Last week of summer

I wanted the last week of summer to be filled with fun! Our summer ended up being a busy one this year -- Harrison did baseball and basketball camp, Madeleine did Camp JAM, both Madeleine & Harrison did Camp Invention, and Madeleine & Charlotte did cheer camp. Add to that Matt working most of the summer and finishing his dissertation and we have been busy! 

We spent much of our last days of summer swimming and playing outside. The weather was so nice that week! We didn't do a garden this summer but the kids have had a blast playing in the dirt! 

 We had a fun morning playing at a new park with friends! Harrison was in heaven -- surrounded by some of his best friends.

After all that park time we were all hungry. AJ & her kids went with us to have lunch. We let the kids pick and ended up at -- where else? Waffle House. :) We had a boys table & girls table and I'm pretty sure Waffle House will never be the same after the combined Wilson families visit. Ha! But, it was such a fun way to kick off our last week of summer! And so fun to catch up and see the boys pick up as if they'd seen each other just the day before. 

 After that I took the kids to a movie. We saw Rio 2 which was really cute!

 Tuesday morning was absolutely gorgeous! We grabbed some donuts for breakfast and met some friends at out local park. We ended up staying almost 3 hours -- the kids were so good and the weather was too perfect to go home! Tuesday night was open house at Harrison's school. We were so excited to go and see his new school & find his spot! He's in class with one of his best friends from church and I have a feeling that he's going to have his best year yet!

 Wednesday was a lazy-stay-in-our-pjs-day. And, it was wonderful! We watched movies, played games & wii, and didn't even leave the house until time for church.

Thursday we ran some errands in the morning and the kids played at a friends house for a couple of hours. Madeleine had cheer that afternoon and then open house at her school that night. Middle school is going to be a big change for her. But, after the summer she's had I really feel that she is ready. She has had several big new experiences this summer and handled them with so much grown up confidence. She is growing up too fast for me, but I know that she is ready to handle whatever the year brings. Thursday night, Matt's parents were in town for business and we got to meet them for dinner -- such a fun treat for us! We are loving that they are traveling our way for business these days which means we get to see more of them!!

Friday we met up with AJ & the kids for some end of summer swimming. We swam at their pool and ordered pizza there for lunch. The kids thought pizza at the pool was one of the coolest things ever and I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it earlier this summer.....making a note of that for next summer for sure!

 Friday night I had a girls night out and with some friends and Matt stayed home with the kids. :) Then Saturday was filled with last minute getting ready for school to start! We labeled their stuff, filled out papers, and made sure clothes were ready to go. We spent Saturday evening with some friends from church cooking out and letting the kids run and play.  A perfect ending to our summertime.

Sunday Madeleine brought this awesome cookie cake (from Ricks!) home from church. Everyone in their class that could say the 66 books of the Bible got one. Madeleine has been working on learning them and has had it down for awhile, and she was pretty proud of her accomplishment! I loved watching her and her friends walk through church with their cookie boxes and seeing so many members, both old and young, telling her how proud they were of her accomplishment and what a great thing it was that she'd learned them. Hearing others encourage her just made my heart swell. I love how much our church family is invested in our kids. And, I am so proud of what she is learning every day!