My kid-free sliver of summer is coming to an end

 

The girls' dance studio had photos week this week, which threw my routines into a tizzy (which is actually FINE because I am treating this month as an epoch in between seasons, so I have sort of embraced the no-routine routine). My reward for the chaos, though, was watching Minnie's classes perform in their costumes after their group pictures. OH MY GOSH IT WAS SO CUTE. Like, I do not know why the ballet dance has a monent of butt-shaking, but I AM HERE FOR IT.

And she's such a pretty little ballerina

In sad news, she does NOT want to try out for the dance team this summer, but I am definitely going to sign her up for at least one more rec class next year because I love Dance Minnie so much.

Dorothy got her summer dance placements, and she is going to be in the studio for fewer hours than she was last summer because she is taking only one set of hip hop classes (last year she was on the bubble level-wise, so she took 2 sets of classes-- tech class and choreo class, for a total of 4 core HH classes a week). I also dod not sign her up for any extra credit classes this summer (except for 1 HH combos class that all her friends are taking **eye roll*). She also decided to stop taking tap **sob again**.  Each week this summer, she has 3 hours of ballet, plus 30 minutes of pre-pointe and an hour of modern. She also has a strength class for an hour, three hours of hip hop, one hour of jazz tech, and 45 minutes of jazz choreo. Phew! She also wants to dive for summer league because she is thinking about doing dive team in high school-- sooooo, I feel like her summer is all set.

We did a crazy kid shuffle at dance on Tuesday this week, and thank goodness Ben was home on a random Tuesday to help drive all of the places. He also got to see Minnie in her jazz glory, important since he is going to be at USA Diving zones with Cooper during the dance recital (this summer is PACKED YOU GUYS-- PACKED).

I have been hard at work on my summer season intentions, since my mom sabbatical comes to an abrupt end in a few days (June 10 to be exact, but the last couple weeks of school have tons of interruptions and events I have to attend, so this feels like my last real week). AND I read some really excellent books this month-- both things I am excited to share more about next week. For now, though, you can just imagine me ecstatic to have a plan-less weekend and a whole yard to clean up-- if that is not an old lady's late spring dream, I don't know what is.

(we don't use pesticides, so I have been waging a war on individual dandelions, and I AM WINNING).

POOOOOOL, dive nats, and some general complaining

 I had so much fun getting ready for pool opening last weekend. I love hauling my super giant Lands End bag out of the storage room and going through all of our pool junk from last year to see what makes the cut. Minnie is too mature for her heart-shaped goggles (**sob**), so she put those in the NO pile, along with these little stacking cups she has been playing with since babyhood and and princess-shaped dive sticks, plus these little wobbly penguin and polar bears and all her Bluey people.. This year, she is all about diving for rings and treasure, plus playing water balloons and water squirters with friends. 

She did keep the ancient Beauty and the Beast plastic tea cup and random paint brushes so she can paint the concrete during adult swim, so there's that vestige of babyhood at least

I have been buying either Hawaiian Tropics lotion 2-packs or Neutrogena spray 2-packs at Costco for months, so we are rich in sunscreen (the boys and Dorothy will basically ONLY use a spray **eye roll**). Dorothy also really loves this ELF shimmer sunscreen stick for her face, and Minnie uses a Cerave stick on her face. I use Hawaiian Tropics face sunscreen, and the boys have Target brand sticks, but I think they just go with a sunburn **more eye roll.** NONE of these makes the EWG cut, by the way. But a sunscreen you will USE is the best one...

In a burst of decide-once genius, we have a ton of THESE striped towels, so it's always easy to spot any that are left behind. (they are not currently in stock, and we always lose a few over the summer between the boys working at both pools and Coop diving, etc, so I guess I need to start thinking about a plan B...)

I put cash in my bag to ward off charging our account and threw some tiny bags of pretzels and goldfish in there. I also stocked up on junk food to make a snackle box for Dorothy and her rotating cast of pool  guests to eat at the tennis courts, plus I packed a tiny insulated lunch bag with cheese sticks, apple slices, and teeny frozen Hershey bars for Minnie.  (I bought a huge box of Drumsticks at Costco for $9, and I swear to you we are not buying individual Drumsticks for $4 at the snack shack-- Minnie can have a post-pool treat at home-- and we will see how long this lasts...)

Not the most popular box of the weekend:

My only beef with opening weekend (besides Cooper and Ben not being there)** is that the pool is crazy crowded, and I have to emerge from the shade tent to keep and eye on Minnie, which means I get tan despite my best efforts. I bought THESE pants to wear over my suit (SIZE DOWN YOU GUYS. MINE ARE TOO BIG, and I already wore them and just look kind of dumpy), but I think I also need a shirt, and it is HOT on the pool deck. (I might be better off IN THE WATER with a rash guard on...)

I also wore a giant old shirt of Ben's to protect my old wrinkly chest (not at the same time)

Pretty sure my face is red from being hot since I was pretty slathered and shaded. I actually LOVE Sephora water proof mascara fro the pool because it get all smudgy and I look like I maybe did more makeup-- thinking of getting it in blue, in fact).

They were (almsot) the first kids in the water!

First slide of the season:

LOL at the newly posted slide rules. Number 1 is silly-- alcohol is the ONLY REASON I go down the slide...

Day 2, more of the same:

Plus some diving board action

And a night swim

Bringing a kid home showered and pajama'ed is my FAVORITE SUMMER THING.

(Also, really, it was SLAMMED between 1-4-- like, nowhere to even sit. But I was too busy making sure my kid didn't drown to take pics of that).

Speaking of SLAMMED. We got to the pool 15 minutes after it opened on Monday, and it was SO CROWDED that we couldn't even get a CHAIR. It was, like, public pool crowded. My goodness. But! Minnie had fun, and so did Dorothy and her friend, and we all went home for dinner and came back at 6:30 when things were dead and once again closed the place down.

**Ben and Cooper were at AAU Red-White-Blue NATIONALS for dive, where COOPER! Placed 5th in 1-meter, 4th in platform, and SECOND in 3-meter!! In all 3 events, he was second going into the final dive. In the first two events, that final dive was... not his best, but by event 3, he was handling pressure like a PRO. SO AWESOME!

A few dives from the weekend:

Next up, Cooper goes to Iowa City  the first weekend in June to attempt to qualify for USA Diving nationals (THE BIG SHOW). The org has changed the qualification process this year, so it is MUCH HARDER to qualify. Please keep your fingers and toes crossed for him for the next couple of weeks.

Money Monday: ALDI is my new BFF (again)

 ALDI IS A REVELATION.

We have had our moments shopping there-- here's Jack long, long ago when eggs were less that a buck a dozen

And here is toddler Minnie, sleeping sitting up in the cart

But we also have long stretches were we never ever go there even though it is the closest store to our house. I went the other day on a whim because I am tried of spending all my money on food, and WOW YOU GUYS WOW.

There are certain things I hate at Aldi-- bread, peanut butter, granola bars, knock off crackers and cookies, most ultra processed foods, most cheese, milk, off-brand yogurt-- and sometimes I forget to go there because I hate those things. Aldi will never be the only place we shop, but it definitely should always be A PLACE we shop. My goodness, I did not know that you could spend $100 and get two huge bags of groceries ANYWHERE in America anymore. But! That is exactly what happened on Thursday when I spent a mere $105 on a capsule grocery trip to get me and 4 kids through a holiday weekend. 

I got accessories for baked French toast (already had frozen bread cubes, eggs, and bacon but needed some berries and milk) for Friday night dinner, stuff for chicken quesadillas with chips and salsa and guac on Saturday night, and bake-at-home sourdough and veggies for avocado BLTS on Sunday. I also got a bottle of wine (that Wine Spectator says is good?), candy for Coop to eat on the plane to FL, candy for a pool snackle box, stuff to make chocolate chip cookies (trying the choc chips but do not have high hopes), nectarines, apples, and salad greens (a refill because we already ate all of ours, which makes me feel very virtuous), lunchbox cheese for Minnie, and coffee. That's a ton of stuff for $100. 

I also went to Aldi last week (along with Costco and Metro Market), so our cabinets were pretty stocked. I plan to go again tomorrow, once Ben gets home and we touch base about the upcoming week-- will also hit Costco and Metro, too. And probably Whole Food for take and bake pizzas and my favorite lemon parm bagged salad and something sparking to drink by a fire.

Metro Market: I mainly get 5 gallons of Fairlife milk (lol-- it is sold in half gallons, so this whole buying process is ludicrous and my cart must look nuts when the online shopping people are assembling it), my fave peanut butter, name-brand junk and lunch box staples that we just can't quit, chocolate chip ZBars (included in that former category, honestly, but I always trick myself into thinking they're healthy-ish), cooking accessories/spices, and some of our yogurt there, plus anything I couldn't find at Costco or Aldi. 

Costco: This is where we get certain things that we can only find there, as well as staples that we go through in massive quantities (think Chobani protein yogurt, lox, cereal, and chocolate-covered frozen strawberries, plus packs of Goldfish crackers, a couple varieties of pretzels and wine-- you know, the health foods).

Things on my permanent Aldi list:

organic produce and salad greens

eggs ($1.40 for 12!)

almonds

freeze dried strawberries

Colby jack cheese sticks for Minnie's lunch

whipped cream cheese

single origin coffee beans for cold brew

organic chicken

organic grass-fed 93% lean ground beef

salsa from the refrigerated section

frozen bagel pizzas (def an UPF but the kids like them better than Annie's and they are only like $6 for one million pizzas)

quinoa

organic tortilla chips

Random stuff I have found there lately:

name-brand candy for my snackle box

organic grass-fed sirloin steak for tacos

Chobani flips yogurts for WAY LESS than the grocery store

Built Puff protein bars for a little less than the grocery store

Things I haven't needed yet but will buy there when I do:

organic rice

frozen sweet potatoes

organic frozen berries for smoothies (these might actually be cheaper at Costco, so we'll see...)

organic plain greek yogurt-- will try this once before pledging forever loyalty back to Costco

baking staples (probably not chocolate chips, maybe not flour but sugars for sure!)

ice cream

frozen novelties (I saw Drumstick knock-offs and name-brand Snickers ice cream bars today)

Do you have any Aldi must-haves that I should throw in my cart?? We are generally not fans of stuff in the aisles themselves (except the random "Aldi finds" aisle which is a GEM and has everything from housewares to viral items of clothing), but the perimeter of the store is a gold mine.

Get excited because (complaining about) money Monday is on the way back to the blogggggg

Kindergarten is doing an alphabet-themed farewell to school and counting down the last 26 days with alphabet-themed days. K was kindness day, and they all walked out of school in adorable crowns. I LOVE KINDERGARTEN SO MUCH.

In fact! As you read this, I am getting ready to chaperone my 5th and final kindergarten zoo field trip! Expect pictures with sappy captions next week. Hopefully I can chaperone a grandkid's class or something.

Coop made it to the ALL CITY 8TH GRADE TRACK MEET, which is a thing I did not know existed. He qualified in shot put (lol) and the 4X100 relay.

His relay team took 3rd, and they were, like, SO FAST and fun to watch

(Shot put might not be Coop's sport)

Talking strategy

Ready for the hand-off

I hope he decides to run track in high school-- it was very fun to watch. And between events, I sat on the bleachers and read an entire book

Speaking of Cooper's sport, he and Ben are taking their second trip to FL this May right now.

Which reminds me! We are not spending ANY MONEY EVER AGAIN. So, you can expect more complaining about that soon! (June is the month I don't get paid and plus also, Harry's bday, dance nationals, another out-of-state dive trip-- maybe TWO MORE AS WELL depending on how qualifiers go-- and Jack's HS graduation, plus dance recital weekend. YOU GUYS).

Luckily for me, walking around the neighborhood in my weighted vest is freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

And! The pool opens tomorrow, so as long as I can keep the kids from charging one million dollars on our food account and keep myself from ordering toooooo many Titos and lemonades, we should be golden.
 

Tiny delights

 I finally got a mini Hydroflask, you guys! And it is everything I wanted it to be! It fits in the pocket of just about any purse, and it holds just under 7 ounces of water, which is actually PERFECT because the WORLD is FULL of filtered water fountains! Plus, it makes me GET OUT OF MY CHAIR and WALK to the FOUNTAIN, which is super helpful as well-- as you might imagine. (Sometimes when I am grading or reading stuff or doing course prep, I can sit for HOURS and HOURS).

I also worked at the library, which was freaking TREAT on a Monday.

Speaking of delightful birthday treats-- THESE SHOES. Love them. Also, I wear a size 5.5 in kids (which is a 7 in real people shoes) and now that I know this, I will never buy adult shoes again. (I used to buy my true size in kid shoes, which is a size and half bigger than my true size, so they neber fit and I didn't like them but now I am not so dumb!) 

And on the subject of delightful: Annabel thinking she is people

Last night, we made our own salads and grain bowl (I cooked SO MUCH quinoa, you guys, due to a measuring error, so we will aaaaaall be eating quinoa aaaaall week), and they were GREAT. The secret was giving everyone a big stainless steel bowl to mix them in. Harry was like oh wow I don't even usually like salad, but you guys made it fun. We made a bunch of different protein options (chicken, salmon, steak), and I used a snackle box for hold a bunch of veggies (corn, sweet potatoes, jalapeno, onions, tomatoes, peppers, etc). We had a variety of cheeses, nuts, and dressings to mix in, along with salad greens and SO FREAKING MUCH quinoa. It was great. I think we will start doing this weekly with different options. 

And, I think our weekly fast food era is over, at least for the summer when I have the time and inclination to meal prep and shop more thoughtfully. I've baked cookies, muffins, and brownies this week, and it has been a treat to deliberately feed my people, and I am glad we have time to breathe.

No cavity club