Fleeting Days of Summer

Well, summer is in its final, fleeting days.  The kids are in countdown mode - Samantha, so excited she can't sleep, and Christian... well, we'll just say he's feeling the opposite.  I guess that's the difference between first and third grade!

The weather has cooled considerably, although it is quite comfortable now.  But not pool or beach weather.  We made it to the pool a couple of times this summer, although I didn't bring the camera (neither of us wanted to sit poolside to protect it!).  It turns out that all three of our kids are natural swimmers, and we would really like to put them back in Foss (a fantastic swim school), but it is out of our budget.  For all three kids to swim for 3 months (once a week), it would be over $700.

We went to the State Fair on Tuesday. I didn't take too many pictures, but here are a couple of my favorites. Alex liked the Miracle of Birth barn the best - especially the newborn lambs (hours old) and the piglets (one day old), which were feisty and playful. The ducklings were also popular with our toddler, who found it hilarious when they would dip their heads under water and bathe.

Other highlights from our summer include:

Samantha's birthday.  I know I posted previously about this, but we also had a family party in July.  She was wonderfully spoiled and felt very loved.

We purchased a trampoline on sale at Toys R Us, and Jeff and Christian put it together the weekend of Sammie's family party.  It didn't have the surround up for the party, but that was done the next day.  We were the popular house in the neighborhood after that!  While Jeff and I made a 3-person rule for the trampoline, we often caught them with more kids in there.  Once I found 10 (!!) in at one time!  Of course, we made them get out - the trampoline can't hold that much weight, and someone is bound to get hurt.  We did have one minor injury - one of Sammie's friends got bonked in the head, resulting in a cut lip and bloody nose.  Sadly, a summer storm came through the neighborhood last week and took our beloved trampoline away.  It landed about a block away, half in the neighbor's yard, half in the street.  It was bent like a paperclip and un-salvageable.  The kids are pretty sad.

Our niece and nephew were in town from Texas for about three weeks at the beginning of July.  Jeff took the kids to his parents' house to visit with them for a week, which they absolutely loved.  I stayed home because of stupid work.  :-)  We went back a week later for a family weekend with all the aunts, uncles (except Chris & Robert, who couldn't make it) and cousins.  For those of you at my wedding, the beautiful teenager in the back row next to grandpa was my itty bitty flower girl!  She turned 17 while she was in MN.  How time flies.

We also spent a nice weekend up at the lake with Uncle Greg and Aunt Carol, but somehow I managed not to take a single picture.  I'm not sure how that happened, other than maybe I was just having too much fun!  The kids loved swimming off the pontoon in the middle of the lake (even Alex!), singalongs with Uncle Greg and his guitar (Puff the Magic Dragon is always a favorite - we had to do that one twice) and all the other various summer laziness that comes with a weekend up north.

Jeff was a stay-at-home dad all summer, as he lost his job in April.  It was a lovely, lazy, long summer.  And somehow, now that it is almost over, it feels like it went so fast!  Every year at this time, I think of all the things that I wish we had done.  But the kids had a great time sleeping in, playing with their friends and swimming.

We had school open house last night: we met the kids' teachers and took in their school supplies.  Now, we have just one last hurrah (cousin Tony's birthday party this weekend), and then it is back to school on Tuesday.  Five days and counting left of summer break...  here's hoping we can make the most of it!