Winning Isn't Everything

If I ever start to wonder if I spent too much time working and not enough time with my daughter, I will look back at this post and laugh.

Due to the holiday on Friday, we're back to a "normal" 8:00 -5:00 schedule this week. No extra hours needed to make up for the time we're "encouraged" to take off on Fridays the rest of the summer to save energy.

K looked a little annoyed with me when I loaded her into the car after picking her up from Summer Camp so I asked her what was wrong. "I didn't win." she pouted as she strapped on her seat belt.

What didn't she win?

The daily contest to see who's the last kid picked up at the end of the day.

I told her I'd try to do better next week.

Weekend Fun

One of the main reasons I did not move back to PA after my divorce was that I just plain love my neighbors and Virginia friends. A quick look back at this weekend shows why.

After working half a day Friday (with no air conditioning . . gotta love summer "energy conservation Fridays), I picked K up early from camp and we came home, threw on the suits and were in the neighbors pool by 3:30.

By 5:00, Mary had gone to pick up pizza and by 6:00 I had run over to my house to grab the mojitos and mint. Around 7:00 I went back to the house to pick up more mojito mix and K's pajamas. After swimming until the sun went down, K got a wardrobe change and settled on the couch with the Disney Channel while Erin and I hung around poolside with the Kings . . . until midnight. When I was about to fall asleep on the bar, Erin grabbed her car to chauffeur me and an unconscious K the whole two houses back home. It was the perfect end to a very long week.



As if the weekend wasn't good enough, we got an invitation to see Shakespeare in the Park for Saturday night from the Joslins. Kristin is one of the first friends I met when we moved here in 1996. Her husband Rick was Bill's supervisor at his first SEAL Team and not even my divorce from Bill or their four year stint in Germany has lessened the affection. Although with the demands of working full time and rising a child (me) and owning a chocolatier business and raising three boys (her), it seems like we talked more when she lived in Germany. They have been back for over a year and we don't see each other nearly enough so getting together was icing on the cake to an already great weekend. Throw in some Shakespeare (I'm a fan), actual cake (a given at the Joslin's), some of Kristin's superb chocolates left over from an event last weekend and two and a half hours of sitting on a blanket under the stars eating fruit, drinking wine and watching community theater with a child who actually sat still and (mostly) stayed quiet and I was in absolute hog heaven. If the the single handyman Rick told me about asks me out or fixes the wood rot on my trim, I can die a happy woman tomorrow.

Toil and trouble . . . K after the play with one of the three witches from MacBeth.

And of course, unlike her mother, she met single, employed men her age while we were out.

Summer Time: Part II

It just doesn't get any better than this . . .

K tuckered out from summer camp and in bed early.

Erin bringing mint over to catching up over mojitos on the patio.

Condensed summer work week means only working until 12:3o tomorrow.

Life is good.

Summer Time

The adorable wolf cubs (and trainer) at Busch Gardens.

K's regular day care costs an arm and a leg for full day "camp" over the summer and we'd usually have to pay half price tuition for the weeks we're not even there. Since we were only supposed to have 3 "free" weeks this summer, I made an executive decision back in May to ditch daycare and sign K up for the Parks and Rec Summer Camp.

Our very long "First Weekend of Summer" included Friday's trip to Busch Gardens, Saturday's sleepover at Gracie's and 4 hours in the King's pool without floaties or a vest on Sunday. It ended with K falling asleep in the shower at 6:15 Sunday night. After 12 hours of sleep, she was well rested for her first day of "Camp" on Monday.

There was a little anxiety in the car Monday morning as K finally realized she might not know anyone and she confused "camp" with "camping" and thought I was dropping her off for the week with nothing but her lunch. She was delighted to hear I would be back by 5:30.

Apparently Summer Camp is a euphemism for "let the kids runs around the gym and just make sure they don't kill each other." Kaitlyn loves it. No homework, no schoolwork, just playing with three trips to the playground a day. Today included a field trip to the movie theatre to see "Up." I wish I were 6 again.

I love that my mini-me always tries to see the glass half full. Turns out, she didn't know a soul at summer camp, but rather than be bummed, she's delighted she made 7 new friends (3 on Monday and 4 on Tuesday . . . not sure how that works, but I'll take it). She is one of the first three kids there in the morning and one of the last two or three picked up, but rather than pout, she turns it into a contest and is delighted when she "wins" because her mommy is the last one there.

Next year I hope to have a job that allows me to spend the summer home with K. But it's nice to know if that doesn't happen we'll both be taking our lemons and making lemonade.

Fun Friday

I knew the 1st Annual Woo Hoo School's Out for Summer Fun Friday would be a hit, but I had no idea how BIG of a hit. I took a vacation day today and (surprisingly) K actually let me sleep in until 8:00.





A quick trip the post office box showed that my new debit card had NOT arrived in time for us to sign up for the EZ pay option at Busch Gardens today, which would have cost us a whopping $12/month total. . . for both passes. But I promised K if she actually made it out of kindergarten that we would celebrate in style, and a deal is a deal. Sooo, today I blew $120 cash on two Fun Passes . . . that's the equivalent of our entire monthly entertain budget (and then some) . . . and it was worth every penny.

To make a long story short, we got the park around 11:00 this morning and they were kicking us out when the doors closed at 10:00 p.m. I got away with spending only about $30 on food and drinks all day, the Fun Passes will get us in the door through Labor Day, K grew enough over the winter to add another roller coaster to her list and the addition of a Sesame Street section (with a splash area) gave me a chance to rest and take some pictures while she enjoyed some rides she could do herself.

The only downside to the day was that I didn't realize the roller coaster went in a full upside down loop, ran through a pitch black cave and would be a bit scary to ride in the dark or that people would pay good money (okay 25 cents) to use the squirters and completely drench us on or first trip through the Roman Rapids. Since we couldn't get any wetter, we took a second.

And loved every minute of the whole damn day.

School's Out for Summer

It's hard to believe, but today is K's last day of kindergarden . . . as of 12:00 she will officially be a first grader.

It's been quite a year. And we almost made it out of kindergarden without a disclipinary file . . . almost. At this point, I'm delighted we made it at all. Getting both of us where we need to be by 8:00 a.m. on a daily basis is quite a challenge. Tomorrow we are enjoying the kickoff of the Annual Woo-Hoo School's Out for Summer Fun Friday Trip to Busch Gardens. Something tells me getting out of the house before 8:00 for that will not be a problem.

Since I'm feeling nostalgic, here's a look at her first and last day of kindergarden. As you can see, we were waayyyy more together in September.

First Day of School (left) Last day of School (right)

Bunnies and Turtles and Bugs, Oh My!

Spring has definitely sprung around here.

A few weeks ago Copper discover a bunny nest in the back yard where a tree used to be. Fortunately I was able to save the second baby she pulled from the nest and she is now allowed only supervised visitation in the back yard until all four legged creatures are able to actually run.

Last week while I was cutting the grass, she proudly strutted through the yard with something else in her mouth . . . a turtle. Kaitlyn and I decided "Lucky" would be far happier in the woods about a block from our house and walked him down. He was not very happy about the adventure.

Yes, that is Lucky, minutes from his escape trying to bite the hand that frees him.

Then on Saturday, we were visited by a baby bunny on the front porch. Unfortunately by the time K got to the side of the house, it had run into the flower bed and hid under the lilies. We found the bunny AND another turtle. The bunny headed to the back yard and Tur-Tur joined Lucky in the woods.

K and Sianna hanging with Tur-Tur on the way to his reunion.

Animal Week was (hopefully) topped of yesterday when the school nurse called to inform me that I needed to pick K up from school. Her teacher had sent her down with an itchy head and the nurse found some not-so-nice lice. While I was delighted to have the afternoon off of work, I was not thrilled to spend $25 at the drugstore and two hours combing through K's hair. Miss Kate was not a fan of the process either, but she did enjoying counting the "nats" that we found (all 6 of them). Another two hours was spent removing all the stuffed animals in K's room (5 trash bags) that needed to be sealed up for at least two weeks, both our beds had to be stripped and sprayed, sheets washed in hot water and carpets vacuumed. On the up side, I'm pretty sure this is the cleanest K's room has been since she moved into a big girl bed four years ago.

Since K loves to lay on the couch (and we're not sure when the bug love started), tonight will be Clean the Living Room Night. More bagging, spraying and vacuuming. Hell, I may even break out the steam cleaner while I'm on a roll. If the dog hasn't peed in the toy room today, we might look down right respectable by bedtime.