Me and the Girls

This week has been a fun one with my girls. Mike is working still....we can't wait until his vacation time in August, but while he's paying our bills, we are gallavanting! I know, it hardly seems fair, but someone's gotta keep the world running while us teachers and students are out for the summer!

Yesterday we went to Mike's work to say hi, see where his desk is and have a really brief tour. Most of the place is "top secret" so whereas I used to stroll freely through the lab, now we can only go into this museum type area for visitors. Anyhow, I don't know how impressed the girls were with the fuel cell models, but it was cool to see his place of work where he spends most of his days. I was most impressed by the new Starbucks right in the lobby! Good thing we don't have one of those in our staff room. Tonight he is out at a fancy restaurant with some people from Ford...a project ending dinner or something. He doesn't do that kind of thing too often but his manager wanted him to come. Anyhow, after we had the "tour" we went up to Metrotown and had lunch. Of course, I had to visit Gymboree, my all time favourite kids clothing store. Not too much on the sale rack, but we did find a cute sundress for Maddie. She has been wanting one all summer, so I'm glad we found a match. Their fall line is pretty cute. Their stuff is pricey, but the quality is really unbeatable. And those cute matching accessories....love it. Chelsea found an equally cute, and much cheaper sundress at Old Navy. With serious shopping behind us, we ventured into the Disney Store with an "only looking" policy. We did well and exited with nothing in hand.

Today we did our second transit adventure of the year.
We took the train to Waterfront and hopped a very crowded, standing room only bus to the Aquarium. We got there right at opening so it was not crowded at all. We saw all we wanted to see, including the dolphin show and headed back into town.
Of course, we had to take the SeaBus to the Quay. We had lunch and walked around a bit. The girls got two Jibbitz each for their Crocs....translation for those who need it....overpriced plastic decorations to fit into the holes on the equally overpriced rubber clogs.
All said and done, they do look very cute on them. Then it was back to Waterfront, a quick walk through GasTown and back on the train for the ride home. We had such fun and really, the girls were a joy to take. They are getting old enough to understand the value of money. They will always ask now, "Do you have enough for that Mom?" or "It's OK if it's too much." I was really pleased also that they said Thank you Mom, unprompted, each time I bought them something. It's nice to see them come out of the self centered stage of childhood. Of course, from all accounts, I've heard they enter it again upon adolescence. Oh joy.


Anyhow, they needed bath and bed tonight so I disguised it all as "Spa Night" I gave them a bubble bath, washed and styled their hair, put nail polish on and had them tucked in by 8:30, which is a record for the last couple weeks. Bedtime was getting pushed waaaayyy too far back...meaning late.

I am really enjoying my time off this summer. I think it's because I was working more this year, so this time is really precious for me. Tomorrow is just a stay at home kind of day so it will be good to get some things done here too. This is just way too long a post so I'm going to sign off now and go have some spa treatment myself.