What happened to summer?

I can't believe Tre goes back to school next week... and he's going to be in first grade! We bought supplies last week and he is currently sharpening pencils as I type. I'm feeling a bit guilty because my kids haven't done anything academic all summer long. I overheard some people talking about how they had their kids do handwriting or some such worksheet at least once or twice a week. I don't ever remember doing any school work during the summer time and it never even occurred to me to have my kids do school work this summer... until I overheard some other parents. Oh well, it's too late now.

The kids had their last day of swim lessons this morning. I will likely start the girls back up in October if I can afford it. Tre wants to continue karate so he'll do that rather than swimming and thanks to a friend who won an auction for a full semester of dance tuition, Joey will get to do that again in September as well. Let's just hope it doesn't all fall on the same day. Frankie will start at Joey's school in September as well so it will be a busy month for all of us!

I had pictures taken a couple weeks ago at Portrait innovations and they came out great.

It's raining...

I'm glad it's raining. Unfortunately that means no swimming or going to the park etc... So, we're finding other things to do, even if it means watching that Scooby Doo movie for the third time.

We have been checking out all the different library branches lately. Last week we went to a drum circle for the first time and it was so much fun... for me too. The name of the company is Giving Tree Music and it's based in Clearwater (they're on facebook). All the kids had their own drums and enjoyed playing together and dancing. Frankie did some impromptu solo parts and Tre was asked to come up and use his arms to direct us in crescendo and decrescendo. The kids all loved it and we will definitely go to another in the future.

Yesterday we went to Main library and signed Tre up for summer reading. We read stories everynight before bed but maybe I can convince him that for the library program HE has to read to ME. He's a great reader but at bedtime he always wants me to do all the reading. We checked out a book called Sun Bread the other day which was a cute story and had a recipe on the back. We made it last night and it turned out really good. The kids had sunbread for breakfast this morning.

Tre starts karate next week and is very excited. His granny made his ghee for his Uncle Ben when he was boy and it fits Tre perfectly. He'll do karate this summer (thank goodness for indoor sports) and then if he likes it we'll continue in the fall.

Summer time

So, May is a crazy month in our house. Joey, Frankie and Greg all have birthdays. We had a combined birthday barbecue celebration at the house with about 50 people attending. The weekend before we had a sliding glass door put in (we never had a back door at this house). It was great fun! It was also Mother's day weekend and my mom and my mother in law were both here. I haven't spent a mother's day with my mom since I was a kid. We went and had massages and pedicures and lunch and even went out to the bar the Friday before for Ladies night. Good times! Memorial day weekend, Gregory and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary (complete with an overnight stay to the beach without kids!) Granny brought them to the beach the next day and they had a great time. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera and the following day they were supposed to come back to the beach but Tre started vomiting. I think thats the 3rd stomach virus this year. Frankie and Joey had it the week earlier and thank God that Greg and I were spared this time. Poor Becky got it though and I felt terrible for her.



Needless to say, with all the holidays and all of the end of the year activities it was a crazy month and I didn't get 1 blog post written. Now its summer and we have been busy swimming! I love summer time (well, only if there's a water source and some AC). A few pics from Cool Dave's house. Days at the pool are some of my best childhood memories so I'm glad that my kids get to experience the same.