Summer Plans, Swimming Suit Blues, Roller Skatin' Fool

Today we were finally able to have a summer kind of day. I've had at least one sick kid constantly since school has been out until today! Bleh. Julia had a fever of almost 104 last week, poor baby.

You'd think with all that staying at home and not going anywhere because of being contagious, I would have at least been thinking up a plan of fun things to do once everyone was well. But alas, I am not that smart. So tonight I have been quite disappointed to find that many of the really cool summer programs for John David are full. I want to take the kids swimming a lot, but that's going to be kind of hard unless I can find a pool that has a kiddie area. The pools that I've found so far don't have that and they also don't allow any kind of floaties - just life jackets. That's no good for us. PLUS, you can't take in your own food and drinks!

And of course, there's the swimsuit dilemma. As in, I don't have one. If there's any one thing I deplore shopping for, it would have to be a bathing suit. Do I a) go for the skirted one that covers up more of me but ages me 15 or 20 years? Or do I b) get a really cool looking, more modern suit that may will most definitely show just how badly I need to go on a diet? OR c) Just wear an extra large long black tee shirt over whatever old swimming suit I can find on the clearance rack? I'm sure I'll figure something out.

Some things we want to do here in town this summer:

• train museum
• butterfly conservatory
• pick blackberries at the farm and/or go to the farmer's market
• castaway cove water park
• Kell House Museum (an old house - think plantation style - that's still furnished and in tact)
• picnic at the park
• swim swim swim
• ride the trolley around town

Now I just have to figure out how to add these things in to the normal everyday things like cooking, shopping, cleaning, bathing (ok, I admit it, bathing is not an everyday thing here. there's just not always time! we have lots of washcloth baths before bedtime.).

Tonight I cooked mickey mouse spaghetti (mickey shaped pasta!) and we ate outside. Then we played for a long time. John David got some roller skates today so he was rolling around on those while the girls played with the riding toys. That boy wore his skates all afternoon and night until I made him take them off for bedtime. He was so cute! He's really gotten pretty good at it too. It's just amazing how many things he's learning in such a short period of time. I should also mention that he's now playing the piano. He seems to really enjoy sitting down and practicing his songs. I'll put a video up soon.........