we are just staying really busy!  Ray and I took the kids to Great America for the first time for Father's Day.  It was really fun, and I was surprised at how many rides Kenley could go on!  I think she is going to be a daredevil like me because she had no fear, even on the bigger rides. She was able to go on the log ride, the big ship, the octopus, 2 smaller roller coasters, and a lot of other little rides.  Even Charlie got to go on a few, and he seemed to like it too.  It was a really nice family day, and it was fun for Ray and I to think back about when we went there as kids, and even took a little weekend trip there together before we were engaged.

It's been a great start to the summer, and I know we have some type of fun plans every week already!  I'm ready to soak up the sun, and the kids already have tans :)













Sunday, June 1, 2014

Sandals & tank tops!!

Whoooo! It's Memorial Day weekend and we got gorgeous weather!! I could not be happier to be in sandals and tank tops, and I finally got to out away the kids winter wardrobes. After this winter, you won't hear me complain about hot weather.  We had a great weekend with a trip to the zoo, (Charlie's first) some yard work and shopping, a parade, and we are about to barbecue dinner.  The only mishap was that Kenley hurt herself on the swing set yesterday and took a trip to the E.R. I guess the x-rays didn't show much, so we're going back for a cat-scan tomorrow, but we're hoping for the best!

Miss Kenley had her ballet recital last week, and she did excellent. It was the most precious thing I had ever seen, and I wished I could have watched her 100 more times. You never know how your kid will react to being in front of a crowd and performing for the first time. As soon as she got on stage and found where we were sitting, she got a huge smile on her face, waved, and started giving shout-outs from the stage!  I was so proud of her and loved watching her dance. I'm happy she liked ballet so much, and she says she wants to sign up again. This is her last "official" week of pre-school, but she will still be going 1 morning a week for summer camp. Between that, swim lessons, sports camp, dance camp, and gymnastics, she is going to have a busy summer. I know we are going to have so much fun doing all our usual summer activities too.

Charlie totally turned a corner in the past few weeks and has mostly been sleeping through the night!!!! I can't add enough exclamation points to this statement. It took us a long 9 months to get to this point, and to say I am happy is an understatement.  Of course, each time I realize that it's early morning and I haven't heard from him I go check on him.  Then, as soon as I realize that he's fine, he's actually still sleeping, I get so excited that a few times it's almost been hard to fall back asleep (almost!) oh, sleep, how I've missed you!  He's also getting in crawling position, is sitting by himself, and rolls and scoots around everywhere. Many people have brought up his upcoming birthday, but I'm in denial. I don't want him to be 1. I want to freeze this exact time where we are in a good grove. Sleeping, easier to get out of the house, Kenley is pretty independent and a great helper, Charlie still a "baby", so basically, stop getting older kids!

Some news for me, I'm starting to work a little bit this week. I am going to be working on a very flexible as-needed basis for a company that helps older people downsizing their homes. He company does everything from helping people pack, organize, move, and hold estate sales. I'm pretty excited about it since it is something I've always been interested in, and it's perfect because it is so flexible.  I'll mostly be working 1day a week.  I am also going to be teaching 1 class at the community college starting in the fall. I am so happy that I have the opportunity to work a little bit, but mostly be home with the kids.

 Ray and I were invited to a charity event by our friends, Jim and Melissa the Four Seasons last weekend. It was fun to get all dressed up, and it was really cool being at the event and watching the live auction! It was a really nice night out.

Time to enjoy the last few hours of the weekend with the family.  Happy Memorial Day everyone!


I'm over a week on actually posting this because I had my first day of work, and I was super busy setting up and having our annual garage sale this week.
 Updates:  Kenley's arm is totally fine, and she didn't need the cat-scan after all!