Saturday: exciting conclusion to summer

Since we didn't do anything exciting yesterday, we did something "exciting" today.  We went to the blueberry store.  They played on the playground and then we had some ice cream.

Joshua: 9 (It would have been a 10 but they took a few things away)

Isaac: 7

Amanda: 4

Friday: last day of summer

As the last official day of summer vacation, we didn't do anything all that special.  (I asked the boys in the morning if there was anything they wanted to do, and it was only play Joshua's game.  Then there were tears at night because they didn't get to do anything special.)

Anyway, we played Joshua's game.  The balance was pretty good, but it was a bit boring.

Then they played some game of their own that involved a lot of laughing.

We went for a walk in their new Minecraft shoes.  Isaac did a lot of explosions and Joshua filled in the holes with lava.  The park we went to was finally not flooded so we were able to explore some new places.

Then we had a brief visit with Grandma Hilldore.

Thursday: dark

 I went to put something away in the laundry room and found more eyes in the washing machine.  I don't think I've seen Tornado in there before.

Joshua suddenly decided to play the sleeping game.  All the lovies came to sleep with me.  I'm sure Joshua was angling for some extra screen time, because that's what normally happens when I want to play the sleeping game, so I gave in and let him have a bit.

It was also "Meet the teacher" night.  It was nice to see the teachers and the classrooms.  The teachers seem nice, although it was also rather hard to get a feel for them.  In the past it's been a short presentation to the families and this time it was just come and go as desired.  There's pros and cons to both.

Wednesday: outside

The boys scootered and I biked to the nearby stores...Lowes, Joanns, and Shoe Carnival.  Going on the bike with them on scooters was a good idea; it wasn't a fast bike ride by any means, but I wouldn't have been able to keep up walking.  As a whole it was a bit awkward dealing with everything in and between stores, but it worked ok.

We got some switch plates and installed the upstairs sensor in the bathroom.

Joshua developed a game that we played.  The balance ended up being ok, but only because of who chose what role.  Joshua, as the police, wasn't as strategic as Isaac, the bad guy.  Mom, the citizens, could only away and I laughed at the absurdity of my role.  Joshua, though, was very proud of the game and another one is in progress.  

We finally met up with a neighborhood kid and they played for a while.

I picked so many raspberries today.  They were picked yesterday mid-morning, so I was expecting about a container.   The container was full after about half the patch.

Tuesday: improvements

I finally got another hanging deck stick put up.  I had tried a thin metal stick with hangers from amazon, but it couldn't handle anything slightly heavy.

We also ended up going to the doctor for Isaac...his eyelid is slightly swollen due to a sty.  I feel like it's in a weird place, because otherwise I could have diagnosed it.  Oh well.  Isaac has been using a lot of warm compresses to try and help.

Then we did another home improvement project - putting in a sensor light in the downstairs bathroom.  I am so sick of turning off that light and it was nice in Tulsa knowing that lights would turn off.  It was a little weird getting it to work, but then it suddenly did!  It still needs a faceplate, but we'll get that within a day or two.  I'm also planning on putting one in the upstairs bathroom.  The light switches are in a weird place for guests and the boys always forget to turn that one off too.

Monday: playground tour 2x

Well, as an update to last night the boys made it until about midnight.  Around 11:50pm everyone was crying: Joshua was crying because he wanted to go to bed but without Isaac he'd be lonely.  Isaac was crying because he wanted to stay up but without anyone else he'd be lonely.  (Then he cried because he couldn't find Giraffe.  After quite the giraffe hunt we finally found him.)  Anyway, since everyone was crying I decided it was time for bed.

This morning we went a bit farther for our playground, Imagination Station.  I've seen one in Grand Haven on social media a few times this summer, so we decided to try it.

Isaac: 10

Joshua: 10

Amanda: 4.5 (It's rather far away)

It was a bit smaller than I was hoping for, but it had a lot of structure climbing which is what the boys really like.  Isaac is at the top of a rope climb in the back, but it's hard to see him below.

Since we were close to the beach, we went there next.  The boys weren't that excited, but enjoyed it in the end.  We walked out to the lighthouse.

We stopped briefly by the Grand Haven State Park playground too.  

Isaac - 5: small, hot, normal things

Joshua - 5: small, hot

Amanda: 3: sandy

The ratings probably would have been higher if it was the only playground and we had gone earlier in the day, like normal.

Sunday: stay up night

When we were in Tulsa I promised the boys a stay-up late night if they'd go to bed late but not as late as might have otherwise.  Since school is a week away we decided for tonight.

The things to do in between screen time included tin foil boats.  This is what happened last year for the stay-up-late night, so apparently it's a thing now.  There was a ton of laughter during it.

Joshua is barely holding it together at 10:45.  He's having one last screen time session and then will hopefully go to bed.  I expect Isaac will go for a while yet though.