Countdown to Summer Break

I took the kids for a bike ride this evening. Well - everyone but Sarah, as she didn't want to ride in the bike trailer with Jason (who loves it, by the way - but then, he's the easy-going one.) So we left Sarah behind with Dad and the rest of us were off.

What a disaster. William is still getting up at the crack of dawn- maybe earlier. He has black-out curtains in his east-facing room, so daylight isn't waking him up. He also has a clock in his room & we've instructed him not to come out before 6-3-0. Matt came down for work Thursday of last week at 5:10am and found him in the basement playing Wii. I had to practically roll him out of bed for school at 7:25, he was so sacked out after Matt sent him back to bed that morning. But back to our ride...

William is exhausted, and when he gets tired, he gets weepy. Everything makes him cry. He was in tears because Jason had his new sandals on but William didn't know where his were (um, how about 'Hey Mom, where are my new sandals??') Anyway - off we went on our ride around our neighborhood. We went maybe a total of 1-1/2 miles, if that, and in the process William

1. Started crying because he thought we'd left him behind
2. Fell off his bike
3. Raced up to a corner and almost knocked a little girl off her bike
4. Almost ran into Evie
5. Almost ran into me
6. Ran into Evie and bent the fender on her bike
7. Fell over in the middle of the street after almost crashing into me
8. Raced ahead, went to make a sweeping turn in the middle of the road to turn around and look for us while not noticing the approaching car

Now, imagine me yelling at him the entire way, because of course I'm worried that he's going to get hurt, and also he's acting like a bit of a doofus and I'm embarrassed - but I guess I should know by now that's par for the course for Momhood. Principle Number 1- Be Prepared to Be Embarrassed Daily By Your Offspring. We did make it home alive, after I'd banished William to sidewalk riding only. Matt has since removed the Wii and Xbox from the basement playroom.

In the meantime, we have 7-1/2 days of school to go here in Mayberry, until the true test of my parental fortitude begins.

Instead of trying to entertain Sarah and Jason at the soccer field on Saturday mornings, I will be entertaining Sarah and Jason and William at the pool every morning for 7 weeks. I hit all the $1 sections of Target, Michaels and Joann fabrics last week stocking up on crafts to keep in my 'pool craft bag'.

Sarah and William will be doing swimming lessons every morning after swim team, so then I'll be entertaining Evie and Jason for 30 minutes. (William tried out for swim team last week - apparently, he gets his natural ability from me, whereas Evie takes after her dad...)

We really do have a packed summer ahead. The last week of June is Vacation Bible School in the evenings - and they take 3 year olds! No word yet on if they have to be potty trained...(do you think that would be enough incentive for Sarah? I'm a pessimist so I say NOT).

My younger sister and her family are coming for the 4th of July, and Matt's sister is coming in mid-July with her family so she and I can learn to ride motorcycles - VROOM VROOM!

Evie's doing a pottery camp, Hogwarts camp (I hope she's not disappointed, expecting real magic...), and her first Girl Scout sleep-away camp - 3 nights in August! while William will be headed to a morning basketball camp one week and Let's Get Cooking! camp...

We just planned a last minute trip to visit The Mouse for the very first time, we will be driving to Disney World in August for a few days - I've been really itching to get Evie and William down to the Magic Kingdom before they get too much bigger to really enjoy it, and I can't wait for Jason to meet Mickey Mouse in person - hopefully he won't be terrified - Mickey is his very favorite Mouse :)
And finally, my mom is coming to visit the weekend before we head back to school and our fall whirlwind of birthdays for everyone in our family with the exception of Matt, our lone spring birthday.

So - with ALL that going on, surely the summer will fly by, right? I've decided to treat lunch time like the schools do - I'm going to serve a different lunch each day, but everyone has to eat the same thing - I'm done playing short-order cook and making 4 lunches to each individual's taste every day. Like it or lump it!

And as summer is flying by and my children are making my hair ever-whiter, I clearly won't have time to color it every 3 weeks like I have been - I'm thinking about just letting it go white.

What do you think the chances are I would look as cool as Storm, and not like the Old Lady who was staring back at me from the bathroom mirror last week at the movie theater? Pre-root touch-up, of course - I REALLY need to stay on top of that - or invest in a bunch of hats - or wigs...