Week 4 of Summer

Wow its amazing how quickly we are flying through summer around here. We are now starting our 4th full week off of school. 
So Monday Austin was off...it was finally the first day since the kids have been out of school that we were able to have a Family Fun day. We had promised the kids we would go see CARS 3. They have been super excited about it ever since they knew that movie was coming out. That morning though I had to grocery shop so Austin kept the kids here and worked on some projects outside. As soon as I got home we all worked together to get everything put away so we could leave. We drove over to eat at Jimmy John's then go see the movie. The movie was super cute! We also ended up in this fancy theater. I had picked the movie based on time and knew it had said DOLBY next to it but just thought that meant better sound quality. So we paid and we realized the ticket prices were higher then usual but still had no idea why. We also had assigned seats. Well it turned out we were in the super nice theater with the leather seats that reclined. It was so nice and relaxing! I probably wouldn't do this often since the ticket prices were higher but it was still a fun experience for a day. After the movie we came home and relaxed for about an hour before my parents came to pick the kids up and take them to dinner. They were also spending the night with them. 
It felt good to have a quiet evening with just Austin and I. We spent a lot of time out on the patio reading and visiting. It was really nice. He grilled steaks and we had baked potatoes, grilled fresh corn, and home grown tomatoes for dinner. It was all so yummy! After dinner we took a walk. It really was nice to have a stay in date night like that. He had mentioned us going out but after a busy day of grocery shopping and being out with the kids at the movie I really just wanted to stay in. Hopefully we can go out soon though! We also watched the movie Sully that night. It really was a great summer day! 
Tuesday we woke up to a very rainy and nasty day as Tropical Storm Cindy approached our coast. I had Bible study though that morning while the kids were still with my parents. I am really enjoying this book study we are doing. It was nice to get to fellowship with friends and other ladies again! Afterwards I went to get the kids. My friend ashley and her son Jackson were also at my parent's house. I hated to scoop up the kids and run but we were planning to meet up at Virginia's house for a bit just as a final goodbye to them. We got over there and stayed about an hour. The kids had fun playing with all their kids. Between the 4 of us we have 10 kids! They were all staying for pizza and hang out time but I told my littles we needed to come on home. Since they had been gone the night and afternoon before and didn't get much sleep and we had a fridge full of leftovers I figured it would be good for us to come home. That afternoon we rested and hung out. We've gotten back into routine of them doing school work in the afternoons. Colby has been working on math and language and Lindsay has been doing letters, phonics, and shapes. That night I cooked a roast for us. We had that for dinner and Austin was home in time to meet us. The kids played outside that afternoon/evening in the tropical storm and had a blast! 
Wednesday the kids had swim lessons. It was their final one! I looked forward to having that finished. We woke up to sunny skies and no sign of the tropical storm. Ofcourse though as soon as swim lessons started the rain and wind picked up again. They did fine though..since there was no lightening the lessons went on as scheduled. I was glad to finally be done until next year! When we finished we picked up Chickfila for lunch. Ofcourse as we were getting home a tornado warning went off and we got drenched coming in the house. It all ended up ok though. Church though was cancelled that night. It was kinda nice though to have another low key afternoon. We had leftovers that night for dinner. The kids and I were able to take a walk and spend plenty of time outside. 
Thursday was a VERY busy day! I had been asked to sub at Aurora's summer camp. Actually they tried to get me to work both Monday and Tuesday but that ended up falling through...which looking back now I am honestly relieved. I love the school and helping out but this summer has become apparent to me that I need to focus on resting and focus a bit more on me. After many years of working in preschool ministry and recently stepping away from that it has honestly felt so good this summer to not have those stresses. Anyhow helping out occasionally isn't bad...I was asked actually if I wanted to finish out the summer teaching 2 days a week but that felt like too much to me. So I subbed in one of the 2 year classes. This summer they have a 1 year old class, two 2 year old classes, and a big kid room which is basically older 3s to 6 year olds. I also brought Colby and Lindsay with me. I figured they would have fun since they still both think very fondly of their old school. So in my class I had 7 littles. I only really knew 2 of them from the school year so I had to learn quickly who was who and personality quirks and all that. The theme was circus and thankfully the other 2 year old teacher had come up with crafts and had books for us to read. My kids basically hung out and played. There were 2 other boys there close to Colby's age but they were playing in iPads the entire time and I think were a little mean to him. It was kind of discouraging b/c one of them I had really hoped to be a friend Colby would be able to get to know this summer. So Colby and Lindsay helped and just kinda played on their own. They were very well behaved though and I was proud of them. So the schedule of the day was...when all the kids arrived by 8:45 we took them out to the playground. We stayed outside probably a little over 30 minutes. They came in and we had snack time. The other teacher also popped popcorn for them. While they had snack I tried reading to them but they weren't really listening. After snack I let them play while I cleaned up then we did a craft. Now that was exhausting. I needed like 10 sets of hands. I am not sure how they normally do crafts like maybe only have 1 or 2 kids participate at a time but they all came over and wanted to work on it so I felt like a crazy lady. We made clown faces and there were so many steps and glue involved! After that we cleaned up the room again and they played for awhile. By that point the room was a disaster so I told them all to clean up before lunch time. We ate lunch which again I felt was very tiring b/c I was helping kids open things almost the entire time and hardly had time to eat myself. After lunch they went back outside...praise the Lord. Even though it was hot...outside time was the best part of the day! After that we came in to do the other craft which was a popcorn picture. For this I recruited Colby and Lindsay's help which was huge! It seemed to go a little more smoothly and we finished that and moved on to story time and music. They really didn't listen to the story again. I am not sure if it was the age or the books. The books were honestly too long for their age level. They were not engaged at all. They enjoyed singing though. After that we had about 20 min left so I let them play on the carpet with just a few toys. I really didn't want to pick up the rest of the room again! Once all the kids were picked up and thankfully they were picked up on time we were able to leave and got home about 1:30. Austin had gotten off work early so we came in and all rested for awhile. I felt pretty worthless the rest of the day. I was so tired. I don't think I am cut out to teach toddlers every day. Not even twice a week haha! Anyway we had a nice family afternoon and evening. We made baked spinach tortellini and just hung out. 
Friday I had promised the kids a trip the Monkey Room. My goal is to now do one big fun thing with them a week. So far we have gone to the Children's Museum and Monkey Room. We invited Lindsay's friend Layla and her mom to meet us there and also offered to keep her little friend Genevieve for the day. We met both there and the girls all had a blast playing. I was thankful for some girl time for Lindsay. She really hasn't had much friend time yet this summer. She's had a couple playdates but Colby has had a couple friend days this month so I felt she was due her turn as well. I enjoyed visiting with Cindy while the kids played. We left around lunchtime and came home. Genevieve spent the afternoon with us and the kids had a good time playing. She was here until about 5. After she left Austin got home. he brought takeout home and we enjoyed that. He also did yard work. The kids played outside and I mostly stayed inside. I was just so tired after the past 2 days. Anyway that night we of course did movie night. We watched Bambi! I was so excited to have that on DVD now. 
Saturday the kids and I had a pretty busy day. We did sleep in though that morning. Our first thing we had to accomplish was getting Allie to the vet. After that we set out to buy uniforms. I felt so behind this year b/c usually I have that done by mid-June. We were able to pick out their stuff quickly. Luckily by now I know their sizes and what they need so its really easy. Colby needed new shirts and pants/shorts but Lindsay only needed skirts. Fortunately I kept all of Colby's shirts from kinder and first so she will wear those. Honestly though I think she will be able to start the year in her prek4 uniforms. After that we made a stop by my parent's house to go swim. They were wanting to see the kids and it was hot outside so I figured it was a win/win. We swam for about an hour. The kids had fun and it was nice to visit with them. By the time an hour was up a thunderstorm was blowing over so we quickly got out and dressed and went on home. The afternoon was spent packing and resting before our trip! Look for a fun post about our alabama trip coming up!