Another Summer in the books.

Here's a sentence that may knock your socks off:  At no point during this summer did I look at the calendar and start a countdown until when school would start.  Hard to believe, right? Also, the kids didn't do even one day of day camps during the weeks they were at home.  Again, so hard to believe.  Furthermore,  I didn't even have an excel chart mapping out each day and what was getting scheduled months and months in advance to make sure every day had plenty of coverage to entertain and dazzle the kids.  Whoa baby!  Crazy, I know.   

I call the Summer of 2014 "Epic".  It has to have been the best summer of my life.  I don't see how I will ever be able to top my adventures or destinations in the coming years.  The most I can hope for is something comparable.  While it was epic for me in a good way, it was epic for Jeff in a horrible way.  The majority of the summer (May to August) was spent with him being miserable in a job that was a bad fit and the final weeks of the summer was spent with him being unemployed.  Due to great effort on Jeff's part and former colleagues, friends, and an awesome network, Jeff has done a wonderful job of speaking to recruiters, lining of interviews, and getting a job offer.  Whew.  I have to say living with Jeff when he was at his former job was unbearable (for all of us).  The unemployed version was very pleasant to be around.  Jeff said he wouldn't freak out about his lack of paychecks until the end of September/early October. I am happy to report we didn't see the freaked-out version. It was nice having Jeff around.

We don't lack drama or excitement around here.  Between Israel, Camp Ramah in New England, NYC, Orlando, Ocean City NJ, Gramps Camp in Baltimore, and Dutch Wonderland/Hershey Park, we had more than our share of fun leaving our small town of Burke.

The first day of school was yesterday.  I am looking forward to getting back into our routine and the kids getting back to a decent bedtime each night.  10:30pm on a consistent basis was a bit ridiculous, right? 

First day of 1st grade!

First day of 4th grade!

Sam got all excited that she was assigned the same teacher Ian had.  However, when it came time to bring Sam to hear classroom yesterday, she broke down in tears.  Fortunately Jeff and I had lots of experience with this in kindergarten.  We gave her a quick hug & kiss and said good-bye.  There was no lingering and extending the separation even more.  As we all know, Sam crying is only for our benefit. She is fine as soon as we leave the room.  

Ian loves school.  Plain and simple, he loves it.

Sam is not entirely certain that school is a good thing.

Not sure if you can fully tell how excited I am.

Ian is thrilled with the boys who got assigned the same teacher as him.  This is Ian's first year without needing to have a snack brought to class.  Ian is most excited about a field trip to Jamestown he gets to do in 4th grade. 

Our back to school tradition each year is go to out for ice cream after dinner on the first day of school.  This year Sam chose Friendly's.  It was a big hit and we were all loving our sundaes.  Sort of makes having to go back to school just a little sweeter.  :)