End and Begin

I've taken a small hiatus from blogging this past summer. I know it it was infrequent, but our days felt jam-packed! But I am going to try and be back on top of things now that we are into scheduled days once again. (I just love September!)

Last year we were at this point: getting into the school year;

And now it has come to say goodbye to another summer's end.

We had the cousins here last weekend. My newest nephew was born in August, so we took the opportunity to have the older girl cousins over for sleepover, and let mom and dad get some rest (if possible)

Of course my girls just wanted to hold the new cousin!

Other highlights from August 

- we made it to the State Fair; two of the girls entered photos into the youth contest. 

The pictures were hung, but no prizes. 

- G. got a trip to Florida - for work. He was gone for a long 2 weeks. 

- The Boy decided not to play football after all; he is now running cross country for his school. 

(And, yes, I am excited about this!)

- The 3 older girls ran a triathlon a few weeks ago. And I think they really enjoyed it. We've taken a break from swim team for now, but as we figure things out, I think the girls will be back at it. 

-The Swim girl got her ears pierced .. finally! She was waiting for this for a long time!

- For the last day of summer, we took the kids down to a local aquatics center for an afternoon of swimming. The pool there had a rope swing, diving board, huge slide, and lazy river, plus a small warm pool for little ones. All of the family was able to have a really fun time ... and it wasn't crowded, which was nice! I think I want to make this an end of summer tradition too!

We are now back to school.

With a bit of emotion (on my side) I said goodbye to two of my kids this morning as they whisked off to the bus! How can I have a child in high school?! How can that sweet little girl be in junior high now?! They both seemed a little nervous and excited, but definitely show it in different ways. They were up and awake before we were!

 And Little K is trying to learn by osmosis. Or something. She thought sitting in "her" school crate would be a good way to start of her school day. She keeps us laughing.

 

 Goodbye summer, hello school and all it will bring this year!