Last day of summer vacation

Today we celebrated the last day of summer vacation. The kids and I stuffed ourselves on pancakes at Ihop. We then stopped at home and picked up Brady-dog and went down to the marina. Brady swam in the disgusting river, Kaylin collected many filthy shells and Logan poked dead fish with sticks. Logan calls it "surgery" and I think he is slightly hopeful that the fish will somehow come back to life. The moment we walked back into the house the kids jumped into the shower to scrub off the nasty.

The kids spent hours playing outside with the neighbors. They made an outdoor mess with Play Doh that Gene felt compelled to clean with the ice scraper from his car, loudly complaining about the existence of Play Doh even outside before he came inside after work. I think he also used the leaf blower on the mess. Uh, it was OUTSIDE. Was it really that big of a deal? Logan and I played frisbee for quite a while and we all enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was a nice, relaxing day off and a good end to a busy summer.

Despite the fact that I spent the first half of summer vacation working my butt off for the zoo inspection, I think the kids had a fantastic summer. They both had swimming lessons, Logan had tee-ball, Kaylin had tons of fun field trips and activities at camp. We went to ball games, St. Louis, Schaumburg, fairs, museums and parks. We rode bikes and got ice cream regularly. The kids spent countless evening and weekend hours playing with the neighbor kids and caught hundreds of lightning bugs. I ran outside (as opposed to at the gym) several days a week and started riding my bike to work on Saturdays. I can't really think of anything I wanted to do that we didn't accomplish. I can't believe it's over...

Tomorrow my baby will get on the gigantic bus and go to his first day of kindergarten. He's so excited I don't know if he'll sleep tonight. Lunches are packed, supplies are packed and backpacks are ready by the door. Clothes are laid out and the camera battery is fully charged. Kaylin's buzzing with excitement about seeing her friends again. Everything's ready to go except me. I wish summer vacation could go on for another three months. I totally prefer lessons and practices and long days to homework and cold and darkness before I leave work. Hopefully the kids' teachers won't be nutjobs. Hopefully Logan will find kindergarten more interesting and exciting than Kaylin did. Sigh.