The Monday 7

1. First day of school! 

Lucy was happy to see her friends and be a big bad middle schooler. Lena was hesitant, but excited. Levi was not thrilled. Haha. The girls went to their classes without incident, but I had to literally drag Levi down the hall to his room, and his teacher had to peel him off of me. He was fine a few minutes later as I knew he would be. Monday was also my . . .

It was so much fun! The first day was pretty easy because I didn't have to aid in art class like I usually will. I'm only doing 2 library classes, and the rest of the day is jam packed with aiding all over the place. It makes the day go really fast. I'm already loving getting to know the kids and doing all the library work. It's also fun to aid in Levi's classroom and see how he interacts with his peers. Lena is in one of my library classes. And Lucy is thrilled that she doesn't have to cross paths with me at all! 🤣

That night, we rewarded ourselves for a good first day with ice cream!

2. I'm already struggling to entertain Levi on the two days a week that he doesn't have school. Allllll he wants to do is watch TV and eat goldfish. And all I want to do is play on my phone and drink Dr Pepper. So I've been trying to think of activities we can do that get us out of the house. Thursday was my dad's birthday. So after we dropped the girls off at school, I told Levi we were going to bring Grandpa donuts. We stopped at Dollar General for a card and Levi was very upset that I didn't buy Grandpa a "real" present. (He doesn't really understand the concept of gift cards.) I distracted him with donuts, though. Word just came out that our favorite donut shop is closing after 87 years in business! My parents used to take us there on special Saturday mornings. As a kid I always got "the pink donut." I think it's cherry? As an adult, on my special Saturdays (or random Thursdays), I always get "the twist." 

I can't even explain the yeasty, cinnamon-y, frosting-y goodness, but I'm already in mourning over the idea that after November, I'll never have access to these again!

Anyway, on Thursday morning, Levi perused the donut case, skipped over the sprinkle donuts I expected him to pick, and chose none other than  . . . "the pink donut." That's the circle of life, y'all. My dad and grandpa were walking out of the house as we pulled into their driveway a few minutes later. After initial birthday greetings, Dad said, "We were just headed to Hilltop for donuts." Imagine his surprise, when I produced a box full of goodies from that very place. Lol. #greatminds #birthdaydonuts #likefatherlikedaughter 

3. On Friday, we went camping . . . again. When we went a couple weeks ago, I spent all week planning and preparing. This time, on Thursday night I realized "Shoot. That's tomorrow. I better do some laundry." Haha. Honestly, I didn't fully unpack from the time before, and I already had my grocery shopping done and my lists ready. Justin worked a half day, then came home to help us load up. We had to take two cars because my motto is "better overprepared than underprepared!" 

Lucy wasn't buried in the back. She rode with Justin. 

4. We didn't have a cabin this time, and I have a strict "no tent-camping" policy, so we actually rented a pop-up from an airbnb type site (Outdoorsy). It was a bit of a hassle to pick it up, but other than that, it served us well!

It took 3 generations of VK men to put it up. 😁

The first day, Levi got to play with a bunch of the boy cousins close to his age. He was in his glories.

That remote-controlled monster truck was the best investment ever!

Aftermath of playing in the dirt. (His shirt says "Everyone's Favorite Troublemaker." #truth)

The kids swam in the pool, we had s'mores, and Justin's dad treated us to ice cream.

That night, Lucy and Persephone slept in the tent, while the rest of us settled down for the night in the camper. The good news: I remembered the melatonin! The bad news: it didn't help. 🤦

Yes, we're those kind of parents who downloaded Netflix shows onto their kids' tablets so they'd still have access to "screen time" when we were "off the grid." 

Neither Lena nor Levi wanted to sleep in the "pop-out" section of the camper, instead choosing to sleep together on the tiny table/bed. Levi was wired up, running around, climbing, jumping, yelling out the window to the girls in the tent, etc. Finally after many stern talks, he crashed around 10:45. Not as bad as last time! Whew!

5. Saturday was dreary and drizzly almost all day. Lucy hung out in the tent with the girl cousins for much of the day. (Lena is in the picture, but she's younger than all of them and didn't really hang out with them much.)

Levi did some fishing with the boys . . .

Lena and I played some Phase 10:

And even a steady drizzle couldn't keep the kids out of the pool!

Levi's face! Lol

That night, the girls and I headed to the pavilion for "Family Name That Tune." It was hilarious and fun! Persephone surprised me with her random music knowledge, and Lucy nailed all the Disney songs. 

Levi slept much better that night, and we all breathed a sigh of relief.

6. Yesterday was finally a beautiful day! The kids swam in the pool in the morning, then we got sporty. First up: archery.

I think Lena ended up with the most arrows in the target. 

Then, it was badminton . . .

The first group of boy cousins left Saturday afternoon. Fortunately, Artie came up on Sunday. He's almost exactly a year younger than Levi and they had a blast together.

Next, we headed to the lake where Justin's cousin pulled tubes behind a speedboat. Shockingly, Levi agreed to try it!

He admitted that the tube wasn't that fun, but then he got to ride on the boat while everyone else had a turn on the tubes, and he loved that!

All of the kids were brave this year, and did the waterslide:

Levi and Artie played in the sand, and Lucy and I worked on our tans, while the rest of the gang moved to the volleyball court:

Lena mostly did handstands and cartwheels, but Justin carried his team. 💪

Immediately after 3 intense games, the kids started shouting, "Soccer!" They cooled off in the lake, then ran to the soccer field for another intense game! 

Levi helped ref

It's times like these that I realize how differently Justin was raised than I was. What kind of families engage in such a steady stream of physical activity?? Yes, many of them are teenage boys, but Justin and his generation were out there, along with the dads/grandpas who are nearing 70! I did get to do some of what I'm good at, too . . .

. . . sitting at a table playing cards. I won 2 out of the 3 games I played (and took 2nd in the one I didn't win.) 💪

After dinner, there was more swimming and ice cream. Everyone slept well that night! As a sidenote . . . can I just say the Instapot is the best camping hack ever? I sautéed taco meat in it on Saturday, used it as a slow cooker for baked beans on Sunday, and pressure cooked macaroni Sunday night! Who needs any other pots/pans/accoutrements?? 

7. By last night, I was ready to be done camping. It had started raining again, my back and hips hurt from sleeping on a pop-up mattress (👵), and I was dreading packing everything up and making the long drive home again (it's not really that long. I'm just a baby - if you didn't know already). But this morning dawned sunny and beautiful again. Justin and I packed everything while the girls went to the pool with Grandma, and Levi did some fishing with another cousin. Justin left to return the pop-up, and I headed down to the pool with Levi. Despite the sun, it wasn't very warm, and Levi was freezing after a little while. He insisted that I cover him head to toe in his towel, and I couldn't help but snap this picture when I realized which towel it was. Haha.

Anna? Is that you?!

The girls bled me dry of every penny of cash I brought, using my last $10 on Dippin' Dots:

Finally, we headed home. The only place we encountered traffic amidst everyone else going south on Labor Day was in the McDonald's drive-thru, so it wasn't too bad! I've gotten smart and have started listening to audiobooks when I have to do long drives like this. I use ear buds in the car because the kids watch their movies at full volume. I also like to listen to my book at night. Because of the shared space, I was somewhat trapped once the kids were asleep. Justin regularly goes to bed when they do, and was tired from the weekend's physical activity. But I'm never ready to sleep before 11, so I just laid there in the dark and listened to my book. Of course, this one was a murder mystery. Haha. It was about a close family - 3 sisters, 1 brother. The birth order was sister, sister, brother, sister . . . exactly like mine. The oldest sister had the biggest house with a pool where they all hung out . . . just like mine. That's where the similarities ended, though . . . except that there was a five year old boy in the story who loses his mom (the one that got murdered), and then someone ends up trying to kill him! It was awful to read, imagining my own five year old boy! 

Whew! Thanks for hanging on to the end! No guarantees I'll have much to write about when Saturday actually rolls around, since I didn't get this up 'til Monday. But you'll just have to come back and see, won't you?! 😉

P.S. I didn't go back to proofread like I usually do. Believe it or not, I do make errors sometimes. Forgive me. 😂