Weekly Wrap- Up: Labor Day Fun

We had a great week!  We managed to fit in a few beach days, spent time at the lake with friends, and got a lot of work done around the house.

We went to the beach on Friday.  The weather looked a bit questionable but once we got there the sun came out and we had a great time.  We stayed for a few hours and the younger two boys played in the water the whole time.  The water was quite chilly though and after a few hours Alec was begging to head home so he could warm up and get rid of his hives (he breaks out in itchy hives whenever his skin gets cold).  We stopped for some cool drinks at Dunkin Donuts on the way home and I was so happy to find they still had strawberry fruited iced teas; a menu item that disappears this time of year.  Once home the boys showered, we played some video games, and then after dinner Ian went to help cut down a few more trees with his dad before it got dark.

Ian headed to work bright and early Saturday morning and I headed off to the store to pick up a few last minutes party supplies.  Once home Alec helped me make a delicious chocolate/strawberry trifle cake.  We cleaned up the kitchen when we were done and then I sat at my computer for a good part of the day trying to tie up a few loose ends on a handful of blogging posts. Ian and his father worked on clearing more of the lot after lunch with Ian running excavator and my husband running the chainsaw.  Evan and I walked up to get the mail and got in a wee bit of exercise.

The whole family pitched in to clean up the basement and patio on Sunday morning in preparation for our party.  Our friends showed up just around lunchtime and the kids enjoyed boating, tubing, jumping off the bridge, playing made up games, digging in the sand, etc and us adults enjoyed lots of time to catch up.  We cooked all kinds of food on the grill and ended our night with some yummy s'mores and the cake Alec and I made the day before.  I just LOVE that all of us can pick right up with one another where we left off the last time we saw each other; whether it's been a few months or even an entire year.

He just loves playing with fire... not sure how I feel about that!

We didn't have any plans for Labor day on Monday but we did all pitch in and clean the whole upstairs.  Then the boys spent the afternoon swimming, boating, jumping off the bridge, trying out the rope swing and playing cards.  Alec ended the night making homemade cupcakes and frosting just because he felt like baking.  He made vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting that he tinted pink.

After Alec's Karate lesson on Tuesday his class planned a not back to school homeschooling beach day at a local pond.  We bought Subway grinders for lunch and the boys had a great time playing with everyone in the water.  Alec and his classmates don't often get to talk during class so this was a great opportunity for them all to connect.  All three boys seemed to have so much fun.  Once home Ian and I cleaned his turtle tank, once again, draining pretty much everything we could out of it.  I'm not sure what is going on but we can not get the water to clear up.  Thankfully his turtles are looking happy and healthier so we'll just keep doing what we're doing.

Lots of chicken fights 

We decided to stay at home on Wednesday and get a bit of schoolwork done.  We had barely begun to clean the house when we noticed that Ian's larger turtle was terrorizing his smaller turtle.  We've tried everything we can think of and finally decided the only solution was to split them up.  We ran to the store to buy another tank, filter, light, etc. and spent the afternoon trying to figure out WHERE to put him.  We finally settled on the kitchen and the kids kept saying they were happy to have a homeschooling class pet now.  We had to re-arrange quite a bit of furniture but at least we have two happy turtles now.

He's hiding under his floating dock; it takes them a few days to get acclimated to new changes in their homes.

We didn't have anything on our calendar for Thursday either so the boys settled in to work on some schoolwork, cleaned one room each in the house, and we did some laundry too.  This is the second day in a row that Ian has taken the Pre-test for a chapter in his math book and gotten 100% so we've managed to skip through more than two chapters this week!  I just love it since I was stressing a bit that summer is nearly over for us and we aren't through with our summer books yet.  After lunch I offered to take Alec to the bookstore; there is one book he has been waiting for forever to come in at our library and he's pretty fed up with waiting.  We ended our night with a huge thunderstorm... maybe this means cooler weather is on it's way? It's so unusual for it to be 90 in September!

I am so jealous that my kids get to do their schoolwork while they are so darn comfy!  

How was your week?

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