Last Day of School!!!

No more pencils.
No more books.
No more teacher's dirty looks.

Remember that rhyme?

My teen is probably singing this song with her friends and soon my tween will do as she goes on to 8th grade at our local middle school next school year.

Me?  I'm looking forward to days in Disneyland,  pool, road trips, beach days, sleeping in, movie marathons, visiting my Mami, family visits, and fun with friends. Maybe teach myself the art of crocheting and jewelry making.  I would love to check out any easy hiking trails here in California and in Florida.

It sounds like I want to do a lot but I want this summer to be one of the best and memorable summers.  Life is short and I'm tired of holding back because the kids would rather be at a very close distance to our home Wi-Fi.

Noon today is the beginning of our summer vacation, what will you be up to?

No Wii? No Cable? Boring life? Oh please!

Yesterday someone asked what did we do for fun since we didn't own the latest in video game consoles or subscribed to cable.
I simply said, "We go outside".

Let me explain.

We are a busy family.
During the day as I send my husband and oldest daughter to work and school I am home with my youngest.  Our school day starts at about 8am until 3ish.  We get ready and head out to our local YMCA where my daughters are taking a variety of dance classes, an art class or an acting class.  We are there for a good 2 hours a day.


My husband picks us up on the way home.  Sometimes we go to the library first and pick up books and videos.  We read A LOT.  You will always find a book in our bags.  Depending on our schedule for the weekend, we go food shopping.
Once we are home, we start our evening routine which consists of dinner, shower, grading, math tutoring and homework.
After all is done, we do watch an hour or two of TV.  It might be in a form of a video from the library (we watched Cars 2 last week) or a show on TV.
Once the weekend comes around we are not home much.
Our Saturdays are filled with the teen interning and the tween going to girl scouts and acting/theatre class.
Sometimes they have a gig which is usually an all day event.  They love their job.  Sundays is our day of rest.  If they don't have a gig you will find us at home watching movies (again the library has tons of free movies.  My husband and I watched In the Land of Blood and Honey last week) and resting.  Sometimes my husband wants a day of fun because of a stressful week and we go to Disneyland.


You see?

Why have the latest in gaming or shell out all that money for cable if we can enjoy what is all around us?  The library lends us so many wonderful books (and if you have an e-reader you can borrow from there) and videos.  Why do I want to shell out hundreds of dollars a year to let it go to waste?  We enjoy doing things as a family.  Yes, Disneyland is starting to get expensive because of ticket prices but where else can a family hang out and go on rides, dance, and just enjoy your surroundings with the added security measures they put into place?
Maybe they idea of sitting around all day long is something I sometimes long for but the truth of the matter is
I LOVE BEING OUT AND ABOUT WITH MY FAMILY!

(I wanted to post more pics but my DSL/WIFI is extremely slow at the moment)

Horrible Mom Right Here

Yesterday we spent the day at Disneyland and I was feeling especially generous. Blame it on getting to the park before it opened. Blame it on my kids reciting the rules without any prompting.

We went on the Grizzly River Run. For those who have never been on the ride it is a very wet ride where you ride on a raft with approximately 6-7 other people and go up and down the trecherous river. Ok man-made river but in all it's Disney glory, it is a phenomenal ride.

I let the kids talk me into letting them ride THREE TIMES!!!!!!!!!!

While on the ride you pass a bridge where some people take pictures of the beautiful waterfall and get drenched when one of the rafters pass by. My kids thought it was cool and wanted to hang there,

Now here is the horrible mom part. I left them wearing their wet socks and sneakers for the remainder of the night until the littlest one told me that her feet felt a little weird when I realized that 1. I forgot that they would be drenched and 2. I forgot to pack their sandals just in case something like this would happen.

I wish I wasn't so tired that I would have remembered to take a picture of their feet. It looks like how your feet would look like after sitting in a bucket of water for too many hours. Pale pasty white, wrinkly and it stunk! Not that you would tell the last part with a picture. I am not,by far, a Disney Imagineer.

Fast forward to this morning. They look a bit better but according to one of the Princesses 'it feels like I walking on metal. except I am not walking'.