Back-to-school was yesterday. And now Labor Day is upon us. It seems like the perfect opportunity to post a random assortment of pictures from the summer. Aren't you excited?
This summer included lots of playdates. It was especially fun to bring together David's buddies from church. They all live spread out through three different towns, so there's usually not time for many playdates with them during the busy school year. This is Ellis, Owen, David and Jack.
Mary enjoyed having friends over, too, this summer. She and pal, Lea, have become great buddies.
We went swimming this summer! Okay, so most of it was in Texas (where the following pictures were taken), but we did take the kids swimming a few times here in Wisconsin too. (I'm not a hang-out-at-the-pool-all-day kind of gal, so my kids should realize how lucky they are to have gone swimming as much as they did!)
Gymnastics, gymnastics, gymnastics! David definitely enjoyed gymnastics this summer. It was great to see him really improve. His class was small, so he got lots and lots of practice. I think we're bidding farewell to The Little Gym. It's not cheap, but I feel like we got what we paid for this summer (yay!). And they have a great staff here. But sometimes you just have to say good-bye.
It's tragic I took no pictures of Mary doing gymnastics. She's really quite good! She was even invited to move up to the "invitation only" advanced class. But our commitment to mediocrity in this family is unwavering! Now that she's catching on and beginning to excel, it's time to quit. She wants to try dance. But maybe we'll be back to gymnastics in the future.
I did take a picture of Mary and her teacher, Miss Ashleigh. Look how happy Mary is! Did I say the staff at The Little Gym here is great? They make up for the vaguely-creepy corporate gimicky-ness of it all. (Okay, I have to stop looking at this picture or I'm going to ignore good sense and sign my kids up again.)
This summer did have a few outings that had nothing to do with European immigrants. For instance, Greg took them to the zoo for reptiles, giraffes, and snow cones. See how nice we are.
Mary learned to play! By herself! It's a glorious day in a mother's life when her child learns to entertain herself for more than three minutes at a time. This is Mary dancing with "Whaley in her boo-tiful dress."
"Whale-y in her boo-tiful dress" was Mary's playmate for a few days.
This summer included a few Brick Buddy meetings at the library. Every season all year round includes lots of Legos in this family.
And that just about wraps up our summer.
It has been many years since I have a had summer that did not include moving, having a baby, or both. In fact, the only summer I can think of that did not include moving, having a baby, or both was the summer I spent potty-training David (which made it the worst summer ever, no offense to my first-born child). Last spring, I was a little freaked out at the prospect of three whole months with no baby, no moving, and no potty-training.* What would we do???
But it turned out great! I think overall we found a good balance in our schedule. And guess what! I really enjoyed spending time with my children. I loved sitting by David's side as he progressed as a reader and watching Mary write her name over and over. I even liked shuttling them all over tarnation to different activities. I loved how tired they were every night after a full day of swimming, play dates, gymnastics, or whatever. And I am so grateful to my children for being such good sports when we dragged them around "Europe" on the weekends. (I had to keep my sanity somehow.) But it's definitely time for new routines. I started to burn out on summer by the end...so thank goodness for September. It rescued us just in time.
* Hugs to Skye. Who spent her summer moving, having a baby, and potty training. She's a hero!
P.S. We wrapped up our summer with Greg's nose wrapped up! Wednesday he had septoplasmy. I am telling exactly what the procedure was for good reason. For a few days, in conversations with people, I was politely vague about the details, saying only that Greg was having some minor surgery he'd been meaning to have for a while. I mean, who wants to know the intricacies of Greg's left nostril? As a result of my caginess, I got a lot of knowing looks and "Oooh, oookaaay" in response. Finally, much later, the meaning of those knowing looks computed in my brain. And now everyone in the neighborhood thinks Greg had a vasectomy this week. Oh, well. At least no one will wonder anymore if we're going to have more kids.
P.P.S. Greg is doing fine. In fact, he's doing quite well.
