September 30th

 School has been in session for more than a month now, but this Last Day of September feels like the real end of Summer.

I ordered a hot coffee instead my usual iced, switched out tiny sun dresses for cozy sweaters in my daughter's closet, added some fall colored pillows to my front yard bench, never even thought about turning the AC on, and I let a crock pot of (delicious!) beef stew simmer on my counter all afternoon. We even passed on one last swim at the Rec Pool because, for the first time in months, it was just too cold!

I will always love the summertime, but part of the magic is that it doesn't last forever and today was the day to remember all the fun we had and say goodbye. At dinner time, we went waaaaaaaaaaay back to June and worked together to try and recall the adventures we had. And I've got to say, of all the places we went and new things we tried, and fun we had in the past 4 months, sitting around our table and reminiscing the good, the great, the bad and the crazy with my little family is just as treasured an experience as any of it. It's pretty cool, after so many years of babyhood, to be able to do anything that all family members can (relatively) equally contribute to and enjoy together.

Anyways, here is what we came up with:

Last Days of school

VBC

Aggie Basketball Camp

Daddy's birthday at the fire station

King's Beach, Lake Tahoe

 Climbing Mount Tam

Stinson Beach

YMCA Flag Football

Band-Uh Nights

Afternoons down at the creek

4th of July with the cousins

Swimming in the Kunkle's pool (and sleeping in their camper)

Mommy's birthday

Raging Waters with the cousins

Breakaway

Lagoon Valley

Cold Canyon

Camping in Yosemite

Fallen Leaf Lake

First Days of school

Soccer

Aggie Football

Yolo County Fair

Rec Pool Afternoons

Blacktop Evenings

Kings Beach (again!)

a little milestone called THE END OF SEAN'S PROBATION with the SACRAMENTO CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT(!!)

and a million other moments (along with a million different emotions!!) in between.

And that brings us to today...

 It's 1:27pm on a weekday and all three of my kids are happy to be in a tree together. 

It hasn't all been easy, but this is one of the biggest reasons why we wanted to give homeschooling a try this year.  

Oliver has been really into riding his bike at skateboard parks so we tried this one out today.  

It was too small for a bike, but it was just right for 3 kids to go crazy on :) 

Summer had her own technique for getting down.

Let's just take a minute to look at this girl's hair...

She tells me what she wants. I try my best to deliver (according to her very specific instructions). And we all get to enjoy the finished product.

 If we had a family band...

this would be our album cover :)

O, the joy of discovering familiar letters everywhere we go!!

 "Giant M!! I LOVE these things!! You can pet it if you want. It's on it's way to the Millenium Falcon."

-Summer

 Apparently Elliott has been wearing his pants backwards all day. 

I love that it made absolutely no difference in the quality of day he had...but I do wonder what his kindergarten teacher must think of me!

If you wanna see the sunset at our house, you literally have to go out and stand in the road.  But some sunsets are worth risking your life for- and this was one of those :) 

Farewell to September. 

 Farewell to Summer.
Lord willing, we will see you next year!!