There are now six more weeks left in summer camp for Nicolas.  So far, he's enjoying it, but that can change on a daily basis.  Poor kid has mom's short genes and he gets a lot of flack about his size from other kids and he doesn't handle that too well.  Yesterday when I picked him up he told me how much he LOVES this camp, and this morning I learn how he is choosing more and more NOT to participate in activites, which is frustrating.  I guess yesterday he was "too tired" to do swim lessons, and he didn't do free swim in the afternoon because I picked him up before their session.  Yet when we learned that he sat and watched another kid play a video game instead of swimming, that was just too much for us to tolerate.  I don't know what to think because I really want him to participate as much as possible, not sit out and watch other kids play with their video games!  I'm not paying $190 a week for THAT!

 

Anyway, we had a nice long holiday weekend that was full of activities.  I headed to Southern Maryland on July 3rd, had dinner with my parents and some of their friends and a local crabhouse and ended up running into Michele, one of my oldest friends, and her family at the crabhouse and seated right next to us!  It was great to catch up with her and see her family and introduce her to mine.  Then we got to go to the country club where my parents used to be members, the kids got to swim in the pool and Nicolas enjoyed jumping off the diving board there.  We saw a fireworks display that night from the lawn there, and ran into some of my cousins and their families and hung out for a bit.  It was a really great evening.

 

July 4th wasn't nearly as busy, but we still managed dinner with Frank's parents and having our own little fireworks show at home.  July 5th was busy once again with Noah's birthday party at the marina.  The weather cleared up just in time to have the party and the kids loved playing on the beach and on the playground and in the pool there.  We had a nice picnic lunch there and cake, then came back home for Noah to open gifts.  He got some great stuff and I think he's played with just about all of it.  We had more fireworks that night at home.

 

July 6th was mom and dad's last day staying with us, so we went out bowling for a little while, then out to lunch, then came home and relaxed the rest of the day.  It was just a good weekend overall.

 

Now I have no more vacation time to use until my week off in August.  With any luck Frank will be able to join us for our week in North Carolina, and if things work out we'll also make a trip to the Six Flags Over Georgia for a few days together.  If Frank can't join us or has to make it a short trip, then we'll just end up heading to my parents for a few days instead.

 

We return just in time for Noelle to start kindergarden.  It's hard to believe and I think she's already getting a bit nervous about starting someplace new but I know she'll be fine.  I'm still not sure how Noah will handle watching his brother and sister get on the bus and being left behind though.

 

 

In just four weeks the UNOFFFICIAL summer begins as Nicolas' last day of school will be June 6th.  It's been a really good school year for him and I do believe that he's made a lot of progress this year.  He's getting better at staying on task thanks to his teacher who really works with him.  I hope we continue to have wonderful teachers at this school because it really does make a difference.  I'm so thankful for that. 

 

Noelle is looking forward to kindergarten which will begin for her in August of this year.  I know that she is more than ready for kindergarten and I know that I am more than ready to have less in daycare expenses to shell out.

 

Our plans for the remainder of spring and the summer are pretty flexible.  We hope to vist Six Flags Great Adventure at least one more time, possibly twice.  We will probably visit our local park, Six Flags America, a few times when we just need to get out of the house since it's free for us to go there with our season passes.  We already have plans to visit my parents in North Carolina at least twice before September.  I know the kids are looking forward to more miniature golf, pool and beach time.  Hopefully we'll also get some time to take the boat out a few times this year as well.

 

The plans for a trip to Walt Disney World next month have been finalized now.  I've now extended it an extra night to give me a little more time between long driving trips.  Nicolas and I will now head down on Wednesday morning and return Saturday evening with Frank, who will fly into Orlando on Thursday.  We will be picking him up at the airport.  That means I'll now I'll also get an extra park day out of the trip, so I'm planning to visit EPCOT with Nicolas for the first full day we have there until the time we have to head to the airport.  I'm looking forward to it.  It's very hard to continue to keep this a secret from Nicolas but I am determined that he won't know we are heading to Walt Disney World until we go through the gates there, and he won't know anything about the Star Wars day until we arrive at the park Friday morning.  I know he's going to love it.  I'm really looking forward to spending an entire day at Hollywood Studios just exploring that park because I don't think we've ever really spent a long day at that park.

 

So it's barely reaching 70 degrees here today but I know we are all looking forward to warmer weather!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Additional birthdays are also celebrated this month, including Nicolas' big 8th birthday bash at the bowling alley, Frank's mom's birthday, and some other friends' kids birthdays.  So there won't be any more "free" weekends for us at least until sometime in April. 

1. Nicolas had his tonsils and adenoids removed in May. It wasn't exactly textbook and we ended up in the E/R the night of his surgery for several hours as they pumped him with IV fluids and painkillers. However, he recovered fine after that. 2. Frank had SEVERAL surgeries to try to correct sleep apnea, and none of them seem to have made a huge difference. His next step is to lose weight and even then he will most likely face another much bigger and much more involved surgery this year. 3. My parents moved to NC in July, so they are no longer just an hour away from us. They have both lived in Maryland all of their lives, but they are happy in NC and we try to visit them often. 4. My mom totalled her Honda Pilot in July as she and my dad made the drive down to NC with the remaining stuff from their house in Maryland. I ended up driving down to Virginia to meet them, help empty out the contents of their vehicle into my own, and drove them the rest of the way down to NC that same day/night. The good news is that my mom walked away from the accident thank goodness with no lasting injuries. 5. My brother nearly cut off his hand during a trip to Cancun in May. This prompted him to call me one Saturday afternoon to ask me to try to get him and his girlfriend on a flight home ASAP as they had no real internet access and the long distance calls to the US to try to arrange a flight were costing them and getting them nowhere. I got them home safely the next day. My brother has since had several surgeries and is doing well and has full movement in his hand, which is good news as he is a very skilled golfer. 6. We took several family trips to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg this year and had a great time there. Frank and I even managed an adults-only trip to Williamsburg for a long weekend in October. 7. We had a great vacation in NC in June, staying in my parents house there. The kids loved the beach and the pool and Nicolas learned how to swim while we were there. 8. Our trip to Walt Disney World with our family for Thanksgiving. It was incredible. So great to be able to make plans for everyone to stay there with us. 9. Having to do the daycare shuffle...twice.  Noelle and Noah's  daycare center was closed by the state permanently while we were on vacation in Disney World. Thankfully they were moved to another center owned by the same people, but we were so unhappy with that facility and so concerned about what might happen in the future, that we decided to do another daycare search.  We moved them to another center just two weeks later. It meant an increase in our daycare costs, but it seems to be a great move for them so far. 10. Of course, having my van totalled two weeks before Christmas by some guy who decided to plow into the side of it from a side road, through traffic, at night. Thankfully, we were all okay as both Noah and Noelle were in the van with me. It meant that even though I still had enough to do to get ready for Christmas at that point, I also had to shop for a new vehicle. I purchased a 2008 Honda Pilot just 5 days before Christmas. Merry Christmas to me! I won't be quite so giddy when I have to make the first payment on it, but for now I LOVE it!   Here is hoping that 2008 brings many good memories for all of us!