Enjoying Summer Break

It's summertime! My kids got out of school at the beginning of last week and we've certainly had a good time since then!

We began summer by meeting friends for breakfast at McDonalds. Their pancakes weren't half bad. Who knew? My kids enjoyed playing while I visited with my friend. Then, we waited and waited for the rain to stop so we could dash out to our cars.

Later in the day, Chris got to go spend the night at his great-aunt's house so that left me with the girls. Tony was out of town, so we fully embraced girl time, even inviting a neighbor friend to join the girls. We painted our nails, watched a movie and dined on chicken nuggets and waffle fries.

Our babysitter came early on Wednesday morning and I went out to run errands without the kiddos. My time was cut short by the tornado sirens. My children are a little on edge after all the terrible storms that have been moving through the Midwest so we spent a bit of time in our basement.

Meanwhile, my son was enjoying time with his aunt by visiting a toy museum

On Thursday, we headed out to a bounce house play place to meet a friend and her children. My children bounced nonstop for an hour and a half. Amazingly, they still had energy!

We spent Friday getting ready for Memorial Day Weekend. We were lucky to have Tony's mom, stepdad, sister, brother-in-law, and our niece and nephew come for the weekend. Ann's dress rehearsal for dance was on the same evening that everyone arrived, but when we all finally met up, we had a great time.

Saturday was another busy day. We went to a family concert event. Chris got to try out a banjo and Jane strummed on a guitar. Our little man is mesmerized by live music so we all enjoyed watching him delight in the morning.

After the concert, we went out to lunch and then to a fun free display for children. Then, it was home for rest time.

After an early dinner, we took Ann to her dance recital. I can certainly see how parents get hooked on doing those kind of things. Those kids were so cute! The little ones were precious and the older girls were talented. We had a great time and we only stayed until intermission. Ann was so excited to perform. However, she did tell me she was mostly excited to go backstage. Kids!

We enjoyed brunch and playtime at the park before seeing Tony's family back home. We spent Sunday afternoon working around the house and trying to relax.

Monday was a holiday and were were all happy to have Tony home with us. We surprised the kids by taking them to see Kung Fu Panda 2. We spent most of the rest of the day at home.

Tuesday morning was the summer reading kick-off program at our local library. We all enjoyed ourselves and the girls even had their pictures taken by a newspaper photographer. They didn't make it into the print copy, but Jane's picture was online. Fun! the highlight was certainly the drumming group. The kids were especially excited when they got to try out the drums.

After running home for lunch, we headed out to buy our summer pool pass. Then, it was the girls' turn to spend the night with their great-aunt. Chris and I decided it was a good time to try out our pool pass and we did just that.

It hasn't been terribly hot or sunny the past few days. Surprisingly, the water temperature was tolerable. The air just needs to warm up a bit and swimming will be perfect. Of course, the less than idea temperatures didn't keep us from enjoying the pool again yesterday.

Before we went to the pool, we enjoyed lunch out with Tony. It was fun to spend time with just our son even if all he could think about was getting to the pool!

Once we got home from the pool, the girls were home. They all played with their marbles from the toy museum. I guess the old toys are still the good ones. I worked on an article while they played and went our for a rare girls' night out when Tony got home.

And that brings me to this morning. I'm sitting in a coffee shop while my children are home with our babysitter. Supposedly, the sun will be out later. I've promised the kids a trip to the pool this afternoon. Well, I've promised them we'll go if they do a good job of having quiet time in their rooms. We'll see!

I'd say our summer has been quite a fun one so far. I have no intention of keeping up that pace for the rest of the summer, but it's been fun. I'm hoping we can spend our mornings at home and our afternoons at the pool. Sounds like a perfect summer to me.

I'd ask what you've been up to, but with how sporadic I post and how dull this post was, I'm guessing only my mom is reading right now. :)

Happy Summer!