Goodbye Summer!

It is with heavy heart that I write this tonight. I try not to make my blog sad and depressing,but rather happy because this is all about making memories for my kids to look back on someday. Sort of like an online scrapbook if you will. (mine are so far behind anyways, I will never catch up) I'll save the negativity for facebook. Ha!

Anyways, this really and truly has been one of the best summers yet. I feel like I did sooooo much with my kids and rarely did I let a day go to waste. We went so many places like the zoo, the children's museum, Blackberry Farms, parks, pools, beaches, splashpads, library, restaurants, and many othe places. (It helps that we are members to lots of these places too). We hung out with all our besties including, Scotty, Levi, Jackson, Shelby, Allie, Emma, Sean and Mia. We got to make lots of crafts, bake some yummy goodies, sing songs, hold dance parties, ead lots of books, take naps, take walks, and eat 3 meals a day together. Each day was fun and brought smiles to my face and memories were made. Sure not every day was easy and smooth. Trust me! But I would't have traded them for the world.

Tomorrow I head back. We have a whole new scheudule to follow this year with babysitters and Gracie's preschool. I am very sad to say that I will not be able to pick her up everyday as I did last year and I can't help but really be bitter about this one. I will not see the smile on her face when I walk into her classroom and she is so excited to show me what she made and what she did. I will not be able to see and talk to her teachers or the other parents. I will never get to see her little classmates and that makes me very sad. If you are lucky enough to be able to do this, count your lucky stars. I truly did love this last year. I know she'll still tell me about her day at school but several hours after the fact is not going to be the same.

It's going to take awhile to get into our new "routine." And days when Gracie fights me about going to the babysitters, I'll remember these days and we'll talk about them. Of course I have extreme guilt when my kids cry when I leave them and it breaks my heart. I know they'll be fine in a short time and I'll always be fine after a Starbucks. No matter what anyone says, being a fulltime working mama is hard!

You see the thing I am going to miss most is these faces. I know I still get to see them but it's not going to be the same. Instead of eating breakfast with them, I'll be setting up for the day. Instead of eating lunch with them, I'll be eating lunch thinking about the and talking and trading stories about them.

So goodbye summer of 2011. You truly have been fabulous and you will be missed greatly.

I wonder though.....is the worst day at home better than the best day at work?

Blackberry Farms!

Today we spent the last week of summer vacation at Blackberry Farms. We love it there. It is small and quaint and just perfect for little ones. Big kids would be bored there so there are not too many of them there and no lines either.

We visited the one room schoolhouse. Gracie tried out the old desks. Teachers back in the day had a class of about 10 kids! Nice!

Whoops! Looks like Presley got in trouble! Gracie got to ride a pony! Evie and Presley tried but were a little too scared. Gracie's horse was named Peanut Butter. After the real pony ride, we rode the fake ponies on the merry-go-round. Everyone liked this. Then we took a tractor ride. We stopped to pet a donkey named Paco. Then we took a train ride! This was a favorite. We had fun walking on the covered bridge and Grandma and Granpa tried to get a picture with the kiddos. We found our way to some other animals and saw goats, a cow, some sheep, chickens and a bunny. Evie liked saying "hi" to the cow and trying to moo! Then it was the kids' turn to drive some tractors. Gracie did really well. She even drove through a tunnel! Evie and Presley were pushed on theirs but they still liked them. In fact, Presley had to drove every color tractor they had. Who can resist these kind of pictures? Then we had to ride the merry-go-round one more time. And ride the train one more time. I'm glad we got out to enjoy the beautiful weather today. I'm sad that I won't get to see these silly faces all day everyday.

Banana Split Brownie Pizza!

Gracie went to a cooking class last week. She LOVED as she does love to help bake and cook things. At her class, they made banana split brownie pizza. Parents were not allowed in the class but afterwards she came out with a smile on her face and chocolate on her lips! They made a recipe card in class so the other night we set out to get all our ingredients. If you are interested in making it, here is what you will need:

brownie mix, eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla ice cream, strawberries, bananas, pineapple, and hot fudge.

To begin, heat your oven to 350 degrees and spray a 12-inch pizza pan with cooking spray. Make the brownies as directed.

Gracie poured our ingredients in a mixing bowl.

She even cracked the eggs all by herself! No shells found their way in our bowl either! She couldn't wait to lick the bowl! Spread the brownie mix in the pizza pan. Bake the brownies for 20-26 minutes. Cool completely.

Then you have to slice teh strawberries and cut up the pineapple. Yes, I let her use a knife but it was a butter knife. Spread slightly softened ice cream evenly over the brownies. Top with strawberries, bananas, and pineapples. Drizzle with hot fudge. Enjoy! It was yummy! And Gracie was very proud of herself. We invited Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Amy over for dessert. It was a hit!

The Arboretum!

Yesterday we headed to the Morton Arboretum. The weather was beautiful and we were meeting friends there. Gracie was so excited to meet up with her BFF, Scotty. We hit the water right away and Gracie showed Scott how to walk on the rocks.

They had a ball wading through the water. In fact, Scott had so much fun with the water that his mom had to remove his shirt because it got a little too wet. Check out this stud! No wonder Gracie likes hanging around him! Presley and Evie weren't much for playing the water so they sat on the rocks and watched everyone else. But they did have fun walking across the bridge. Is little Evie a ham or what? After that, it was time to hit the playground now that everyone had cooled off a little. Scott and Grace had fun climbing around. And then going down the slide. Evie loved the slides too. But guess who was too scared to go by himself? Daddy to the rescue. After that it was time for lunch. Presley had fun hanging with his little lady, Miss Shelby. He thought it was great fun to tickle her and make her smile. But what one does, so does the other.....so Evie got in on the action too. Then we found the fountain that you can throw rocks in. Actally you are not supposed to throw them, but push them in. We got in trouble for that one. Whoops! We moved to climbing bridges after that. And then we had fun playing in forts. Presley got the great idea to peek his head in the window at the girls. They thought that was funny too. And Gracie and Scott had fun climbing the forts too. We attempted a picture of the kids before we left but as you can see.....it was near naptime and everyone was cranky and tired. It was great to get out and enjoy the weather with our buddies. We are really going to miss hanging out so much now that school is starting. I guess we'll just have to start penciling in for next summer:(