Winding down summer

The summer is winding down in our little neck of the woods.  No camps here for our kids, but we did spend a lot of time at the local library, parks, and swimming in the pool.  While running errands one day, I had to head to our local education supply store to pick up my weekly planner for homeschooling.  I love this mural on the wall outside.

I thought I'd get the kids to "hold up the world".  As we embark on fourth year of homeschooling, it is our desire to equip our kids with wisdom and knowledge...so that the whole world is at their fingertips.

After scooting around town, we headed to none other than... a local playground.  To change things up a bit, we headed to a different one.  Caleb and Madeline were so excited as there was an "actual" firetruck...

...and a see saw...

...and a zipline thing...

If you look in the back of this shot, you can see the firetruck.

Madeline loved the firetruck.

Caleb loved the zipline.  So when some bigger kids came by, he stayed back, but he definitely kept his eye on them.

And although the kids enjoyed themselves here, they were longing for a bit more creativity and space.

So we headed back to our playground by the river.

And we hung out with some friends who were already there.
Thankfully, they brought an extra round ball so the kids could shoot a bit, too.

Well, next week we will actually begin our regular school year.  We tried to start this week, but it didn't work out.  We still have lots going on, making it hard to get that routine started again.  Our I-800A approval arrived in the mail this week.  So we sent off a copy to get state sealed, along with our health forms, which we had forgotten to get notarized.  Oops.  If all goes well, we should be sending our dossier away to get authenticated by the Chinese Embassy some time next week.

I'm still knee deep in my photography class and will try to share some of my favorite shots here too.  I've been spending most of my nights in front of the tv watching the Olympics, instead of editing photos.  We've been letting Caleb stay up a bit later than usual so he can watch with us.  We've really enjoyed cheering on Team USA together.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great weekend.
And please head over to Lisa's blog for more favorite photos this week.