summer begins

Summer has begun and with it the eternal question, what to do with the kids? Everett is easy, he goes to school where I work at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church. Madeleine was harder, so in March I began planning her summer. Every week she has a different activity. This first week she is going to Vacation Bible School at Church of the Incarnation, 5 minutes from my church. Monday she learned about Adam and Eve and how God made everything. She told me in the car that girls have one more rib than boys (this is not true, both girls and boys have the same number 12 pair. I had to google it, because I kept thinking, I do not think that is true and it is not true.) I began to wonder if it was okay to send her to another church for Vacation Bible School…. (just kidding!)

We went to Peggy Sue’s BBQ for lunch because she told me that she wanted to eat ribs for lunch. I suppose all of the talk about ribs made her have a hankering for them? While Madeleine inhaled her kids plate of ribs, she innocently asked me where they came from. “Is this from a person” she asked? It didn’t seem to affect her desire to eat it, and when I told her it was from a cow and in fact hamburgers were from cows as well as milk, she seemed to turn a little green. It seemed to be more appetizing from a human than from a cow…

Then, we went to Festive Kitchen (they were the caterers for our wedding) where we picked up our last month of free cookies (we bought 4 free months of cookies at the Moss Haven Elementary Auction this spring), went home to put those cookies in the freezer, Madeleine watched one TV show while I emailed, then we went to Half Price Books so Madeleine could get her free $3 coupon since she had read 15 minutes a day for 5 days. She picked out a book of mazes and a Hannah Montana calendar (what can I say, they were on clearance..) Then, off to the Barnes and Noble where she picked up a free book for reading 8 books. She read the 8 books all by herself! Then, to yogurtland because it was a yogurt store that we had not tried yet! VERY GOOD by the way. Then, we picked up Everett from school, dropped off the car at the body shop because my car was keyed last week (sad, but thank God we have insurance!), Lee picked us up, we went to get haircuts, then dinner at Fuddrucker's, and on this the first Monday of the summer, I gave the kids a bath, put Everett to bed while Lee put Madeleine to bed, and I just laid down for a minute and woke up 11 hours later!!! I went to bed at 8 pm!!!

This summer thing is going to be harder than I think! Today, after Vacation Bible School, Madeleine and I ate our lunches from home in my office, and she happily colored and played in my office until 3 pm when we picked up Everett and then spent a few hours at the KayCee pool before we picked up Lee at work. Going to the pool makes me so happy!

Madeleine made me laugh so hard on the car ride home that I was crying. She was telling Lee that her Vacation Bible School is called Saddle Wrench Ranch and I kept telling her it was Saddle Ridge Ranch. Her stubbornness was coming out and she carefully explained to us that it was saddle like what a cowboy rides, and then wrench like a tool, and ranch where the cowboys are. She was so insistent and Lee kept agreeing with her, she could not be reasoned with. Wrench like a tool, mommy. Don't you get it? So funny!