Somehow, in the blink of an eye, we find ourselves in our final breaths of summer vacation. I feel like we've been going non stop all summer long. In some ways, we've had one of our best summers yet, with lots of time to be together and do things as a family. But I do feel as though I need bit of a breather to come down off of the last few weeks. Here's the iPhone recap. Because my camera is in the car...which is in the shop. But that's a whole different story.
Mid-August is the infamous Turbotville yard sale day, and had been marked on my planner as the official "Dugan Family Going Out of Baby Business Sale" for the entire year. The fact that you couldn't walk a clear path through the basement was my first clue that it was time for a purge. For days leading up to the Friday/Saturday yard sale, the name of the game was "carry things up from the basement". I wish I counted the number of trips, but before long, I had a garage full of baby clothes (all of Joshua's baby clothes, and girls things up to size 24 months and some 2T's that Mara has outgrown). I was partially appalled at the sheer quantity of stuff we had, but mostly excited to think about getting rid of it and making some sense out of the basement again. I won't lie and say that I didn't have a few sentimental moments while going through baby things. There were a few things I found as I was sorting through tubs of clothes that made their way to a pile that went back inside the house--- things that were just full of too many memories for me to let go of for $1. I felt really badly, but at one point, an Amish woman came up to purchase a pile of little pink baby clothes and I saw the sleeper that Lauren had worn when she came home from the hospital. I had searched for it and couldn't find it, but when I saw it in her pile, I nearly cried. I apologized profusely, but explained that it was a special outfit, and would she mind horribly if I put it back out of the things that were for sale. She smiled and nodded as if she understood. God bless her.
Friday of Yard Sale weekend was nuts-- with people in our garage literally from 6 am until 5 pm. And then Saturday started up bright and early again with people coming around 7 am. We finally closed up shop out of sheer exhaustion somewhere around 3:00. I am so grateful for my Mom and Jason's Mom's help with the kids during the sale. We couldn't have done it without their assistance, and the kids loved the special play time!
For being good sports and good helpers with the sale, we let each of them pick out one new toy at the toy store to replace the 400 that we sold. In my book, this was still a win. Joshua picked out some spy gear (the latest object of his obsessions). Lauren picked a new Ariel doll that she adores. And Mara picked a "new baby doll with a bink and a bottle". Thankfully for her, we were able to find all of their items for their wish list.
Last week appears to be a complete blur with no pictures to show of anything we did. Huh.
But we capped off the weekend with a special celebration for our favorite 3 year old!! The kids were so excited to get a chance to go to Kinley's birthday party to celebrate with her. I think my heart grew about 10 sizes bigger just watching Mara and Kinley playing together during the party. They seemed to be having a great time, even holding hands from time to time as they changed activities. It just flashed me back to when Emily and I were both pregnant, and I found out that Mara was going to be a girl. I remember that phone call when I told her that I was pleased to announce that Kinley was going to have a little girl to play with. And I dreamed of times just like this. The big kids all enjoyed celebrating with Kinley too, and had a great time playing together. If only our calendars were open enough to schedule time like this on a weekly basis (with or without Elsa cake and all the yummy food that Emily worked so hard on)...because I certainly left filled up, and I'm not talking about our stomachs. We are blessed by their friendship, and I hope our kids always know that same blessing with each other.
Last night was orientation night at school. It took a basic committee meeting of a corporate logistics department to get the transportation schedule straight, but we managed. Lauren's classroom time was first at 5:00, so I took her to the school for that. During this trip is when I apparently managed to drive through wet YELLOW line paint that had just been put down, which explains the fact that the Suburban is getting a little work done today to (hopefully) remove it. Lauren had a chance to check out her K4 classroom, see some of her friends from Nursery School last year, and meet Mrs. Deitrick again. I had to laugh as I looked around, because I was one of very few "repeat" Moms who have had older children go through K4. Most of the parents looked absolutely terrified of the school process--- probably exactly as I did a few years ago when it was Joshua's turn to transition to 5 day/week school. I met several of them and tried to give them some peace of mind. K4 was definitely a highlight for Joshua, and I'm sure everyone will have a great year this year as well.
Our time in 2nd grade was just as positive. Joshua was thrilled to see all of his friends again. In between all of our travelling and camping and obligations this summer, I apparently did a horrible job of planning times for Josh to get together with his friends to play. I'll put that on next year's list. In my defense, there were to be some group outings organized by last year's Room Mom, and apparently she had similar problems to me because there weren't any that actually got off the ground. Joshua's new teacher and I had spent a good while on the phone last week brainstorming about allergy plans for his classroom, and she was wonderful about communicating the "peanut free" environment with the class and parents last night. I think we left with two excited kids, ready to start the new school year. And Mara, who was just sick of being at the school and wanted to go home. But hey-- two out of three isn't too bad!
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