Summer break week 9

August 09, 2015

Summer break week 9

Summer break week 9 was one of my favorites weeks of the whole summer (and there's only one more week so this one has a good chance of being my favorite week of the whole summer).

Week 9 felt like the last week of summer break because, in some ways, it was. The kids still have a week and one day left before school starts. But next week (week 10), the week before school starts, will seem like break is over. Like an elephant in the room, the knowledge of what lies so imminently ahead, will loom in the forefront of the kids' thoughts. Unlike the proverbial elephant in the room, the kids will not stay silent about the joy stealer (school) that is in their thoughts. They will complain mightily about it! In addition, all three kids have "pre" school activities at each of their schools this upcoming week so the business of school will be well underway. Last week was the last week that you could reasonably pretend that you still had "a little ways to go" before break ended. Once you enter the school doors to check out where your locker is or meet your teacher, even if school has not officially started, your break is, for all practical purposes, done.

Here's how our last week of "real" break went down:

On Monday, the girls played all day together. They played American Girls dolls together mostly. All day. Monday morning and Monday late afternoon, Jacob had soccer try outs. He'd also had try outs on Sunday morning and Sunday late afternoon. Jacob told us that the team rosters would be posted "at some point Monday evening by 9:00 pm" on the Springboro soccer men's (not boy's!) website. Was I the crazy mom hitting refresh on the soccer page website every 17 seconds from 6:00 to 9:00 pm to see when the results were posted? Possibly. The crazy mom antics and a summer's worth of soccer conditioning (Jacob got up at 6:20 am three days a week to work out in Centerville and then go to open fields after that all summer), were all worth it when the results were posted: Jacob made the team!! Close to 30 kids were cut so it was not a given that he would make a team (they have three HS teams). We are so proud of all of Jacob's hard work in getting to this point. Now of course much more hard work will occur- he's cleared the hurdle of making the team and now must actually practice with the team a ton and play games.

Tuesday and Wednesday were extraordinarily unremarkable but very pleasant: the girls played all day together. Jacob had soccer practice. When he wasn't at practice, he was honing his PS 4 playing skills.

Thursday was different mainly because of the weather. It rained almost the entire day. And the temperature never rose out of the 60's. It had been in the 80's on Wednesday and would rise to the 80's the next day and so a day as cool as Thursday was really stands out. Not that it impacted the girls. American Girl doll play occurs inside so the elements/ outside temperature has no impact on the endless American Girl doll play days. Jacob was supposed to have his first soccer scrimmage Thursday afternoon. It was canceled due to poor field conditions.

Friday was a busy day and in stark contrast to the lazy days of summer that, thankfully, comprised most of our days. I'm OK being really busy once in awhile but am grateful that most days this summer were not nearly so busy. I woke the girls up early (8:15 am) so that we could get an early start to our shopping day. In Ohio, we have three days of tax free shopping on clothes and school supplies. This was a procrastinators/ tax paying disliking dream come true! I may do a post just on the weekend itself since Friday I only had a chance to take the girls school clothes shopping. Taking Jacob shopping (he did not want to go with the girls school clothes shopping) and getting the kids' school supplies bought did not happen Friday morning. We had a limited amount of time in which we could shop on Friday (we had the morning). The girls and I had a lot of fun shopping and the girls (and I) each got a number of cute, needed (wink, wink) clothing/ shoe items. We had lunch at the mall but then had to head home. I needed to take Jacob to the high school so he could do a baseline concussion test. Shortly after we arrived home from that, I needed to take Alyssa to a team soccer training session. Soccer training doesn't start for another week but her coach wanted a training session prior to the start of training sessions. Make sense? It doesn't matter; I had to take her, lol. She was not happy about American Girl doll play time being interrupted so she could sweat in the sun. But, she went and she looked so good out there on the practice field :-). Meanwhile, Abby had been invited to her friend Jenna's house so she had some non sister playtime. Also, after Alyssa's soccer practice, Alyssa went home with a soccer friend and another teammate to hang out for the evening. The girls went to one of those Dave and Busters type places and won lots of candy/ junk. Alyssa didn't get home until after 11:00 pm! Jacob hung out with Casey all evening.

That was week 9 and that was virtually it for summer break :(.

Here are some pictures from the week: The girls made little cucumber finger sandwiches (cuke compliments of our little garden that keeps on churning out veggies)...