Wait, you want your kids to go back to school?

Every year around this time we become inundated with back to school madness.  Parents start to write about how long the summer has become, and how glad they are that there are only a few weeks remaining until life is back to normal.  School supplies and sales are pervasive in our stores.  The schools send out Welcome Back letters and get their websites in order to get us all geared up for the start of a new year.  Teachers even often get in on the game and post about the new supplies they've bought, the grants they've written or the work their doing leading up to the first PD days and school opening.  Hey Folks.  I have some news for you.  It's JULY!

I know I'm in a priviledged position to appreciate summer.   During my recent trip without my family, upon deciding if it would be a one or two martini night, I was told to enjoy myself because I was on vacation.  My response?  I've been on vacation since June 14th and I'll continue to be off for almost another month.  Summer = vacation.  Summer is a great chance to slow down, to reconnect with friends, to travel, and to tackle those projects that are impossible to handle during the frenetic school year.  It's also a good chance to do long range prep work for the upcoming school year, and to read, read, read, read.

But the best part of summer?  Being with my kids.  This has been the most laid back summer we've had for several years.  We've started a few new traditions:

We added language aquisition to our summer school program.
French for the girl and Spanish for the boy.

Evening movie watching in our redesigned basement - among others...
Les Miserables, Season 1 and 2 of Modern Family, Airplane.

Not a big fan of running, but with these shoes and having the kids as occasional running partners make it better.

Coffee on the deck with the girl - what a way to start the day.

How about you?  Are you eager to put your munchkins on the bus again or are you holding on to the last few weeks together?  I hope it's the later and not the former - these times won't last forever.