While we were gone...

Scott and I took a trip without the kids. It had been three years since the last time we did a kid-less vacation (Costa Rica, to celebrate the end of med school) and Scott wanted to do something so crazy that we absolutely could not bring kids with us. I was really nervous about leaving the kids for a week. Okay, mostly I was nervous about leaving Oliver for a week. He is a true momma's boy, has some tricky communication issues, and really likes routines and familiarity. Our original plan was to drive to Ohio and leave the kids with my parents, then fly to Utah for our crazy hiking trip. But the school-year got much longer with all the snow days, so our vacation fell on the last week of school. I know the last week of school is often useless, but we already pulled the kids out of school for a week of vacation in October and they had a lot of other things going on that week too. My awesome parents agreed to come to Boston and take care of them here. I know, I am still spoiled.

I was so nervous about leaving the kids that I wrote out six pages of notes, schedules, emergency phone numbers, etc. They said Oliver looked for me the first day we were gone (that top picture is from that grouchy first day, Father's Day), but then was fine. They even took photos to prove that he was fine. That would be him at Soccer Nights, a local week-long soccer camp.

The kids attended parties, visited splash parks, had Field Day at school, showed off their portfolios at school.

 They went to "Barn Babies" at the library - an awesome program where a truck-load of barn animals wrapped in towels and diapers come to the library for kids to pet and touch. Phoebe loves this annual event so much; one year we missed it and she didn't forgive me until we went the next year.

Bruce celebrated the end-of-the-year with his fellow Webelo Scouts. This age is just so weird. Props to the leaders that work with them.

 The last day of school finally came on June 25. Seriously almost July. Phoebe already misses her friends. We have visited her teachers twice at the school in the past week.