Summer is Flying by

Next week The Scholar and The PreTeen are starting their second 2-week session of their Summer Enrichment course. This will signal the end of summer vacation for me. Is this really the last week of July??? The girls have 2 weeks of the summer school then they're off for about a week before all the kids start school on August 22nd for the first full day. Why start on a Friday, I don't know, but they do.

I finally finished filling out the preregistration forms for all five kids last week. I made appointments for The Scholar and The PreTeen to have sports physicals so they could play volleyball and The PreTeen wants to do cheerleading this year too. I was putting off writing the checks for registration, but finally did that this morning and sent them off.

Five kids, two public schools (one elementary, one middle school), nearly $500 for registration. That's the bare minimum. That does not include lunches (hot lunch is available for about $2.00 a day), portraits, yearbooks, field trips, scouts, school supplies (which I'll likely spend a couple of hundred bucks on at Walmart) and a myriad of other things that come up every month that they're in school ranging from $5 to $25 a month or more.

My kids take their lunches daily maybe getting hot lunch once or twice a month if they're serving something yummy (and I have cash in my purse--which is rare). I also take portraits myself and order them up from Shutterfly and only allow the kids to purchase yearbooks ($9-$15 per person).

Man, kids are EXPENSIVE!!!! And we haven't even hit high school yet--or the orthodontist--or had any broken bones (the joy of more girls than boys i suppose!LOL) I think I need a hobby that's gonna make me some money soon or I'm gonna have to get a real job!!!