I laughed so hard, I'm not sure it wasn't good for my heart

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Tooth #2

Goosey lost her second tooth today. It was pretty loose, so I told her she should just twist and tug a little and it would pop right out--and it did! She's really excited since this is the first one that she pulled out herself.

Week 4

Kidz Kamp was good. Goosey and Dogger learned about Japan, China, Greece, Italy and Egypt. Lew and I had fun running errands and playing together. We were rained out from our lake swim, but a friend rescued us by offering the pool at the hotel where they're staying. We also did lots of Relief Society stuff this week. Whew! Now we can get back to normal.

The upcoming week:

Movie and popcorn at the library

Swimming at the lake

Charlotte's Web musical at our local community theater

Boston Children's Museum

(Tomorrow is our family outing to the Shaker Village, so hopefully I'll have some fun pictures from that trip.)

A gift for Baby Parkes

My sister is decorating Baby T's nursery in black and white with lime green accents. I thought I'd make a little something for it.

Week 3

Goosey and Dogger are going to Kidz Kamp three mornings this week. They're quite excited because the theme is "Around the World". They get to learn about other cultures through clothing, food, and games.

We will be swimming at our local lake again since that was a huge hit. We'll also be taking a trip to the Canterbury Shaker Village and running a few Relief Society errands.

I'm also excited to spend some one-on-one time with Lew while the other two are at Kamp.

The Half-Blood Prince

Craig and I saw Harry Potter 6 today. I can't decide if I've gotten used to the fact that they can't include everything from the books, or if I just think they did a great job on the last two movies. Either way, I say well done!

While Slughorn physically looked nothing like I imagined him in the book, I thought Jim Broadbent was brilliant. Truly, I thought his acting was the highlight of the film.

My biggest complaint is that Ron still continues to be the comic relief for the movies. I wish they'd give him a little more substance, like the books, so that the non-reader audiences can understand why on earth Hermione has a thing for him. I confess that Ron is my favorite of the trio, so I'd like a little more fidelity to his book character.

I hope the last two blow us out of the water....I'm already anticipating.

This week

Last week's outings were awesome.

On the docket this week:

a visit to the Robert Frost Farm

riding bikes in the church parking lot

the Currier Museum of Art

swimming at a local lake

Ward luau

I love summer!

Pay to Play

This is our school district. It's a hot topic right now. Not mentioned in the clip is the fact that the current plan is a sliding scale. So, if students qualify for reduced or free lunches the "pay to play" fees will be adjusted also.

When I was in school we paid $5 per sport, with a family maximum of $25/year. There were no fees for band, choir, drama, etc. However, when I cheered we each had to come up with several hundred dollars for our camp and uniforms. Most of it was covered by fundraisers that spanned the summer.

To be honest, I don't have a big problem with the "pay to play" idea. I'd really just like to see our teachers get their jobs back.

Is your school district facing these problems? How are they handling it?

P.S. The big budget problem stems from the fact that the school budget is part of the city budget. And the mayor gets to vote to break ties on the school board....and any time we get some school money the mayor reduces the school budget by that amount and turns that money over to the city operating budget. And he refuses to raise taxes because he has "bigger" political plans and wants to be able to say he never raised taxes (the math was done and it was found that the average homeowner would only have to pay $12 more in taxes each month to fix the budget). But this post isn't about that, so I'll stop before I really get going.

A real summer break

This is Goosey's first summer break. Because of the snow days we had to make up it's going to be a very short one--9.5 weeks. That's it! Now that camp is over I'm making this count.

At the beginning of each week I'm scheduling out every day so that I don't get lazy. I don't assign times to activities because I believe in letting kids sleep in. But there's a list to be accomplished each day--in the order listed. It also leaves some wiggle room for things that pop up and free time. Here's this week:

MONDAY

Wii Fit

breakfast

play outside

lunch

home summer school for Goosey & Dogger-- language arts & history/geography, nap for LEw

dinner

Family Home Evening

TUESDAY

Wii Fit

breakfast

visit Noah's farm

lunch

school--language arts & music, Lew nap

dinner

Dad night (I'm at church meetings)

WEDNESDAY

Wii Fit

breakfast

swimming

lunch

school-- language arts & math, Lew nap

dinner

Mom night (Craig's at church meetings)

THURSDAY

Wii Fit

breakfast

grocery shopping / errands

lunch

school-- language arts & visual arts, Lew nap

dinner

family movie night

FRIDAY

Wii Fit

breakfast

library

lunch ("Lunch Bunch" group at library)

school-- language arts & science, Lew nap

dinner

Mom & Dad date night

SATURDAY

Wii Fit

breakfast

take kids to the Boston Temple

lunch

yard work

dinner

SUNDAY

rest

I also have an area of the house to clean and a type of laundry to do each day M-F. And, something to accomplish each night after the kids go to sleep (reading, quilting, presidency meeting) so that I don't end up just watching House Hunters online.

How was camp?

Rainy, wet, cold and slow at the waterfront...or, absolutely wonderful!

Happy Independence Day

Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed - else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.

~Dwight D. Eisenhower