The Saturday 8

Oh boy. I missed a week and now I have so much to catch up on.

1. Lena is still killing it at gymnastics. She had a couple of weeks of random anxiety, but she's been powering through it and doing great. She officially got to put her handprint on the wall for mastering her roundoff-back handspring. 

2. I had my last shift at Once Upon. I made homemade chocolate chip cookies and everyone raved like they've never had homemade cookies before. Haha. It was nice of them to make me feel good. I used Phoebe Buffay's secret family recipe:

I'm so thankful for the flexibility Once Upon afforded me, but I'm happy for a break from it. 

3. Honestly, we've been so busy for the past week that I haven't even had time to miss it. I usually rely on my Google calendar to keep track of my life for me, but this week I actually made a document with each day broken down by tasks. Haha. That's what I get for procrastinating on so many of our bucket list items. This last week of summer ended up being "spend all the money" week. 🤦

4. Monday was my "teacher" in-service at school. I helped my co-librarian set up the library for the year, and met with the development team about some of my new responsibilities. I'm still feeling nervous but optimistic. I have a lot of ideas, but I'm worried about making them actually work - or that they're not what "the powers that be" want. I guess we'll see! 

5. On Tuesday, we had our last Cousin Fun Day at Millennium Park. 

Lucy even joined us for once!

The beach with kids is so much work. And my kids aren't little anymore. They're fairly self sufficient! 

6. On Wednesday, we finally went to Craig's Cruisers. Levi had a gift card from his birthday (in February - lol), and I knew he would love it. But I hate driving all the way down there. I was going to make Justin take us, but then I procrastinated too long and didn't do it before soccer season. So I was a big girl and made the drive all by myself. I haven't been to Craig's Cruisers since high school, and it was way different than I remember! Haha. We purposely went on Wednesday for Wristband Wednesday. We had a 4 hour window to play, but it was from 4-8, and I had warned the kids I wasn't going to pay for food. So I figured they'd last about two hours and then be ready to leave and eat. I was dead wrong. Haha. There was so much to do, and they played until I dragged them out of there at 8:10!

Can you see Levi? Lol. This picture cracks me up.

In his glories!

7. Thursday was back-to-school orientation. I actually had a friend do my hair and make-up for my yearbook/ID photo. Last year, I tried to be all, "This is who I am. I don't need to glam myself up." And my picture looked awful. Lol. So Amy made me beautiful this year - but I didn't take a single picture of myself to show for it! Guess we'll have to wait for the ID pic. The kids were excited to see their classrooms, meet their teachers, and get their schedules. I actually stayed for the whole orientation as part of my new development responsibilities. I was on the "welcome committee," meeting people at the door and directing them to where they needed to go. I love that my work in the library means I know so many kids and families. It's my favorite when kids come in the door excited to see me. One kid exclaimed, "Mrs. VanderKodde! I read a library book this summer!" It's the best. 😂

I went straight from orientation to the public school down the street from my house. My niece works there and alerted me that they were getting rid of boxes and boxes of books! She said I was welcome to come take whatever I wanted. So I grabbed my biggest suitcase and rolled on in. Lena helped me cram it full, plus two more boxes full. I may have a problem. Lol. 

8. On Friday, we knocked out three bucket list items in one day! First up was the "X Marks the Spot Treasure Hunt." On Thursday evening, I ran to my parents' house and handed my dad a treasure box. Because he's the wonderful person he is, he went out in the rain and buried it in his yard for me. 💓 That night I stayed up until midnight creating an elaborate treasure hunt for the kids. I came up with nine rhyming clues that led them all over the house, and printed them on the back of a map I had created. 

Once they found all the clues, they put together the map. After some confusion, they realized it was pointing to Grandpa and Grandma's house, so we threw on some boots and headed that way.

Nash and Saylor were there too, so they joined in the fun.

The treasure was a box full of change that has been accumulating on my dresser for years. I didn't count it first (and I actually removed a bunch of quarters that I kept for myself), but I figured it was probably $20 worth. Imagine my surprise when the kids counted it later that day and realized it was $45!! Lol. I'm not sure I meant to give away that much! (Although I have a sneaking suspicion my parents may have added to the stash.) 

We went home for a couple hours so I could rest my back (I hurt it cleaning the bathroom and it has steadily gotten worse all week. 🤦) Then we headed off for our next expensive bucket list event: Urban Air. 

I don't even know how Lena found out about this place, but she has been begging to go for months. It's all the way out in Holland (about an hour from our house), so you can imagine how thrilled I was about making that drive. But I was tough and made myself do it. 💪 It was smaller than I expected, and not quite as exciting as Craig's Cruisers. But the kids had fun. Lena loved the zip-line and high ropes course.

My phone can't handle movement

On our way home, we stopped at Dairy Queen. Of course, it was 5:30 pm, so the kids were starving. I told them I'd buy either ice cream or food. They were smart and ordered a kids meal that came with both. Haha. 

So here's where the bucket list stands now - with one day left before school starts:

I've been working on compiling old family videos for Video Night, but it's kind of overwhelming. I've made it to 2016 - the year Levi was born. Lol. It's also super emotional for me. I hate looking back on those days when my kids were babies and knowing there's no going back. I will say I'm so thankful for technology, though. I have soooooo many pictures and videos thanks to the convenience of my smart phone. I love having those memories even if they're painful to revisit. Haha. (#paradox) And at the risk of sounding vain, it's also a reminder that I was (am?) a good mom. I have so many pictures of crafts I did with the girls, and places I took them, and parties I threw them. I'll always have a little guilt that Levi didn't get the best of me like they did. But that bucket list up there is proof that I've invested in his life too. I've worked hard to spend quality time with my kids and to create lasting memories. I think next year we're going to work on making some cheaper memories though. 😂

I'll save the memes for next week since this one is out of control. Thanks for reading to the end!