First Day of School

Summer has come to a close here. Before you all start thinking "why are they going back to school so early?" let me remind you than no kid in my district is out bailing hay or getting their cow ready for the fair. These are city kids and suburban moms who are ready for the kids to go back to school and get some sort of regular schedule back. For example, I have vacuumed my house twice this summer. That's gross. This is what a second grader looks like. She was pretty excited for the bus to come this morning.
Evie and her best friend, Paige. I don't know how they made it through the day because they are normally linked at the hip.

The whole gang for a picture. Next year, they will all be at the bus stop!

Going back to school may be hard on the school kids, but it is harder on the ones they leave behind. Like mom. Annalise was hanging all over me today. The only time I had 5 minutes to myself was when she got to paint this craft. We bought it earlier this summer and I told her that when Evie went back to school, she could paint it.

She was done by 11:10 am. Fortunately, when the bus arrived in the afternoon, the kids all played outside for the rest of the day. Annalise misses her buddies.

Family Field Day

Our last hurrah of summer was planned by our very own daughter. Early in the week, she came up with the idea to host a field day for our friends. She spent a good part of the week brainstorming games, gathering supplies, making ribbons and practicing games. Needless to say, I was happy to endulge her as it kept her busy. We contributed to the Family Field day with a bag of hotdogs, a watermelon, and some lemonade. This was the sign on the side of the house welcoming all participants.
There were warm up exercises which involved a lap around the yard.

Another game was inspired by a minute to win it game. They stuck cotton balls on their noses and had to deposit them in egg cartons at the other end of the yard without using their hands.

Oh yes, grown ups were involved too. Here we are getting ready to do the standing long jump.

Then the children amused us with handstands and flips.

We tried to see who could stand on one foot the longest. Can you tell that each family wore matching colored shirts? Wouldn't want anyone to get mixed up. We were in the white home jerseys.

A foot race of the kids. For once they are all wearing shoes instead of sandals.

We had a softball throw. Each of us had to stand by where the ball landed. As the game went on, it got more dangerous for those of us in the "outfield".

Izzy demonstrates the soccer ball kick. Why isn't she playing this fall??

At the conclusion of the games, we were all awarded participation ribbons and posed for a picture. We retired to the deck to munch on some lunch and then cooled off in the pool. It was a great way to end up our summer.