As summer winds down . . .

...we have so many good memories to reflect on. We took day trips, stayed home and enjoyed our neighborhood, played with friends, visited with family. We had a few interesting camping experiences (I'll leave it at that). We did no summer camps for the kids and no big vacations, but somehow it made the summer seem more full and more fulfilling without those things. I have such mixed feelings about the start of the school year next week. Part of me is ready to put on my dancing shoes and whip up a little "back-to-school-they-go" jig. The other part knows how much I'll miss my three little 'excuses for acting like a big kid all day long.'

Keller told me the other day that he's not sure he'll have kids when he is a grown up because "they sure are hard work." I reminded him that if I didn't have kids, I wouldn't have spent half the summer hunched over a collander, sifting through sand for fossils. There wouldn't be an awesome collection of dead bugs displayed in a jewelry box on top of my entertainment center. The shelf above my laptop would not hold the current line up of: a tiny Buddha from Casey, 6 'Crazy Bones' (which the kids collected in lieu of allowance this summer), a Lego replica of Mr. Krabs's restaurant from SpongeBob, and a CD full of family pictures taken by my friend Marilyn on Father's Day.

There have been days when I've truly felt like I was out of steam and just couldn't be everything I want to be for my kids. It feels pretty rotten when you realize you've just told your kid that you would not read to them or color with them, or something along those lines, because you're just yearning for two feet of personal space and five minutes to enjoy it. But that's just the mother guilt that plagues so many of us. We've had an awesome summer, in fact, it was the best so far, hands down.

A few of our activities from this, the last week of summer vacation. . .

Saying 'goodbye' to Marley's speech therapist, Miss Lauren(she'll be getting services in a class-based program now instead of home-based):

Spending the day at Great Country Farms with our buddies Connor, Caitlin, and Diane:














Having an impromptu Mix'n'Match Costume Extravaganza with the same buddies:







Fishing in our stream with Mikey, who is the first friend Keller made when we moved to the neighborhood in 2004(they were both under 2 at the time!):







Showing off fresh haircuts to start the school year (Keller wanted the bare minimum trimmed off and wasn't thrilled with the way the stylist 'styled' it, and Casey asked for a 'Mohawk, but not too poinky' and was pretty happy with his 'do:


I don't know why my photos look so grainy/pixelated when I upload directly to Blogger, so if anyone has advice on making them show up better, please leave a comment. If I use a site like Photobucket and turn them into a slideshow, they look so much better. . . but it takes too long. Help!