Summer Vacation Schedule

No blogging or crafting this weekend! AAAHHH! But we had a great weekend.

Saturday we went to Bill's cousin Dave's house and hung with his family. Had a great time and even got to see Bill's Grandpa play the Kinect. Dave had a swimming pool at his house and I didn't bring the boys' bathing suits - MISTAKE. They ended up in the pool anyway stripped down to their underwear. After they soaked their clothes. But yeah, oh well, thank goodness for dryers. Sunday we had a late breakfast with the fam and then they headed back to Arizona. Short weekend but was really great spending good quality time with everyone.

Now that family is gone and it's kind of our actual first day of summer vacation it feels like, I started thinking last night that I needed some kind of schedule for the boys. I don't want them sitting around playing video games or watching TV all day. They really do better when there is some kind of plan for the day. They like to follow the schedule and look forward to each thing on the list. I'm not super anal about it so we kept things flexible but it really seemed to work out well... so far. I'm hoping too that with this schedule they'll know how to keep themselves occupied so I can work easier and not have to hire a babysitter. I'd rather spend that money on summer activities for them. We'll see how it goes this week.

First thing in the morning I have to get most of my work done so I give them FREE TIME until 10:00. Limited all video game and computer time to 30 minutes at a time. And then...
10:00 CLEANING - I figure we clean the playroom first thing so they have room to play during the day.
10:30 DRAWING
11:00 BROTHER TIME - I wanted to designate a time for the boys to play together because Lucas will bug Holden all day to play with him and then arguments start. If Holden knows he gets his own time away from his brother he enjoys his brother time more. Ash doesn't care.
1:00 READING - alone, to each other and with me
1:30 FREE TIME
3:00 WRITING - letters, journals, comics, stories
3:30 FREE TIME
5:00 CREATING - legos, computer/video game level creators, paper projects
5:30 FREE TIME
6:00 FAMILY TIME - This is usually when Bill wakes up on his work days after his night shift so we do stuff all together as a family.

For Day 13 of creativity...-ish, Lucas and I worked on his Nanoblock giraffe. Have you seen these things? The blocks are TINY!!!

My Dad said, "He looks exhausted."

I also signed them up for Taekwondo today which will be twice a week. And Lucas is going to start Teeball at the end of the month with one practice and one game a week for 8 weeks. Going to look into science camp for Holden too.

Looking forward to a fun summer with LOTS to do. And hopefully some relaxing good family time too.

Also, THANKS to my friend Vann who surprised me with some of her hand-made goodies. YAY!!!

Bill's Grandpa says "blog" is a made up word. :)

I've been on a roll blogging every day the past two weeks or so, and I will feel incomplete if I don't post today so here I go.

This has been an EXHAUSTING week! But lots of good stuff.

Bill had a great birthday yesterday. I bought him an iPad a month ago as his big birthday present and didn't want to wait to give it to him. But on his actual day the boys and I got him these goodies.

Halo figures, Star Wars legos, The Fast and the Furious series on Blu-ray, glee CD & Rob Lowe's book

Ash couldn't keep a secret about the Legos he picked out. But the rest he was surprised about it.

Ash: "You will like your Legos!"

We went to El Torito for an early dinner. Bill thought he was getting out before something terrible happened... but he was wrong.

One of the things Bill hates most in the world - restaurant employees singing Happy Birthday to him. (I do it every time.)

On Day 6 the boys and I did a fingerprint painted birthday card. Ours doesn't look as ... professional ... as this one. But Lucas did a great job drawing the cake and presents, I think.

And in case you didn't see the pictures on facebook, here are the boys busting through their Welcome to Summer banners. Which they loved! 

So there's that.

Last night I worked until 2am, then was up early again working some more. I left home at 9am to get a smog check on the car, trip to the DMV, mailed some packages and got a full-service car wash, detail and shampoo. Bill's family came into town and I had to make a hotel reservation for them while I was out because the hotel wasn't answering the phone. I didn't get home until 3pm. Insanity.

Bill's family got here at 4pm. We got Lebanese food for dinner, made a trip to Toys R Us to get a present for a birthday party tomorrow at 10:30am. I didn't have time to work out yesterday or this morning but I was able to squeeze in 40 minutes of yoga just now and I feel absolutely relaxed despite all that's been going on. I love it.

After the birthday party tomorrow, we're going to San Clemente to see more family.

So yeah. Now I'm going to relax by knitting which will be my creativity project for the day. Then try to get to bed by midnight. Good night all!

Shark Attack!!!

I'm so glad you guys like my sweater. I like it too! And believe it or not, it's still cool enough here in southern California that I can actually wear it in the morning and evening. Woot!

Today is Bill's birthday. So I'm trying to get a quick post out of the way because this afternoon Holden comes home early from school and I have a cake to bake. Then birthday fun! I've been up since 6:30 this morning working and helping Lucas make an impromptu shark box craft at his request from his Highlights magazine.

Last night I finished the posters for Welcome to Summer and I'll post pics of the boys busting through them later. :)

So here's Day 9 - Luc's shark project which we worked on together. Made out of a Twinkies box.

Embellished sweater

There was lots of stuff I wanted to write about today but it's family time now. So I'm just posting Day 8 creativity stuff.

I did this.

Here's mine. So easy! Probably took about 45 minutes just because cutting the flowers was a little tedious. If you cut the squares, fold in half and then cut the flowers, it moves quicker. And I did quick stitches, no major sewing. Will probably have to sew again to make sure the stitches hold.

And... I LOVE IT! I really like the color combo too.

Taking a picture of myself jumping.

I was laughing so hard at myself.

*I updated my blog header too. What do you think?

Productivity, I like you very much.

I love a productive day!

Up at 6:30am to get Holden ready for school and then work...at my kitchen table. After spending some time with the other boys and getting Luc to school at 11:20, I took turns working more and cleaning the house, getting it organized for summer break. There will be chaos in this house this summer with all 3 boys home all day long, so I need to have things in order before they destroy it all (again).

I organized their art supplies and piles of drawings and scrap paper, sorted Legos into baggies and stashed other stuff away that I just don't want to look at anymore. They probably won't notice anyway.

I also filled an entire trash bag full of school papers. I allowed myself to keep a large manilla envelope for each one with their art, best papers and writing from the school year. I have a few pieces of schoolwork from when I was young and I love to see what I wrote and reminisce.  I wish I had kept more of it.

I was staring at the trash bag and while I know it will be recycled and was used for something worthwhile originally, it still feels so wasteful! I decided to make something out of it... at least temporarily. Each of the boys gets out at different times on Thursday so I'm going to make them each a "Welcome to Summer" banner that they can break through when they come into the house.

I'm going to take their school papers and tape them together and then paint the banner. I think they'll love it and it will make more use out of their old papers, one last time.

And today I'm working on this. Will post pics when I'm done. I'm about halfway finished and I've spent an hour on it so far.

*edit* Day 6 - here's my wreath. Lookin' pretty lopsided, ha ha. But cute enough. The boys love it.

Tiny hands, big body

Today was Luc's class picnic at school. It's amazing to see how much the kids have grown and what they've learned in one year. Kindergarten is such a magical year because they start the school year as almost toddlers and then by the end, they're real big kids. For this get-together siblings were invited which was nice. Ash is pretty popular with Luc's classmates. He gets high fives all around every time we drop Lucas off at school.

My Big Boy

The High Five Ash Game

Playing Go Fish - "Do you have any fours?"

Showing off his dribbling skills

For Day 6 of 30 days of Creativity, I did a project with the boys. But I can't post it here because it's a gift for someone's birthday on June 9th. So that will have to be another one that I post later.

My awesome friend Alexis lent me Tina Fey's book. So I had to take a picture of myself with my own weird miniature arms and hands posing with the book like Tina. What do you mean you can see Holden's tuft of red hair behind me? No those are not his arms. I just have really tiny, tiny, tiny hands for my body.

This day, I'm not sure what to think of you.

I can't blame Bill for not wanting to do anything some days because I had every opportunity to take the boys to see the hot air balloons and I didn't do it. The idea of taking them alone while Bill worked/slept was exhausting before even attempting to set foot out of the house. Sometimes I feel like maybe I lug them around to do things against their will anyway, hoping (begging that) they'll enjoy doing something new and different. So I figured everyone just wanted to stay home and relax anyway. I comfort myself with this thought as an excuse for being so lazy.

For Day 5 of on my daily creativity journey, I crocheted a broomstick style bracelet. The tutorial for the bracelet is here, and the video for how to do a broomstick crochet can be found here. The chick talks too much though so just skip to the middle. (There's also a part 2.) I made 5 rows as opposed to 4 like the tutorial to fit my thick wrist, out of worsted lime green yarn and Lucas stole it. So I'm going to make another one for myself in a melon color.

I had a motivating day at David's Bridal yesterday. 2 months ago I ordered a bridesmaid dress for Vann's wedding in October. I went into the store to try it on and it was too big so I re-ordered a smaller size. I see results in the mirror and on the scale but clothing affirmations are the best. I know I'll be able to go down another size by the wedding, but getting down two more sizes would be even better. I need to stay away from brownies though in order to make this happen.

This morning I got news that a childhood friend passed away from cancer. She's been battling it for years now. I hate the disease so much especially after my mom's passing 3 years ago. It's hard to console one's self with the idea that a person you care about is no longer in pain when you wish they never had to go through it in the first place and instead got to live a long, happy life. But we tell ourselves lots of things to make it an easier pain to bear being without them. I'm happy she had a wonderful family and supportive friends to help through this, and was able to say good-bye and go on peacefully to a better place. She was a good, kind person, inspiring and will be remembered by many, many people. See you later, Metisha.

1st grade