T minus 19 hours and counting...

Until my boys go back to school. Not that I'm counting or anything.

This summer has been great, but I'm SO ready for my boys to go back to school. They need the structure that school brings that I'm just so horrible at delivering. It's times like this where I wonder how ANYONE can homeschool their kids. Yikes.

So this summer, we packed in a LOT of stuff. New stuff that the boys hadn't been exposed to before. I'm not so worried about Meredith this summer, as I can't imagine that she'll actually remember anything that we did... so this summer was about the boys (well, and the grown ups, but do we actually count anyways?). In June, we road-tripped to Philadelphia for a friend's wedding. It was a pretty quick trip, but the boys remember a lot of what we did, so that's a bonus. It's amazing the stuff they remember. Random stuff. Like the fact that Betsy Ross suggested to George Washington that the flag should have 5 point stars instead of 6 point stars because they're easier to cut out. In July, we went for our annual trip to Michigan, but kicked it off with a quick trip to Mackinac Island where we rode our bikes around the island. The thing that the boys remember about this trip? That the island is pronounced MackiNAW, not MackiNAC. They brought this point up when we were on a boat tour in Chicago the other day and the recorded tour was talking about the boat race from Chicago to MackiNAC island and the boys kept saying, "they've got it wrong! It's MackiNAW!" (so they ARE related to me!).

This summer was great. The boys were very sweet to their little sister, who has also come a long way this summer. At the beginning of the summer, she still was very limited in her talking, where as now, while she still has a long way to go, she babbles and repeats with the best of them.

This summer has been good. Fast, but good. And for next year, we need to remember to not front-load the summer. August drags EVERY SINGLE YEAR. Must plan a getaway in August next year. I'd love to do a train trip (we've only talked about it for 3 years, never being able to actually go), but we'll see. Maybe my parents will finally come through on the whole "let's have the boys come stay with us for a week at camp Gramma and Grampa". Oh, the luxury that would be...