Ok ok, we can do this. One more week of school then… summer??? We’re not totally sure what that means but it does mean no more school work so ok! I actually have one of my busiest weeks coming up because I got chosen to be an AP rater *for the national Advanced Placement World History exam*. I’m a little nervous! But I’m also excited because it’s an honor and an amazing learning opportunity but a HUGE time commitment so curious to see how that will work out as school winds down for everyone else and I have 7 days of 8 hour required grading. Who’s going to wake up before the sun these 7 days?? 🙋🏻‍♀️

We used this week to deliver our end-of-year gifts to our teachers and sitters. I went with a cute “You’re one in a melon” theme. Get it? Play on one in a million? So we found lots of cute watermelon themed stuff; candy (from our favorite candy shop and candy girl who brought it to our house for us!), watermelon face mist, face masks, and face wipes. Watermelon chapstick, and water drops, and money/gift cards of course. Did you even know they made all that watermelon stuff?? Geez.

The weather is turning toward the idea of summer too. We got our new beach pass, have been taking this dog energy machine for walks all the time and the boy energy maniacs and I go for walks all the time too. I’ve invented what we call the dog-trap which is two baby gates on top of each other because “dog energy machine” has proven she can (and will) jump if it’s just one. She’s also found a favorite spot; it’s in the dirt. Cole has been absolutely wonderful about taking her out. He’s making me proud about how he cares for her.

We have been doing little tiny excursions to the secret beaches so far just to catch crabs or put our feet in but I’m hoping for a sit-on-the-beach-and-relax day kinda soon.

We’ve also made some little trips to the North Fork. We met my parents one time but it’s all so different and everything is far apart and covered with masks (except when eating). And this leads me to …wow can these boys eat! Shea has decided that he likes to pack for our car trips, even the ones to just do our grocery pick-ups. He packs a little bag of toys. It’s kinda funny. He says he’s going to school and puts everything in a bag. I don’t know why but I think it’s extra cute.

The ice cream man just found his new favorite targets oh I mean customers. They tricked me into getting their first ice cream truck ice cream of the year by getting him to stop before I even realized. Sigh. Shea tried “blue dip” at Cole’s suggestion. Now they bond over ice cream. I’ll take it.

Some more projects! We made shirts! The boys both picked a picture they liked and we turned it into a shirt. I was too excited for this project and didn’t wait the 24 hours before washing and ruined Shea’s so we have to redo it but I think it’s a super cute project!

I also have been hiding stuff in used (cleaned out) yogurt cups then filling it with water and freezing it. The kids find it consistently fun and compete to see who can get their toy out of the ice first. *brothers*

I gave Shea his first haircut during this whole thing. He was hesitant for weeks but finally caved. It came out ok. Shea gave Cole his first bump on the head when he threw a truck at him in retaliation for Cole throwing a pillow first. Guess you should be aware of what options, or shall we call them weapons, your opponent has at arms length.

So we’re onto this last week of this adventure and into our summer break and I’m happy because it’s summer! I know it’ll be so very different for us this year but it is still summer. And though this experience was interesting and presented its challenges, I’m wrapping it up with this bow; two people this week, a stranger and a co-worker that I have spoken to daily since distance learning began, complimented my boys. They said some really nice things and reminded me that they really are great kid and I.am.so.lucky. Most days I know that but some have been rough over here.. read, Cole didn’t enjoy distance learning etc… but to hear the message from an outside source (2!) this week, made me smile pretty big.