Oh sweet summer

We are enjoying our summertime so very much!  Can't believe it is almost over.  I don't even want to think about it.  But, I am getting prepared to start back at school and get my classroom ready.  Which, is a somewhat tall order this year because I will be setting up a classroom from scratch.  I'm very excited for this (especially my decorative OCD side!), but also starting to feel overwhelmed about all that goes into getting ready for kindergartner's...and 25-30 of them! 

Our daily schedule has been somewhat like this:
*8:00-9:00 - Wake up...YES!  We have been sleeping in almost every day!  It is glorious.  I started out the summer waking up before the kids and sometimes trying to get to the Y before Paul left for work.  Somewhere about 2 weeks into this I stopped that and have started sleeping in with the kids.  There have been a couple days it is after 9:30 when we get up.  We are about to have a rude awakening in a few weeks.  Yikes!
*9:00-11:30ish - Go to the Y, Zoo, run errands, etc.  Just depends on the day and what we have on the schedule.  We have been trying to go to the Zoo once a week, we've been going to story time at the library once a week, and a lot of days we go to the Y and I work out while the kids play in child watch.  (Brynlee has NOT been enjoying when I leave her there, so those days have been less and less lately due to my heart not being able to take her screaming when I leave.  Luckily, she is SO much more laid back and less dramatic than Grady.  He would scream until they had to call me to come get him or scream until he threw up so I could NEVER leave him in situations like that.  At least she stops screaming and will follow Grady around the whole time, just sort of wimpering.  Luckily she has him to follow around and help her!)
*11:30ish - lunch, we've been going out for lunch more lately because I guess I'm trying to 'live it up' before school starts!  Today I took the kids to Bison Witches, which I hadn't been to for years!  I felt like I was a cool college kid, except for the 2 needy little people attached at my hip... :)  It was SO yummy and they did great, except for Grady having a bag of chips and a little cheese he peeled off of his grilled cheese sandwich for lunch... 
*12:30-5:00ish - Nap.  Seriously.  This is my afternoon.  It is both good and bad.  Since Brynlee is down to 1 nap a day, she is very ready by 11:30-12:00 for her nap, usually she can be held off until 12:30ish on good days.  Grady is not quite ready to nap until more towards 2:00-2:30ish.  So usually she wakes up before he even goes to sleep.  Which leads to us being trapped in our house for both of them to sleep for 6 hours of our day.  Ugh.  Many days I end up waking Grady up so we can get somewhere or to go do something fun because I am going stir crazy by then and want to go do something.  It is nice because I have so much time to myself all afternoon and can get a lot done, or just relax and catch up on TV and internet.  But, then after Brynlee is up with no Grady to play with I turn into a jungle gym.  She is very attached to me right now and especially during this 2-3 hour period when Grady is sleeping.  I try to have everything done that I need to sit down and do done before she is awake because there is no use in even trying to be on the computer or read the paper, etc.  She will not allow it.  I'm trying to keep reminding myself that when school starts I won't get that alone time with her and I need to enjoy it now!  :)

I have almost all of my summer 'projects' I had on my list done.  The biggest one is still yet to come, but it will also be the easiest to get done quickly because it is reorganizing our storage room.  After we get all of my school stuff out of there, we will have a big extra corner of space to store things in!  yippee!

We have a few fun things left to do this summer and are looking forward to them:
*Going to Hastings to their waterpark when Paul plays in state softball this weekend
*My sister is coming for 4 days next weekend to go do some fun activities with us, still TBD
*Grady is going to show a cow at the county fair in West Point!  Which, mostly means Paul will be showing the cow while showing Grady how to do it...  :) 
*We are going to Ruskin to their Q125 celebration next weekend
*Paul is going to Minneapolis for a weekend with his friends while I work on school stuff and entertain the kids all weekend....YES, I have already discussed how he will SO owe me a girls weekend after this...  :)

Here's to the last HOT HOT days of summer!!  :)