It's the end of the summer as we know it...

Meredith started back to school this past week as a big second grader.   She was super excited to see her friends, meet the teacher, and get back to school.  I’m thankful for her excitement, but I’m mourning summer.  It’s just so carefree, but so quick.  We had several unusually cool days this summer too, so our pool time was shorter.  We have a big vacation coming in October so the summer brought smaller trips, so I’m feeling a little unfulfilled this summer.  Overall though, we had a great few months:

Meredith continued to play softball and Frank coached and overall they had a great time. 

 

Meredith wrapped up her dance class with a recital at the end of the year and she did great. 

 

They also had the 1^st through 3^rd grade musical, and Meredith was chosen for a speaking part and played the xylophone.  She loved it and did great!

 

 

We took a trip with the cousins to Kings Island where Meredith is at the perfect height of being able to ride bigger rides if she wants to, but she still isn’t too small for the kiddie rides--the best of both worlds for my roller coaster lover.

 

 

 

We had a friend of mine from college spend the weekend with her husband and 3 kids, and amazingly took no pictures, but had a great time.

I had a week off where we spent fun filled mornings at Vacation Bible School.

 

 

We partied up the 4^th of July with a large friends gathering with fireworks, and family fun.

There was an impromptu get-away weekend to a state park with Frank’s sister and her family.  The girls spent the whole day at the pool while the boys golfed.

 

 

Frank had a week off which resulted in 2 trips to the state fair for more rides.

 

The cousins were led by my sister on an afternoon of cupcake wars, and had a delicious time.

 

 

Our first garden was created and grew with many cucumbers, a few squash, some green beans, and tomatoes still to come.  Compost is happening, and Meredith is enjoying the vegetables of our labor.

 

There was bike riding, with 2 wheels and no training wheels 85% mastered, Meredith learned to whistle, she grew about 1-2 inches over the course of the summer, hit the pool as much as we could squeeze in, where her swimming gets stronger and stronger, and many trips for ice cream.

And this little booger, Ava, entertains us constantly.

 

Overall it was a good summer, and now we’re back into schedules, and calendars, and activities, and events, and it’s all good too, but summer is the sweetest.