And that, my friends, concludes 12 weeks of summer fun. I am wiped out. It’s been a blast. I love the summer so much and I don’t want it to be over. But also, we need to get back into a routine, our children need to socialize with other kids and adults, they need to be challenged in different ways and it is time for school!
This final week of summer wasn’t exceptional, but it was a respectable final week of a summer of nonstop fun. On Monday, Nanny Shyanna was out of town, so I took them to a nearby park that had 2 entirely separate playgrounds with a wading pool in between. We were there the entire morning. The weather was lovely and Gussie made severarl friends that kept him busy the whole time.
On Wednesday, Shyanna took them back to the skate park, which they loved. In the afternoon, Augustus and I went to the ophthalmologist to have his eyes tested. We’ve never noticed an issue before, but the early childhood screening, and a second screening at the State Fair both indicated that he needed to be checked out.
On Thursday, Grandma Debbie took the boys to Como Town where they rode unlimited rides and ate a lot of snacks. One of these days, I’m going to leave them at home and go in their place, because Grandma knows how to have a good time!
Thursday night was back to school night where we got to meet the boys’ teachers and see their classrooms. On Friday, we had one on one meetings with the teachers. Both boys are very excited for school to start and their teachers both seem awesome!
On Friday afternoon, my CYC camp besties Shayla, Meghan, Abby, and Abby’s friend Sarah all traveled (Indiana, Illinois and Iowa) to my house to load up in the party van and head to Unglued Summer Camp. Unglued is one of my most favorite weekends of every year!
Friday-Sunday, it is an intense weekend of crafting, relaxing, reminiscing about our days together at camp, a fierce color war camp battle, a rocking dance party, 4 different specific craft sessions, cabin life (top bunk for me every year), swimming, laughing, amazing food, fancy drinks with every meal, snacks, and so much camp swag. It is amazing. I am counting down until next year already.
Random story from on the way- I’ve been known to have a little bit of a lead foot, so it wasn’t a surprise to anyone when I got pulled over. The officer was very nice, but was absolutely about to lecture me when he stopped mid sentence, stuck his head all the way inside my window and said, “what… what is happening in here?” Apparently he wasn’t expecting a van load of moms with a lot of luggage. My party van passengers all helpfully yelled, “grown up craft camp! Moms’ weekend!” He said, “ooooookkkk?…” And walked back to his car. He returned a few minutes later with just a warning and a short lecture to do better. Yes sir. But seriously, who can drive slowly when you’re trying to get to craft camp?!
While I was away, Nate took the boys for back to school haircuts, and then the boys had a slumber party with Grandma on Saturday night. Nate had a night to himself and golf on Sunday morning. So really, all of us had a great weekend!
Today was the last official day of summer. It was a low key day and that’s and ok way to end. It is ridiculously hot outside, so we stayed in most of the day. The boys had screen time, organized pokemon cards, played with Sam and Abby, and we went out for after-dinner ice cream. We laid out backpacks and water bottles and new shoes. We’re ready for tomorrow.
We also had our first “pirate time” and it was a success. At the ophthalmologist, we discovered that Augustus’s right eye is basically normal vision, but his left eye is BAD. Like, the letters were about 6 inches before he could make them out. And so our baby is getting glasses (they have been ordered and we are waiting for them to come). But glasses are not enough, we need to strengthen his left optic nerve, and so for 30 minutes a day, he has to wear a patch over his good eye.
I immediately decided we were going to call this time of day Pirate Time and it was going to be fun and exciting. He was excited about the new patches and this morning, he said, “let’s do pirate time!” But, as I 100% knew the moment the doctor told us about the patching, when I attempted to put it on his face, he burst into tears and refused… Way ahead of you dude, I was already expecting that reaction. I let the issue drop and said we’d try again later. That was first thing in the morning and I needed a little time to prepare.
I have been pinning pirate themed activities and figure I just need 365 unique fun pirate themed activities to get us though the year. No problem. This is gonna be fun and magical and we’re gonna get that eye strong and everyone is going to be happy.
Pirate time #1- I printed out 24 small pirate symbols and attached them to bright post its and hid them all over the house. I introduced the activity and for each completed activity (and 30 minutes of patch time), he will earn a gold coin. He will get to use the gold coins to “purchase” prizes from my prize bucket.
He was very excited once he knew the activity and about the prizes. He let me put them patch on him and he was excited to hunt for symbols. I was a little disheartened to see that it was NOT easy for him to see with just that eye, but he was a trooper and enjoyed himself and made it the 30 minutes. One down, 364 to go.
And that concludes summer 2023. Bring on the school year. Kindergarten and 2nd grade here we come!