End of Summer…Please?

Despite the continuing high temperatures and sweaty foreheads, today marked the end of summer for us. Yes, there are many “end of summer” days in our house. And I keep hoping that each milestone will truly bring an end to this blasted summer. I wish I could say “Yes, September 22nd, the weather will be crisp. We can open the house up. We’ll bake pumpkin bread and sweet potato shepherd’s pie.”

But I digress. Some of our “first day of fall” markers.

• We started our new year of homeschooling a month ago. That was one end of summer.
• Chloe started gymnastics two weeks ago — she admitted she had a flutter in her heart because she was SO excited to get back to it. (Am I holding her back because I SO desperately do not want to be a gymnastics mom? Should she be in the pre-team class? She loves it. She’s good at it. But I’m so not excited about getting her to class 2-3 hours every…single…week…)
• The actual equinox itself. It has been a minor tradition for us to bake pumpkin bread and make a nice sweet potato shepherd’s pie on that date. But this year … no. I have no desire for those “warming” foods.
• The day after Camille’s birthday — this is when we put away “summer” decorations and decorate for Halloween.

Today was yet another marker of the end of summer. We worked double time in the morning (homeschooling, working, treadmilling, Room of the Monthing) so we could make it to the NBTS party (for those of you not up on the homeschooling lingo, that’s “Not Back to School”).

Overall, the party was a true celebration of new beginnings. The park, Glenlake Park, is newly reopened to us after a long time of being closed for construction. While the creek is no longer accessible to the water-loving kids, I love the improvements. We got to reconnect with old friends. I finally got to meet and talk to the mom of one of Chloe’s new best friends. Transplanted from Asheville, they now live in our little Pine Lake and are homescholing, and Chloe has a new, fantastic friend.

But, really, the party would have been much nicer if it weren’t 95 degrees out.

NBTS Party

Camille

Chloe