almost summer

I guess the phrase "winding down" at the end of a school year is kind of the wrong way to put it, because May has turned into a pretty busy month.  But summer is in sight, with only two more weeks of kindergarten for Rachel.  I can't believe it's almost done.  So I guess we're gearing up for summer.  I always have great plans of having things organized for us to do, but so far, I haven't done anything of the sort.  I do have a bookmark on my computer called "Summer" with ideas I've found here and there online....does that count?  Now I just have to make the time to implement them sometime.

Today the girls and I went to our first garage sales of the season, which felt like summer.  Rachel was so excited to use her own money to buy the Play Doh dentist set, which she's wanted for at least a year.  I was excited that she only had to pay a couple of dollars for it, instead of whatever it cost at the store (and you can tell it's hardly been used).  She and Rebecca have been playing with it for about an hour since we've been home, and the only tears so far have been once when Rebecca fell out of her seat.  So they've already gotten their money out of it, if you ask me!

Rachel's been very into writing things lately.  She writes notes to a friend of hers at school (they exchange them on the bus, not at school), she writes invitations to me almost daily to watch a show (fashion shows, plays, ballet shows, you name it, she performs it for me), and she writes books--her latest is an animal book.  I love reading her inventive spelling.  I struggle sometimes with whether to correct her or let her try and sound things out for herself.  As a teacher, though, one of my pet peeves was that some students were SO stuck on wanting things to be spelled correctly that they wouldn't write anything unless they knew how to spell it, and would try and ask me every two minutes how to spell something.  I'm happy that Rachel just writes, and doesn't get hung up on how things are spelled.  If she knows how to spell it great.  If not, she just tries to sound it out.  We can work on spelling after she gets it written.

I started physical therapy this week for a hip/back pain issue that started a couple of months ago at the gym.  Hopefully once I get this problem solved, I can start exercising again without the pain. 

Rebecca's been loving being outside.  She'd spend all day out there if I'd let her (except to come in and watch a Wiggles episode!).  She loves to swing, carry her bucket of chalk around, play in the sandbox, and try and climb up into the club house of our play set. 

And that's the news around here.