Saturday, June 28, 2008

Some work and lots of play

The last week of school for the kids is always the busiest and the most fun. Monday they had Field Day which is a fun day at a huge park by the lakefront where they play sports and games and eat yummy grilled food and snacks all day. As usual I make two trays of mosticcioli because the kids and the teachers request it every year. The following day is Dia de los ninos (Day of the kids) at the school, this is another day the kids look forward to all year, they play carnival games and win cool prizes, they get to jump in the huge air filled jumper castle, do karoake, get their faces painted and eat cotton candy, hot dogs, popcorn, watermelon and snow cones all day. Then on Wednesday, the last full day of school they had their class party. Jonathan's class did a pajama party, the kids got to wear their pj's and they had breakfast in the class, waffles and sausage and then for lunch they ordered pizza. Rosie's class had an ice cream social so they made huge hot fudge sundaes and other fun ice cream creations after lunch. Dentist appointments just happened to be on that very same day, Jonathan and Rosie have two cavities but Jonathan's are pretty deep. Thursday was no school and on Friday they had one hour of school to go to their new class and meet their teacher for the next school year and get their final report card. My kids opted not to go so they just stayed home both days and relaxed after their three days of fun. On Friday I went and got my hair cut and highlighted. It took a little getting used to but I think it looks good especially for the summer when it's nice to get your hair lighter. Saturday we had so much fun at Zebrafest. There was lots to do, the kids enjoyed playing on the trampoline, the little village of houses just their size, a huge tee pee, horseback riding, a petting zoo and four pools with slides. My kids are fish in the water especially Jonathan who was not even scared to jump off the diving board into the deep end.
Sunday, which was my birthday, Father's day and also my parents 40th wedding anniversary I just made a father's day breakfast for John and my uncle and we lounged around the house the whole rest of the day watching movies. We decided to break up the occasions so no one felt left out and we were pretty tired from the day before :).

Ohhh, I forgot to mention that I had the most fun trying to figure out who left the birthday cookie cake on my front porch. There was no note so my uncle told me not to eat it until I figured out who left it. The search was on because me having chocolate and not being able to eat it is not an easy task. *laughs* I called everyone I could think of throughout the day and by dinner I still had no clue who had left it. Just as we were about to sit down and eat John's cousin walks in and asks me if I already ate the cookie cake....he was the only person I didn't think of to ask. After dinner we had it for dessert and let me tell ya it was worth the wait. Not soon after we finished that cookie cake Lisa arrived with another cake, this one had four different cakes. German chocolate, carrot, chocolate cake with fudge frosting and white cake with cream cheese frosting. We didn't start on the one until the following day.

Now the work begins....we rented a dumpster and started cleaning out the building, all my boys worked their butts off , I'm talking about real physical labor here. Aside from them we hired a few men to help clear out the basement and the third floor apartment. We filled a 30 yd dumpster in two days, that's a lot of crap people and it's not done yet. My job was to bring the food and drinks to keep the men hydrated. I was so proud to see my boys working so hard. So the first part of the week was sweat and muscle and then we took it easy and then started our belated celebrations from the week prior. So on Thursday night we went out to dinner to celebrate Father's day and on Saturday night we went out to celebrate my birthday. Sunday, Lisa took me to a new Thai restaurant for lunch and it was really good. We will be taking my parents out somewhere nice either in New Orleans or when we get to Florida to celebrate their anniversary.

This week was another busy week, paying all the bills and shopping to get everything we need for our trip and packing, which I'm still doing because I'm a total procrastinator. We were lucky to have Jade (my friend Helen's dog) for the week, we are dog sitting while she is on vacation. It is really nice to have a dog in the house again, the kids and I have really enjoyed having her here but she goes back home today :( we were thinking about dog napping her and taking her with us to Florida. We've got a graduation party to go to later then we'll come home and load up the van and get on the road about midnight.

Woohoo, our vacation is finally here!