My oh my, it has been a long time! I apologize. This year has just been a tough one. It still seems as if we are not quite settled in here and the two or so months that we spent away did not help matters. Let us start at the beginning.
I so wanted summer to start. They don't get out of school up here until middle of June. All my friends and family down south were out at the middle/end of May so I was hearing about summer plans way before we could take part. Our first visitors came with S's dance recital. S's best friend from TX, Kelsie, came up to see it.
While Melanie, Mike, and Kelsie were here we went to Central Park Zoo in NYC and a wine fest at Alba winery. The kids had a fun time with face painting and sand art. S and I even took our first hot air balloon ride. I was very impressed with how brave she was!
When our TX friends left, we had two days to prepare for the invasion of the cousins. While they were here, I have no idea what we did!! All I remember, because it feels like it was so long ago, is that one day/evening Sonja and I sneaked away and went into the city without kids.
Do you see how excited we were to have accomplished such a feat and we got to go see Memphis, the musical. It was a most excellent day!
So, the cousins left and we had one week before venturing to TN. S went to her first (and only, this summer) summer camp. I was a little worried that A might be a bit bored with me and lonely without her "che che" but she came up with her own excitement the first day...she wanted to get her ears pierced! After dropping S off, we walked to the Madison Pharmacy and did it. She cried a bit but really got into the spirit of things when they started giving her things like balloons, lollipop, and a Brave Kid certificate. She has been proud of herself ever since!
Finally, we were off to TN. E drove down with us, but then had to spend the rest of the three weeks either in Jersey or elsewhere on business while the kids and I had "fun" (in quotes due to the questionable use of term when being a single parent for three weeks even if the extended family helped out a lot). The first week went by in a flash with various activities such as swimming, sidewalk chalk, scooter riding, and tag. They particularly enjoyed bug catching! Poor, tortured bugs!
I can't believe I don't have any pictures of the kids in the pool because they spent a good bit of every sunny day in it. By the end of the three weeks, S and Eli were diving and swimming like pros. A even got used to wearing a swim vest and being out in the water without an adult! I never realized that she had never worn a flotation device before. She had always stayed on our sun shelf in TX and in our arms in other pools. It took almost the whole 3 wks for her to get used to it, but now that is all she talks about. Ella started swimming on her own and gave her swim vest to A!
The second week was the big deal! We went to Fripp Island, SC. It was an excellent trip down since we got to visit our Gean-Gean (Gina in A-speak) on the way to and from the beach. This broke up the trip for us and gave us a great opportunity to see our friend!
Fripp was a great vacation even though Sonja ran us around like an activities director (lord love her effort to make home bodies like Anthony, Mom, and me get out of the house for most of the day!) We would go to the beach, which was a pleasant temperature thanks to the wind, each morning and then the pool, specifically the frog pool (a one foot deep pool that had a large frog in the middle with a slide for a tongue) each afternoon. We had good food at home and in the local restaurant. What I liked the best was the golf carts! Most people only traveled by golf cart on the island and that meant NO car seats. Yay!!!
Here are just a few of the pictures from the trip:
After Fripp we went back to TN for a week. S showed off her big kid status by riding back the whole way with Oma and Opa while A and I detoured once more through Charlotte to visit Gean-Gean. S then proceeded to spend almost ever night after that with the grandparents. E arrived on Friday and we drove back to NJ on Sunday. I actually had to verify directions with E when we got close--like I said apparently I was not as settled into our NJ home as I had thought.
We were so happy to be home, but normalcy only lasted a week before our staycation began. That will have to be another post. I still have a week before S starts Kindergarten so hopefully I will have time to write before the chaos of school begins. That post will include the staycation, Hurricane Irene (really, I can not believe we had to deal with that!!) and some....SEWING!!
