Summer's Fading Away.

I've been intending to post, but rarely do I sit at the computer anymore, much less without a full agenda of things that need to be done. Tonight, though, I'm just goofing around and decided it's time for updates.

School started last week!!! I hate it. I wish I had more time with all five kids at home, but they all love it. And that makes me happy.

This summer flew by. We stayed way too busy but got to do a lot of fun.
I watched my children all grow up in the blink of an eye. None of them are babies anymore, all of them will be in school by Thanksgiving!

This past weekend, I spent the whole thing camping alone with all 5 kids. Well, technically not alone, there was another family there too that we camped with, but I was the only one there caring for my 5.

It was entertaining. I sat and watched as the kids swam & fished & ran & made s'mores & swam some more. They took care of one another & there was such little fighting....it was AMAZING for a mom.

And today, it was scorching hot outside, so I took the littles to a McDonald's with a play place.

Over the past few days, this is what I saw.

C-man turned 9 today. All he wanted for his birthday was a family camping weekend. No presents asked for, that was it. All he wanted from grandma & grandpa was a day of horseback riding.....

Take note of this, those of you who have told me that I was wrong about my kids, that all kids believe gifts are the point of birthdays & Christmas & that not getting those gifts was upsetting my children....Yes, I've been told that in the last couple of years.

C-man also scored some cash for the bday. And grandma & grandpa are over-achievers (or they felt bad that riding couldn't happen this weekend because of rain & extreme temps) so he got a new pair of boots, that were too big. They took him to exchange them & spend his money. When I got back to pick him up, he had a bag of dog bone treats for his puppy, hotwheels cars for the little boys to play with and laffy taffy for everyone.

When he was told to spend his bday cash on himself, he said that it makes him happiest when we all are happy. So he got what everyone liked, with his money, and nothing for himself.

This morning, of my own kids, I just had the littles. They're 4 & almost 3 now, but almost 3 is a shorty. Really, he's slightly to short to climb up the tower part of the McDonald's play place & usually I get stuck having to force my non-flexible adult body up there too, pushing his hiney along the way.

They took off up the tower today together, and I stood back for a moment. My 4 year old stepped in, he got behind his little brother & gave him a boost up every step in that tower, not just the first trip up but every single trip up for the whole hour and a half we were there. And by the end, he had taught almost 3 year old to use the wire enclosure sides to scale up to do it himself.

My kids rock my world. There are sometimes rough days in parenting where failure seems to be in every corner you turn, but today, and the last few days, I realized that we're still doing something right. That more often than the hard days, are the good times where they help one another and show love and care to one another with their actions. :)

Have I mentioned I'm not ready for this summer to be over?! I'm not ready to miss seeing more of these moments because of stinking school time! I'm ready to start a countdown to summer break....maybe in all of my freetime, I can find a crafty pinterest project for us to track that with :)