Today was the first of what we hope will be many "family days" for this summer. D and I opted out of formal summer employment (like what we did last year - NEVER AGAIN!!!) but we are working. Basically, we are both freelancing with the many practical and varied skills we have. Surprisingly, we've both been kept VERY busy since school let out and there doesn't seem to be an end of that in sight. Still? We are doing our best to keep our priorities set right and straight and we have decided to do something we call "family day." It is a day we are setting aside once a week, EVERY week to do things that are very focused on things we will do together.
Today probably wasn't the best family day we could have had but this was only our first stab at it so we're hoping to get a lot better by the next one and then really have it right for all of them after. On today's agenda was the following...
- Take Miss A to get fitted for a teeny-tiny violin for her to start violin lessons
- Enjoy a really decent sunny day making mud pies, picking flowers, running through the sprinklers, and wading in the baby pool
- Finish cleaning Miss A's playroom while D tackled the mess that is our slow drain problem in the laundry room (This was done while Miss A napped.)
- Take Miss A to her first ever ballet class/lesson
- Have an easy going night just hanging out together
Like I said, not the most fun day and kind of of more utilitarian than anything else but I think Miss A had a lot of fun today and the point was just for us to be together and that is something we definitely were.
Here are some pictures to illustrate all of the fun we had.
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| In case you were wondering, Miss A dressed herself. A little on the Elton John side of things if you ask us but we're OK with that. She is her own little canvas for herself and we don't mind it one bit. |
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| The size of her violin is 1/16. I really have no idea truly how small that is since I kind of know little to nothing about violins but it was explained to me that this is the next size up from the smallest and we could have gotten the smallest and have it fit her just right. She has a little room to grow with this one. |
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| We opted for the backpack straps for her vs. the shoulder strap. She was beside herself with shyness about the fact that she could carry it all by herself! Of course, it helped that everyone in the shop - staff and customers alike were fawning over her like she was the tiniest violinist ever made! *wink* |
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| She was allowed to pick an ID tag and (of course) she picked PINK. Don't you just love how the length of the case of the violin is almost as tall as her? I love that! So sweet!!! |
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| Woo-hoo!!! A CLEAN playroom! We managed to scrounge up some reasonably priced (via craigslist and cast offs from some teachers we are pals with) storage options. I don't even care that more and more we look like we live in a kindergarten. |
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| The dog is all about being in the mix of things. Tonight Miss A tried to play Memory matches with him. It didn't work out at all. |
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| They wouldn't let me take decent pictures of her because the parents were too distracting to the kids so I had to take this through a dirty window with disgusting sheer curtains. *sigh* |
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| She did surprisingly well for her first class and we'll go back next week. Perhaps I'll get some better pictures? I don't know. |
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One of the best parts about this day was that I planned ahead and got some of the most amazingly beautiful pictures of Miss A yet! I absolutely anticipated the fact that I wouldn't be able to get good pics of her in her ballet get-up today (for the exact reasons that were confirmed by the ballet teacher above!) so I got Miss A dressed and took her pics right away at home on our beautiful wood floor with the terrific lighting from our picture window. Being a professional photographer is so handy sometimes!
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| Note: For the picture before this and after that, I digitally removed (read: photoshopped!) out the press-on tattoos and junky plastic jewelry. My goal was to turn out portrait quality prints! I'd say I nailed it pretty well and I'm happy with the turn out. |
And that's it for our first family day of the summer! Other ideas that we might try for a spin are berry picking, trips to see the national monuments, going to the university pool, and trips to animal type places (read: zoos, aquariums, etc.)
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