Those Summer Nights (and Days)

Dear Ian,

Tomorrow night is a school night.  Yup, it's that time again.  Tomorrow night we will lay out your orientation day outfit, pre-make your lunch, and get to bed on time because the next morning we will get up, run around, eat breakfast, get dressed and start another school year.  But not today.  Today is still Saturday.  Sadly, I am sick and feeling quite like poo, but you and Daddy are off having an adventure.  I honestly don't know where the two of you are; you left around 8:15 or something, and here I sit in an empty house at 10:34.  I'm not complaining much, but I do sorta miss the loud wildness.

Anyhoo.  I've been sitting here with my germs and a cup of hot tea trying to get my voice back, because hey, what's more ineffective than a teacher with no voice?  And I was reminiscing on all the things we did this summer.  I didn't get to finish our weekly blog posts from our summer chain, but I did take pictures, so this post is going to be a lot of photos from those last weeks.  Things around here just got a little to crazy for me to sit down and write, but I made sure that you and I and Daddy made a ton of memories this summer.

Remember how our 4th of July celebrations were rained out?  We didn't let that hold us down!  The week after, we all trekked up to the lake and got to enjoy some time on the boat.

 You and Papa driving the boat around the State Park

Boat babies.  You with your cousins, Taylor and Payton

You even caught a fish off the dock!

The weekend after that we headed up to Atlanta to celebrate your cousin Nole's first birthday.  We took Payton up with us in our car, and the two of you had a ton of fun and adventures.

 

Here are the two of you riding and reading books.  

Didn't take long, though, before the ride got a little dull and lulled you into naptime.

For dinner that night, we had a special treat:  Hibachi!  You loved watching the chef prepare the food right in front of us, and you inhaled all of your lo-mien.  Eating with chopsticks was an adventure, too, and you and Pay both did really well with them!

Nole's birthday party was a lot of fun and included an awesome water slide.  You had a blast!

It was super fast, but you loved every second!

The trip to Atlanta was our last traveling bit we did this summer, but you and I had a ton of fun at home, too.

 We got to have a pool party/water balloon war with Carrick and Carter, our neighbor's sons.  They are so good with you.  Us grown-ups also had a good time sitting in the cul-de-sac drinking wine while the three of you entertained yourselves with basketball, scooters, bikes and toy guns.

 One rainy day you and I used a cardboard box to make our own tv.  I had gotten a little tired of you being glued to the boob tube, so we did this instead. You had a lot of fun with it.  We drew a bunch of different "shows," and here you are "watching" Star Trek.

 It rained a TON this summer, so we had lots of puddles in which to play.  Here you are working on your fishing skills in a puddle at the end of our driveway.  It was cute.

We made home-made chocolate chip cookies!  This was part of our July Challenge, which I guess I will need to blog about next...

This adventure was a ton of fun.  At the end of the last school year, you mentioned as we were driving home one day that you wanted to ride the bus.  To be honest, I had never ridden the city bus other than the Garnet Express that takes you from the Civic Center to FSU football games, so I figured, why not. After some research on routes and such, you and I walked to the bus stop nearest our house and rode all the way down Thomasville Road to the stop closest to Winthrop Park.  We got off, walked to the park, and you got to a bit.  Then we walked back, caught our return bus and came back home.  You really enjoyed the adventure, and it was actually kinda cool!  And we can officially say that we've used the City of Tallahassee transportation.

You on the bus.

Rain, rain, rain took up a lot of our summer.  We did some science stuff, though.  This was dropping colored vinegar onto baking soda.  This occupied you for about 20 minutes :)

Camping in your bedroom: another fun thing to do.  Sad to say, you were coming down with a summer cold when this one happened, so as peaceful as this photo looks, that night was a big rough  But we still had fun.

So there you have it.  I'm sure I missed taking pictures of a few more fun things we did this summer,  like all the time we spent in the pool, Rough and Tumble Time with Daddy, mini golf and Fun Station and art at our dining room table.  But all those memories are locked in my mind and in my heart.  This summer was so much fun, and I am a little sad that it has to end.  But that just means I have a whole school year to plan next summer's adventures.  

Happy Beginning of the School Year, Bear!

Love,

Mommy