Last Days of Summer

Only 10 more days until Summer Break is over.  I have had a fabulous time with my kiddos this summer.  The only thing I wish would have been different:  the summer temperatures.  This whole over 100 degrees almost every day of the summer really ticks me off. :) We haven't used our zoo pass the entire summer.  For a while, I thought...Oh, we'll go to the zoo soon.  And then all of a sudden it got too damn hot!  We did do things that we loved though.
Ava had swimming lessons for six weeks, four days a week.  She grew so much in those days.  She was never afraid of the water, but these lessons at the Swim Club were awesome for her.  Instead of being a little tentative about going under water, she decided that it was way more fun to be under water than above.  She became a little fish!  So fun to watch!
We played a lot in the basement, which is the coolest part of our house.  The basement, for those of you that haven't seen it, it's full of...hmmm...how shall I describe it?  A mess of toys.  That's the best way to say it.  Our kiddos have way too many toys.  The basement is basically their play land.  But at least the mess keeps them busy.  And it keeps us all cool, while the rest of our house stays at about 80 degrees with the air conditioner on.  Our "mess" has a cardboard house that the kids have colored, a kitchen that my grandpa made for my cousin and I when were were little, a little plastic kitchen, a toybox that cannot even close because it's so full, five or so other tubs of toys (A.K.A. crap), a shelf of books, a table and chairs, a couple of rocking chairs, two rocking horses, a Mickey Mouse ride-on plane, three doll beds, an easel with a chalkboard on one side and a white board on the other (that, by the way, we can't even put the magnetic letters on because B will eat them and we have to keep the chalk hidden because he will eat that too) and a million other things just scattered all over the floor because they have no place.  So.  The kids have had fun down there.  But the more summer goes on, the more I just want to sell almost everything down there so it can stay cleaned up.  But that's not really the point, is it?  The point is that they are having fun and that they keep busy.  It's been great watching them play together.  Ava will help Brecken onto a chair so that she can feed him a pretend breakfast, lunch or dinner.  And just as easily as she can help him, she will also just as easily grab the chair from right underneath him so that she can use it for her "baby".  Brecken has also decided, this summer, that he loves to climb.  So we have to get him down off of the table just as many times as we have to help him sit on the chairs. 
We have also been doing gymnastics this summer.  Both of the Littles go once a week and it has been great watching them and being a part of it.  Brecken mostly just plays during his class, but when he gets home he gets himself ready to do a forward roll and we have to help him actually roll.  Ava has even learned how to "gently" roll him over.  And when we do roll him over, he just smiles...as usual.  During class one of the parents even said to me, "Is he ever NOT smiling?"  Well, no.  He's pretty much always smiling.  Love that about him.  In Ava's summer gymnastics class there are only two girls.  Just Ava and Kaitlyn.  We have loved it because she gets so much one on one and she has grown so much.  The next class that she does will be the first "without parents" class that she has taken.  It will be interesting, but I'm sure she'll do a fabulous job!
We have gone to the Y several times as a family and with friends to swim during the "open swim" times.  Ava enjoys jumping in, getting out, jumping in, getting out, jumping in, etc.  Brecken enjoys doing whatever the heck he wants as long as we aren't holding on to him which is a little difficult since he is only one and he can't swim.  Both of them like the lazy river where we can just float on the tubes in the water. 
The random errands that we have run during the summer seem to have kept both of the kids happy to an extent.  We have come to realize that B still needs morning naps to keep him happy so it's kind of hard to run these errands throughout the day and still keep him a happy camper.  They both liked when we went to my new classroom to work because they got to wander around and play.  We also went to Erick's work a few times and they liked running around the office, playing catch with Erick's co-workers and making copies of their hands and faces.
We have spent a short time with the Littles' cousins at the pool also.  They loved it!  Ava so enjoys being with Lilly and Ethan!  I know B does too, but he's just not old enough to really play yet.  He mostly got in and out of the pool, ate a lot of ice out of the cooler and sucked on beer cans.  Don't worry, they weren't opened. :)   
I know that Ava's favorite part of this summer was going to Holiday Island.  I love that she enjoyed it so much and I know that as B gets older, he will feel the same way.  I started going there when I was five or so and have so many memories of the place.  Each summer when we arrived, it was like going to our home away from home.  Almost every other day since we have gone, Ava says something about Holiday Island.  It makes my heart full because it tells me that Erick and I are making a memory for her there just like my parents did for me.  In a few years, our goal is to take the Littles to Disney Land or World and I know that that they will love that too.  I still love looking at the pictures from when my parents took me there and I can't wait for my kids to experience it also.
I feel like we haven't done as much as I wanted to this summer.  I was so looking forward to it because last summer B was just a baby and we couldn't do much at all.  But I feel like this summer it's still a little hard at times.  Exhausting, actually.  I have LOVED it though.  Wouldn't trade it for anything for the world.  I love having the privilege of being with my kids during the summer.  I know I will have a wonderful year with my incoming first graders, but nothing beats a summer with my own kids.    
So I guess my point is that I have about a week and a half left with FULL days with my kiddos before I start back to work.  I feel like I need to make them meaningful.  How am I going to do that?  I have no idea.  My first thought is to go here and there and do this and that.  But I know that the most important thing I can do is just be with them and play with them.  So my head (which is full of what in the heck I am going to do with first graders for a whole year ) should be just about being with them.  Playing with them.  Talking with them.  Listening to them.  Watching them grow.  I feel like when I go back to work, I am going to miss out on a lot of this.  It will be up to their daycare teachers to do this with them.  What will I miss?  Will they start eating vegetables?  Ha!  We'll see.  Will I miss out on Brecken's first real words?  Most likely.  Really, I will just miss them.  Terribly.  Even though I will be with them every morning before school, every evening after, and every weekend, I will just miss being with them all the time.  And yes, I know that I sometimes complain, I sometimes want a babysitter for them, I sometimes think, "Can I go back to work now?".  But I will miss them so much during the day that it may even hurt my heart. 
So I will make these last days of summer count.