Seriously though

I thought I'd do a little up keep on the blog today while the girls were playing with a friend and Seb was taking a nap.  Try more like a LOT of up keep.  I've now posted all of the drafts that I've written over the summer and have a new color scheme.  (Just in time to start the countdown to football season!)
We've got just under two more weeks of summer and things are picking up around here.
Shelby has found a new dance studio (much closer to the house) and is doing a week of intensive training to prepare for competition team.  She's doing 3 hours every day this week and is sleeping very well at night.  :)
Syd and Seb are going to get a surprise tomorrow, when I  head over to the bounce place for some energy using fun time while Shelby is in dance.  It's SOOOO hot outside, I thought they'd enjoy something a little different.  AKA - mom wants them to use up some energy!

More Vacation photos

Had a great time, but SO glad to be home. Here are some other shots from our trip. Including our almost 3 mile hike that we took with the kids. Seb was great going up, but slept in someone's arms coming down.

  All of the youngest generation (plus Melissa)

We are in TN!  The view from our cabin is amazing and it should be a fabulous time.  I'm looking forward to visiting with the rest of the family that is here to celebrate my grandmother's 90th bday!  Here's a picture from our cabin

Week Two

I'm taking the Level 1 Orff-Schulwerk class right now. It's day 7 of homework and I'm beat! We've had recorder practice and reading everynight along with nursery rhyme and folksong arranging to do. It's a fabulous class and I'm really enjoying it, but I'm looking forward to finishing off the week. I'll have my staff development done for the year and will be able to relax.

The kids have been staying with Grandma during the week and loving it. Today they stopped by after gymnastics / dance and Seb was determined not to be left behind. I think he told me goodby about a dozen times! Surprisingly enough, I miss the chaos they bring into the house. :)

Dance Recital 2011

Shelby did a geat job at her recital this year!  My photos were taken during the dress rehearsal and can see that she doesn't have shoes on in some pictures.  That's right - she forgot her dance bag with shoes in it for the rehearsal.  We made sure to put them in for the actual recital.  Lesson learned!

 Performance Team Number

 Ballet Number

 Company Dad's Dance

After the Dad's dance

Life's little bumps

So after spending some time in the attic and looking at the AC unit, the entire upstairs unit had to be replaced.  NOT what we wanted to pay for this summer.  So $7000 later, we have a nice new AC unit and it better save us some money on the electric bill when August hits. 
Oh well, at least it's taken care of and things can get back to normal.  The girls get out of school today and we'll be heading to the community pool after nap time.  Shelby has dance recital this weekend, so not too much sun today.  :)

Summer Time

I've survived my entire first year! While it was a complete start over of sorts, I loved every minute of it. I packed up everything in my classroom on Friday and left the building by 1:30. No trip to an amusement park with 200 kids this year. It was a really nice feeling, to know that I had everything done and put away and don't have to go back until mid-August. I will be taking a class over the summer, but it's only two weeks and I'm looking forward focusing on the orff instruments.
The girls have school until Thursday and then we're all on vacation. I've got some curriculum books to keep them working over the summer and we'll be making a weekly trip to the library. I LOVE to read and want my kids to have the same passion for it. We'll also be doing some cooking/baking together to work on measurement. I don't have craft projects planned yet, but there will be plenty of those!
Today's main project is waiting for the AC guys. The upstairs unit is not cooling like it should and we've already started hitting the triple digit temps. I like to keep it around 78 during the day, but yesterday it was running almost non-stop and holding around 82. Even for a girl that loves summer time, that was too warm for me! Hopefully we'll have some good news when the guys show up this afternoon.