Summer Vacation - Week 15

Either I can't count, or we had an extra long summer vacation this year.

15 weeks?

WOW!!!

It doesn't seem like we did much... according to the girl anyway... and yet as I've looked back on all the posts I did this summer, is there anything we didn't do?

Except go swimming at the local hot springs (the Ish is never going to forgive me for that one!)?

We ended our summer with a bang...

The girl got sick after going to the lake and spent the day on the couch texting and watching cartoons.

She even had to say no to two babysitting gigs.

Poor picked on pitiful thing.

Saturday, we drove to Pocatello to celebrate grandma's 80th birthday.

Anyone else think it's totally wierd that my mother is two years OLDER than my husband's grandma?

We had dinner at Mama Inez...
Said Hi to cousin Jude...
And hung with cousin Josiah...
And watched cousin B help grandma blow out the candles...
A few days later, we celebrated Ishee's 10th birthday.

She couldn't wait to get her birthday money so she could buy herself a DSi. Her dad is a pushover and surprised her with one instead.
I took her shopping so she could buy some DS games since all her others were lost in the bowels of her bedroom.

Then we came home and decorated cupcakes. And I did some special for the guests, since I didn't want to frighten them by forcing them to eat Ishee's creations...
What would we ever do without cousin B to help blow out the candles?
Then it was off to bed so they could get ready for their first day of school the next day.

And being the good mom that I am, I didn't even make sure they got on the bus. I shoved the girls out the door, handed the boy his truck keys and said "don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out".
When Ishee got home from school, she found this ginormous (like 3" long) caterpillar in the lilac tree. Grandpa gave her a jar and helped her collect it, and now I'm just trying to decide if we should set it free or attempt to let it metamorphasize in this jar. I've never had any luck with that, but I'm pretty sure the butterfly we will see at the end (if it survives) will be worth the effort.

Right?

How does one properly raise a caterpillar to a butterfly anyway?

I only get three kid free days before I go back to work next week. That's actually a good thing. I'd hate to get too used to the silence around here, it would make going back to work that much harder.

It also helps if you do things you really loathe doing, like tackling the girls bedroom without a hazmat suit.

Took me ALL summer, but I finally got it done.

(this is the BEFORE shot, just in case you were wondering if I was on drugs thinking this was clean or something. Hey, my girls think it's clean, and sadly, compared to usual, it IS...)
Mostly. A few things are left to do, but I'm going to make the girls do what's left. They'll be thrilled when they see it.

Or not.

In fact... the Ish just walked in the door and said "what'cha been doing today mom?" Not much, I responded. Then she looked down the hall and said "oh crap" at the sight of pretty much everything she owns in the hallway waiting to be washed or tossed. Once she looked at her room she said "kinda thanks, kinda not".

Kinda, whatevah!

The best part was texting a picture of the clean room to the girl at school and said "wish you were here". She responded back with a big fat "I don't".

Love you, too!

While cleaning, I found this beautiful "poem" Ishee wrote to her sister...

And her sister thinks she doesn't like her?

I found her DS games, too.

Dare me to hold them ransom?

So long summer.....

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