Is It Summer Vacation Yet?

Phillip Seymour Hoffman has ants in his apartment. Our exterminator told us so. This has nothing to do with the rest of this post but it made me feel better about having ants in our apartment.

As I write this the kids have 2.5 days of school before they are finished with The School Year That Ate My Brain. Seriously, this year kicked my ass. I thought it was because this was our first year having two kids in school. Learning curve, you know? But all our friends who have 1+ kids in school have assured us that it will only get worse as they get older. Huzzah!

Harry is a bit sad to leave school. He really likes his teachers and all the friends he made this year. Sophie, on the other hand, who studied for the state tests and started to learn to play an instrument (viola), and read until her eyeballs bled (not really) and basically worked her tail off, is DONE. She's sick of school, tired of homework, tired of me badgering her about doing her homework, tired of math, tired of the routine and really, just tired.

The first order of business for Sophie once school lets out is go with her Nana to Florida for a week. She's really looking forward to the trip, so much so that she can hardly bear these last few days. This morning as she was getting ready (and I was badgering her to "get it together already!"), John said "Don't worry. Just a few more days left, then Nana will come rescue you." Because Nana will liberate Sophie from her oppressors I've now dubbed this upcoming trip of hers the Nana-Kindertransport.

Happy summer vacation, everyone!

Happy June

Hello, June. Thank you for bringing sunshine and warm weather. Last year you really sucked, what with your 10+ inches of rain. This year will be better, right? RIGHT?

Despite making sure to charge the camera batteries prior to leaving, I failed to document any of this Memorial Day weekend with photos, which would have shown the red marks on my arms and legs where I was bitten by mosquitoes, the adults drinking too much beer and wine, eating too many ribs and not enough vegetables, swimming in the pool, one bear, the kids eating their weight in ice cream and marshmallows. It was glorious.

We were surrounded by family and dogs and new friends and the kids were sad to go back to the city and boring school where there are no marshmallows on the menu or dogs to play with, no pool to swim in, and no Lady Gaga "Pokerface" sing alongs (they were also singing "LoveGame" until I heard the line "I wanna take a ride on your disco stick"....that's when we started paying attention to what they were listening to, and exercised Parental Control over the ipod.)