School's almost over.... aaarrrrgggghhh!!!!!!!

Yes, this seems an inevitable fact of life. Yet each May as the end of school approaches, I am somehow shocked and bewildered that it is actually happening. Actually, this year I'm not quite as "scared" as I have been in years past. Each summer since Ellie was born has gotten a little bit better than the last. I'm expecting this one to be the best yet. (Keep your fingers crossed and say a little prayer, Lord knows I am!)

I have decided to do things a little differently this year, based on previous experience (or should I say failure). I am going to be more organized and a better planner. There is nothing worse than waking up (still around 6:30 to 7, mind you) on a summer day and having nothing to do. By 9am we're all ready to pull our hair out. So my theory is that if I plan ahead each week, and have several things to do, we should be lot better off.

So far June is pretty well planned out. We're taking vacation the 9-13th (South Padre- yay!), then Logan starts his basketball training camp every Saturday for 7 weeks (although now that I think about it, that doesn't really help me with activities during the week.) Hmmm.... Maybe we can go practice at the neighborhood basketball courts or something. I signed Ellie up for a Gymnastics class every Wednesday at 11:15 for 7 weeks, so that's something. Both the kids are taking swim lessons the last 2 weeks of June, so that will give us something to do in the mornings. Logan also wants to sign up for his art class again this summer. Now that he's 7 (or will be soon) he can take the cartooning class. He's pretty excited about that. Unfortunately it's at 5:30 on Wednesdays, so that doesn't help me fill the days too well either. C'est la vie.

I also joined the Williamson County YMCA. We've only been a couple of times so far, but the kids love it. They get mad when I come to get them and say they want to play more. I'm figuring we'll be going there A LOT!! (apparently you can have your kids there for up to 3 hours a day, but who's counting). It's a win-win. I get to exercise and get a break from them and they get to play. Who could ask for more?

Even writing this out is making me feel a little better. We'll see how long that lasts. I'm trying to be more positive and proactive. Yada, yada, yada.

Part of the idea is the plan to have some focused academic activities for the kids each week. I was thinking on focusing on 1 letter/number each week for Ellie. In preparation for this as kind of an experiment we did an activity today with the letter P. Yes, I know this is a strange letter to start with, but I had the supplies for it readily available (that's popcorn, get it?). Ellie liked it. I hope it helped her learn a little something. I'm going to try really hard to keep doing things like that.

This last picture is from Ellie's bath tonight. She loves to feel her hair float around in the water. It's really gotten long, so it looks cool. I took a picture to show her and I thought I'd show you too.