Fall In Love With More Free Templates! Click Here To Get Your Own Smitten Blog Design... »

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Back to reality

The relaxing, blissful days of summer are over. Reality hit hard yesterday with alarm clocks, school lunches and work clothes.
Gone are the days of hanging around in our pajamas all morning just to throw on our bathing suits and some sunscreen. Mindless grazing in the refrigerator and endless reasons to go out for ice cream are no longer. Bedtime is now a set time rather than determined by big yawns and droopy eyes.
Honestly, I think the kids were ready for routine to kick back in. Boredom was settling in which is usually accompanied by fighting. They were looking forward to seeing their friends and all the excitement that comes with a new school year.
After school they now appreciate their play time together and have resumed their summertime Quidditch tournament on the trampoline. Fingers crossed that attitudes remain positive and willingness to go to school stays strong...at least for few weeks.
I'm sure once the routine gets old we will be longing for our carefree summer days but for now the school year is in full swing!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Bigger is always better

Camryn helped herself to some yogurt this morning while I was in the shower!
Apparently the provided container was not to her likely so she transferred it into another yogurt container!

Keeping with her bigger theme she utilized an ice cream scoop rather than a spoon. Which she too, upgraded for the full effect!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Always an adventure

John woke up yesterday wanting to get away.  His suggestion: a day trip to Block Island. I was immediately on board. We checked the ferry schedule online and realized we only had an hour and half until the next one departed.  That is the same amount of time it takes us to get there so we hustled.  I threw bathing suits, towels, snacks and a few sand toys into a bag and we were off. Anticipation was high in the car as we didn't have a minute to even stop at a red light.  It came down to the wire but we were the second to last people to board the ferry and on our way!  With water surrounding me on all sides, I began to relax.

The weather was spectacular!  Brilliant blue skies, just the right amount of fluffy white clouds and a slow breeze coming off the ocean.  We staked out a spot on the beach and remained there for the majority of the day.  Camryn jumped the waves while Dylan body surfed.  We built sand castles and watched kids doing impressive tricks on their skim boards.  A highlight was definitely our frozen drinks that John and I managed to sip while watching the kids in lounge chairs!!!







We stayed until the tide washed away our sandcastles and soaked our towels.  We paid, yes paid, for a cold two minute shower that didn't even remove a fraction of the sand, changed into our dry clothes and headed to town for dinner.  We dined outside on delicious seafood and ended the day with homemade ice cream.  We headed to the ferry with full bellies and droopy eyes, as the days excitement started to take its toll.  We started to get an uneasy feeling when we realized we were the only people in line for the ferry that was supposed depart in ten minutes.  That's when John noticed the posted schedule.  Apparently, I had looked at the weekend schedule rather than the weekday one and we had missed the last ferry!

I was shocked at my careless mistake and panic started to sink in when I realized we had no where to stay.  Finding vacancy in a hotel on Block Island in August was not going to be an easy feat.  John hit the main strip walking into hotels while I called some I found on my phone.  Honestly, what did we do before I-phones? Anyway, we both came up with nothing.  It was getting darker and the kids were getting sleepier and we were running out of options.

We walked a block or so away from downtown and found a little inn.  I guilted the woman at the front desk with my sob story and half asleep son in my arms!  She squeezed us into a room and charged us a fraction of the cost.  Thankful for somewhere to sleep, I didn't hesitate.  It's funny how fast I went from frantic mom who needed to find a bed for her tired children to snobby spoiled witch who prefers 5 star resorts!  The room was the size of a closet, with one double bed and one twin bed and that's it!!  There was no AC, no TV and a shared bathroom down the hall!!!  Well with no shampoo, toothbrushes or dry towels to use, we didn't really have a reason to use the shared bathroom other than the toilet anyway.  We opened the window, turned off the lights and fell asleep.

We woke up and caught the first ferry off the island so John could make it to work on time.  We recounted our days adventures on the trip home and agreed it was fun being stranded together on an island.  And it makes for a good story too!

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Dinner Disaster

My fingers are flying across the keyboard pumping with adrenaline.  Recent events have caused me to take a few deep breaths and find an outlet for my rant that is about to follow.

It all started with the nice wholesome dinner I prepared for my children.  But of course, it wasn't what Camryn had hoped for.  It wasn't on the right color plate and the chocolate to milk ratio was all wrong.  That kind of whining, I can handle.  Usually I can easily distract her with our nightly high/low game.  But instead of recounting her day, which I thought was fun-filled, she decided to try to make her brother laugh.  She was making silly faces, talking jibberish and even threw in a few comments about tooting.  Strike one!

I thought I had roped it in.  Dylan was doing his best to keep a straight face sensing my impending frustration, which he probably enjoys as long as it is not aimed at him. And Camryn was quietly moving her food around her plate.  That's when I realized there was a puddle on her chair that was slowly dripping onto the floor.  With our drinks, clearly still intact on the table, I knew she had peed.  Hanging on to my last thread of sanity, I asked her why she peed on her chair and not in the potty, she of course took no responsibility for it and blamed me.  She said she didn't want to leave the table while we were eating. I called her bullshit because I often have to wrangle her back to the table several times throughout dinner.  Strike two!

When she returned newly dressed and dry, I just wanted everyone to finish as fast as possible to get this dinner over with.  But sadly, that wasn't the case. She filled her mouth with milk and rather than swallow it, she held it in and then spit it out on her plate full of food.  Sanity flew out the wind, I ripped her out of her chair and carried her kicking and screaming to her room.  During the transfer, she informed me it was again my fault because my face was funny.  Way to add insult to injury kid.  Strike three!

So she screamed and banged on the door for about thirty minutes before exhaustion took over and she is now sleeping on the floor next to her door.  I am in need of some serious ice cream therapy, but of course there is none in my freezer.  Strike four...I think I'm going to bed too!

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Camp

Last week was camp week.  The most anticipated week of the summer.  Dylan has been looking forward to it since the last day of camp, last summer.

I love Dylan's camp.  It reminds me of the camp in the original movie "The Parent Trap", except for the all girl thing.  There are tons of outdoor activities, little wooden cabins for the overnight campers and a huge lake complete with boats and waterslides.  Every morning he gets to chose two activites for the morning sessions, then they have lunch in the mess hall and spend the afternoon swimming and boating at the lake.  He spent the week playing street hockey, tennis and dodgeball.  He enrolled in spy training, took nature walks and swam like a fish.  The highlights were the huge waterslide and of course the overnight bonfire with smores.  He was completely exhausted when I picked him up at 5:00 on Friday and we spent the entire weekend recouping.  He is already asking to go for two weeks next summer!

Camryn went to Princess Dance Camp!  Each day was dedicated to a different Disney princess.  I was so happy to see how easily she went with the instructors and willingly participated.  She learned some new dance moves, tumbled around on the mats and did some neat art projects.  She was all smiles each time I picked her up and eager to show me all she has accomplished.  However, she really wants to go to camp with her big brother next year....

So with both the kids camp, I was free for three hours every morning!!  That's when I decided my husband was going to camp too.  My bootcamp!  We spent our mornings running and biking. Our weekly total was 45 miles.  He was sore but never complained once and I was glad to have company on my workouts.  I'm happy to report it seems to have motivated him and he is out running on his own as we speak (write).

Fantastic week had by all!  But I can't believe it's already August!  I'm hoping these last precious weeks of summer go by nice and slow!