CONTROLLING Craziness: Last Day of School / Welcome to Summer 2012

In yesterday's post, I gave you a sneak preview of some of the things I had planned for the when the kids got home from their last day of the school year.

Things didn't go quite according to plan but we had fun anyway.
The kids go to two different schools which means two different forms of transportation and two different pick up and drop off times. Sweetie Pie's bus stop is at the corner of our street and she usually gets picked up before the Spencinator's van comes to pick him up in front of our house. Sweetie Pie's bus also brings her home a little bit before the Spencinator's van. I'm usually walking back from the bus stop when his van pulls up to the house. If you recall from yesterday's post, I made two "Welcome to Summer" banners (one for Sweetie Pie and one for the Spencinator) so they'd each have their own to burst through. Since Sweetie Pie usually gets home first, I had her banner up and waiting for her while I went to the bus stop to meet her. I also had the theme song to Phineas and Ferb playing on repeat with the windows open so you could hear it from outside.

However, it was the Spencinator who came home first. I was at the bus stop waiting for Sweetie Pie so I had his driver just drop him off there rather than at home. Once Sweetie Pie got off the bus, we headed for home.

I love how happy she looks here. Yeah for summer!
I made the kids wait in the driveway while I opened the door to the house so they could run through the banner without slamming into the door.
Sweetie Pie decided she'd rather duck under it:

So the Spencinator got to burst through hers.

Then I put up his banner and let him burst through that too.

Once inside we all had a little dance party.

Then they opened some small gifts in recognition of completing first and third grades.

While the Babes amused herself with what was left of the banners.

While the kids opened their gifts, I got their special lunch together. I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cut them into 1 inch squares and put them on a long skewer with some apple chunks and grapes in between. The kids loved it. I actually got the idea from HERE. We also tried frozen grapes, but they were too hard to put on the skewer so I just gave them to the kids in a bowl, but they didn't like them.

I was planning to take the kids to the pool, but it wasn't warm enough for me (It was in the 70's). So we had some ice cream and hung out at home. The boys in the neighborhood came by and the Spencinator went off to play with them while Sweetie Pie and I did some watercolor painting, and the Babes took a nap.

It was a fun start to summer vacation. I told the kids they can sleep in and have free time to do what they want for the rest of the week. However, starting Monday we will be getting into our summer routine with chores, schoolwork and more summer time fun.