The Dog Days are Done . . .

The kids and I spent our last day of summer together at Denton Water Works (I highly recommend, by the way).  They went down slides, hung out in the lazy river, jumped off diving boards and got splashed by a ton of fountains and spray things.  I am constantly amazed at the progress that has occurred in water-play engineering since I was a kid, swimming in the large community pool surrounded by a decrepit chainlink fence.  Friday was a wonderful ending to the longest summer I can remember. 

We did a million things, and because where we live rocks, most of them were cheap or free: although you will quickly find that most places we went probably wish they had charged my crazy kids for access.

1.  Kate had her birthday party at Zone Action Park (thank you Groupon).  She wanted to invite her entire kindergarten class, and I quickly learned that kindergarten is when parents drop off at parties.  I completely understand; I love the two hours of free babysitting that a birthday party provides.     Besides being unable to find one child for an uncomfortably long time when his mom picked him up, and having to call a mom to see if her child had made it home (He did. WHEW!), I think it was a big success. 

2.  We took swimming lessons with Miss Sherry. Watson, who cried at the mere prospect of removing his floaties in May, was swimming to the deep end by the end of the summer.  I see very little of swimming lessons, as I spend most of my time "getting to know" the other moms who get to sit poolside with me. I also might add that Watson also learned to ride his teeny bike this summer. It was a big summer for him.

3.    We went to the Red, White and Blue Festival.  Actually, we drove by and the parking lot was too full, so we went to our favorite little peninsula on the lake, waited for an hour, decided to drive off, and, just as would be expected, the fireworks started immediately when we left. We quickly found a cul-de-sac and watched.  When I say "we", I mean Philip found one with me yelling, "Hurry! They're going to miss it!" in his ear.  The kids made friends with another crew of preschoolers, and all of them found climbing over our car's hood and roof much for fascinating than the show. A day in the life with kids . . .a three-hour wait for five minutes of entertainment.  Our town does the firework show the first weekend of June,  but we also went to a high point to watch neighboring fireworks on the Fourth of July.  That is until Watson ate the glo-stick, and we had to go home. 

4.  WE SWAM!! We swam at the pools (every one of them).  We swam at friends' house (thanks Sylvester, King, McCurdy and Fernandez families).  We swam with our families (thanks Walter and Joy and Emmy and Pops). We went to Old Town Aquatic Park, Sun Valley Aquatic Park and Denton Water Works (all within 15 minutes of the house).  We even went out to the Chisholm Aquatics Center in Hurst, where the kids spent so much time on the slides, my best friend and I actually got to have an uninterrupted conversation (which we have not done in years).  Yeah, Jill!

5.  WE BOATED!! We were blessed to take two trips to Possum Kingdom Lake (thanks Phillips family), where the kids learned to jump off the roof of a boat dock (thanks Philip).  And we got to go on several day trips to Lake Lewisville (thanks Griders).  I actually swam in the lake and enjoyed it, wearing my life jacket diaper. One of the sweetest moments was when Watson fell asleep on the boat for an hour while I held him; it has been so long since I held one of my sleeping babies. Poor kid ending up with a vicious sunburn! I guess staring at the sky without moving for an hour will do that to you.

6.  We hung out at the library. While I was a horrible reading teacher mom (we did not come close to reading our 24-hour goal), we did get some new picture books and TONS of movie fun!  We even read a few Magic Treehouse books.  CHAPTER BOOKS MAKE ME SO HAPPY!  Unfortunately, the acoustic dome at the Lewisville Library does not.  I am not sure if children yelling into the dome was the intended effect of such construction, but my children certainly think so.

7.  We experienced STAR WARS.  Thanks to the Purvis family and the Lewisville library, we watched the entire Star Wars series.  I did not watch them as a kid, so I may have loved it more than the kids.  Well, no one could love it more than Watson, who talks about it twenty-four hours a day and tries to turn everything into a light saber. Watson even found a Darth Vader mask at Kid-to-Kid for $10, and he likes to say, "I am your father" over and over again.  He actually looks like the kid in the VW commercial, and that makes me smile. 

8.  We ate!! This was actually the most dangerous of all.  At Chick-fil-A, Watson popped a balloon so loudly that the ENTIRE RESTAURANT took cover, and I do not exaggerate because even the manager said he ducked under the counter.   That same day, a boy came running out of the playroom because another little boy punched him.  Turns out the culprit was my Star Wars-crazed preschooler.  And, I won't even mention the antics we had at Burger King . . .

9.  We lost teeth.  And, I mean we lost them.  Kate has lost two teeth this summer (and one is hanging on by a disgustingly loose thread).   When she lost the first tooth, she wrote the tooth fairy, "Please do not take the tooth but leave me a present."  So, the sweet and wonderful tooth fairy did just that.  What happened the next day when I dragged my two children through the metal detectors at the Denton Courthouse to get copies of our marriage certificate? The tooth was dropped in the center of a sea of white linoleum.  There I was, on the floor of the courthouse, looking for A TOOTH! The security guards began to get worried, and we had to let it go.  She cried, but it was better than mom getting questioned and detained.

10.  We watched the Olympics.  How incredible was it to watch the kids realize that the USA is a pretty cool place.  While I am sure the "edited" programming made it look like we were the only team who competed, watching the medal ceremonies and hearing the Star-Spangled Banner over and over again made us all swell with pride. I loved hearing them say about the winner, "Is that our team?"  and react in awe that we had won again.   

One thing we did not do: NAP!!! There was one day Watson took a nap and another day Kate took a nap.  But, they were certainly not the same day.  We often saw 10 pm and rarely saw 7 am. We definitely need a vacation from our vacation, and I think school is just the thing! :)