I have to be totally honest.  I love summer and finally being able to sleep in, but in previous summers I have spent the last month of summer vacation counting down the days for the return to school and a schedule.  We have a lot of fun the first month of vacation, but eventually the kids start to get on each other's nerves, arguing, and generally becoming bored.

THIS summer was pleasantly different.  I found myself longing for summer to continue.  Everyone got along pretty well (with only an occasional argument).  They also were able to keep themselves entertained...I don't think I ever heard an "I'm bored".  Now, maybe it is because they are getting older, or maybe it's because we took a few fun trips and it helped to break up the summer - but either way I loved it.  We had a lot of lazy days spent swimming, reading, making lots of chocolate chip cookies (everyone but Kyle has the recipe memorized I can make them completely on their own) or playing in the yard.  I really enjoyed hanging out with them all day!

So here we are starting another year of school.  I really do love having a schedule.  I think my children do too.  It's also really fun for them to get back to seeing their friends on a daily basis.  I crave having a clean kitchen, messes that stay cleaned up once I clean them, and SILENCE (at least for a little while).  I find this helps me to be excited when they come home and more ready for the whirlwind that follows.

The whole silence thing is another subject altogether.  I realized when my children were younger how much I craved it.  Before I had kids I used to listen to the radio when I was driving.  After kids, if I ever found myself alone in the car, I was excited to keep the music off.  Silence...  Sweet Silence...  I love their babbling voices - I just also love to hear my own thoughts.  Sometimes.  

When my youngest joined the ranks of his other siblings attending school I thought I would get so much more done during the day.  That really wasn't the case.  I was pretty productive even with him in tow.  He was my little shadow and was actually very good at entertaining himself.  He'd just come check to see what I was doing every so often.  He was wonderful that way.  The biggest difference once ALL my kids were in school was the silence.  I could do everything in complete silence, and I hadn't realized how much I craved that until I had it.  I am such the better mommy when I get a little silence each day.

Here are our pictures before sending my kids off on their first day of school...

This was the elementary-age bunch...

 Bryan starts school at 6:30am, so we weren't so great at getting pictures that first day.  This picture was taken the 3rd day of school.  Can you tell how tired he is?  It's all in his eyes.  He is my one who likes to stay up late but not getting up in the morning (takes after me that way).