Our summer is ending

I need to thank all of you that took the time to email me or commented in regards to the post titled "We home school. DEAL WITH IT!!" . I thank you and it really has energized me to again focus on another good school year. I have been able to take this week and reflect on the big picture. I like where we are, I love the memories of where we have been, and I hold a world of hope for all the dreams my children have of fulfilling through out their lives. My children are on the right path, this I know for sure. As I look forward to this school year I start by being thankful for this opportunity to school our children in our own home.

We start school tomorrow. As any other teacher out there will tell you I am enjoying the planning but it is draining. I just hope that I can get it all finished before our big labor day celebration. Pooker is working so we are headed to that same pool with four other families from the neighborhood. I will be preparing to begin school first thing in the morning. Pickle and Goobers could not wait to get started.

Pickle working on his phonics program.

Goobers jump starting her math work for the year.

This post is not supposed to be about what is coming but about our great memories that we created this summer. We had such a good time being with each other. We have talked about swim team and pool time in previous posts. We did have other adventures, mostly right here in our own home.

It is always an adventure to find Jumba.

Jumba has kept us on the go this summer. He is active, fast and knows no fear. Calling 9-1-1 for him was scary but it has not stopped his crazy behaviour. I must point out how loved he is by the rest of the crew. He is very spoiled and we talked about that just last night. They all are the first to tell me how spoiled Bagel is and "what are you going to do about it mom." When I asked why they were doing the same thing with Jumba the response was the same as it has been with each child, "But he is sooooo cute!" As much as I agree they are creating another monster.

Bagel and Moogie enjoying the a cooler day and chalking on the driveway. The kiddos created wonderful art work.

We all love our music around here. They listen to all kind sof music most of the day. Princess often prefers her sounds to what the family is hearing.

The kiddos have really enjoyed the unstructured days that summer offer. A few times they tracked down all the match box cars they could find. J and I remember spending summer days doing these things with our siblings as well. I will miss all the cars and dolls some day when the kiddos are all grown. Hopefully the grand children will have the same adventures in our home. (That is a prayer for the far far far distance future!) I will miss the chaos of little ones playing and using their imagination.

Check out the cars. They circled all the way around the house. This collection goes way back. Most of those cars were their dad's at one point in time.

Look at those happy faces. I love this kind of play because they all imagine together.

Another outlet for creative play is the world of doll house people that lived in our dinner room for a few weeks. What fun they had. There were even super hero action figure rescues.

Look at that complete village. They left this out and enjoyed the set up every day for weeks. We have moved the toys to the garage and as it cools off they have big plans to create another village outside.

We all needed this past week to tie up our summer loose ends and begin to look forward to our 2008-2009 school year. We needed the week to put all those extra toys away that we left out in August. It has been a great month of unstructured play and adventure. As it turned out we have all been sickly this week. Just colds but it did keep us from a dentist appointment. We are not all thinking clearly with the stuffy noses. The poor little Jumba even ran a moderate fever for the day and night on Wednesday. Even sick this little one is happy to be loved by his sisters and brothers. What a joy.

So summer is over, school begins and we have new memories to create. I will probably post again today because it is Sugar's 12Th b-day. We will celebrate that as we celebrate Labor Day with friends at the pool. Our prayer for you is that your summer was just as much fun as ours and that you got to know and spend time with those that you love the most in your own home.