Family Sleepover

Bisson Family Fun Night had to be moved to Saturday night this weekend.  While we tried to pack tons of stuff into the weekend, we were left to just Saturday night.

We decided to watch Camp Rock and have a sleepover in the family room!  The girls totally loved moving our beds into the family room and having a fun sleepover. 

And the last day of spirit week was a purple day!

Take That June Cleaver

This picture always makes me laugh...  why didn't this make the christmas card?

Yesterday was one of those days..  Hopefully the kind of day that only follows a full moon, the kind of day I can at some point laugh about and not scream obscenities.  I have a sign that hangs in our kitchen that says:  "Just do your best".  Well I thought about that sign alot yesterday.... and if yesterday was my best, then we are all in for a world of hurt.

It started out at 7am with the girls playing happily, but unloading ALL of their toys into the Family room.  I know this is where it all got derailed.  I was trying to get them to redirect to say the toy room on the first floor, or say the basement which is filled with their toys or perhaps their bedrooms.  Nope, they wanted to play where Simon and I were of course in the middle of everything because their was no room in the other rooms.  That's great just take over the house.  More for me to clean later.  No big deal.

So I go upstairs to get their clothes and make beds, where I notice a large stain in Lucy's room on her sheets, so I get the clothes, and Ll the sheets off the beds.  While I bring everything down I notice that Ruthie is sitting at the kitchen table doing homework while eating breakfast and junk piled up everywhere, as I panic as she is doing homework in green marker, I say... "RUTHIE WHAT ARE YOU DOING?  YOU CAN'T DO YOUR HOMEWORK IN GREEN MARKER, AND BESIDES WHY ARE YOU DOING IT NOW AND WHY DIDN'T YOU ASK FOR HELP?"  When what I should have said, according to Simon was.....  "Ruthie great job on taking the initiative to do your homework on your own, you are doing a great job."  So Simon and I "discuss" the merits of the way that goes down, and Ruthie begins to cry, saying she doesn't want to go to school and she is extremely upset.  Great!  mark one in my column, make that 2, because I am now mad at Simon and blaiming him for me being flustered. 

Finally get Ruthie to decide she will go to school, take Lucy, and Ruthie to school, Great start to the morning!  I am cleaning the kitchen and crying, as this is the way to start the day when I go to the laundry room to change the sheets and literally inside the washer is a bottle of shampoo!  Seriously!  Where in the heck did a bottle of shampoo come from between carrying the sheets downstairs putting them in the washer?  Take out the shampoo, wash the sheets again.  Empty dishwasher, clean up all toys (6 trips) up the stairs and move to the toy room. Where I notice.. Oh great I left the cover off the grill last night.  Go to put the cover back on the grill on the deck and realize... Not only did I leave the cover off, I left the grill on the entire night and now the propane has run out. 
** forget to mention while I realized all this I was talking to my neighbor on the phone, at which point she accuses me of "BECOMING MY MOTHER"!  Great!!! More choice words for her and we decided to go for a walk and get out of the house!

As I am walking out of the house, I notice Ruthie's Library book and it is Library day at school.  Take the book on our walk, swing by school.  Great!  She is soooo going to be pissed off at me!  Redemption for me by bringing the library book!

The rest of the day goes by well with nothing much to report other than the first thing Ruthie says to me when I meet her outside the school..  "I HAVE AN OVERDUE LIBRARY BOOK"  Which for a Kindergarten child is pretty upsetting, or maybe just a Bisson drama queen!  I guess even though I ran the book up to school by 10am I already missed library.  I also guess you don't get points for trying!

I wasn't even going to try and make dinner last night.  Chinese take-out!  While I know these things are not life altering or earth shattering, all together they can bring you down, and make you think that the only job you have in life, you are not doing very well. 

Today's events.....

**Breakfast playdate at our house after I drop off Ruthie.  2  Moms, 4 kids  (already made half the breakfast stuff)
**  Lucy playdate at her friends at noon
**  have to go to the store in the hour that she is at her friends
**  Come home make appetizers for beer party for tonight at neighbors.
**  Pick up Ruthie from school take everyone to after school birthday party.

**  Babysitter at 6 for beer party

**  tomorrow soccer game at 10am

**  Pumpkin Patch after game before party

**  Football party at 2pm

** Bisson Family Fun night.  We are all moving our beds into the family room and having a sleepover with movies!  Yippee!  And nothing is planned for Sunday but a big brunch and sleeping in!

Wish me luck, if I can't get through the mundane this should be a real interesting 48 hours!

Take that June Cleaver

Ruth Catherine

Is really starting to get into school.  She is enjoying her time and loved the spirit week activities this week.

Tuesday was pajama day...

Wednesday was crazy hair day.

And me... my biggest accomplishment is my fall decor.  We are getting pumpkins this weekend.

Lucy Martin

Lucy had a field trip with school this week and she had a lovely time.  She really enjoyed playing with her friends from school.  My favorite part was the yummy doughnuts and cider!

All day my focus is trying to keep Lucy occupied, if it was up to her, she would come home and take a nap and watch tv all day.  We have a pretty rigorous schedule of activity, workbook/education time, etc.  I literally left the room for 5 minutes and I come back to this......

10 of Tuesday

1.  Lucy is sick, with what I thought was a sinus infection, but it could be something else.  She is on Amoxicillan, but still had 103.2 fever last night.  Looks like another day on the couch today.

2.  She cried so hard when I told her she had to miss school again today.  That is the best news of the day.  Wierdly, this means that she really does like school and thankfully was sad when she couldn't go.  Let's keep up that momentum.  I hope that she is able to go some point this week.  But another day on the couch for us!

3.  Ruthie is really liking school and is making friends and having fun.  I heard from another mom the other day while standing outside school....  "Your daughter is Ruthie.  My son talks about her all the time, wants to make her an art project and plans on marrying her".  Great sir get in line.  When I asked Ruthie if she knew who said boy was she looked at me and was like NO, never heard of him before in my life.  It did make me want to interrogate someone.

4.  Ruthie has a fieldtrip and is terrified to go on the bus because she got sick on all the busses at Disney.  She has requested her father to attend the trip and ride the bus with her.  The teacher said that was fine, that he could attend, that she wouldn't make him do any work and that it wouldn't be that bad.  I had to control myself when I told the teacher... "This is my husbands dream, I am surprised he doesn't sit outside the window at school all day and watch".  He would be at school all day everyday if he was able.

5.  Lucy went to the doctor and our favorite doctor is moving to Alaska for 2 years.  So bummed she so awesome.  She will call us on the weekend from her cell phone to check on the girls.  It is so hard to find someone you really truly love and trust with your family.  There are a bunch of other doctors in the practice, but we will really miss Dr. Sarah!

6.  She measured Lucy because she felt that she had grown so much at camp...  Well she did, she grew 4 inches since May.  Holy Smokes.  That is crazy!

7. I really need to find some time to get out on my road bike.  Simon has been putting more miles on my bike lately than I have.

8.  Fall is my favorite season.  I love the way it smells...  well that and the smell of new shoes..  Who is with me?

9.  Speaking of shoes...  It is UGG time.  yahoo.  Bring it!

10.  Go Buckeyes. 

Apple Orchard

We headed to the apple orchard yesterday.  Tons of fun.  Not at all crowded and after much pressure we got Lucy to go on the zipline, and then we couldn't get her to get off the zipline.  Success!  Now today decorate our front porch and make some apple pies!

Balloon Championships

Favorite thing about our town is all the different balloon competitions they have.  It is so  beautiful to look up in the sky and see TONS of balloons.  Now, if you were to ask me to go up in one, I would absolutely go into cardiac arrest.  My feet need to be firmly planted on the ground at all times. 

                                                                              Our house

                                                                       Front Yard

Another view check out the robes

Different Day

First Day of School

It is so hard to believe that the girls are in SCHOOL.  Ruthie is in full day Kindergarten, and Lucy is in preschool every monring of the week except Friday.

Ruthie is adjusting to school and is liking it, but it is a really long day.  We leave for school at 8:15 and we don't pick her up from school until 3:40.  At which time she is exhausted and grumpy and wants to come home and lay on the couch and watch TV.  I wonder where she gets that from.

Lucy is also slow to adjust, she has the same teacher that Ruthie had last year who is amazing.  Yet, she is tired and cranky when she gets home and we are still working out the kinks of our weekly routine. 

I was joking when I talked with some friends saying that my work here is done now that they are both in school.  I can really sit back relax and watch soap opera's all day and eat chocolate on the couch.  However that has not been the case yet.  Whatever.  Major disaapointment!  The girls have always been totally adaptable, yet we have been through alot these past few months so it is not as easy round here as one would think.  We have had MANY sleepless nights, MANY temper tantrums, Many crying attacks and many adult beverages.  And that has just been my behavior!  So you can only imagine the kids...

We are hoping to really get into the swing of things by the end of the month.  So please keep your fingers crossed!  Hoping to get back to regular updates soon!

Beach Week

We went to the beach directly after camp. I actually had to leave camp a week early.... (which I totally felt sick about).  I was ready to see Simon and go on vacation but I have never been one of those people who leave camp early.  I stay till the bitter end.  But since we already paid for our vacation, and Brian did call at the very last minute about camp, we agreed that we had to go to the beach.  So needless to say, after 8+ weeks of 4 hours of sleep a night on average and only 2 half days off, I was exhausted.  We laid around and did nothing, and I took hardly any pictures.  We had a great time, just pretty low key.

And our good friends, Andy and Ellen and their kids came out for the week with their kids.  That was great because it is always good to see friends and the kids all got along so well together.

Camp

I have had a hard time writing this post........

I guess I didn't want to come to grips with camp being over. We had the most amazing summer. The only way to really summarize it is to put it in lists.... While I say I had a great time, I really do need to write down some of the negatives (for inquiring minds) and for me to read when I think about doing it again.

Positives
* The girls grew in ways I never imagined. Lucy became a little bit less shy and dare I say outgoing.
* Ruthie in the dining hall with the tray was a force to be reckoned with.
* They were the youngest girls there by 2 years, yet you would never have known, they just jumped right in.
* The friendships we made will last forever, both the girls and mine.
* I got to work again at a job I absolutely have always loved
* I didn't have to cook for the entire summer
* The girls are amazing swimmers
* Lucy finally got on stage for an MTV night and DANCED!
* You should see the girls cupid shuffle, istanbul, cha cha slide Amazing!
* The birds chirping
* The whooping it up till all odd hours of the night when I should have been sleeping. Totally camp style. Who needs sleep, when the bar is still open!
* Ruthie passed her swim test
* getting to wear rain boots just for the heck of it.
* Got to wear tons of dress up clothes.
* Grilled cheese and camp food!
* seeing old friends!


CONS
* Being away from Simon. I know he really struggled with us being away for so long.
* I only had 2 Half days off the entire summer! Yes, that is right 2 half days! I didn't even take the girls with me. I just went to get a massage and my hair done!
* VERY long hours. Many nights I was up working extremely late, one night I never slept, and a couple nights it was 1am.
* I only managed 1 nap for an hour the entire summer.
* I worked just as hard if not harder than when I was full time.
* Camp has really changed, all for the better but it requires alot more work.
* Many nights I did not put my girls to bed. Yet, I was with other peoples kids.
* I really strived to not be a camp parent, that backfired when they didn't want to have anything to do with me, except for when I was extremely busy and didn't have the time, then they REALLY needed me.
* I never got to swim, except for a couple of times when I just jumped in with my clothes on.
* I never got to see my girls do ropes, tennis, swim lessons, or other activities.
* It never failed when I promised to go to an activity with them, I got pulled away or never could make it.


I have been working on a video of the girls, I cried the first few times I watched it realizing, I didn't take the majority of these pictures, Ashley our nanny did. I missed it all. I want them to remember the people, the camp facilities and the fun. They were very happy there.

Tex our fabulous photographer has taken some amazing shots of the girls, when I went to buy them off the company that he has to upload them to... They were over $400. Soo, I am still working on getting some more photos, but while I am working on them here is what we were up to......