Week 1 of Summer Vacation

This week was the first week of summer vacation for the girls.  No school.  No schedules.  LOTS of Mommy time, sleeping in, eating snacks, playing with friends.  It is a week off that they so very much deserved after their great efforts at school this year.  I also like to think that I deserved it, too :-)

Our summer will be jam packed this year.  The girls are both going to do a bit of summer camp - Emma will attend as part of the extended school year, Julia will attend camp at her preschool.  I tried to convince her to try the Y camp, but she loves the one at her preschool because she just loves the bus rides to field trips, the amazing water play area, and the weekly visitors so we decided to honor her wishes and let her go to that camp.  We also have a great family vacation planned and will move before the start of the school year so this summer is going to be b.u.s.y!

With all the craziness planned for the next few months I wanted to start the summer off with us doing fun things together - not spending too much time in the car or hanging out at home play dates where I don't get to see the girls much because they are off playing with the other kids.  I wanted to make their first week of summer vacation our own to create lasting memories.  The kind of memories that will get me through the initial adjustment when Julia starts full time, full week kindergarten (*sniff, sniff*).

We spent the week together packed with lots of local FUN!  Monday we went to Emma's two therapy sessions at the hospital - the only therapy sessions she actually had this week - and decided to pack our picnic lunch and hit the Can Do park afterwards.  We met some friends there and enjoyed the great weather, the swings and slides.  Tuesday we went bowling, a favorite activity that is so wonderfully inclusive for people in wheelchairs!, with some friends followed with lunch at IHOP and an evening trip to Rita's Water Ice for Emma's school fundraiser.

Wednesday we took advantage of the $1 movies and saw Kitt Kittredge American Girl.  Both girls loved it and sat captivated through the entire movie while eating lots of snacks!  We had a picnic lunch in their bedroom that included some great music on the iPad and LOTS of laughter. The best part of the week was on Wednesday night when Roy Halladay hosted our {hospital} support group, Chronically Cool Families, in his VIP Box Suite!  He donated tickets, Philly Phanatic dolls, food, drinks, time on the field, t-shirts.  Wow!  We are so very honored that he would think of creating such a great evening for our families!  He had planned to meet with our group, but it was a double header that day and he was pitching in the game so we got to meet Mike Stutes who was just so sweet with the kids.  Take a look at some of the photos from the evening.

Thursday morning the girls slept in since we were out late at the game.  We decided to have a lazy day at our friend's development's pool.  It was a bit chilly, but we swam a bit and then the girls played and ate poolside.  We had a leisurely afternoon followed by a game of hide-and-seek in the evening.  The girls LOVE to play hide and seek and we often make it a family game.  Emma is not so great at it, though, always giving away our hiding spot by giggling loudly and uncontrollably.  I think this is her favorite game.  I think it is Julia's favorite, too, especially when us girls hide together while Chris finds us.  She is all giggles, too, but hers are much softer than Emma.

We wrapped up the week with a photo shoot at Kiddie Kandids and I'm happy that the photos of the girls together and Emma alone turned out great (Julia always takes a good photo, so I don't worry about her photo shoots at all).  Emma tends to smile and look at the camera much better when I'm not behind the camera so I do like to get some professional shots every now and again to supplement my photos.  She sees me too often and finds no reason to pay any attention to me regardless if I am acting like a goof to get a good photo of her!  We rounded out the day with a trip to a mobility company to discuss options for transporting a power wheelchair with our Toyota Sienna.  Let's just say that we are not really prepared for the huge changes a power chair would make in our life so it's a good thing that we are easing into the power chair for Emma.  Actually, she's more easing into it than we are - she has to demonstrate that she can stop and go relatively *on command* to get it approved by insurance and we still have a lot of practice ahead of us to make that happen.

What a great week!  I just love spending time and doing fun things with my girls!  We try so hard to manage Emma's many appointments so they don't get in the way of us living our life like a typical family.  Many weeks we are successful and I still never take those weeks for granted.  This is one of those weeks that will carry me through the recently *few and far between* weeks of endless appointments.

Life is good.  God is great!  We are enormously blessed.