Our summer vacation started with a bang - school ended and he next day we got on a plane for our amazing trip to Toronto. Once we got home to Seattle it was youth camp for Kyle/vacation bible school for the girls, gymnastics camp for Leah and finally a visit from my sister, niece and nephew...what a fantastic summer vacation so far. But also very busy. Which is why I was looking forward to this past week...our first week of summer vacation that was virtually plan free, just a single playdate for the girls and Leah's 2 hours of gymnastics class. Here's how our plan-free week turned out.
* visited the IRS office to get some paperwork and tax stuff sorted. I won't go into details but will say it took three days, three trips, all kids in tow for each visit, and many hours of waiting to finally get it all done. Thank goodness my kids are awesome in waiting rooms. Now we get to wait 6 weeks and hope I don't have to go do it all again.
* also did some followup paperwork for Canada taxes and got that mailed off to CRA (you know what's more fun than doing taxes? doing taxes in two countries).
* several playdates for the girls (started out as one, turned into several, fun!)
* the girls started piano lessons - both of them were excited to start and have already been practicing for next week's lesson
* I played tennis with Kyle. I should add he doesn't love playing with me but this summer I've decided Kyle needs to earn laptop/minecraft time with chores and physical activity...Kyle earned 30 minutes for each match he won. I know, I'm a very mean mom. But Kyle was happy with his 2.5 hours of minecraft
* the girls have been asking for some color in their hair so this week we dip dyed with kool aid. Jillian wanted blue but when I ripped open the blue kool aid packs I had bought it turns out the kool aid color was red...I assumed blue packaging = blue kool aid. I was wrong. But they were both happy with red so we dip dyed. It was kind of messy and the girls needed a lot of patience but they love it and I think the subtle red highlights/tips look great.
* the girls finally got to use one of Leah's Christmas gifts - iron transfer crayons and plain aprons to create their own unique aprons. Basically the only reason I keep the iron around is for crafts.
* we visited the children's museum which is conveniently located 1 block away from the IRS office - handy! We went to this museum for the first time when my sister was visiting with Alicia and Noah. It seemed worthwhile to get a membership with our admission costs and we've already made use of it which is great. There isn't a lot for the older kids but they still managed to have a lot of fun.
* we bid farewell to another piece of Leah's babyhood, her kitchen chair. I love this chair. I bought it for Leah because we needed space with 5 of us around the kitchen table and the huge high chair was in the way. This was perfect because it slides right up to the table and can be adjusted to the perfect height. When we moved to Seattle Leah didn't need it quite as much so I tried to hand it to someone else but Leah was adamant it had to be moved with us (in an effort to make the move easier on them, anything the kids really wanted to bring, we brought). Then a week ago Leah announced she is done with the chair and that was that. Now it has a new home with a very cute one year old!
October 2009 - Leah is only 18 months old here
And finally, one of my biggest accomplishment of the week...the goldfish is still alive!!
As I type that all out I realize it looks like a productive week despite our plans for nothing. Especially when you factor in all the stuff I don't list like you know, feeding the kids 17 times each day and intervening in 100 mini arguments between the kids. That being said, there's a long list of things I thought I would have time for but did NOT do. For example I did not go on the treadmill, go to my weight watchers meeting, mop the floors, dust or do a craft with the girls each day as I had promised at the beginning of the week. But there's still 2 more weeks of summer vacation left.
We went to a local park for outdoor movie night to watch Finding Nemo with Jillian and Leah (Kyle was at his own outdoor movie night with the church youth group). The girls even got to make a jellyfish craft. I love free neighbourhood events.
