Adios, Summer!

Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer, but we bid goodbye to summer a few days before that as the kids started school last week.  Luckily, they began with a short week which helped us ease into routine.  Evie had her freshman orientation on Tuesday, and both kids had their first official day of school on Wednesday.  There were some nerves since they were both heading to a new school, but overall, it was a good week.  It turns out that there are a lot of positives to moving up to the next school - more freedom, better lunches, and a later school start time!  We are all very appreciative of our 7:15am wakeup time this year, compared to 6:15am last year, and Evie gets to ride into school with her cousin most days instead of taking the bus.  The start of school always brings a mix of emotions as it reminds us of how fast the kids are growing up, but we are also proud to see them handling more responsibility and freedom.

Walking into HIGH SCHOOL!

Noah made this sweet note for Evie on her first day

Mini golf on the last day of summer for the boys

Ready to crush the new year!

Evie and Colby - 9th and 12th grade!

Off she goes to high school...in a car!

The best chauffeur!

Evie and Lila on the first day!

Against our better judgement, we piled into the car and headed to the fair as soon as the kids got home from their first day of school.  The "carload special" is only good on that one day of the fair, so we went for it.  The fair felt more sparse than usual this year, but a couple favorite rides were down for repair while we were there (yikes!).  We ate way too much food and had fun with friends, but we had had our fill by the end of the evening.

Everyone was tired after the first three days of school, so we purposely had a pretty quiet start to the weekend.  We had a movie night and got some projects done around home Saturday, and then we had a beautiful hike with our friend Scott and his family on Sunday, played pickleball, and had a lovely early birthday dinner for me!  Now that the weekend has come to a close, it feels like this is the week that school is really starting, and we're all feeling a little sad to bid summer goodbye.

Costco-sized snacks

Another King Me gig!

Matt went out to see a band called Lettuce...he loved it!

Mount Philo hike