The Last Week of Summer

I decided to try and cram a lot of our favorite summer activities into the final week of summer vacation before heading back to school. This actually worked quite well, because if you go back to the week before Labor Day in both 2016 and 2017, you'll see that a Sheboygan trip to Bookworm gardens and Lake Michigan is now our annual summer finale. You can tell by all the photos I took, that we just love those gardens and the beach on that freezing cold lake!

Okay, so that was definitely a bit of a picture overload, but it should demonstrate just how much I love this special day trip. I sure love these kids and it's times like these that I just hope and pray that they NEVER grow up. 

You can tell there was a lot of fog on that lake, and that's because we were getting crazy wicked rain storms just about every day. It's now February 2019 (yes, I'm post dating the publication here and publishing the post on the day I originally started writing it. Five months later, as I look at these pictures and go over my calendar ... I can still recall all that intense rain. And I'm suddenly remembering the horrid mosquito infestation that followed it. Worst. thing. ever. 

Anyway, that day trip was Tuesday (7th day on the final days of summer countdown). I can't recall what we did Wednesday, but for some reason we were at the Fox Valley Mall, cause I took these pictures there. 

That night I took Reid and Nell to the youth fundraiser at church. They had a blast while were there. 

On Thursday I took the kids to the Madison Zoo so we could see the Polar Bear. Only, we didn't see the polar bear. His pool was empty for some reason and they can't let him out when his pool is drained. We still had an awesome time, and I'll let another huge slew of pictures do the talking for that.

For some reason, she pretended this Badger was her daddy, and that cheered her right up after a little fit she decided to throw.

That night we went to Reid and Nell's soccer games, as this was something we did every Thursday night in August and September. But this night was special cause we got these cute photos of our little athletes. 

We were suppose to go camping over the weekend, but the site we were planning on using (a lot up North that a friend owns) was flooded. We made the best of it and went bowling with some neighbors (who were also suppose to go camping somewhere up North). Bowling was followed by a bonfire in our backyard. It was such a beautiful evening and I loved spending it with the neighbors. 

Our actual Labor Day Weekend was a bit more lowkey than the week leading up to it.  We just hung out around the house/yard and made the best of our fading summer weather. Note, Coraline is already in long sleeves in this photo of her and our neighbor, Violet, riding blissfully in our tree swing. 

I just love this photo of Mara eating an apple straight from our tree. Man, I remember how hard it was to get her to stop picking those apples. Everytime we were outside she wanted to pick a couple, and every time we were inside changing her diaper she'd stand up on the changing table, look at the trees out her bedroom window and start shouting "apples mama! apples!" 

Earlier Saturday morning these two vampires delivered a bat box to our Bishop's house. He wasn't there to receive it, so I took this photo and sent it to him. He'd bet on one at the fundraiser earlier in the week, but he didn't get it. But boy do they need it! His wife had told us they found one in their house just a week or so earlier. Our neighbors (ones in the bowling picture) actually had to get their kid's rabies shots because they had one in their house too! Pretty crazy. 

After stopping by to deliver the box, we actually ran into him at our next errand. We were picking up something at Menards and there was Bishop. The kids were so excited to tell him their good news. After that we headed to the shoe store to buy them each a pair (or two) of new shoes so they could start the new school year off on the right foot ;).

But perhaps the most fun thing to happen this whole final week of summer, was Saturday night's water fight with dad. After these two lovelies soaked up a fresh beverage I handed Reid the hose and told him to go get Ben, who was lounging in the tree swing. Ten minutes later every one (but me) was drenched. Reid even lost his shorts as he was running across the yard. They were so wet they just slipped right off him (and, I think that even caused him to fall -- that or the laughter). Man it was so much fun!

So there it all is, five months late, but documented for posterity either way. I sure love you little kids. You make my days brighter and fill my life with joy!

Oh, and I almost forgot Coraline at Church. I kept thinking to myself, we're missing something but also I know I have every *thing* I brought. I decided to check the pew, just in case. And there she was, sprawled out enjoying her sweet dreams. I mean, we wouldn't really have forgotten her, but it was pretty funny that I just had that you're leaving something behind feeling as I told everyone to go get in the car.