Today was probably the worst day weather wise all summer. Why of course it would also be my first day of vacation as well. The initial plan for today was to pack, make a trip to the store to purchase groceries for our beach trip and spend the rest of the day at the pool. As you can imagine with a high today of 65 and over an inch of rain, this was not going to go as planned. Last night we took the kids to Walmart, to get our shopping trip out-of-the-way. We did spend more than I planned but it was not a budget buster as it was just moved from our entertainment budget at the beach. The kids were excited to be able to pick out their favorite foods, I know they will be even more excited to get to eat these for an entire week. We did spend about two hours packing this morning. Matt even managed to catch a break in the rain to load the box on top of the van. I was surprised at how much fit in the van but also at how much we are really taking.  Next we headed to Winston to JCP to pick up our family pictures. A quick stop by the Dollar General was included to pick up both Kendall and Zach a pool float to sleep on this week. We decided these would definitively be a lot cheaper than air mattress and if they don’t bust we can use next summer. The kids have been requesting that we work on “school” every day this week. So we did a quick calendar, had a math lesson with the money they earned for the beach. Both Lily and Kendall have now finished their writing books, Kendall is print and Lily was cursive. they still have a few more pages for extra practice but both will be ahead in writing and reading this year. Matt and Kendall finished the reading book yesterday so both of the educational goals have been met for the summer. Next up on the agenda were nails, I was in charge of removal and clipping and Matt painted and included glitter art for fun.  We ended the night by renting and watching Monster Inc with lots and lots of popcorn!  Overall this was a nice relaxed way to spend my first day of vacation!