Bookends

Oh man....

I had such high hopes that I would have done a better job documenting our life this summer, but alas, Oliver starts another year of school tomorrow(!) and I haven't even posted pictures from his last day of school back in June.  Oops!

We had a wonderful summer.  

It was filled to the brim with...well... feeding people, cleaning people, making people go to sleep and keeping people from hurting themselves and other people- but it was mostly really fun.  Honestly, it was a blast.  

And I have a ton of pictures to prove it.

Buuuut, they will have to wait for another post.  For now, I will leave you with The Bookends of our Happy Summer and an IOU for everything in between :)

Last Day of School for Oliver- June 5th, 2013:

I made a sign for Oliver to take a picture with and he insisted on copying my letters to make his own sign. 

 His was much cuter than mine for sure.  

(Now that I am seeing this, I think that I will make him do this again every year- yay for new traditions!)

 Posing with brother and sister and things got a little silly- this happens a lot these days!

 Saying goodbye to Ms. Tia and Ms. Molly was hard for both of us.  I could tell that Oliver was very uncomfortable with his feelings (sad, excited, unsure of the future and saying goodbye to people he loves is a rough combo for my sensitive little man) and so his goodbye was very quick.  He didn't even want to stay for cake with the rest of his class! I, on the other hand, didn't want it to end and I found myself on the verge of tears all morning.  I loved this school, this room, this group of kids and especially these teachers.  I cannot say enough good things about what UCNS has done for Oliver and our whole family.  Even though we will be back next year (and for the next 5 years!) it is the end of this year and it was a really good year.  I can honestly say that Oliver's life will be better because of this year he had at school...now I know that sounds like a crazy thought, but it's true!!

***

And that brings us to today- September 2nd, 2013:

It didn't dawn on me that this was our last day of Summer Vacation until late in the afternoon when I realized that it was Monday and not Sunday.  I was thinking that we had a whole other day!! We didn't plan to make it extra special but it turned out that way when Sean decided to take the boys to their very first Reeeal Mooovie in a Reeeal Mooovie Feeeter to see "Planes".  Lucky boys.  And then we let them stay up a little later than usual to run around at the park.

All loaded up for our evening walk to the park!!

This is when I know it is time to stop taking pictures and get going to the park!! :)

Because this is what they would rather be doing!

(shoes!)

(my new favorite picture. ever.)

These are precious, precious days...all of our kids so happy to just BE together.
With us.
Outside.
 And because my heart was feeling quite full and thankful, I suggested a family picture to commemorate the end of a wonderful season before we headed home to settle everyone down for the night.

  

But just in case our Last Hurrah wasn't going to be memorable enough,
 God had one more thing up his sleeve for us...

A summer storm, complete with thunder, lightening and an amazing rainbow!!

Nothing like a thunderstorm to remind me who I am and who God is.

Absolutely Magical.

(Probably less fun for Oliver, although equally memorable, who was so scared that I carried him home in the baby's front pack while he cried and plugged his ears.  This was my view of Sean walking the other kids home while I cut across the grass with Oliver)

So long, Summer 2013!!