summer | The Angel Forever

Category Archives summer

Playing catch up and the kindergarten blues

Posted on June 15, 2009 10:47 pm by TheAngelForever

It is hard to believe that it is well into June already. Kindergarten kid has less than two weeks of school left and he will be a first grader. This has caused some anxiety for the little guy. NHL does not do well with change. Of course, a lot of this has to do with the absolute hell that he went through when we tried the Montessori school for PreK in September 2007. Similar to the end of last year, NHL is acting out. Today it finally hit on me as to why. He has no idea what to expect in first grade and has loved kindergarten. He does not want it to end. Of course, this only dawned on me after several days of the poor kid crying and having nightmares. None of this excuses NHL’s behavior, but it certainly explains it. Talking with the school nurse helped me to see the light. NHL went to her with an earache today. I mentioned to her how he did not want to go to school this morning and I think he was trying to go home.

Last night was a rough evening. When we went to sleep a horrible thunder storm was coming into the area. Our house was actually shaking when we heard the thunder. We closed everything down and listening to the hail pound outside the house. When we went to sleep at close to midnight everything was still on. At about 12:30 last night I was really warm and woke up. The room was pitch black. No television on, no clock and no fan. I woke JL up and we got flashlights to see what time it was. We found the number to the power company and called. I finally got a person there and found out that there were 1800 people with no power in our are and they projected it to return between 3-4 in the morning. I was thrilled when less than 40 minutes later everything came back on.

Of course, my mind was racing a mile a minute. I could not settle down and sleep. I was thinking about NHL. What are the three of us going to do this summer. Should I try to send him to camp? What are my options for next year if he is not in the first grade class that would be most beneficial to him. The list of things goes on, but you get the point.

Thanks to all of this and trying to take care of things for school (I am the room parent), I am still playing catch up with blog posts. I have three more days of our Disney trip and two days at the lake with family to name a few. I hope to get them caught up soon.

So while my brain is still on warp speed, let me see what ideas you may have:

What are some inexpensive things that I can do with the two boys this summer?

Remember that JSL just turned two and NHL will be six at the end of the summer. Trying to figure things out is turning out to be very stressful. I worry that it is going to be a very long summer if we do not have something to get out and do, especially with other children (and adults for me).

Categories:
decisions looking back me moments nhl sahm school sleep summer vent

Days of fun for next summer

Posted on September 29, 2008 9:00 am by TheAngelForever

Have you ever done something out of the blue that just shocks you? Last Saturday JL and I did.

While at Six Flags an old friend was there and happens to work at the park. She mentioned that we may want to look into upgrading our day passes. She said that they were running a special where you could upgrade your pass from the day to a Season Pass for the 2009 season, as well as the rest of this fall. The price for this — only $40 a ticket.

I know $40 sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t when you consider that a day pass for this year was $41 alone! Mind you we were able to snag an online sale for our post-Labor Day tickets for $25 each (not bad for 6 1/2 hours of fun). Still if we go more than one time from May to September of next year the passes pay for themselves.

The really nice part, our season passes are good at all of the following parks (15 in all):

(1) La Ronde, Montreal, (2) Six Flags America, Baltimore/Washington DC, (3) Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Vallejo (does not include Waterworld), (4) Six Flags Fiesta Texas, San Antonio, (5) Six Flags Great Adventure, New Jersey, (6) Six Flags Great America, Chicago, (7) Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, Louisville, (8) Six Flags Magic Mountain, Los Angeles, (9) Six Flags Mexico, Mexico City, (10) Six Flags New England, Springfield, MA, (11) Six Flags Over Georgia, Atlanta, (12) Six Flags Over Texas, Arlington, between Dallas and Ft. Worth, (13) Six Flags St. Louis, (14) Six Flags Wild Safari, New Jersey, and (15) The Great Escape, Lake George, NY

In addition to this, we also receive five free guest tickets to use on certain days and a coupon book to save within the park. Not too shabby if you ask me. So now we can think about going on trips to some other Six Flags parks close by to us next summer. The possibilities are quite nice actually.

So next year we can look forward to more memories at the park.

The best part is we are pretty much done with Chanukah gifts thanks to this!

Categories:
decisions family fun jl looking back nhl photos play time summer

A whole lot of rides going on

Posted on September 14, 2008 12:05 am by TheAngelForever

Lots of happy thoughts as we head home today from our weekend away for my niece’s first birthday (a long drive home with the boys). Trying to think optimistically, holding back on the positively pessimistic Eeyore thoughts from within.

Here are happy pictures from Labor Day to give us good road tripping vibes.

Thanks to Aunt L, Uncle J, Nana and Papa for a fabulous end of summer!

Categories:
family fun jl jsl nhl photos road trip summer

Train time

Posted on September 13, 2008 12:05 am by TheAngelForever

Memories from childhood are wonderful, especially when you can relive them with your own children. I vividly recall going to our local amusement park and riding on their train. The train there is very special. It is old fashioned, has amazing details and has been taken care of with extreme care by the owner of the park through the years.

On Labor Day we went to the park before it opened. JL was thrilled to be able to get close to the train for some gorgeous photos. I have to admit, prior to this I had never seen the train without swarms of people around it. These photos show the real beauty of these antique trains.

It really is a wonderful place to take our kids. The park is small enough with lots of choices and most importantly it is SO clean. The people that work there love their jobs and are so polite with the guests, and especially patient with the kids.

Of course our visit would not be complete without a ride on the legendary train. JL, Aunt L, Uncle J, NHL, and JSL all climbed aboard and went for a ride before it was time to leave (almost two hours later).

More ride photos to come soon!

Categories:
family fun holidays jsl nhl photos summer

Merry-go-round memories

Posted on September 11, 2008 12:05 am by TheAngelForever

Each year we take photos on the Merry-go-round as a tradition with the boys. We started this when NHL was little. On Labor Day we went back to the local park with my parents, Aunt L and Uncle J (in town visiting) for some fun in the sun. We had a wonderful time. Since we arrived at the park before it opened JL was able to get some gorgeous photos before the crowds arrived. I love how the park takes amazing care of their ride.

Here are some of the horses up close.

Once the park was opened, it was time for the boys to ride. NHL went with Aunt L for a spin and JSL with Papa (starting the tradition).

Of course we HAD to get a photo of Papa with NHL since we were not thrilled with the ones from May of this year. In order to keep the tradition going Aunt L switched with Papa for a few seconds.

*** Please note, no flags were injured in the making of my father’s shirt!

There are many more photos from the day, but I figured I would split it up some. We hope to go back to the park one more time before they close for the season, but if not we have fabulous memories from our trips this year.