#tbt On A Friday

One of the reasons I am sad I haven't blogged regularly over the past few months is that I know there are memories which I have forgotten. So one of the things I want to do is write about some events before I lose the memories. I originally thought it would be great to do this as #tbt posts on Thursdays, and that may yet happen, but for this week at least, writing two blogs posts was a challenge, let alone two in two days. Ha! So here we go...

One of the challenges which working parents of school age children will understand is that, every once in a while, schools throw in random days off and your children become your responsibility again. For most of those days this past year, we were able to find childcare, but eventually I got tired of trying to arrange it. So at the beginning of June, I decided to take a "vacation day" to do "the job" I'd done for the past four years -- being a SAHM for one day. And yes, I didn't miss the irony of that!

This particular day was really memorable because it reinforced the fact that I really missed these kinds of days. Our city is undergoing major construction right now, and a few of our main roads are closed, so our uptown decided to plan a whole day of getting people to support various businesses in the area.

Some of the stores were handing out free samples and a few had arranged fun things to do. We spent a few hours playing games, trying out construction equipment, and eating some yummy food :)

Sam and Rachel completed a scavenger hunt at one store.

When our main street was being dug up, the construction crews discovered a corduroy road which was an exciting discovery. The kids got to each saw off their own piece of the road, which was pretty neat.

After all the sawing and trying out machines, we got some free yogurt. Yum!

After that we walked to our pool. I'd love to write a whole post about how much fun we had at our pool this summer. And after we discovered it was only a fifty minute walk to get there, we ended up doing that a lot.

Of course, we usually bribed the kids with Starbucks fraps or a treat at the pool to get them to walk without complaining :

And after a long day of walking and swimming, the kids got to ride in the Chariot. We stopped at Zoup! for supper since Dave was going out for the evening and I didn't want to cook.

Then we came home and watched the Blue Jays game. I probably haven't explained it well, but it was a really great day of hanging out in our city, having fun with the kids, and just enjoying life without being in a rush. It was one of those days which really did feel like a vacation for all of us, and for that, I am so thankful.