Our week in Review

I think our first week of vacation was a success.

(This is a long, pretty boring post without many pictures. I am posting it only as a journal entry for our family. Sorry.)

In May I taught Elder Hales talk about Provident Living in Relief Society. It really impacted me since I have seen what debt can do to a family. It is a devastating trap and I want my kids to be able to avoid it. We are trying really hard to teach them that just because they want something it doesn’t mean that they need it or should have it. (This is something I am still struggling with.) Also we want them to learn that you have to prioritize. You can’t always have everything you want. Pick what you want now and work hard to get the other stuff later.

We decided to set up chores with the earning potential of $5 a week. If they slack they will lose money. We also told them that this would be their souvenir money for our trip to Mt. Rushmore. They have to pay tithing and then save the rest. They were totally on board and excited. We told them that we want them to see that it is hard to earn money and that it really doesn’t go very far. They will have, at best, $15 to spend. That really won’t buy much of anything. We plan to help out a little but they don’t know that.

Monday morning the kids emptied the dishwasher, cleaned their bathroom (Like really cleaned. Toilets, mirror, tub, the whole nine yards. It was great.) and did other stuff like practice piano, put their dishes in the dishwasher and other little things I asked them to do. They were great!

On Monday, after the chores were done, we vegged out. We had marathon television watching in the morning. In the afternoon Emma and Jenna played and played and Andrew worked on his gaming skills. He played his Wii and Xbox as well as Go Fish and War with me. It was nice to relax and be mellow before the girls headed out to Activity Days. They worked on memorizing the Articles of Faith and came home with a bag of goodies for each on they passed off.

Tuesday we had piano in the morning and then it was pretty much a repeat of Monday.

Wednesday we met Paul for lunch and then took care of some returns and shopped for a gift for the birthday party Andrew was invited to. After we got back all the neighborhood kids played until dinner then we left to go get treats as a family at Kneaders. 

When we got back they went back to playing until way past dark.

Thursday was pretty busy. Emma had a park date with Jenna and then there was the neighborhood movie party. It’s held every Thursday at 2:00. It was so sweeeet! I had two hours to do stuff I needed to do. It was magical. Right after the movie Andrew had a little time to trade Yu-Gi-Ou cards with Max before he had scouts. He had a fantastic time learning how to build a fire. 

They used all food to represent their fires. It was so cute! I'm glad I had my camera in the car. 

When he got home he and Max picked right up where they left off and played late into the night. Of curse Emma and Jenna were busy playing fairies and board games.

Friday was the birthday party. Andrew has been waiting for this day for over a week. He was so excited to go. While he was partying Emma and I met Paul for lunch and a little grocery shopping. After the party Andrew got bored. His friend Max has gone out of town and he was sad. We got creative and set up bowling in the kitchen with Kool Aid in the squeezy tubes and the giant glitter ball. We also played I Spy memory, twice. After daddy got home things got a little better.