Fall, fall, fall!

I really do love fall. The cooler weather. The sweatshirts and jeans. Going back to drinking coffee and savoring the warmth of it in the cool air. I even enjoy the fall beers!

But I'm torn about back to school. On the one hand, I love it! Putting the kids to bed at 8:00 tonight felt... so nice. I got work done and relaxed and it wasn't even 10:00 yet! Getting back to that schedule, to the kids having things to do on a regular basis, to the real world, makes me happy.

And yet. And yet... I want to hang onto them. I don't want Max to go to school. I want him to be happy and carefree and in his own world where the only limitation is his own imagination. I know he doesn't know what he should know to go to school, and that I didn't push him hard enough on his letters and numbers and writing. But I'm not sure I would change it. He just has so much fun in his own little world.

I don't want Abby to be the big kid in school, off to middle school next year. She's so responsible already, and moody, and happy, and emotional. And Nolan is so happy to get back to his friends. Every year I'm going to lose him a little bit more to his friends, which is the way it should be, I know. But I'd like to just shove some more advice and learning into him first!

And then there's Ava, of course. She's so excited to be going to school this year. Her schedule will be crazy on Tuesdays and Thursdays... swimming from 8:45-9:15, preschool from 9:30-11:30, lunch, speech from 12:45-3:15. She will be exhausted and crabby for sure. But she is certainly more than ready to go make new friends.

I can't stop the school year from starting, so I might as well embrace it. Bring on the homework, the schedule and, most importantly, the bedtime!

We had a wonderful last free weekend of the summer with our friends Brian and Tammy and their kids who came to visit (more to come on that!), and after they left today, we just relaxed and hung out. The bigs just wanted to veg and enjoy their last day before school. The littles were lost in their own little world. I think Ava said "Ava to the rescue!" about 30 times today for some reason or another. And I never really can claim to know what's going on in Max's head. I just loved this picture of them in their "hot tubs!" This is what I will miss from summer!