Saying Good-bye to Summer

This past weekend we went down to Tom's River for the last time. Usually we are done by now, but our weekends filled up and we didn't get to do our final packing and cleaning until now. It was a beautiful weekend, although a little chilly in the mornings- we woke up to outside temps in the 50's and since the house is unheated, it was a little cool inside as well. But both days it warmed up, and today was down-right toasty by lunchtime.

Ed's parents were there too, which is always very nice. We enjoy spending time with them, and they love playing with the kids. It's always nice to have an extra set of hands, or two, especially when on the playground.

The kids had 3 things they wanted to do while we were there. One, visit the "big" playground in Beachwood, which we did Saturday morning. It was funny remembering that the last time we were there K was a 4 month old little lump that couldn't even sit yet, and now she was walking the balance beam (with some hand-holding, of course). E has really gotten very good on the monkey bars and was able to go down an inclined swinging set that was more like the rings in gymnastics than monkey bars. She was quite proud of herself at that accomplishment. N still enjoys the baby swings because he can get pushed really high and not have to worry about falling off. His favorite is when I push him from behind as far forward as I can reach, and count down from 5 before letting go and saying, "Blast Off!!"

The second thing on the list was riding bikes. They both were begging us to take them down the track, until we finally took them after naps in the afternoon yesterday. They raced around a few times before deciding it was time to move to the last thing on their list.

Flying kites. When Ed was in Chicago so much a couple of years ago, he got a kite for E that we never flew. Then N got one for his birthday that he has been dying to fly. Everytime he went into the laundry room and saw it leaning up against the wall, he would sigh and say, "When is it going to be a windy day so that I can fly my kite?!" They were so excited to get those things up in the air!! Although the wind wasn't perfect, it got the kites up for a short while and the kids were satisfied. N's kite especially looked really cool soaring, and he loved "landing it" himself.

Today was mainly a cleanup day, stripping sheets, laundry, packing, putting all the toys away in the closet for next year, so we didn't get to the beach. It was definitely warm enough, but there was no time. We did fit in a trip to the playground and track again, so the kids were able to ride one more time.
E and N were thrilled to throw their sheet over the balcony to be washed, and N found this ray of sunlight filled with dust "cool".



Although it is sad that summer is over, officially now, I am definitely looking forward to apple picking next weekend, and pumpkin picking in a month. Isn't it nice that no matter what season it is, there is always something to look forward to?