Last week of Summer Vacation

So, this is basically all I've got left in me for fun summer activities: clearance Disney masks. I think we are finally ready for school to start tomorrow! We've had TONS of fun this summer with lots of outings, vacations, swimming, tea parties, and friends, but I think we're done for now! I have to admit though, I really am going to miss McKinley when she's gone all day, but at the same time I won't miss all the fighting that seems to go on when Kennedy and McKinley are together (and yes, Mom, I know it serves me right for fighting with Adrien for the first decade or so of our lives!) But McKinley is VERY very very very excited to start 2nd grade, and I love seeing how much she loves to learn! It makes it much easier to send her off on the bus every day when she loves it so much!

One last thing we wanted to do while all three kids were home all day was visit Milt at work. We went once before to just pick him up, and when we drove through the J&J campus, McKinley and Kennedy went crazy that they couldn't actually go inside his building and see where daddy actually worked! So we decided to come back when they could go in and see everything. I have to admit that I assumed they'd be let down once they saw his office based on their super high expectations, but they absolutely loved it! Of course, they found a Rubik cube and some other things Milt had gotten from some meeting of his in one of his desk drawers, so that helped make Daddy's work just that much more fun! Obviously, toys make everything cooler.

I had been to Milt's previous office once before when just he and I were out here house hunting, and his new office is actually in the same building only down one floor, so it felt almost the same to me! But he does have a window now, and it was fun for the kids to get to sit at his desk and play around. (Apparently life has become so boring that they are easily amused!)

I caught this picture on our way (and no, I wasn't driving while taking pictures -- we were stopped at a red light). McKinley rarely leaves the house without doll McKinley and she has even started buckling her seat belt so "she can be safe too". It's getting to be a little much for me, but McKinley has definitely had some major bonding moments with her doll these last few weeks before school starts!

And after we we visited Milt's work, we all went out for dinner (to try yet ANOTHER Mexican restaurant that was a disappointment) and we followed it up at our favorite Ice Cream place, Zwahlens, where Maddox managed to get his first ever bloody nose. I have a feeling that it won't be the last, so I thought I'd better record for posterity the fact that he got his first bloody nose over a woman leaving him (that woman being his mom!) I had to leave the table to take Kennedy to the bathroom, and he was so upset when I left that he burst into tears and bashed his face right into the table in front of him. Poor kid. But at least his loves him mommy! Unfortunately, he has yet to realize that his face is not a battering ram! He must whack it at least once a day into something! Of course that may have something to do with the size of his head, but...you be the judge. It's either that or he honestly thinks that the answer to all of life's problems is to ram your head into whatever is in front of you, and the problem will be solved (such as: closed doors or locked doors, children holding a toy he wants, candy dispensing machines, a laptop he wants to open up...) Seriously, you name it, and Maddox has probably rammed his head into it!