Last Day of My Summer..

August 31st.

School starts for teachers tomorrow. Most of us have already been back for weeks, preparing our classrooms for the kiddies to arrive on Thursday. Our two days of professional development begin tomorrow.

It was a busy, fun and productive summer. We celebrated my grandmother’s 100th birthday, (the “real” day is actually this Thursday.) Our cousins from all over the country came to New Jersey and we celebrated for nearly three weeks! I think I wound up seeing more of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York with my Western cousins than I would have ever done had they not been here!

We took a “historic” tour of Greenwich Village, visiting the places Grammy grew up, the apartment she and my grandfather lived when they were first married, the church my grandparents were married in and another church where my father and his brothers were baptized.

We went to the beach – so incredibly close, yet for some reason, a place we hadn’t gone in over a year, and to the Poconos with a trip to Bushkill Falls. We got to see another one of our cousins play in a performance of “Rock of Ages”. We went bowling, to a trampoline park, to the zoo and to the pool. We watched a Mandala be constructed in my own home town!

All of this happened in just those three weeks! The rest of the summer, I worked at Camp Maple, where I have worked for the last seven summers, so although we were outside and having fun with our campers….it wasn’t quite “my summer” yet.

On Friday, we take DJ to college. He is one of the last of his friends to leave for school and he is ready to go.  Dave and I….maybe not quite so ready to have him leave, but we are excited for his new adventure.  That might officially end summer for me. A new batch of Kindergarten parents, leaving their babies with me as I leave my “baby” in Massachusetts. It is going to be a week filled with bittersweet tears for all of us!

Labor Day Weekend

Today is Labor Day.  For me though, it is the last day of Summer.  School starts for teachers tomorrow.  No more lazy days, late dinners and sleeping in.  It is a bittersweet feeling.  I love getting back to work and beginning a new school year but I still long for the lazy, relaxed days that Summer gives our family.

Although “officially” Summer didn’t begin until mid June, we started our Summer in the Poconos by going there for Memorial Day Weekend so we figured that the perfect way to for us to end our Summer, was to spend Labor Day weekend there as well.  We headed up early evening on Friday and came home today.  It was so relaxing and despite some stormy weather on and off, we all had a great time.  We have television there, and our iphones and ipad, so we weren’t roughing it by any means, but we played board games and got in another minor league baseball game in those few days. The kids did some fishing and played some tennis.  Drew and Dave got to do some canoeing before a big storm came rolling through.  The big storm that passed through last night during the Iron Pigs game was exciting and even though it brought an end to the game, we got to splash through the puddles and drive back to the house during a spectacular lightening show!

Unfortunately while we were there, my sister wound up in the hospital having emergency gall bladder surgery.  She had her gall bladder removed and will have a few of the stones removed tomorrow or Wednesday.  Today is her birthday so she is celebrating it in a hospital bed.  She has had lots of visitors for her birthday though – even more than if she was home so I guess if there is a bright side of this story, that is it!  She doesn’t have to go back to work at the nursery school she teaches at for another week so she’ll have some time to recover without having to take time off.  Her mother-in-law came up to stay for a few days to help with the kids so she can take it easy for a little longer.  She has earned a few more days to relax this summer.