Anyway, We have had a very busy week around here. Not only was it the end of school, but we also had Calib's birthday, field trips, and visitors. It's Saturday and I didn't even do much and I'm not even minding a lazy day because of all the going we've been doing lately.
Friday was Calib's birthday. The big 1-2. However, he wasn't home for most of his birthday. His fifth grade field trip to the Animal Kingdom just so happened to be on his birthday, and so he was there from 8-8. I did take the opportunity to decorate his room. We strung all kinds of streamers, made a sign for his door, and blew up 75 balloons. Peyton and Hayden even helped when they got home. Peyton would blow up balloons, I would tie them, and Hayden would drop them off in Calib's room.
I asked him to guest write about his trip, but he's now under the weather and I'm a day late on the blog. I will tell you he had a fantastic time. He got to spend the day with his friends, and despite the rain the rides were all still running. And on the up side the rain kept the crowds away all day. He came home drenched, with a hoarse voice, wearing his 5th grade t-shirt, a giant goofy hat and assorted sweets and treats. Yay for Disney Magic!
After he got home, we had cake and ice cream and let him open his 'present'... why the quotes? Because stupid UPS didn't deliver his hat in time. I was so annoyed. It was supposed to be here Wednesday, it was in Tampa on Tuesday, but by the time he got home on Friday it still hadn't arrived. SO annoying. He had gotten the tickets to the rays game, and we gave him spending money for his trip, so the hat was the only thing he had to open. I was pretty upset, but he didn't seem to mind. He asked specifically for the Steelers draft day hat, which was hard enough to drag out of him- because he doesn't even really ask for anything anymore. Someone's getting awfully hard to shop for.
After we had cake and ice cream, we ended up going to the Extreme Adventures Family Fun Center. We had just over two hours for trampoline jumping, crazy cars (kind of like bumper cars but WAY harder to steer), and lazer tag. Plus the groupon came with a pizza and pop. The lady at the counter was even so nice, she didn't charge us for the extra person (groupons are usually for families of four). I didn't jump on the trampoline, because it doesn't mesh well with my motion sickness, but they boys all happily played dodgeball. After the crazy cars, we all went to do lazer tag. I was super annoyed by a boy who looked to be about 14 who just followed behind Hayden shooting at him. Hayden didn't have a chance to shoot anyone because this boy just stayed behind him shooting him the whole time. Ugh, teenagers. By the time we were done with all the activities, it was closing time so we got the pizza to go.
We came home and all dragged our mattresses out to the living room for a sleepover and the Muppets while we ate our pizza. We waited till Midnight before we made them brush their teeth, and told Peyton he was on the clock-- his birthday is next.
Saturday we headed out to Airheads. Even though we had just done the trampoline jumping the night before, Calib still wanted to go. We originally wanted to go here Friday, but it didn't work out. Unfortunately by the time we got there Saturday it was packed. The boys had to wait 45 minutes just to jump. Once they did, Hayden quickly got hurt and had to come sit with me. I guess that's why you sign all those 'I promise not to sue you when I get hurt' waivers. He did run into one of his friends from school though, so he had Austin to talk to. I took a before and after picture. Those were some sweaty boys!
When we got home Saturday afternoon, the boys wanted to hang out and veg out, so I happily got a lot of summer prep work done. I had even more things to laminate including more items to bid on for the auction (I'll fill you in on that next week), plus the boards for the boys to keep track of their points to buy said auction items, and summer passports (the boys all thought of things they wanted to do, places to go, things to learn this summer). They get to check items off their summer passport once we do them. It's pretty awesome.
Anyway, Saturday night Justin came over and we played some flashlight tag. We had to start without him though, because he was being a slow poke. Asa just said when Justin got here to give him the flashlight and tell him he was it. I didn't have any good hiding spots carved out though, and I was so ill prepared one time I didn't even find a hiding spot in time. I'm going to have to think of some more spots before we play again.
Sunday we got up and headed out for Disney- except the GPS told us there was a four hour delay on I-4. Not wanting to risk such an event, we decided not to go and instead went to Busch Gardens. Although it was pretty funny because we were all wearing Mickey shirts, and we were at Busch Gardens. Unfortunately, it didn't last very long. After the boys rode a couple of roller coasters, and Hayden and I had walked the trail to see some animals- Hayden had a complete melt down. He was terrified to go on the... wait for it... wait for it... the FLIPPIN SKY RIDE! We all got so frustrated with him, because we had waited in line for like 20 minutes and he started in on a complete baby fit. It was awful, so we left. We tried to go to Adventure Island after that, but it was more packed than I had ever seen before. That pretty much concluded our weekend of trying to have plans that didn't quite work out.
When we got home we figured Hayden could use a nap, and Asa stayed with him while I took Calib and Peyton out to play at the pool. Their new favorite game: trying to catch the football while jumping in the pool. We did finally have Calib's birthday dinner, I made ribs and we had an ice box cake since we had already had birthday cake.
Monday Calib had his 'Moving On Ceremony' at School. I dropped the boys off and headed to the cafeteria. I was able to get a seat near the front. It was a nice ceremony but really long. Two hours later I realized just how uncomfortable the picnic tables turned benches were to sit on for a long period of time. Some highlights: Calib got called up no fewer than 5 times, and got the coveted American Legion Award Honorable Mention that they give out to students who excel in academics and leadership skills. Only 10 kids (out of the 167 5th graders) get it each year. He also got things for having all A's and B's and all 'S's'.
His class is pretty special to Oakstead, because they are the fist charter class to head out to middle school. The first class at Oakstead to have gone from kindergartners to fifth graders. Because of that, they had all the kids draw a picture of themselves- then they put them on tiles, and they will forever hang in the cafeteria. The teachers were pretty emotional about this class too, since they'd been with them for so long. They also had a slideshow (which featured a lot of pictures of kids in ponchos under overhangs at Animal Kingdom- seriously, it rained ALL day), and sang a class song. While watching the slideshow all I could think was 'look at all these things I have to pay for again next year- JA Biztown, the Caves, Animal Kingdom. So expensive.
When I left school their were kids out in the breeze way eating popsicles, picnic lunching and playing board games. So difficult these last few weeks of school have been. By the time I got home on Monday it was afternoon, and I had so much to get down because Asa had picked up a Saturday shift and shaved time off Tuesday and Wednesday. I wanted to have time to spend with him, so I took care of lots of last minute summer things, and all the chores.
Tuesday was the last day of school. Sadly, the last time all of them EVER go to the same school. The gathered up their yearbooks to have all their friends sign, and had each other sign theres. Can I just say, this H.A.G.S is ridiculous. Kids these days. Anyway, they were signing each others year books at my request. I said "someday you're going to really miss each other" Calib's response "Oh, because you miss Uncle Cort and Uncle Clint so much?" Touche, Calib. Touche.
Asa only had to work until 9, so we took them and dropped them off together. We decided to make a date day of it, so we went to Kohls looking for an anniversary dress for me (with no luck, boo), and then went out to Crispers for lunch. They have an AMAZING soup sampler if you ever go there. Pair it with a flatbread- YUMMY. Then, the skies were too threatening to go to adventure island, plus it had been busy the last weekday we went anyway, so we decided on bowling.
We played three games- on lane 17 which Asa requested- since it was a flat fee for two hours. Swisks lost to Tube Sox all three times. But, the second time was only by a point. Even my two strikes in a row couldn't bail me out. I made up for it though, when I beat Asa in pool when we were done bowling. I realized in my (nearly) nine years of knowing him, I'd never played pool with him. I figured I'd have to resort to my usual strategy of winning- you know, letting someone else sink the 8 ball in the wrong pocket. But he sunk so many of my balls I didn't even have to. We finished up with a game of ski ball, which we tied.
It was pouring down rain when we got home (a trend of the week), but I had just enough time to make them a 'Welcome to Summer Vacation' sign and to pack for a trip out to Disney to see Cort, Holly, Gwen and Garrett.
On the last day of school, at 3pm there is a 'clap out' for the 5th graders in which they all run the school one more time, and all the parents and students come out to high five them as they run by. We got there and saw Haydens class already outside, so we walked down to say hi. We noticed he was sitting next to Lorelei, the girl he has quite the crush on and started snickering about it. Miss Bazin heard us, and thought it was so cute. "Oh those two?!? She's a good one. That's too cute!" So Asa told her the story about how Hayden had once seen Lorelei at Publix with her mom. Asa was waiting in the Deli line though, so he wasn't about to get out of line. That thing can be worse than the DMV. So anyway, after they got the deli meat, Hayden was adamant that they check the store for Lorelei. When they couldn't find her, Asa said 'you'll see her at school tomorrow is it really that important?' Hayden's response "Well, she's really that pretty".
Miss Bazin thought this was hilarious. After the 5th graders came around, led by a decorated up golf cart, and Hayden high fived Calib, we took Hayden's picture with Miss Bazin. Miss Bazin then said 'would you like a picture with Lorelei too?' Hayden nodded affirmative, and Miss Bazin called her over. This was the result:
So, I have a goal in life. It's simple enough: I want to swim in every Disney pool. Here's the thing, most of them- pretty easy to sneak into. There is one, however, that is not. The Beach and Yacht Club pool is the most coveted pool at Disney. It's HUGE, there's sand on the bottom of the pool- get it, its like a beach? Theres a huge slide, a baby slide ship wreck area to play in and tubes to float around in. The only way to get in though, is with a key to the world card. Cort and Holly were staying there, but we still figured we couldn't get in. Holly had hatched a plan and was waiting for us in the lobby when we got there.
I'm not going to share this plot with you though, just know it worked. We got to swim for a couple of hours while it wasn't raining. Hayden really liked the little slide, while Asa and Gwen went up and down the big water slide 16 times. He was making up for lost time in Tennessee.
Once it seemed too cold to swim anymore we went up to Cort and Hollys room and had dinner. I had brought some stuff coupled with their last rations from the end of their vacation the kids could have pretty much anything they wanted. Cort pulled out some oysters and dripped yucky oyster juice on me. (This would be why I don't miss my brothers) along with the residual effects of yelling 'ow' before anyone even touches me.
The kids played together, we discovered Hayden and Gwen's max time is about 3 hours. 3 and a half -- too many. When we left we headed down to get ice cream at Beaches n Cream and watched the fireworks from the hotel. The kids had been so good, and it was such a nice day, I didn't even mind the complete mess Hayden was making. We got home a little before 11, and I told the kids they could stay up as late as they wanted, and could sleep in as late as they wanted.
And sleep in as late as he wanted, Calib did. Any guesses what time he woke up on Wednesday? 1:55 pm people. We almost began the epic fort building without him. Since Asa only had worked until 9, he was here for the epic blanket and pillow fort building. This has been in the works for weeks. First we scattered all the bar stools and kitchen chairs throughout the house. Then we got all the blankets out of the closet and stacked them on the kitchen table. I worked on the livingroom with Calib and Hayden. We had a much more traditional take on the blanket fort.
Asa and Peyton worked on the family room. Their fort was much more airy like an open circus tent. We met in the middle. And then it was time to enjoy the fort. It was totally epic. All the common living space was covered. I did however, make the mistake of using our blankets and sheet from our bed. At night time I had to pull some out of the family room and Asa and I each had our own blanket. I also hadn't planned too well for dinner. Of course we included the fridge in our fort- and the dishwasher for clean dishes. We decided we'd order pizza so the fort could stay in tact until the following morning.
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We had a lot of fun playing games, watchinig tv, and even pulling out some leftover birthday cake and ice cream and having it as a bedtime snack minus any dishes. The boys even took their sleeping bags and spent the night in the fort.
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The next day after we took down the fort, we started in on our chore cards. Chore cards earn the boys points, which they'll use to bid on prizes at Sundays auction. We also started with our geography lesson by putting together a USA puzzle. I'm determined they know where all the states are by the end of summer. We also have Thank You Thursday- in which we do something nice for other people. We worked on our father's day gift. So, on the off chance Asa actually reads this week's blog, I'll refrain from stating what we did.
After all of that was out of the way, we decided to start in on our epic card house building- continuing with our builders week theme. Peyton was not thrilled with it, but quickly got into it (and even asked to build one again the next day!), and Hayden was WAY better at it than I thought he would be. His houses defy any laws of physics though. He has like no support system and still manages to balance his roof and walls. I built four levels, but then had an epic collapse and gave up.
Later, we had a suggestion to have epic domino toppling. Since we still couldn't go outside (I'm telling you it rained ALL week) we gave it a go. Except we used blocks. Hayden and I had a good time with that for about an hour.
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Yesterday Asa was working from home and we had planned on building some outside pvc sprinkler awesomeness, but it was raining. I came up with a new plan. I put three little pool diving balls inside a pair of tights. Seriously, who needs tights anyway. So uncomfortable. I tied them to the ceiling fan to create a type of pendulum. Then we took boxes, bottles, and other fun things we could find and created an angry birds type game. We put stuffed birds (yea, I know- but we didn't have any stuffed pigs!) on the boxes and tried to knock them over with the pool balls. It was a pretty awesome game. However, it was not very quiet and Asa had to shush us multiple times.
Last night we had picnic movie night and watched Ferris Buellers day off. The boys loved it- the picnic and the movie. Though, Calib fell asleep early. I knew he was coming down with something, and my thoughts were confirmed when he woke up this morning.
I made everyone lunch and then headed out to take care of some things. I ordered the picture from our anniversary last year and got a frame for it. This is important because we're going to take a picture of us holding the picture from our first anniversary- we'll do this every year and it's going to be super awesome! Anyway, I did eventually find a dress too. Thank you Learner, you always have the cutest dresses, at very reasonable prices. I also picked up all the supplies for our marshmallow shooters next week too. I was way more proud of myself than I should have been for finding everything I needed without asking for help. AND I even got the 10 foot sections of PVC pipe to fit in the Fit. Anything can fit in the Fit, you know.
When I got home it was time for Asa to start work, and Calib was napping so I took Hayden and Peyton out to the pool. It was FINALLY a pool day. Though, I wouldn't exactly call it sunny. Now everyone's just hanging out flipping back and forth between the Heat/Celtics game and the Rays/Marlins game. Here's hoping Calib feels better in the morning, we had lots of Sunday plans!
Phew. I was so tired at the end of this week: and now I know why, I'm tired after writing it. Kudos for anyone who read all about it.
Other Notable Events this week:
Asa started school again. We're crossing our fingers he'll be graduated in two years. I'm super proud of him, I know he's going to do awesome. It is pretty funny listening to Peyton try and pronounce all the things Asa was having him read when he was doing the review questions, too.
Super Cute:
Hayden pretending he's in a video game, comes to give me a kiss.
Me: "Whats that for?"
Hayden: "That's what heroes do. They kiss the princess, duh."
Best Loophole:
Me:"Ok Hayden, one more spoonful"
Hayden: proceeds to take another
Me: "Hayden I said one more spoonful"
Hayden holds up his fork and smiles
Asa: "That was a pretty good one, just let him have another"
Make me feel old moment:
While building the card house, Peyton says "Is this what you did for fun in the 80s?"
By the numbers:
162 point word (squeals) on Words with friends!
4 stories of card house
32 blankets and sheets used for the fort
Up Next: Hopefully a Sunday Funday, Food Week, and the very first Point Auction!
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