Well, the last week of summer is over and the kids are officially back at school. This summer went by in the blink of an eye despite the fact that the first half dragged on while Olivia was in a cast. Isn’t it funny how time works like that?
Anyway, enough of the chit chat… let’s get into the recap!
Monday, August 2
After the busy week we’d had prior to this one, we were pretty tired, so Monday was a lazy day. I did a cardio workout first thing, the kids nearly wrapped up their summer homework, we had a light lunch and went for a short walk around the neighborhood afterward, and then the afternoon was spent working and playing.
We had a stormy evening, so I tried a new recipe, we played a couple of card games with the kids, we watched some of the Olympics, and then I made a fort in Olivia’s room that the kids could sleep in. They’d asked several times in recent weeks, so they were absolutely thrilled!
Tuesday morning, I had a meeting at the kids’ school bright and early, so I dropped the kids with my dad and headed that way. I was asked to be on the steering committee for a new project, and this was our meeting to kick off that project.
We wrapped up around 9:30, and I picked the kids up from my dad’s and headed back home. We had lunch, and then headed out to run some errands. We had several library books that needed to be returned, we went to the shoe store to grab new tennis shoes for the kids for back-to-school, we dropped some happy mail at the post office, and then we went to the new bakery that opened in town.
The bakery was opened by the kids’ old art teacher at school… she has been their art teacher the whole time they’ve gone to school, but she’s always had a cake-making side hustle, and this year, she decided to open her own brick-and-mortar store! That means she’ll no longer teach at the kids’ school, but we’re so excited for her to set out on this new business venture.
The bakery is in the quaintest little area of town and it is positively darling… by far the cutest bakery in town! The kids both picked out cake cones as their special treat – waffle cones filled with lemon cake, lemon frosting, and a gumball on the top – and I grabbed a key lime cake cup to take home and share with B Tuesday evening. The kids ate the cake cones outside since there was a cute little outdoor dining area right outside the bakery, and then we headed home.
Wednesday, August 4
Wednesday morning, I went for an early morning run, and the rest of the morning was spent getting ready, having breakfast, and reading while the kids finally finished summer homework!! Nothing like finishing at the last minute. Ugh, I hate that.
After lunch, I lay down on the couch to read some more, and before I knew it, an hour had passed. I hadn’t taken the time to read in so long, and my new book is so good that I couldn’t put it down! I’ve had a couple of duds recently and was losing my urge to read, so it’s nice to finally have one that’s holding my attention. (It’s Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren, BTW.)
Jeannine and I still hang out a good bit… she’s always been a part of my Wednesday margarita night group and we also try to get our kiddos together as much as we can. Becky and I also see each other a good bit since we volunteer at the kids’ school together a lot. But we rarely get to see Jen as often, and it was so freaking good to have our whole OG group back together again.
We met at our favorite local Italian place (who is doing a phenomenal job of masking and social distancing so it was nice to feel safe), we had a round of drinks and a delicious dinner, and we spent three full hours catching up, discussing everything going on in the world today, reminiscing, and cracking ourselves up. We were enjoying ourselves so much, that we ended up calling the waitress back over after we’d already paid our tabs so we could grab a second round of drinks!
The evening went by in the blink of an eye and my heart was so dang full by the end. We all had the very best evening, and we enjoyed ourselves so much that we’re going to try to start getting together once a month! I was so caught up in the evening that I took zero pictures, and while I’m sad that I didn’t think to have someone snap one of the four of us, it was nice to be so caught up in the moment that I didn’t even think about that.
By the time I got home, it was after nine and B had just gotten the kids in their fort/sleeping bags. I kissed them goodnight and then B and I watched another episode of Outer Banks. The kids came downstairs at 10 saying they couldn’t sleep, so we got them into their own beds, and they were both out like lights. I think the novelty of sleeping in their sleeping bags had finally worn off, and both of them had been struggling to fall asleep in recent nights.
Thursday, August 5
Thursday morning, we did our usual morning routine, and then just after 10 AM, we headed outside. The weather was much cooler last week than the previous week, so it was actually bearable. Olivia played in the blowup pool and Jacob cleaned out the toy cabinet while I swept and cleaned off the porch. We hadn’t used it in quite sometime because it’s been so hot, so it needed some attention.
We all came inside for lunch around 12:30, and then afterward, we spent a couple of hours tidying the entire house from top-to-bottom. I wanted everything in its place before the start of school, so Jacob finally got all of his birthday Legos put away, we cleaned up the fort, we washed the kids’ sleeping bags and put them away (no more sleepovers… womp womp), and we got the entire playroom all cleaned up.
After we were done cleaning, the kids played video games while I caught up on life stuff – responded to some school emails, signed Jacob up for baseball, printed off my goals for August, started working on back-to-school stuff, made some to do lists for the kids’ first week back, added a few things to our calendar, booked my blood donation appointment, and I also edited a few photos for an upcoming blog post. It was a super productive afternoon!!
Thursday evening, I made some pasta for dinner, and then we got some more random things done around the house – we deflated and put away the blow-up pool since the kids won’t be using it anymore, we put all of the pool toys away, B got a couple of things done outside that I couldn’t do while he was at work, we broke down our 2,000-piece puzzle and put it away, and we got the kids’ fingernails and toenails trimmed and ready to go for school. Anybody else terrible at remembering to do this?! CRINGE.
After all that, I got in a stair stepper workout while we watched some more of the Olympics. Jacob’s upper lip randomly swelled up huge Thursday evening, and we have no idea why. He wasn’t outside so he couldn’t have gotten stung or bitten, he didn’t eat anything unusual, and he didn’t bump it on anything… it was just the weirdest thing! We gave him some Benadryl, put in a call to have the on-call pediatrician call us back, and she assured us that as long as he was breathing normally then there was nothing to worry about. He never had any breathing problems whatsoever, so we put him and Olivia to bed around 9, and they both went straight into their own beds Thursday night… we had to get them back in the swing of things before school!
Friday, August 6
Friday morning, Jacob’s lip was totally fine, and we were out the door early for Meet the Teacher day at school! This year, parents were allowed in the building with masks, so I was excited to be able to see the kids’ classrooms. I wasn’t able to go in with them last year, and that was just the saddest thing!
Jacob’s classroom for the upcoming year just so happens to be my old sixth grade classroom, so I was hit with a wave of nostalgia upon entering the room. It’s obviously been updated since then, but it still looked mostly the same… and the hallway and classrooms still smell exactly the same as they did when I was there, too. Just so crazy!
Jacob’s teacher this year is one of the moms of one of his classmates, but this is only her second year teaching at our school, so I don’t know her well. We were able to hang out in there with her for 10-15 minutes as well, and she seems like she’s going to be great, too! She had a scavenger hunt for the kids to do when they arrived, and Jacob checked all of the things off – he found his desk, found his locker, found a book that looks interesting in the classroom library, he got his laptop (his first year having his own!), and he learned about safety patrol and decided whether or not he wanted to join. Spoiler alert – he wasn’t interested in the least. Haha. I figured he wouldn’t be, and that’s okay by me, because I don’t want to have to wake up even earlier than we already do to get him to school extra early. Haha.
After the kids went to bed, B and I watched the last three episodes of Outer Banks season 2. We almost got through the finale, but we ended up pausing halfway through and heading to bed because it was so late.
Saturday, August 7
Saturday morning, B grabbed some Krispy Kreme donuts for us for breakfast, and then I spent the morning doing a cardio workout and cleaning the whole house top to bottom – vacuuming, mopping, scrubbing countertops and toilets, and dusting. B mowed while I worked on all that, and by the time lunchtime rolled around, the whole house was spotless and tidy, and the yard was immaculate. Rolling into the new school year all kinds of prepared!!!! Praise hands!!!!
After lunch, B took the kids to play golf with one of his friends from work and his kid, so I had the whole house to myself. Yas! I spent the afternoon meal planning and making my grocery list for the next two weeks, sorting clothes, doing laundry, prepping all the things for back-to-school, working, and tying up some other loose ends like wrapping my dad’s birthday gift, filing some paperwork, etc. This was probably the most productive week I’ve had all summer and it felt great to have everything ready to roll Monday morning for the kids to start school!
We had pizza and beers for dinner, and then we watched Jungle Cruise on Disney+. I have to say, I was a bit disappointed with it. We’d heard so many good things about it, and a couple of people said it was hilarious, but B and I weren’t too impressed. Olivia also mentioned a few times during the movie that she was bored, so I think Jacob was the only one of us who truly enjoyed it. I would say if you have kids, it’s definitely worth a watch, but I would wait until you don’t have to pay $29.99 for it. It definitely wasn’t worth it for that.
Right at the beginning of the movie, Jacob’s fingers and the tops of his feet swelled up and started itching… just like his lip did Thursday night. What?! We were so perplexed and I spent half of the movie racking my brain and making a list of all of the things he ate and did on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The allergic reactions only happened on Thursday and Saturday, with nothing occurring on Friday between them, and there were only two things in common with Thursday and Saturday that didn’t happen on Friday – watermelon and sunscreen.
He’s always eaten watermelon, but the ped on call Thursday evening told us that anybody can all-of-a-sudden just become allergic to something – especially fruits. The only two things he had in common on Thursday and Saturday was that he ate watermelon, and that I had applied some sunscreen. All summer I’ve been using the sunscreen in our beach bag (it’s new!) but on Thursday and Saturday, I grabbed the sunscreen from the kitchen drawer, and we think it was old.
My mom had told me that she had an allergic reaction to some old sunscreen recently, and according to the interwebs, allergic reactions are common to old sunscreen. So, we’re thinking it was most likely the sunscreen that did it, but we’ll probably never know for sure because we threw it straight in the trash! We are going to give him some watermelon again sometime so we can test out that theory, too. Fortunately, Benadryl came to his recue again, and by Sunday morning, he was perfectly fine.
After the movie, we got the kids in the bed, and then B and I finished the last episode of Outer Banks, season two. Y’ALL!! That show, while sometimes predictable, is also sometimes very unpredictable. Now I’m all over here wondering where the heck things are going to go in season three!
Before B and I went to bed, I went to close Olivia's bedroom door, and I just had to snap a picture of her because she sleeps with so. much. stuff. Lol.
Sunday morning was church and the leftovers from our dozen donuts from Saturday, and then I got in a cardio workout before getting ready for the day. We headed to my MIL and step-FIL’s for lunch and they made a delicious spread of meatballs, cheesy potatoes, pineapple casserole, fried green tomatoes, and lots of fresh veggies. We hung out there a lot of the afternoon, and then we headed home.
I got lunchboxes and thermoses and snacks and masks prepped for Monday morning, and then squeezed in an hour of work while the kids played video games one last time. During the school year, they only get video games on weekends, so they’re about to be in for a rude awakening. Haha.
We headed to my momma and daddy’s house for Sunday dinner as we always do, but Sunday evening we had something to celebrate – my daddy’s birthday! My momma made pork chops and rice and fresh field peas and black-eyed peas, and oh my word, it was good. My littlest bro and his BFF came for dinner, too, and it was a great evening celebrating my Daddy!
Happy Tuesday, y’all!
So weird about the allergy thing! I think we get to go inside our school this year too...it's kinda weird since it's been so long since I've been inside. We start next week.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great week. I love that the kids are loving golf!
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to feel woefully underprepared for school to start now... I still have a few more weeks but was just saying today that we MUST get uniforms ordered this week!! We went to the movies while we were on vacation to see Jungle Cruise and we were all a bit disappointed in it too.
ReplyDeleteAw, I hate to hear that y'all were disappointed with it, too. I had wondered if it would be any better if we'd seen it in the theater, but I'm thinking maybe not.
DeleteLove reading about your weeks. It was a good one for you guys! Going to look into that book now... thanks for sharing. :-)
ReplyDeleteSounds like you guys made the most of your last week of summer!
ReplyDelete