the end

Well, that's it.  Summer's over.  It's done.  Today I'll send three of my babies off to school!

We had a great finish to summer break.  Last week we had a Back to School Night where the kids could bring in all their books and supplies, meet teachers, play with their friends, and we could get the info and paperwork we need for the upcoming year.  It was CRA-ZY.  It's so exciting to see what God is doing at our tiny, little school.  Enrollment is up again this year and it feels like we're just about bursting at the seams of our building.  It should be interesting at drop-off this morning on the first day.  :)

On Wednesday last week we had my niece and nephew, and a friend from school over for the day.  Both their mom's are teachers and needed to be at work.  :)  I tried to mentally prepare for a day of chaos, but it really went pretty well!  It seemed like all the kids played nicely together, and thankfully it was good weather so we weren't stuck in the house for the whole day.  Although, they spent quite a bit of their time working on a massive fort in the basement.

Thursday I was able to do my first batch of salsa for the year.  This is a big deal around here!  Last year I canned just over 30 pint jars of salsa, and we ran out sometime in the Spring.  So, I'm hoping to do much more this year...  Making salsa involves a lot of chopping, but it is so worth it when we pop open a jar in the middle of winter.

Saturday was our last trip to the cottage for the summer!  Wah-wah-wah.  We really lived it up.  I tried skiing for the first time in 20 years - it only took me a few tries to get up!  And, now for the last couple days I've hardly been able to walk.  Ha!  It was fun and I'm so glad I got up the nerve to try.  Logan tried again, but was unable to get up.  I hope he's not too discouraged and will try again next summer.  I went for a tube ride with Logan and Levi and had a blast.  Caleb went tubing a time or two, and Caleb and Levi went for a fun waverunner ride with Uncle Harold (speed is the name of the game...).  Of course Mike went skiing and showed everybody up with his skills.  :)  Jackson had fun again playing around in the water.  He's a little TOO brave, gotta keep an eye on him!  It's so much fun to see, and I hope he doesn't lose that desire to be in the water.  We had such a great summer at the cottage, and love all the memories we've been able to make.  More and more I appreciate all the family time together.

I've got little boys waking up for their first day of school, time to get to work!