Well, Monday school starts and with it the Summer season draws to a close. It doesn’t seem possible, I need more time with all my kids home! More peeking out the kitchen window to kids shrieking and having fun in the yard, bunk bed sibling sleepovers with giggles late into the night (well 9:00, but that’s late for them), pool time, swimsuit tan lines, towels on the line, Popsicles, backyard BBQ’s, summer sunsets, watching the fireflies come out and hearing the locusts call their bedtime chant.
I didn’t get my fill of corn on the cob, watermelon, cucumber salad or tomato sandwiches this year, due to my poor over-heated garden…..so we wait for another year, another season.
It’s back to early bedtime, alarm clock setting for early mornings, hearty breakfasts, homework, evening backpack checks, uniform filled laundry and required reading. But, with the end of Summer comes the promise of Fall……the return of crisp Kansas air, leaves crunching under your feet, pumpkins, soups and all that Fall entails.
The kids have really had a fun summer together and I love the changes I see in 
them as they all grow up a bit, they really really play well together. The latest craze? “Barbie Beauty Salon”. Destiny is the best stylist around!
I have let the kids play outside EXTRA long this week, and for the first time in all our years out here, they have started to explore the property, expand their territory a bit. They found a “Hideout” for themselves in our old lean-to.
Fun!
It even has an emergency escape hatch….cool!
Aren’t my kids so fashion forward? I mean really, snow boots with shorts is a really good look, wouldn’t you say? 🙂
Apparently, the Goat Head stickers (MEAN ol’ stickers that look like thorns and put poison in your foot…) poke them when they wear their Croc play shoes. Hey, we live in the country, whatever works!
In other news, Pax has started signing more at meal time. We’ve done Baby Sign with each of our children and LOVE it! He’s been good at “All Done” for a while now, but has added “More”, which I have yet to capture on video (The little booger will do it before and after the camera, but never when I have it on, STINKER!) and “Please.”
I also, due to supper-making chaos, handed him the fork for the first time, to allow him to self-feed. He went after his turkey, sweet potatoes and peas with gusto, doing waaaay better than I imagined…….
Scooping the bites to his mouth with ease….
Sorta.
Half a bowl later, I was still working on the Broccoli & Cheese Twice Baked Potatoes (yum~recipe coming!) so he gave up the fork and went to hands….
And later still, face.
Success! Messy success, but he the job got done none-the-less and was so proud of himself!
Well, I should close. Like I said, school starts Monday and I need to go write “Destiny” on a million and one more individual markers, marker lids, notebooks, folders, crayons, pencils and erasers. How do you people with multiple kids in school get this accomplished in good time?
What an undertaking! The old Tonya would have had this done a month early. But this new Tonya, the one with 4 kids? She’s more of a “Fly By The Seat of Her Pants” kinda gal…..waiting until the last weekend before school starts to get it done.
Rebel, I know.
~T
4 little Fergusons 