School in Canada goes through the end of June, lest you think that sounds like heaven for those of you that have kids fully entrenched in summer ... keep in mind ... it means that there are 3 extra weeks to have 'final' school activities - field trips, banquets, tournaments, birthday parties, you name it... And hence, it started 10 days ago, the official start of the end of the school year. Grab a energy drink or your favorite beverage and settle in. I promise you'll be tired when we get through with this blog.
Thurs 6/5 - Tracy leaves for the MS150 and Sue arrives to help/participate in the start of the end. It starts slowly and deceptively with a typical Thursday night - gymnastics, soccer and pick up basketball in our front yard
Fri 6/6 - a PA day (the kids have off school) so that the teachers can write report cards - Not sure why they are writing them NOW when there is still 3 weeks left of school but...who am I to say. while a PA day can cause every parent to panic - no worries, Kay has her final gymnastics tournament an hour away- Perfect!
In this tournament she bumped up a level and learned 4 new routines in 2 weeks. Do you think that deterred our Kay from winning medals? No Way! She walked away with a gold on beam (and the award for best technique) as well as 3rd in floor and 5th & 7th respectively in bars and vault. Not a bad showing given she had 4 practices to master 4 new routines. Tom tempted fate and left Jimmy at home to play basketball and hang with this friends. The good news is, he's turning it a pretty responsible pre-teen. We'll see how long that lasts but...in any case, the house was standing when they returned.
Sat 6/7 - another "typical" day - tae kwon do, baseball and dinner with friends Sun 6/8 - Kay had a birthday party, Jimmy a baseball game, and Tom had school. Not to mention piano lessons. Everyone met back up at home at 9pm and fell into bed exhausted (Tracy came rolling in at 11pm from her MS150 flight home)
Mon 6/9 - as an early birthday present we bought Jimmy and Sue tickets to the Blue Jay/Twins game - it was AWESOME! On top it, Billy had Tae Kwon Do, Kay had dress rehersal for her dance recital and Tom had school. We were all asleep the minute our heads hit the pillow (11pm-ish)
Tues 6/10 - Sue felt "bad" that she took Jimmy on a special outing and a couple parents in Kay & Billy's class where "skipping" school to take their kids to Wonderland (think Great America or Valley Fair) and so we thought - Hey! Why not?! Off they went to eat junk food, spin in circles and get sunburned. Life doesn't get any better than that! That night was the usual - gymnastics, another baseball game for Jimmy and Tae Kwon Do - The parents are borderline sleep deprived and the kids are so tired they are hyper. But...the fun is just beginning....
Wed 6/11 - Sue went to school to help Billys class make their Fathers Day presents - VERY Fun. Also.. Kay had her 1st and LAST dance recital EVER! She did amazing BUT she's declared she's "done" with dance. That's fine with us, the recital was a 3 hour affair and we left early. She had her game face on and is just one big muscle - Got home at 9:30pm - just in time for dinner:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZSDkRZo3r0 – Kay (not very good video as we weren’t allowed to video and we had to “sneak” doing it)
Thurs 6/12 - Jimmy's drum concert - its the pinnacle of all his lessons and was held at a real bar with a real band. He brought the house down (again). He played James Brown and is quite worried about what his teacher is going to say since he ad libbed quite a bit and (apparently) that's not allowed. Needless to say, he got a sweeped round of applause and unlike the other 20 acts, actually seemed to be enjoying himself AND stayed on beat. I think we were in bed "early" (10:30)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqVL_KtCP5w&feature=youtu.be - a little grainy but good sound - in case you cant tell, he's in the middle of the screen:)Fri 6/13 - AND a full moon - woo woo woo - we ACTUALLY stayed home. and... did nothing... can you believe it?! Cant be too careful these days.. It was also jump rope for heart at school and pizza lunch, both of which Sue volunteered at.
Sat 6/14 - Kay hosted 13 girls for her 11th birthday party - yes her birthday isn't until July and yes Jimmy had baseball and Billy had Tae Kwon Do as well as she had her gymnastics banquet that night but NO ONE puts Baby in a corner and isn't it a piece of cake to whip up a tea party, make your own pizza, Hawaiian themed zombie tag party?! Not a problem - it all worked out. The banquet was fun too. They sat the kids on 1 side of the room and the mom's on the other. Then there was a fashion show, dance party and awards. Did we mention the neighbors also had us over for drinks/dinner?
