Weekly Wrap Up - Hello July

My best friend has the girls up to visit for a week in the summer.  They used to go the same week when they were younger, but now they go on separate weeks so they can get one on one time with each kid.  Lindsey headed out this past weekend for her visit.  Olivia will go in late summer/early fall.

Monday Olivia finally started her full time job at the YMCA.  She had to be onsite by 7am, so she drove us over, then I drove home alone.  Since Lindsey's on vacation this week, I'm filling in watching Bella.  She arrived around 7:30am.   I've found that Bella is a huge fan of art, so we learned a little about Claude Monet, and then I showed her how to use watercolors (the expensive one's, not those kid packs from the store).   We worked on a recreation of "The Water Lily Pond".

We spent much of the morning outside at the church playground.  It was in the 90's, but no humidity and there was a breeze, so it was great.  Bella's grandmother picked her up at 11am, and I spent the rest of the day checking off my things to do list.  Olivia didn't get off work until 5:30pm.  I don't think a 10.5 hour day is what any of the staff was expecting.  Dinner was pork loin, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls and pudding.

Tuesday morning was a repeat of Monday.  Bella was here for the entire day.  I helped her make and wrap a wedding gift for her mom (wedding is 7/4).  We ran a few errands, and mailed some used curriculum out to new owners.  I decided we'd try working with pointillism for our art project.  It was a valiant effort, but it wasn't a good fit for her artistic bent, ahem.

Bella has expressed an interest in volcanoes, so for grins and giggles I introduced her to the world of mentos and diet coke.  I planned to video tape the event, but her enthusiasm got the best of her and she chucked the whole roll of mentos in the bottle before I had my camera even turned on.   Her eyes were as wide as saucers watching that geyser of coke fly into the air.   After lunch it was nap time, and I worked on laundry and some reading while the house was quiet.  She left at 5 and I picked Olivia up at 5:45, she had to be at jiu-jitsu by 6, so it was a tight schedule.  Dinner was baked chicken and macaroni & cheese.

Wednesday was Momma's 93 birthday, celebrated in Heaven of course.  We were out the door early to drop Olivia off, and Bella was here at her usual time as well.  We spent the early morning outside playing before the heat moved in.  Then it was inside to have some more fun with volcanoes and chemical reactions, followed by finger painting, lunch and naptime.  It's been fun having a little one to work with these last couple days, she's been very good and full of animation and imagination.

Bella's grandmother picked her up around 4pm and will be keeping her the rest of the week.  I picked Olivia up a little after 5:30.  We'd promised her we'd get pizza one night this week, so we did that for dinner.  IT was our first time sitting down in a restaurant to eat since back in March.  We were the only folks there, besides workers.  

Thursday I dropped Olivia off at work and headed to Walmart to pick up a few groceries while I was on that side of town.  I was back home before 8am, and worked on packing up craft supplies and hands on learning items for Bella's mom.  She'll be homeschooling her in the fall, and so I figured I'd pass on what is left from when the girls were little.  I ran back out mid morning to go to the bank and pick up a few items at Aldi's.

Friday morning I took Olivia to work, then the husband and I went out to breakfast at a little local dive.  They have THE best chipped beef gravy.  Then we went to get Lindsey and bring her home from her week of vacationing.   Now it's time to work on laundry and get ready for the weekend.

Have a great weekend celebrating our Independence Day!