Lining Up Our Summer Plans

I can't wrap my brain around the fact that the kids are out of school in a matter of WEEKS. Paige has 12 days left, and the big 2 kids have 15 days left. DAYS. Did you see that? We are down to DAYS. 

The summer is equal parts awesome and stressful, and I need to do quite a few things to prep for it!

First, the summer is awesome because it means no morning routine. I work from home {have I ever mentioned that before? haha}, so I love that all summer the kids can sleep in! 

Second, no rushing to prepare breakfast or pack lunches, hollering over and over 'Get dressed!' 'Brush your teeth!' 'What are you doing?', not driving to-and-from school. None of that!

Me EVERY school day morning

It's really nice being able to have a relaxed morning, and I can't lie - I enjoy sleeping in too!!! Could I get up and work out? Could I get up and clean? Could I get up and get some work done early? The answer to all of these questions is NO. I couldn't. I refuse to. {grin}

The cons to the kids being home are:

• They are noisy - it can be challenging to have a conference call with 3 children playing/screaming in the next room.
• They get bored very easily - for kids who complain about school and even have an entire playroom of toys, they sure do whine about boredom a lot. 
• They like me - even with a nanny, they bug me a lot - it's nice to feel the love but also can be annoying/stressful while...you know...trying to DO MY JOB.

By the end of the summer, I'm ready for school to start again, but right now I'm really excited! But I also need to do a lot to get ready to have all 3 of them home.

I need to get the playroom organized - I try to do it twice a year and it takes me SEVERAL hours. We just lined up our summer nanny - it's Brent's cousin's daughter and I'm so excited, she is the sweetest - so I'm hoping she can come over soon to spend some time with the kids {see them in their own environment versus Brent's grandma's at holidays ha} and I can clean, purge, and organize!

I also need to get supplies! I always go to Hobby Lobby and stock up on new art supplies and outdoor games and just new 'stuff' to spread throughout the summer to hopefully stave off boredom. 

I've also been looking at summer camps and activities to combat the boredom. For activities so far, Paige is going to do a dance class at Drew's dance studio and her swim lessons, Trent is signed up for a summer basketball league, and Drew will do swim lessons in the neighborhood pool. There are also activities at the library and movie theater, and I'm also looking at art camps, VBS, etc. but so far the kids aren't interested ha.

So yeah...a lot to do and prepare for {a lot of it mental preparation ha}

Ramblings

I have so many random things to blog about - none are enough to blog about individually, but there are a lot of thoughts running around in my head!

1) I am finally making progress on weaning Paige! I have really made zero effort to this point because I felt like I needed Brent to step in and do all her naps and bedtimes until we got her to break the nursing/sleep association because I thought she was going to lose her mind if I tried to put her to sleep without nursing. I decided to just try this weekend and told her my milk was gone for naps but she could still have it at bedtime. She listened and seemed to understand, so we read books, and she got in my lap and immediately said 'Milk'. I reminded her that it was gone until bedtime, and she fussed for maybe 15 seconds and THEN PUT HER THUMB IN HER MOUTH AND LET ME SING! Couldn't have gone better! We've now had 2 naps without nursing, a smidge of fussing, but no nursing!!!!!!! Obviously we have to tackle bedtime still but baby steps and we are making progress!!!!

2) Speaking of Paige, I had her end-of-year Parent-Teacher Conference, and I talked to her teacher about when Paige will transition next year. She's been in her current class since 14 months, and Paige will move up around 3 to the Children's House environment. Her teacher told me the plan is for her to move in the fall to Trent's old teacher {who we love} and said 'Basically any teacher who gets her will be getting a gift-wrapped present.' SWOON. And I feel like after all the trouble Trent caused his old teacher, I'm thankful we can end our career at CMS with her having Paige, HA!

3) Meeting Erika on Friday! Guys! We had so much fun! I got teased a little bit about meeting someone off the internet, but it was totally worth all the teasing. {grin} I got us coffee from a local coffee shop and we just sat and talked about...amongst other things...you guessed it...BOOKS!

4) Trent is going to cause me to have a nervous breakdown. He's not even 10, and the sass and back-talking I'm getting from that kid is going to drive me CRAZY. I sent him to bed last night at 7:30 and when he said he wasn't tired I told him he could close his eyes and think about all the ways that he could be nice to me. His response? 'Why would I want to do that?' UGGGGHHHHH.

I'm terrible at ending blog posts. So how about a cute picture of my girls from Paige's end of year party at school?? {And yes, Paige's pants - which aren't hers - are inside out. Toddlers are FUN!}