The last week of summer

The kids start school this Wednesday, so we've been trying to finish off the things from our Spectacular Summer 2011 list. Of course, we managed to finish everything in the "Play" category, but we did pretty well with the other categories too. This past week we had our annual readathon in a pile of pillows and blankets and with caramel corn. We also went swimming a couple of times. My favorite was at the local clubhouse and beach with the church group. And we visited 2 museums: The Natural History museum and the Children's Museum. We went to the latter on Free Friday and it was cah-ray-zy. We still had fun with the "car wash" and the noodle forest and the climber, among other things.

At the Natural History museum, we looked at the dinosaurs (H loved them), put together wooley mammoth puzzles (and then pretending to be speared by it), broke out of jail, and panned for gold, which we should have done last because H did not grasp the pan-for-gold concept and simply poured water over his head and clothes.

We also used our Groupon to go to BounceU on family bounce night, which was really fun! The kids loved it and J even got into the action with the inflatable basketball game, inflatable t-ball, and the bouncer with the balls that you shoot at each other. I took H on the slides again and again and again and again until I made him figure out how to climb up by himself. I didn't bring my camera but attempted a few pics with my phone, which, sadly, does not cut it with the sliding action.

Tonight is Meet the Teacher, so school will seem more "real" then. Tomorrow we'll try to celebrate our last day of summer and then I'll be posting back-to-school pics!