Start of Summer

Summer is busy for us.  We already took our first cruise where girl had a blast.  She was tall enough for the Flowrider, so she was out there perfecting her boogie boarding skills.  She still loves the rock wall too.  Without hesitation she's doing the water slides and even the Abyss dry slide w/o fear.

A pre-vaca trip to the library and she checked out 7 books.  Granted, she only got through 2 before their 2 week due date, but now that she learned about their reading challenge she's even more committed to get through the others -- and win some prizes.

The first week of swimming went well, she loved it!  The first practice she swam 300 meters!  I'm impressed.  We missed the second week, and the first swim meet, due to our vacation, but we're back to it today.  While we were on vaca we worked on her freestyle a bit together and instantly saw an increase in speed with better breathing practices and she worked worked worked on her freestyle in Cococay's swimming pool.

Today is her first day of 'schoolwork'.  I love that she's to the point with her personal discipline and reading abilities that we were able to create a to do list that she can refer to each day.

1).  Reading for 20 minutes.

2).  2 pages from her bible workbook

3).  2 pages from her handwriting workbook

4).  2 pages from several sections in her 2nd grade workbook (Writing, Grammar, Space/Science, Math)

Matter of fact she's out there right now reading - and she even set herself a timer.  I'm almost obsolete at this point.  I'm proud, but sad at the same time.

Next week she has Camp Splash at the town pool.  I hope our weather stops acting a fool so the pool isn't freezing and she can get more practice and play in.  This will disrupt some of our 'schoolwork' but we will still get some learning in.

Busy Girl Activities

First grade is going quickly... and quite well!  The first semester is already over.  Since my last post here we've gone to 100 Acres Farm for Halloween (kid friendly) activities, we saw Beetlejuice 2, we went on our Icon of the Seas cruise, we lost our beloved Saffy, catechism has started back up, she started singing lessons, and she started a trial of Jujitsu.

Actually, the school where she started offers both Jujitsu and Muay Thai.  Tonight she tries the later for the first time, but her response to Jujitsu was "I want to come here every day."  Singing didn't receive that high of praise, but she seems to enjoy it as well.  I am excited that she is finding things that she enjoys enough to explore.

Tomorrow she goes on a school field trip and for better or worse my name was drawn out of those willing to help chaperone.

Summering

Here we are, a month into Avery's first official summer break.  She spent the first two weeks staying up late and sleeping in even later followed by tv time and playing outside with her neighborhood friends.  Yes, I made her do a bit of "school work" each day, it wasn't 100% work-free.

From there we headed out on our first cruise for 2024, a 9 nighter out of Baltimore  The weather wasn't pristine, but we still had a great time.  She loved the kids club and made a friend there.  She also killed it on the rock wall, conquering two of the six paths available.  I don't know how she had the energy but she was running every step of the way in Cococay looping around on the free water slides.

Now that we're back home she is spending this week at Camp Splash, a swim camp at our local public pool.  Here too she made a friend, and my advice to repeat the person's name seemed to help her remember another new friend's name!

Next week we have some activities planned for the 4th and subsequent weeks will take her back to Camp Splash and two Vacation Bible Schools.  She does have a "gap" the few weeks before school starts back up.  At this point I plan to revert to the chill strategy we had as the summer started.

Snow Day

An actual snow day!  Friday was off too and eventually the snow came.  Avery got to play with neighbor friends throwing snow and doing some light sledding.  We love our neighbors.

Slop Day

I can't call it a snow day.  This morning there was wind, sleet, and messiness.  School was closed!  We cracked open her Blizzard bag and completed her at home activities and she watched a ton of tv.  *shrug*  If there was at least snow we could have gone out to play for a bit.

Kindergarten.

And just like that summer is over!  Our vacation at the end of July was amazing.  Avery and I had a blast at the beach -- literally, as we got to see a SpaceX launch from the beach.  We also loved our pre-cruise hotel and made many a circles around their lazy river.  The cruise itself was also fantastic, particularly getting to go to both Labadee and Cococay, but we also loved the port area in the Dominican Republic too.  I am very grateful for that quality time with her before the chaos that is school years commenced.

Speaking of school - we wrapped up at Up with Kids back on the 17th leaving a few days off where she got to sleep in, veg in front of the TV, and hit a few doctor appointments (dentist, chiro, and eye doctor).  We also had kindergarten orientation to attend.

The first day of school went well. To my surprise and her extreme pleasure she actually got a bus and not a van.  Did I cry?  Yep, you bet I did. I even cried the second day.  She did so well and popped on that bus looking confident.  She had green and blue stars for her first two days, so it looks like we're off to a good start.  She bought school lunch the first day (and came home excited that she got to pick between chocolate and regular millk) and packed the second day.

Catching up...

Avery had a blast on our vacation.  She will definitely remember the beach and cruising now.

We've been back for weeks at this point.  Those days have been filled with (outside of school) playing outside in the nicer weather, wrapping up dance for the year, and swim lessons.

She loved the swim lessons and successfully 'leveled up' - so she will be in the 'advanced beginner' classes come June.

Today (Mother's Day) she touched my heart with the home made goodies she made for me; but she drove it home at bed tie when she repeatedly wished me a Happy Mother's Day.  She truly is my everything.

Speaking too soon

Well the mini-cays I mentioned in my previous post bloomed in numerous ways.  While she was off at our desire on Friday she ended up coming home before 10am on Monday and staying off Tuesday.  She wasn't quite herself on Sunday and developed a slight fever along with a rash on Monday morning.  We did head into the Dr and verified that she didn't have strep.

I also ended up booking another cruise, not out of Baltimore as previously indicated, but definitely sooner than the previously booked cruise.  Snagged the flights too.  I even booked us to go a few days early since we're leaving from Galveston, so we can enjoy the beach before departing.

Today she was well enough, thank goodness, and was able to go with me to the open house at her would-be school.  I remain very impressed with what they have the kindergarten doing at this point in the school year and I'm psyched on all fronts.

Mini-cay

I haven't been able to vacation like I would _want_ to in a while, but I am trying to create mini vacas before big-girl school kicks in. That includes: allowing Avery to skip school and stay in her PJs most of the day, cutting out of work early so we could hang out, and allowing her to try out the hot tub for the first time.  Admittedly the nudge came from school being short handed (still) with a sick teacher and needing a few ppl to bow out.

I did (finally) book us a cruise for the later half of the summer, which I am crazy eager for.  If the status quo can just chill we will get to go to Labadee, Cococay, and Dominican Republic.  I wanted to book another for March out of Baltimore (baby step before I need to fly for one) but go figure every sailing is sold out.

Summer Fun

Today was Avery's first "dance" class.  It was actually a tumbling class, just a 5 week thing here in the summer.  I thought it was a nice way to check out one of the dance schools.  It went pretty well.  Many of the other kids kept leaving the room to check in with their parents - not Avery, she hung in there.  The only disappointment was that we all had a small view through the door, unless we wanted to stand outside in the heat and look in the windows.

We have one week of swimming lessons left.  They have been going well and I am going to set up a round of private lessons to help her leap forward.  We didn't get to go to the 4th of July parade after all, since they had it on the 3rd... and we were at swim lessons.  We have had a lot of rain in the past few weeks, so we haven't gotten as much time outside on the playset as I would have liked thus far, but we have gotten a day a week at the public pool to reinforce those lessons.

Last week during our forced vacation together we did lots of fun stuff like going to Idlewild, where she still loves the train, shopping, hitting the pool etc.  I have also been looking for a cat -- because Avery would like to have one.  It has been a frustrating process to try and find one that appeals and get approved somewhere for adoption.  We'll see what happens.

Bestie Time

Our first long over due get away was to Splash Lagoon with Avery's bestie, Luke, and his family.  We had a good time, the hotel was nice, the place was fun for the kids and had areas perfect for them.

Quarantine

As of Wednesday, Avery will be home with me... the whole COVID-19 thing has closed us down.  I know posting this comes as no surprise to anyone, but I'm recording it for my own notes, because hopefully one day we'll look back and it will have been a blip.

Most places seemed to have locked the doors over the weekend, so we're lucky to get two "extra" days at daycare before the closure goes into effect.  It is going to be a challenge, but I'm hoping that I can work when she sleeps and supplement with my saved up vacation time to get through.  Of course, none of us really know how long it is that we'll need to "get through", just a minimum of two weeks.

So far I've been able to get the things I think we'll need.  I'm hopeful that our supply chain will remain stable, so we can continue to get replenishment of milk and fresh fruits.  But if we can't I have enough here to last us for a while, I just can't imagine how displeased Avery would be with some of the foods that would remain.

Easy peasy lets us enjoy summer breezy!

Vacation was still easy peasy with this girl.  She did better with the water and sand this go round, even though the water was still pretty cold.  It worked out well having the earlier dining time, for sure.

Since we returned she had another great week at daycare with regard to the potty - she pooed there!