Wrapping Up Summer

Well, this is it.  This morning, the big yellow schoolbus arrives...the virtual school bell rings....  What have we been doing for the last few weeks besides take Blondechick to college?

Mostly we've been wrapping up the summer and preparing for the fall.

We've been to the beach quite a bit, soaking up every last moment of sand, surf and sunshine. Lake Michigan is at its warmest in August and September, and with the breeze off the lake, it feels cool there on the hottest day.  I love to lay in the sun and not even sweat!

We had a late-summer picnic with families from our theater group.  We've all missed seeing each other!

We picked up all the kids' bedrooms and had the carpets cleaned.  The stairs especially were just gross before.  Much better now.

We found a guitar teacher for B16.  We found a piano teacher for C8 and B12.  A voice teacher for B16 is in the works.  We started guitar lessons already.

We have to work these lessons in around the school schedule AND soccer practices, which have already started.  This year the 3 youngest are all doing soccer, and two of them have two practices a week.  That means we have soccer practice Monday, Tuesday, two on Wednesday, and Thursday nights, plus three games on Saturday. B16 is helping coach a team, so add one more practice (Thursday) for him.  Plus games, if he wants.

Soccer is going to be a way bigger time commitment than theater, I'm afraid.  Our kids can't do both, so I'm the only one going to drama classes one night a week--as a teacher!  I'm teaching Drama 1 again, and I have 16 kids signed up for my class! So I've been preparing for that.

The younger half and I used our free passes to Six Flags Great America, earned through the Six Flags Reading Club.  Then Papa Rooster and the boys received invitations by friends with free coupons.  So some of us did a lot of roller coasters in the last few weeks....

B12 flanked by Mr. A and his twins

Chicklet and I finally completed a summer project we'd been trying to work in.  We invited another mom, her daughters and her sewing machine to come over and have a sewing date.  Due to under-performance on the parts of our respective machines, the other mom and I ended up doing more sewing than our daughters, but they still learned a lot and the result was so cute!

We bought school supplies for C8 and B6, attended the school's open house, met their teachers, found their desks, and stashed their supplies inside.

We had our Chicago cousin here for a couple nights.  She's six and doesn't need much entertaining--she and Chicklet8 and Bantam6 played and played, and when they got bored, we went to the beach.

When we returned her, we went "downtown"--(into Chicago)--to Buckingham Fountain, Millennium Park and the Lincoln Park Zoo.  It was a day trip the kids had asked about at the beginning of summer.  It's been ages--B6 didn't remember any of it.  He'll remember it this time!

B6 with his aunt and cousin

It was a perfect day--and a perfect way to wrap up the summer!