First Day of School - 2024

The first day of school was on August 22nd and while we hate to see the end of summer come so early, we also know that we will still be able to enjoy the longer days and warm weekends on the lake.

With Jack in Middle School now, he had to be up earlier than usual to ride on the first bus route that picks up high schoolers and middle schoolers a little before 7 am.

6th grade, 11 years old:

8th grade, 12 years old:

11th grade, almost 16 years old:

Obligatory group photos:

My little "stair-step height" group:

Taken just as the bus was ready to pick them up:

Starting next week, Sam will catch a ride with her dad for zero hour jazz band (leaving our house by 6:30 am each day), but I was secretly happy to see her still ride the bus with her siblings on the first day of school.

This young man was able to sleep in a bit for his first day of school because his bus does not pick him up until about 7:50 am each day.

3rd grade, 8 years old:

I wondered if Jimmy would be a little disappointed to not have his brother on the bus with him this year, but he seems to be doing just fine ...

For the first time, I only have one kiddo left in the elementary school and that makes me a little sad but I also know that James is enjoying having the school 'all to himself' for the first time ever.

End of Summer Randoms

Summer at the lake!

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Slime has been banned from my house for a long time now, but I don't mind the girls making it and playing with it outside.

I'm not sure why Sam is wearing an actual garbage bag in this picture, but I suspect that it has something to do with just how messy slime can be!

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It's corn season in Michigan!

Also noteworthy is the nice pile of wood that Steve and the boys have been collecting, splitting and stacking for the upcoming winter.

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Jack has had a pretty lucrative lawn mowing business this summer with about 7 customers that he continued to regularly mowed their lawns for them.  A week ago, he let Jimmy try out the lawn mower in our front yard.  

He is a few years away from being able to operate it by himself, but he soon got the hang of it.

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A bonfire in the driveway with s'mores!

And more wood piled up, drying out, just waiting to be stacked out on the back patio.

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The end of an era ... after years of having the playscape in the back yard (inherited from neighbors across the street), it was time to take it apart and donate it to another neighbor.

It was a bit of work to dig it out, but the boys worked on it together and made great progress.

After they got it all dug out, they helped transport it down the road and then filled in the area with grass seed.  It seems to strange to me to look out the kitchen window and NOT see it anymore ...

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