the beginning of the end of summer...

School starts tomorrow!  As much as we need to add a little routine to our days, I'm still sad to see the summer come to an end.  The weather is gorgeous and there is so much fun to be had -

The garden in the backyard continues to thrill everyone - I've been amazed at how it's really held their attention and everyone is motivated to get out there and see what's growing.  But John Paul is definitely the most energized by gardening, and the one most likely to be traipsing around, peeking under vines and hollering out his discoveries.

Sunday afternoon we had a little pool out in the front yard, and washed cars, and did some bike riding, and worked in the garden.  and that's how John Paul ended up in his bathing suit wearing a bike helmet and gardening gloves.  Not a bad day for a six year old boy :)

Monday we went to the library to see the solar eclipse.  They were passing out free eclipse glasses -

It was an overcast day, so the sunlight change wasn't very dramatic, but the eclipse was still pretty fun to watch.  "I see it, I see it" was definitely the most heard phrase of the hour!

I called Matt and said "you better come up here, it's really cool" and - perk of these months with more freedom in his schedule - he came!

and he agreed it was pretty neat.

and that's that.  No more solar eclipses for however many years, and no more free days of summer for 2017.  Back to school picnic tonight and we are off to the races tomorrow!