Gearing up!

We've been gearing up for summer for months now. With an early start it was easy to do! We finished 4th grade & Kindergarten back on April 1st. We've been out for several weeks now. It's just as much a vacation for us as it is the girls. The flowers have been planted for several weeks also. They are doing splendidly. I am sitting here enjoying the gorgeous hot pink petunias that are climbing & cascading around my windows. This was my first year trying out wave petunias in my windowboxes. I like them so much that I had Josh add 6 more windowboxes on other windows. Flowers are my thing and they help me to relax after a busy stressful day. We have been planning the different stuff the kids will be doing. Aliyah decided she wanted to go to camp this year. It is for 6 days and is all day/night. They sleep at the camp too. She is pretty excited about it. She is earning money to go. She helps me with stuff that we are going to sell by arranging it, checking sizes, and sometimes picturing it. She has come a long way and has $78 left to earn. It is a good experience for her to learn what it is like to earn the money. When we sell stuff, it goes into her camp fund. It is crazy that it is only less than a month away already! We have VBS and swim lessons too! As much as I love summer and all of the fun stuff to do, the last few weeks have left me beyond tired. Josh is working more days & more hours. We are in slow mo on our projects this year. We have painted recently in our LR and basement. There is still tile to be put down and a garage project to work on...the work never ends =). I've been having fun going to sales. We have had a few things to find for Aliyah to take to camp. We found shorts, shirts etc... When I got the info last week I found out about a couple of items she still needed. This may sound weird, but our kids don't own tennis shoes. They wear Crocs for anything like that. Anyway, tennis shoes are required for certain activities. They ask for two pairs and we have one so far. They are a bit big for teeny foot. She is 9 1/2 and wears a size 12 or 13. These are a size 1. My mom found them at a sale for $1. Yay! I wish I had the time to do fun posts on what we find at sales, however I do well to keep up on laundry & housecleaning! Trust me, we've had fun! Okay, I will share 2 things: I found a set of white Crate & Barrel Popcorn Bowls (1 big and 4 small bowls) for $7. Josh joked that we could eat imaginary popcorn out of them, but the joke is over now! I found a Cuisinart air popper a couple of days ago...still in box for...drumroll.....$2!!! Now all we nee to do is pick up some popcorn kernels and we are set!! Break to say that I normally HATE commercials but some of them catch my attention...Weber is one of them! Love the commercial! Well, I know this was short, but I have laundry that keeps calling for me. Time to dry, fold, and put away!