Summer Ends, School Begins (Kind of)

I just love the beginning of school. I love school supplies, lunch boxes, new shoes, sharpening pencils, packing backpacks, and the excitement of a new beginning. Yep, I am a nerd. Yesterday was the official end of the summer lazy days, and I am happy happy happy!  Summer is fun and long-awaited come May, but really, I need some form of structure and try as I may have, it just didn't happen this summer.

We tried to take last week and do a few things to end the summer with a bang.  In lieu of driving 3 hours to the nearest water park, we decided to just take the kids to the beach here that has a water slide and a dock to jump off of.  So fun!

Muscle Beach-- Davis Family Tradition

This kid seriously loves the water. He is also, by far the most dressed child at the beach.  We get all the stares cause our children wear bathing suits (most children run around the beach naked here), and Isaiah is almost completely covered cause we are all informed about skin cancer and terrified that if we don't cover every inch of him we have doomed him.  We don't try and explain that to the people who ask us why our baby is wearing a shirt, why he is wearing a bathing suit that almost comes to his ankles and why we lather our children up immensely with copious amounts of sunscreen. We just smile and say, "Oh, he's American." and that seems to be an ok answer for their inquiring minds. 

Out in the middle of the lake on a paddle boat.  Gorgeous!

You see their feet? The water is so clean and beautiful! Cold as ice, but bearable on a hot summer's day.

Brian tried to teach the kids how to do a cannon ball, which really just meant lots of entertainment for the Macedonians on the beach. :)

The day after our big beach day, we took the kids to the middle of nowhere on top of a mountain for a one-night camping trip.  Camping is one of those things Brian and I both did growing up, and we wanted the kids to have the joy of sitting around a campfire, roasting marshmallows, dodging spiders,  and sleeping on an air-mattress that deflates through the night leaving your bones grinding into the hard ground at 3 'o clock in the morning.  We were the only people for miles... well, other than a shepherd and one fellow riding through the fields looking for cows.  That's right ladies and gentlemen, there is no need to be afraid of bears or mountain lions, but you better watch out for the wild cows.  Truth be told, I think the sheep-herding dogs are some of the most ferocious animals I have ever seen. So other than one (ridiculous) encounter Brian threw himself into, we stayed as far away from the sheep as we could.

Wide open spaces and clean air made for one amazingly relaxing get-away. Isaiah was in heaven.

The boys loved the fire.  

We had a stash of marshmallows from the states. So we enjoyed boo-koos of s'mores. We even had s'mores for dessert after breakfast the next morning. Nutrients galore.

Yum!

Hiking with daddy.  

Hide and seek in the woods. 

We all had so much fun, but alas, the summer has come to an end (Amen!). School started back yesterday.  I love and hate the first day of school here. I love it cause it is the first day of school. I hate it because it is basically just open-house. The kids go for an hour the first day, get their supply list, say hey to everyone and come back home.  So today, we walked Kate to second grade (American 1st grade) to stay for an hour and a half. Ugh! Enough of this easing them in, already. Let's do this thing. Kate is ready to get started full-time. The child is ready for homework and book reports and science projects.

Thomas getting ready to go into his school for the beginning of his last year of preschool. What?! He was super brave walking into his school this year. Answered prayer!

Our cutie little Kate.  She had her back-pack all ready and was super disappointed they didn't get any books and that she didn't get to break in her new pencils on the first day.

Three beautiful babies!!!

Because of overcrowding, Kate's school runs on shifts.  For two weeks, she goes from 8-12 and for two weeks, she goes from 2-6. Second shift is my least favorite thing ever! Just when the day is starting to wind down into nap and then dinner, we are sending Kate to school. I suppose it is nice to get to sleep in for two weeks, though. So, we will just be really thankful for that! :) And maybe tomorrow she will go to school for more than an hour and a half. Here's hoping school really starts tomorrow! :)