Why I'm so glad summer holidays start soon

Last week.  Ready?  Go!

SUNDAY

Wake up at 4:45am jittery with nervous anticipation.  Drink first cup of tea at 5:20am.  Do make-up for a very special bride and two of her bridesmaids.  Wedding.  Buy gift (classy right?). Reception.  Fall into bed.

MONDAY

Wake up at 5:15am to catch a 7:00am flight out of Kelowna back to Calgary.  Drive home.  Reunion with our sweet babies.  Make school lunches and dinner (scrambled eggs.  Did I mention I was up at 5:15am?), get ready for a crazy week.  Fall into bed.

TUESDAY
AM: Staff meeting at the Dream Centre Church while all my peeps are in school.  Sebastian naps in the afternoon. Wrap teacher gifts.  Make list of supplies to get for Ava’s tea party on Saturday.  

PM: Sebastian’s Preschool Grad-Which-Is-Not-A-Grad as he’s returning next year.

Also the return of the hellish event I call “let’s take a family picture!”.  Here's a tip: If you spend less time whining and more time looking at the camera it will go SO MUCH FASTER!  









Don't do a photo shoot for Sebastian like we did for Tristan and Ava's preschool "grad".  Be the stereotypical parent of a third child.  Take a post-event-everyone's-miserable self-portrait with Mom instead and tell yourself at least it's documented.  Put cranky kids to bed.  Put cranky self to bed.







WEDNESDAY
AM: Big kids go to school for the morning.  Take Sebastian to his Penny Carnival Preschool Wind-up.  Quickly drive across town to get lollipop sticks and melting wafers for cake pops for Ava’s tea party.  Hit the dollar store to get tea party craft supplies.  The problem with planning something in January that won't happen until June is it starts to get a bit out of control. The original "tea and scones" tea party became, over many conversations during our cold, grey winter and our wet, grey spring, cake pops and crafts and tea dresses and a treasure hunt. 

AFTERNOON: Bake mini lemon tea cakes and the cake for the cake pops. Make the sugar cookie dough and refrigerate it.  Make another dessert (orange marsala frozen cheesecake with gingerbread crumbs) for my Thursday night small group which is my turn to host. 

PM: Make and eat dinner in record time.  Run out the door to Tristan and Ava’s last soccer game of the regular season.  Come home.  Wipe the kids down with facecloths because bathing takes too long and too much parental energy.  Fall into bed.

THURSDAY

Make a cup of tea.  Watch it get cold on the counter.  Eat breakfast standing up.  Reheat tea.  Make little cake balls and freeze them. Reheat untouched tea.  Roll out sugar cookie dough and cut out little hearts, tea pots and tea cups which go on a never-ending rotation through the oven.  Dump out cold, still-untouched tea.  Melt chocolate wafers, take cake balls out of the freezer, stick lollipop sticks in them and spoon chocolate over them until covered.  Pass them off to the kids for sprinkles.  Make pink icing and set the kids up at the table to smear the heart cookies with icing and dust with white sugar sprinkles.  Make dinner.  Leave the teapots and teacups to cool. 



 



PM: Do a quick clean and tidy.  Throw a bottle of wine into the fridge to chill before my twisted sisters small group arrives.  With their help, ice, outline and decorate the teacups and teapots while talking about our personal declarations and areas we want to grow in.  Watch the storm roll in.  Take a quick moment to dance in the warm rain.  Say goodnight.  Fall into bed.

FRIDAY

Tristan and Ava’s class “family welcome” water park day (which is why I needed to get all the tea party things made by the end of Thursday).  Drop Tristan off at school.  Take Ava to the doctor to check out the sores in her mouth she's been complaining about for two days.  Turns out it's Hand Foot and Mouth.  Doctor assures me she’s not contagious and prescribes tylenol and slurpees as she can barely swallow it hurts so much.  Stop at Macs for slurpees, meet class at water park at her insistence that she feels “fine, Mom!  I feel fine!  I promise!”.  Play with friends for a bit until I see her sitting listlessly by herself in sweatpants and a hoody shivering in the hot sun and take her home to sleep. 

PM: Soccer wind-up barbeque.  Ava insists on coming to see her soccer friends.  Stay just long enough for the rest of us to eat a hamburger while she lays limply against my arm.  Tell ourselves we're still sane.  Take a picture to prove it.  Bath the kids.  Make a stiff martini.  Make up the tea party treasure hunt clues.  Watch a movie with Hugh.  Stay up way too late for how tired I am.  Fall into bed.




SATURDAY
Tea Party

The tea party Ava has been looking forward to since January, the tea party that we have been collecting tea cups for months for, the tea party that all week has had Ava exclaiming “I can’t believe it’s finally here!  I can’t believe it’s finally happening!”.... is cancelled.  Her poor little mouth in so much pain she can't even try to pretend she feels okay enough to have the party. 

Call all the moms and let them know we have to reschedule.  One mom drops off a slurpee for Ava.  Grieve for my girl.  Grieve that she’s sad and hurting and I can’t fix it with a kiss.  Or even a slurpee for breakfast. 







On the plus side Hugh's "boys only" fishing trip gets put on hold until the tea party is rescheduled and he finishes the playhouse instead.








How was your week?  Come for tea and tell me all about it.  I have cake pops and lemon tea cakes and sugar cookies....