I picked up Holly from National Young Scholars Camp at Wake Forest University yesterday. She had a great week - supposedly learning leadership skills and becoming a proficient communicator, but I think mostly she enjoyed dancing in the halls with new friends and having what sounds like very little adult supervision. The last night apparently 20 girls on her hall (everyone minus Holly, her roommate, and 2 other girls) had a party in someone's room and all got in pretty big trouble. They were listening to music and eating mac and cheese. Pretty harmless it sounds, but I did breathe a sigh of relief to know Holly wasn't in on it.
Now she says she thinks she'd like going to college at Wake. I guess I'd be okay with that... but I'm pretty sure the next campus she visits she will also fall in love with. She also announced that EVERYBODY had a phone except her. And sounds like everybody had a cell phone that's nicer than mine. One girl got her phone when she turned 7. And she repeated dropped the phone - throwing it to the ground from her bed - to show her friends how indestructable it is. Great. Now I'm sure Holly will be joining Julia in the phone request.
Alan and Julia had a pretty good week while Holly was off. I don't guess we did anything too extreme or out of the ordinary, but Julia did have a friend sleepover and then have a mini party with that friend and another in the backyard. Alan got to go swimming one afternoon and he got his share of computer time. He also bought a special bat and ball with a birthday giftcard (Thanks, Dad and Ginny!) and we spent some time out in the 100 degree heat with him hitting his cool ball - it flies over 300 feet! - and me going and retrieving it. He has some pretty good coordination.
Jillian got a baby swing hung on the grape arbor and the Sean made the big kids a tire swing like you would find at a playground. Holly hasn't seen it yet, but Julia and Alan spent the whole afternoon on it Thursday.
I've spent the last few weeks painting. I suppose I could write a whole post on the house projects - which probably is a good idea. I painted the master bedroom and bathroom, and the hall bath, and the girls' room. Glimmer and Silver Chalice were the paint colors - a very light blue and silver/grey/almost lavender. We - as in Sean - put in a sink from Ikea in the hall bath. It's smaller than the old vanity and is requiring the floor be changed, which has been started and will be finished as time allows I guess. The sink installation was not simple and required a number of trips to Home Depot since nothing matched in sizes and nothing lined up nicely. My contribution was to assemble the cabinet that is under the sink. And to repeatedly request that the sink be put in the bathroom so as to get it off the dining table. It wasn't easy for me either, but I think I got the better part of it all.
We've got another month-ish before school starts and hope to get to the beach a few times. We're planning a trip to TN to see some family, too. I have a feeling the time is going to fly by. It always does. This weekend is the weekend my high school class is gathering for our 20 year reunion. It doesn't seem possible that I've been out of high school that long - but then again, it seems another lifetime, too.
As for a Jillian update - she loves her swing. She prefers standing to sitting for the most part. She babbles. She giggles. She's happy to have the big kids back. And lately she doesn't really want to nap, for fear maybe that she'll miss something. I can barely see the white of a top tooth coming down to join the 2 bottom teeth she has already. And she still crawls all over Bugsy and he still just takes it and comes back for more.
I saw trees on the drive yesterday that looks like they're turning colors for fall. Probably just because they were so hot and dry, but it makes me believe that summer really is winding down just when we got started.
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