Unpacking & Packing

Backing up to last weekend, the annual cabin trip at Scotty's cabin in Iron River. It didn't disappoint and it's a good thing it only happens once each year.

This seemed like a great idea...

...which made a hands-free selfie seem hilarious.  

The 2014 Crew.

While we were away, the kids went to Auntie Dixie & Uncle Tim's house. It sounds like they stayed busy and had a lot of fun. They went to the garden, rode the golf cart, took a ride in the motor home, went to Chuck E Cheese, visited with Shellee, Tanner & Conner and fell in love with a guinea pig named Steve. THANK YOU for keeping them!

Due to a high stress level lately, (I was truly surprised when my BP was low at my recent physical), I intentionally did not take many pictures this week.  Pictures = do something with them. Our week was spent unpacking, a shit-ton of laundry, repacking, and running around.

We had our first week of swimming lessons, more on that next post.

Hadley had her last summer ballet class. Finley's swimming lesson overlapped, so I went with Finley and Grandma took Hadley. The juggling has begun.

Hadley will start ballet and tap (oh my, I can't wait to see her reaction to tap shoes) in fall.

Hadley likes to paint her toes, her fine motor control doesn't match her desire.

She begs for ice cream right after she's just had ice cream.

She begs a lot these days. Begs or whines, which are equally annoying. Especially when she follows you around the house doing it. (Normally she would not walk around the house eating macaroni, but she wanted milk and wouldn't eat. I wouldn't give her milk until she started eating, thus the crazed lunatic following me around.)

Since Finley was a toddler, I've secretly compared him to my kindergartners. Not exactly compared, but more wondered things like - will he act like Johnny or Jimmy in class? Will he be able to draw his family? Cut out shapes? Write the letters in his name? But after seeing some recent projects at home, I'm feeling phew. That's a great looking house! 

My kids love Target gift cards.  My Little Ponys for her, a Lego Ninjago jet for him. Finley was SO pumped that he put the entire thing together because it was for 8-14 year olds. He dropped it the next morning, I wanted to cry for him.

One major stress this week - furniture. I ordered Finley the full-size version of his twin bed (same company, same line, same color). And it was delivered in a slightly different shade than the original. Ugh. I'm sure the delivery guys loved me as they brought it in, I refused it (their term for not wanting it based on color), they loaded it back on the truck, but then I wanted more time to think and had them take it off again. During this 20-minute load/unload, I discovered Hadley's new twin (Finley's old bed, following all of this?) was a slightly different shade than her furniture. Ugh again. After a morning of near-tears (me) and a few phone calls (evidently PBK's "espresso" color has changed since we bought bedroom furniture three and six years ago - ugh, ugh, ugh), I decided it's going to work as-is. Mostly because I'm confident we won't find anything closer. A few hours later, my mom and I were looking at Hadley's new duvet cover and it looked gigantic on her twin bed, yup it's for a queen-size bed, the package was marked wrong. No big deal except I ordered it THREE YEARS AGO. I couldn't catch a break with this stuff. Grandma is going to alter it to fit her twin bed, phew. Why did I order it three years ago? Because I fell in love with her crib bedding and an awesome friend replicated the pattern on her walls. So smart-me, ordered the bedding so we can continue to enjoy the mural when she's out of crib...which is what happened unexpectedly. Unfortunately, I didn't know her last night in the crib was it - eek. Hadley was only in her new bed two nights before our weekend away, but both nights went well. She went down easily and stayed in there (this too shall pass, Finley was horrible-horrible at bedtime for a l-o-n-g time, so I anticipate it happening again). The picture is her first night in her big-girl bed. She is very proud. And it's slightly strange that she can walk out in the morning. We need to find nightstands and her room will be set - pictures will follow when it happens.

Then there's this kid in his new BIG bed. He loves it and is anxious for Spencer to sleepover with him.  His quilt is here, but his sheets and shams are out of stock until August. Once they arrive, we can move forward with painting his room. And by 'we' I mean, hiring someone to do it. Patrick has no time, so I'm going to have a professional help, I would love for it to be done before school starts, but I'm not sure it'll happen that quickly. The current debate is to repaint the stripes or sand them off and start over, I might let the professional guide me with this too. 

We just got back from a long weekend in WI Dells. The kids had a blast and are completely passed out. So while they're sleeping I need to unpack. So I can pack again, although next weekend is easier (a girls-only overnight for me) and the following weekend is a kid-free wedding in Indiana. Packing and unpacking with a ton of laundry in the middle is our current norm. Fun summer memories, but it's making summer speed by!