Now that we’re past spring break, past Easter, and God willing, past the last snow of the year, I’m thinking about summer, and what that’s going to look like for us this year!
Like virtually every year, we are not doing summer school or swim team, primarily because I don’t want us to have to be somewhere early every morning. We love our downtime around here, and since all 3 boys are playing baseball again (Luke in 2 leagues, so it’s double the games) many, many late evenings will be spent at the ballpark. Meaning early morning = slow.
Don’t get me wrong…I’ll love sending all 3 to VBS (the only year all of them will go together!) for a week
I’m thinking about what our daily chore charts will look like for the summer, and I’d love your input, parents! I laminate a sheet for each of them for the summer. (Sidenote: during the school year, they do all of the basics listed below, plus then help with other jobs as time allows.)
Here’s what it includes already for each kid daily (the basics):
Brush teeth
Make bed
Get dressed and put away pjs
Put away clean clothes if there are any
Sort or fold laundry as needed
Then, these kinds of jobs rotate:
Cleaning bathroom sinks
Watering the garden
Empty trashcans
Bring in trash/recycling cans from curb
Playroom pickup (everyone, twice a week)
Garage/yard pickup (happens about once every 2-3 weeks)
Literally, they spend like 15-20 minutes a day doing these things.
This summer, Luke should be capable of taking on a bit more laundry responsibility, so I think one day a week I’m going to have him gather all of the towels and be completely responsible for washing those and getting them put away. And maybe I’ll have Bennett be responsible for washing/drying/folding the beach towels once a week.
So…any ideas from all of you? What are your kids’ responsibilities?
Real-life conversation in the van today. If you’re young and dreamy about what lies ahead for you as a wife and mother, you might not want to read this.
Matt: “Do you know what tomorrow is?”
Me: {thinking} “April Fool’s Day?”
Matt: “Yes, but that’s not what I’m thinking of.”
Me: (channeling my former Catholic-school girl) “Uh, Holy Monday?”
Him: “Is that a thing? No. It’s something you love.”
Me: (with excitement, thinking he’d checked our shared Google calendar for tomorrow) “Oh my gosh, is it restaurant pizza day and I don’t have to pack lunches?”
Him: “No.” And he didn’t say it, bless his heart, but I’m sure he was thinking something along the lines of “You are so lame. When did you become this person who gets that excited about potentially not packing lunches?”
Bennett apparently finished up some work in class early today, so his teacher had him write a persuasive letter to anyone he wanted.
Here’s what he came up with:
Dear Dad,
I think for my birthday we should get tickets to the final NCAA tournament game.
One reason is we both like basketball and we’ll get to hang out. Another reason is I will pay part of the tickets. A last reason is on the way there and back we can talk to each other and listen to music.
Please bring me to the final game of the NCAA tournament.
From,
Bennett
His teacher said, “Sounds like fun to me!” and “Very persuasive!”
Unfortunately, this definitely won’t come true, but what a sweet idea.
2. There is one good thing about winter if you’re a girl.
3. A snow day would be totally welcome after 10 days of spring break.
4. I like snow shoveling.
5. Every time it snows, I feel like I should take the kids sledding or play outside with them.
those are my pots for planting my container garden, which i really hope to be doing in about 3 weeks.
Answers:
1. True, but any good Midwesterner knows it ain’t over til it’s over, and snow doesn’t care if it’s spring. I remember a snow flurry morning in late April one time in central IL, because my mom was having a garage sale that day.
2. True. Everyday leg-shaving goes away for me in the winter months, and I love that (Matt maybe doesn’t so much, but oh well). As soon as it’s spring and legs are bare, it’s everyday shaving. (Allergies are truly the only bad thing about spring in my mind…leg shaving is annoying, but a very distant second to that.)
3. Um, false. Love the boys, and we’ve had a GREAT spring break, but I’m a girl who craves routine, especially after a 10-day break. However, judging by the amount of snow we have so far, and how much longer it’s supposed to snow, I’m mentally prepping for another day of family fun.
4. True! Great cardio, a change of pace from a regular workout, and you can tell that you’ve accomplished something. Score.
Addendum #1: My back doesn’t love shoveling very much, though.
Addendum #2: Matt, please don’t read this to mean I wouldn’t love for us to own a snowblower.
5. Majorly false. I feel like it’s my responsibility to take them sledding once a winter if we get enough snow, and I already did that on the last big snowstorm. I am happy, however, to help them get suited up to play outside. But with the NCAA tournament on, the 2 older boys don’t want to go out, and Jack Henry is always the most reluctant to play in the snow so he doesn’t care, either. Fine by me.
As parents, we’re constantly forced to make decisions about what we want and don’t want for our families. What’s right or wrong for us.
Quite a while ago, Matt and I decided that our kids weren’t going to do sleepovers (outside of staying with family members, of course) for the most part: we’ve made an exception for one family we know very well, but that’s it. I know that makes us unusual, and for me, I just don’t care how rare it is. It’s what’s right for us.
And honestly, our boys have not expressed displeasure at our decision in the least yet.
However, it’s still fun to sleep in a sleeping bag in the basement or living room when you’re a kid. Occasionally, Matt will “camp out” downstairs with the boys, or put the tent in the backyard. However, we knew it wasn’t going to work over spring break (inside or out, as it’s currently 28 degrees), so the older two boys took matters into their own hands this evening and decided to sleep downstairs. Jack Henry was not only invited, he planned on sleeping down there, too, until the very last minute when his eyes brimmed with tears and he changed his mind (I actually love reminders that he’s still little, because he seems more like a big kid every day).
I snuck down a few minutes ago, turned on a light behind me, and got this quick pic to remember it by…
SEVERAL weeks ago, I started mentioning to Matt that I wanted to take the boys somewhere for a long weekend for spring break. For whatever reason, he kept dragging his feet about making a commitment to this, and I lovingly, patiently waited until he decided he was in (insert eyerolls, lots of sarcasm here).
When it was all said and done, it was nearly a last-minute trip, at least in this planner’s eyes. Late on Tuesday night we solidified our plan, which was to leave Thursday when Matt got home from work and drive up to Chicago and stay three nights. Oh, and we weren’t telling the boys about it, so it could be a surprise.
Can I just tell you how hard it was not to spoil the surprise, even though it was just 2 days? I had so much packing and planning to do and had to be so secretive about it, but we pulled it off!
Here’s the video of us telling them what was up…I knew the second they saw the DVD player hooked up in the van, they’d be confused…
Aunt Heidi and Uncle Jeff, I hope you feel really special right now
The first 20-30 minutes of the trip was spent telling them what we planned to do, and nonstop excitement and chatter. So fun. This included lots of talk about watching the Illini/Indiana Big Ten Tournament game the next day, which was being held in Chicago (the boys asked immediately after that video ended if this meant we were going to the game). Tickets had long-ago sold out, but Matt was holding out hope for scoring (relatively) cheap standing-room-only seats on StubHub. However, we didn’t let the boys know this; we told them our plan was to drive by the United Center in the morning so they could see where the game was, and then head up to Lincoln Park to BWW to watch the game.
Obviously, we got into Elmhurst (where our hotel was) really late, so we got everyone to bed as quickly as possible. First thing in the morning, Matt was online seeing if tickets were available. They were, and barely under what we decided we were willing to pay! He printed them out and presented them to the boys at breakfast…lots of celebrating followed, as you might imagine!
Only Jack Henry was less-than-thrilled about our non-seats…we got in the United Center right when the doors opened so we could claim a good standing spot, so our total time at the game was 3 hours+. He sat on the floor and asked when it was going to be over a million times, and the Illini lost, but it was still totally worth it. It was such a fun experience to be at the Big Ten Tourney, and one that the older boys will certainly remember for a long time!
We spent the rest of Friday afternoon having lunch at Pockets and then traipsing all over downtown in a steady, cold rain, until we were freezing, drenched and crabby. We spent some time recharging in the van on our way to see Aunt Heidi, Uncle Jeff, Lucy and Rockit dog, so by the time we got to their condo, everyone was in a good mood again. We walked to a bar & grill a couple of blocks away and had a fun dinner with family to wrap up our night!
Saturday’s agenda was to see Wrigley Field (just a drive-by) and my old apartment (no one cared but me), and then head down Lake Shore Drive to Hyde Park for the Museum of Science and Industry. By some miracle, we literally crossed over the Chicago River AS it was being dyed green for St. Patrick’s Day…like we could see the green swirling in the water! So cool, especially because it was something we hoped to see, but knew that we’d have to go out of our way later in the day to make it happen.
The Museum of Science and Industry: love, love, love. Would definitely recommend to anyone with kids 4 and older, or even just adults. Tons of great stuff to see, lots of buttons to push, a huge variety of neat exhibits. We saw the new Animal Inside Out exhibit, which prompted alternating “ewww” sounds and hilarious laughter (there are a few human specimens – all male, by the way – in addition to animals).
The rest of Saturday was spent driving to Schaumburg {during which time I enforced “mandatory napping or you don’t get to swim in the hotel pool tonight,” which was glorious and one of my best ideas all weekend} to go to Ikea and then have dinner at Portillo’s, which was, of course, delicious, and the only meal all weekend that pulled me off my diet.
The boys all got to swim, but I bowed out gracefully when we saw that the pool was FULL of people: primarily unsupervised children age 7-15. Our boys didn’t care, and swam for a bit before bed.
Sunday morning wasn’t quite as early a wake-up, and I was shocked when I texted Matt from the fitness center to come join me for breakfast and got a reply that everyone was still in bed. At nearly 8:00am! This is simply unheard of in our family, which means, I guess, that we sufficiently wore them out over the weekend.
We had one more fun thing to do, though, before leaving the Chicago area, and that was stopping to visit our friends, the Kellys. I love what Karen said in her post: so good to see your BFF in real life, and know she exists outside the virtual world we use to stay connected. Our kids just pick right up where they left off nearly 2 years ago, the last time they saw each other, which is just so fun to see.
After a too-short stop with them, we headed back to STL a bit nervous about the weather, but only encountered a brief stretch of sleet before it turned into all rain for the remaining 100 miles or so.
Here’s a photo-dump to wrap things up!
hotel breakfast…actually, quite good!
group shot at the united center
excited fan
copycat excited fan
he’s an original :)
my favorite lunch
our rain-soaked reflection in the bean
at cousin lucy’s condo (first visit there for the boys!)
not a great pic, but lucy was imitating jack henry after dinner and it was so cute
a framer for their room – particularly because they rarely have a nice moment together right now.
at the museum of science and industry, watching baby chicks hatch. like literally one came out of its shell while we stood there waiting.
the boys were super excited to get inside the full-size jet!
afore-mentioned mandatory naptime.
ikea fun!
waiting for dinner at portillo’s, one of the boys noticed this sign, and that it was their initials! i had to explain who LBJ was…
I know…I barely blog, and now I’m blogging about socks?
Stick with me. These are no ordinary socks.
Wait. Actually, they are ordinary socks. And that’s precisely what makes them extraordinary when we’re talking about son #2.
As chronicled here, in a post from November 2008, I outlined the sensory issues Bennett had been having with his clothes, and the steps we took to get him through that. I updated here and here about his progress.
The one holdout problem area over the last couple of years has been socks. He just cannot stand the seam or thickness of typical socks. However, the ones that I buy for him are crazy expensive, and they wear through fairly quickly because of how thin they are, BUT I always felt like it was worth it in the long run, because he’d just put them on without complaint.
He’s recently worn holes all the way through the bottoms of several pairs, so on Tuesday night I suggested that he just give a pair of Luke’s socks a try Wednesday morning.
And they were fine! I asked him after school what he thought of them, and he said, “Actually, I didn’t even think about them all day!”
So last night, he and I took a little trip over to Target to buy new, regular socks. Who knew new socks would make me so happy, and so relieved, that this chapter is primarily closed?
