Our Delicious Summer Winds Down

We have had a wonderful summer, filled with long sunny days spent largely outdoors. Lots of time in the garden. Lots of time at the zoo and museum. Lots of time just puttering in the yard, or riding scooters on the sidewak, or riding bikes and tricycles all over the place. Lots of trampolining and wandering up to Grandma and Grandpa's house to see what they are up to. There have been bug bites, skinned knees, pink cheeks from exercise and sunshine ... all the signs of a healthy, happy summer! That idyllic summer is drawing to a close, as apples ripen, the sun takes on that golden color it has in the fall, and we have had to go buy school supplies.

We have had the best luck with tomatoes this year, with baskets and baskets of big, red beauties coming off the vines here in the late summer. That 1 lb. 6-3/4 oz. tomato is one of the biggest, but we had lots just like it. At right you can see Dad hepling Mom and me get set up for a BIG canning day.

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At left you can see Lily's BIG pumpkins, all round and orange and ready for fall. At right, Henry enjoying one of his last lazy days of summer, wearing jammies at noon, driving a matchbox car on the cat.

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Boys love to ride on stuff. Henry rode up to the house from the garden, along with a very large load of fresh veggies. And Gregory got to do a test ride on the BRAND-NEW school bus that he'll get to ride home after morning kindergarten!! He starts school this week on Wednesday.

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The kids are making the most of these gorgeous early-fall days. We have cornstalk swords and corn tassels and still a fair few wildflowers for the kids to mess with. A new school year is exciting, and I think they kids will have fun. But it's going to be a shame to say goodbye to this awesome summer we've just had. Summers can be SO busy, they can zip past without the kids having a chance to be free and unstructured, they can sometimes turn out more hectic than the school year you were looking for an escape from. We have been so fortunate to have had a REAL summer this year.