Last week's summer fun

We were pretty busy last week. Over the weekend we went to a wedding reception for my friend who got married last month in Florida. I had so much fun catching up with my friend, Vicki. We went to school together from 3rd - 8th grade and also played violin together in the orchestra. She moved right before high school so I didn't see her for years. Ran into her briefly about 5 years ago then had lunch this past winter. She's a music teacher now and so much fun to talk to.

Jason had school during the week which meant really LONG days for me. On Monday we went to a play date with about 20 kids. Yikes! My friend Liz was pretty brave to host that at her house. And somehow by the time we left I was co-leader of next years' MOPS group. That afternoon we went to the library to get books and movies.

The rest of the week we studied pandas and bats. On Tuesday we went to RAVE for the free showing of Kung Fu Panda. My friend Jen met us there with her little guy, Arjun a.k.a. Prom Date (he and Jordis).

The movie was a bit scary for the younger two, but Xander said he wasn't scared. Afterwards they spent quite awhile running up and down the ramp outside.

On Wednesday I had the kids signed up for a program at the park called Going Batty. There they got to make bat hats, color bat pages and read books. Then we took a tram ride where they told us that bats are mammals, sleep hanging from their toes, have babies called "pups," and are nocturnal (like Daddy). But we already knew that because we learned it from our library books.

Jason's mom was off of work on Thursday so she and his dad came to visit and I got to go to the grocery store by myself. For some reason it still took the same amount of time, I think maybe because I actually had time to read labels and am still getting used to where things are at our new Meijer. And because I have a knack for picking the s.l.o.w.e.s.t. checkout lane. My mom was off of work Friday so she joined the kids and me at the zoo. Our zoo doesn't have pandas, but we did visit the brown bears. They were having so much fun!

And of course we saw the bats.

The kids always have to climb on these animal statues and it's so hard to get pictures of them without someone else's kids running around and getting in the way.

On Saturday Jordis' friend down the street turned three and we were invited to her Dora the Explorer cookout. You'd never know by looking at them that Jordis is actually older, but Megan (even though her parents are each about the same height as Jason and myself) is in the 100th percentile for height in her age range.

The kids had fun eating hot dogs, cake and ice cream and playing in the pool and slip n' slide. We had fun socializing with other adults and getting to meet some neighbors at that end of the street.

What a busy week we had! And I spent no money on the kids' outings. The movie and the bat program were free. We have a zoo membership so I guess technically I "paid" for that trip, but it pays for itself in just a few visits so it's kind of free at this point. What is everyone else doing on-the-cheap for summer?