End of Summer Blog

It's Facebook's fault!

I could just go ahead and relent that I'm not going to keep up with my blog, so instead, I will try to commit to a quarterly post. Maybe more. Let's start with quarterly.

School starts in two weeks. Julia will be in fourth grade. She says she's not looking forward to it, that it will be too hard. Apparently someone told her that fourth grade was the hardest grade in elementary school. I'd like to find that person so that I can slap them for telling a kid that. She will continue with Drama Kids this year. This is her third year, and she is now a Foundation Student. The only real thing to that is that she gets a bigger trophy at the end of the year, but even better, our tuition is cut in half. Sweet! She has also informed us that she wants to be in choir, so we will look into that as well. We are hoping to hear this week who her teacher will be. If she's half as awesome as Miss Lubojasky was last year, we'll be happy.

Hayden is our big first grader. He's really looking forward to going back. We are praying for a good teacher this year. He really struggled last year, and that was really disappointing. We hope his new teacher recognizes his need to be challenged, and can look past behavior that might be triggered by his boredom to recognize what a really, REALLY cool kid he is. Give that kid the proper encouragement and he'll give you the world. He will play Fall Ball again, and Michael has signed up for a head coach position. Keep your fingers crossed because Mike will be an excellent coach!

Brandon goes with the flow quite well, thinking he can do anything and everything his brother and sister can do. I must say that he is the orneriest kid of them all! He is SO very set in his ways. I try to comfort myself by saying it will serve him well someday. But for now... whew.... It's a good thing he's so dang cute!

Julia and Hayden attended the school district's Extended Day Summer Program. Their activities included a Astros game, Children's Museum, Houston Museum of Natural Science, and finished up two solid weeks of swimming every day. The geniuses there have determined that the program should end two weeks prior to school starting. I guess the assumption is that ALL parents can take two solid weeks off during that time.

So, we have planned our vacation for a little over a week, and we're looking forward to getting away next Friday. We've planned a Camping Texas Road Trip. In a tent. With all three kids. In August. That said we are forging ahead with high hopes!

We are camping in three different spots, each point making a large circle that boomerangs back to Sugar Land (because I'm not fond of road trips!) Our first stop is Perdenales Falls. We are still planning activities around that area, but on our way there we are stopping at the Blue Bell Ice Creamery for a tour. The kids are especially excited about the free samples. (So are Dad and I...) Our next stop is Garner State Park, and the final is Krause Springs. Michael did a lot of research on these parks, so he really should be updating this blog in regard, but we know he's done a good job and they will be really nice.

We wanted to do a trip that allowed the kids to run, yell, and explore. Something that doesn't require us to keep a hand on them the whole time. I wouldn't be surprised if both boys come back home with a preference for peeing in the woods as opposed to the facilities... (that would be kind of funny, though) Michael has made the two big kids journals that have a good description about the places we are staying, each complete with a place they can draw pictures and write their own stories about their experiences. What a cool thing they can take to school when their teachers ask what they did this summer!

We had a hitch installed on my new (sexy) truck so that we can tow the small trailer behind us. That way we can take our bikes with us. It should be... quite an adventure!