Almost Over

I've probably complained a little before about the fact that we just didn't really get a summer this year. My little ones were in school until July 2 because they are on year round and then they went back on July 25. It didn't really matter though, because the Dog Walker, Princess, and Prima Donna were all taking a full load of classes at the local community college.

And now I'm happy to report that we are approaching the end of Finals week! The girls only have a Psychology final left to take that doesn't open until Thursday (which is now today!), but both girls are on track to get a 4.0 which means straight A grades for all 6 classes. I'm so proud of them! They have worked so hard and been diligent even when they would have rather hung out with friends or watched a movie, still they kept at it, plugging along and enduring to the end. Now they will just take a regular school year in high school except that they each have a few concurrent enrollment/AP classes to help them get that AS degree when they graduate from high school.

By the time this school year is over, Princess will have completed her Math and History requirements as well as another elective class. Prima Donna has an AP History class that will give her some electives. I don't worry at all about her passing the AP test. She took AP Human Geography last year and did I tell you that she got a 5? That's the highest possible score! She definitely got her test-taking skills from her dad, not me.

The Dog Walker will also score a 4.0, I hope. He has one class that might teeter over into an A-, but he is still doing a fantastic job! He is much closer to graduation than the girls. After Fall semester he will only have about 4 or 5 classes left although he will need to take more than that to fill the requirements of his scholarship. Unfortunately he is mourning the fact that classes start up again on Aug 21, giving him only about 10 days for his summer vacation. I've long since given up the idea of vacation.

I'm just looking forward to a chance of going to bed a little earlier...

National Root Beer Float Day!

Did you know that today was National Root Beer Float Day? Neither did I until I got a text telling me about it from A&W.  I could have sworn it was "Make Apricot Jam" day. That's what we celebrated at my house.

Oh don't get me wrong, I was extremely grateful for the apricots. Last year we lost all of them to a late spring frost, but this year there are so many that they broke several limbs off the tree! Unfortunately they are pretty small, but they still make some amazing jam.

I'm a little famous on my street for apricot jam. We have made little jars for the neighbors for Christmas a couple of times and we always get tons of compliments every time we do. So this morning the girls went out and picked 3 big buckets full. (My sweetie says there about about 15 buckets on the tree...) and we made 14 batches of jam or 32 quarts. I expect we will be at it all week.

I love seeing the jars all lined up and waiting to be put away when we are finished, but there is a ton of work that goes into it beforehand. Princess washed and pitted all the apricots, then stirred three different pans full of hot jam.. I washed bottles, drove to the store for more Pectin, and ran all the apricots through the food processor. I was also in charge of filling the jars and capping and water-bathing them all. Prima Donna was also a stirrer. Between the two girls I didn't have to stir a single pot today. Crafty was in charge of measuring sugar and helping clean things up in between. She also gathered the boxes of rings from downstairs. The Dog Walker carried bottles and big bags of sugar up and down the stairs. It was definitely a community effort.

When the little kids got home from school and the jars were finally full, we piled into the van and drove over to A&W for a free root beer float. It was the least I could do.

I was too tired to do anything else...

More Reading Rewards

For Family Home Evening tonight we took all the kids to the library to turn in their summer reading program forms. They love this one because they get a free book!

We got there about 7:30 since we had to wait for Sport to get home from football practice. My sweetie was still at work, so it was just me and 8 kids. We approached the customer service desk and plunked down our stack of papers. I'm not sure the librarian was used to dealing with so many at once because she said, "Let's start with the little kids first." I gathered up all the others and patiently waited for her to process the first four.

Baby Doll chose a little board book out of the box and then was presented with a certificate that would get her into the Museum of Natural History for free, an Applebee's free kids meal coupon, a voucher for a Grizzlies Hockey game ticket, and a coupon for Menchie's. The kids just love that place although we can rarely afford their ice cream without their very generous coupons.

The other kids were all presented with pretty much the same things and then we were allowed into the "free book" room. This is a tiny room with three tables piled with brand new books. Most of them are paperbacks, but some are rather expensive hard covers. Of course the kids had to go through every book in the room before they made their decisions. Baby Doll traded her board book for something a little more grown up. (She is almost 3, after all.)

Sport and Scout were the slowest to choose, but they both eventually made a decision. My sweetie arrived from work just in time to meet us at Menchie's which is just around the corner from the library. We just had to cash those free coupons right away.

All that loot for just doing something we love to do anyway...

Playing the Day Away

You probably think all we do is play around here...and lately you might be right! I think my sweetie and I are feeling a little bad for the kids and their 3-week summer. It's almost like they didn't have any time off at all. So we have been spending our Saturdays (and sometimes Fridays!) looking for fun activities.

We got up Saturday morning and after dropping Sport at football practice, we made our way to Chick Fil A. (You know I love that place!) They were doing one of our favorite activities, a bike/scooter rodeo and participants with a helmet were given a free 3-ct chicken minis. It's really hard for me to resist a free breakfast.

After the kids rode the track several times, we went inside and got breakfast. I had a few other coupons and we ended up paying just over 5 bucks to feed 8 of us. (Someday I'm going to run out of my good coupons.) We hung around for a while, just waiting to pick up Sport at 11:00. The kids love playing in their play place, but Baby Doll is deathly afraid of the "cow" mascot.

It's so cold, Mom!

We got to the park just before 11:00, but Sport's practice went over by about ten minutes. I was stressing because I knew we only had until noon to get over to Home Depot and complete our kits. It turned out that we had plenty of time. The kids were even able to paint their little trucks before they added wheels and stickers.

Then it was back to the house for lunch and a quick clean up of bedrooms. (We couldn't play ALL day!) About 3:00 we piled all the kids back into the van (except Princess and Prima Donna who were still at camp) and headed for another splashpad. Herriman City has a couple of them and we had never been out there even though it's not very far.

The kids were prepared this time and they put on their swimsuits and sunscreen before we left. The first splashpad was really cold! Baby Doll didn't really even get wet in the hour we were there. She would get close to the spray and then just run back to us. The kids spent most of their time watching a family reunion and their huge slip-and-slide down the hill.

Aaargh!

So we loaded them back up and drove the short distance to the second splashpad. It was warmer and much more fun. The kids played together and enjoyed the water. The Dog Walker loved standing over one of the holes until the spray came back up and hit him in the face. My sweetie snapped a couple hundred pictures and it was so hard to choose what to show you.

Thank goodness we still have a few more Saturdays before the football games begin. It might not be summer, but it's real close...

What happened to the water?

Maybe we should find a real tree to climb.