it's the final countdown

this was the bean's last full week of summer vacation.

we've already bought all of her new uniforms, picked up everything on the school supply list, picked out new shoes, scooped up new socks and underwear.  she received a sweet "welcome" letter from her new teacher in the mail (who happens to be her summer school teacher, so she's excited because she's already familiar with her), which she read aloud to me after excitedly tearing open the envelope.  we've finally nailed down her fall activities schedule, and everything is ready for my little first grader (!!).  even she seems to be ready to go back and see her friends and start a fresh new year of learning.

i'm the one who's a little bit in mourning.  heh.  i've enjoyed the freedom of loose schedules, lax bedtime, naps without fear of getting her to sleep on time.  i'm not particularly looking forward to the hectic mornings, running like a chicken with my head cut off, making lunches, blah blah blah.  but it's all good.  i'll get right back in the swing of things as soon as it begins.

in the meantime, we've squeezed as much fun into this final week as possible.  on monday, we hit up sky zone for some jumpy, bouncy fun.  and unlike the last time we were here, we didn't have to wear their nasty, stinky rental shoes on the trampolines.  instead, we each picked up a pair of bright orange sticky socks for $2:

she had a blast.

i hung in there with her for the half hour session we'd originally signed up for, but when the time came to get outta there, she wasn't quite ready to go yet.  i figured it'd be a good idea to get as much energy out of her as possible, so i extended her time by another 30 minutes and let her go to town while i watched from the sidelines.  and as she always does, she made friends (read: talked the ear off of) with the staffer who was standing nearby, keeping an eye on the action.

many thanks, jessica.  she really enjoyed chatting with you.

right after that, we headed over to a friend's house for a swimming playdate.  she showed off her skillz and gave me a few handstands in the water for good measure.

it was right as we left the playdate that i looked at my phone and read the terrible news about robin williams.  these just break my heart:

we had already planned to go to disneyland the next day, for this:

each screening time had its own color wristband.  ours was orange.

when we got to the theater, we received cute little movie trinkets.

and free snacks!

the theater was about 2/3 full.  we managed to get pretty good seats, right in the middle.

the stars of the show even made a brief appearance.  i still have "rainbow connection" stuck in my head.  i've always thought it sounded like a sad song, but maybe it was amplified by my sadness over robin williams.  i don't know.

the teen and i both felt like we really needed to watch the aladdin show that day, and managed to snag some ridiculously awesome seats right in the 5th row.

as always, it was excellent.  and while the genie always gets lots of cheers, the applause every time he appeared onstage was exceptionally loud this time.

and right after the curtain call, when he's the only one left on stage, he usually does silly dances and makes crazy gestures all the way till the curtain hits the floor.  today, he simply clasped his hands, gave them a kiss, and sent it to the sky with a mournful look.  it was respectful and beautiful.

the next day, the bean and i headed back to the mud shack to pick up the tile she'd done during our painting playdate.  and while we were there, since we didn't have anything else going on, we picked out a couple of pieces to paint.

she earned the "star" card at gymnastics class that afternoon, and picked out a creepy plastic bug from the prize bucket to scare her sister with.

back at home, she made a batch of delicious cookies stuffed with mini-m&ms (yes, those are from christmas, shut up).  they're delicious.

and yesterday's outing was to jumping jacks, site of her last birthday shindig.  it's usually only open on the weekends for parties, but a couple of nights a week they're available for a few hours so kids and parents and come in for open play.  $8 per kid, with no charge for adults.  not a bad way to let loose and have a little fun.

we have a couple of open days next week, and then that's all she wrote.  her new dance class (she picked jazz this year, that should be fun) starts on monday, school on wednesday, and then we're off and running again.

phew.  i'm tired just thinking about it.