Summer days, drifting away

As summer draws to a close, we've been spending more time at home, just us. I didn't want the start of our school year to coincide with a sudden disappearance of all the friends we've played with all summer. This would not go over well (especially with Mermaid Princess).

Example of our summer social time with friends. These are the minnows preparing to get past yours truly, aka "The Shark."

This is one of those childhood games that seems like it should make sense, but somehow never executes. They were warned that the bungee cord 'parade' might not turn out quite as envisioned. We escaped without any scrapes or bruises, but just barely.

Tent day. This was a great success until the ants decided that this looked good to them too.

A friend made a conscious decision not to enroll her friends in much this summer, hoping to see creativity stimulated by boredom. I followed suit, more because of gas prices than any good parenting philosophy, but I have to admit, it worked. Our best days were the ones that they came up with outlandish ideas (let's create a luau for Daddy to come home to!) that we then set about trying to make happen.

Lesson noted.

I don't want to say lesson learned because I'm sure this one is going to need to smack me a couple more times before I truly get it.