(I am not sure I have ever been this far behind, so the date this is posted reflects nothing about the time period these events happened. I think most of them happened the end of July, beginning of August.)
It all started because Ellie accused me of always saying no when she would ask for something. That’s our jobs as parents, isn’t it? Crush the desires of our kids. Just kidding. I don’t feel like I always say no. And I am pretty sure that it was an exaggeration. However, it did make me think about whether I said more than I said yes, and if that was true, why was that?
My conclusion? I probably did say no more than yes because I am not really good at spontaneous things. Ask anyone. It isn’t that I don’t think that the things would be fun, but it’s that it wasn’t what I had planned. And it takes awhile for me to adjust.
So, I told the girls they had 4 weeks until the end of summer – 28 days. They could pick three activities a week that they wanted to do. I would schedule them onto our calendar. I would be saying yes 12 times….
Reality set in after they made their lists and I realized that the 12 things were really 24 things because there were TWO of them making lists. Ugh. I could do it, right?
Here’s a sampling of the things we took pictures of. I think we managed to get through almost everything that we could. There were one or two sleepovers that we just couldn’t arrange.
Ellie started her fun with a sleepover with Avery. She had a few more, and every one of them was a little different and just as fun.
Madison had less sleepovers, but wanted to do more shopping days. She and I went antique shopping and craft store shopping. We stopped during one trip to sample a cake pop from Starbucks.
Then, we had the BIG sleepover night. Madison had two friends (Gretta and Ellie) and Ellie had two friends (Kennah and Kasey). I had 6 GIRLS in my house!! Me. The one who hadn’t hardly had a sleepover prior to this. The door swung wide open for this night. It was great though. Madison’s crew hung out in the basement. Ellie’s crew stayed on the main floor. They both built forts, did face masks, and watched movies. It was actually a pretty easy time.
Ellie had Bailey over the night of Kidron Fun Night. I had forgotten what that night was like, but it was fun – softball, face painting, cotton candy, balloon animals, train rides, and more!
They wanted a joint sleepover with our new neighbors. We started with a pool date at some friends’ house. That morphed into a sleepover that happened after everyone was fed supper at their own homes. (Sometimes that is the hardest part is figuring out what to feed people.)
Ellie had Bailey over the night of Kidron Fun Night. I had forgotten what that night was like, but it was fun – softball, face painting, cotton candy, balloon animals, train rides, and more!
The grand finale was the bake sale! Ellie and Lilli had worked hard baking ahead of time. Anabelle came over to help frost cupcakes the day before. Pepper looked longingly on.
Then, on a Saturday morning, Jeremy set up a small canopy to protect from sun and the small threat of rain. I ran to the Dollar General to grab some poster board and serving trays. The signs went out to the corner, the tables went out, the cookies, cupcakes, and crafts were put on display, and the girls were energized for the morning ahead. While sales started out slowly, they did improve. Some girls were go out biking and try to round up customers at other garage sales. My Facebook posts to invite people out brought a few familiar faces our way as well. People were so generous and kind. I enjoyed just talking with people. The girls enjoyed the transaction – bagging things up, counting change, etc. They made out pretty good, even with a good chunk going toward the local animal shelter and being divided six ways. Mostly, they had fun.
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