Our Annual Summer Weekend with Skylee
This year Skylee planned the weekend at our house so she could play with the neighbor kids. Skylee has made friends with many of the kids who live around us. One night she was over hanging out at our house and decided she wanted to have a play date with our neighbor, Evelyn, so we planned a sleepover so that Alison could arrange a play date for her.
Skylee came over on Friday night with Kristin and Holly. We all had dinner and then made our way outside. One of the things we love about our neighborhood is that during the summer many of the families around us hang out in front of their house. The kids play and the adults visit. When we came outside a few neighbor families where already out there with their kids. Skylee rallied the kids to ask their parents if they could come watch her launch a rocket.
A few weeks ago, when we were on a walk. I saw a family launching a rocket in a field near our house. It looked like fun. I came home and bought a rocket and Skylee and I built it together. Our plan was to launch it on the first night of our sleepover. Skylee led a caravan of kids and adults to the school field near our house. We launched the rocket three times, much to the delight of the assembled crowd. Each time we would have a countdown; 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 before one of the kids would push the button to launch the rocket. The first and third time it went off without a hitch, but the second time we had a little hiccup. It turns out you have to hold down the launch button. We didn't really know that. We counted down and Evelyn pressed the button, but nothing happened. I did some troubleshooting, but couldn't find a problem. We did the countdown again, and once again it didn't launch. I was fiddling with the launcher to see if I could find a problem and the rocket suddenly shot off - surprising and delighting the assembled crowd. We had a fantastic time launching the rocket.
We came back to our house and Skylee wanted to start a movie before bed. We popped some popcorn and went down stairs to watch a movie. Before we watched a movie I broke out our new party light and we had a little dance party. Skylee loved the party light. Sidebar - we got the party light for free. We get random Amazon packages addressed to Alison. When this first began we contacted Amazon about it and apparently some sellers on Amazon (primarily based in China) will send packages to random people so they can leave reviews on the items as "verified purchasers". Not much we can do about it and a few of the things have actually been really useful. We don't have to pay for the items and Amazon doesn't want us to send them back. So we will either use them, donate them, or throw them away. Usually the stuff we get is super random - like the party light. I knew as soon as we opened the box Skylee would love the party light.
After the dance party we watched Descendants, one of Skylee's favorite Disney movies. She was so excited to tell us all of the genealogy of the characters. She is an expert on the Descendant films. We watched it until it was fairly late and we decided it was time for bed. We tucked Skylee in, read a short story and called it a night.
Skylee woke us up around 7am the next morning. I got up and got her some food. While she ate she watched Taylor Swift music videos - one of her favorite pastimes there days. Alison and I both had a few Taylor Swift songs stuck in our heads at the end of the weekend. Skylee had a dance recital in the morning. We took her home so she could get all ready. We didn't go to her recital because they had limited attendance due to social distancing because of covid-19.
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| Skylee was excited to show her friends her dance makeup |
After the recital Blake and Debbie brought Skylee back to our house. We ate lunch and ran a few errands, and then Skylee's friends were ready to play. When they came over we were playing Uno Attack with Skylee. They played a few hands with us before Skylee took them upstairs to play. They colored, had dance parties and played with the toys Kristin donated to our house. Then we went outside and flew my drone (they took turns wearing the VR goggles).
As the day turned toward evening, Skylee's friends went home and we had dinner and a movie night. We finished watching Descendants while we ate pizza.
After dinner, Kristin, Holly, Debbie, and Blake went down to the Daybreak lake with us. They all visited while I took Skylee out on the paddle boards. Skylee is quite adept at paddle boarding and is proud of her skills. We went further from the beach than she ever has gone before. She is good at balancing and maneuvering the board. I try to stay close, just in case Skylee needs help. Every once in a while our boards would collide, Skylee would call this a "Hey neighbor situation". It was a beautiful, calm, clear night on the lake.
Originally our sleepover was supposed to end after paddle boarding, but Skylee wasn't ready to be done yet. She begged her mom, and then Alison and I to extend for one more night. We agreed and so she came back to our house to sleep over again. We had her take a bath to wash off all of the lake water and then we got ready for bed. Skylee really wanted to watch a movie before bed, but we were not on board with this plan, instead we watched an episode of Duck Tales.
We got up on Sunday morning and headed back to Daybreak lake. Alison and Skylee took the paddle boards out on the lake for about an hour. Meanwhile I sat on the shore taking pictures. Then we ran back home and got ready for the day.
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| Skylee wanted to use my camera to take pictures of the ducks around the lake |
We went over to Alison's parent's house for home church and to eat lunch. After lunch our fun Skylee weekend was at an end. She went home with her mom and we went back to our house. We sure love spending time with our niece.
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