summer's end

one more summer--one of the few we get with young children in our house--is over. well, i mean, it's pretty much over. the kids start school in one week from tomorrow. this week we say goodbye to their much loved and highly valued nanny cassie. tomorrow we meet teachers and deliver school supplies. it's getting real.


and at work on campus, everything is different, as if a switch has been flipped. the switch that turns the lights on, the electricity on, and delivers the crowds. dorm move in is happening out my office window, parents and kids with mixed expressions of anticipation and fear are milling about my campus building and on all the sidewalks. it's such a lovely time of year.


so, before the backpacks go on and the school bell rings, we're trying to do it all. (the bucket list that ramona made did not get completely checked--we never made it to the shedd aquarium, and we never painted any portraits. we can live with that.)


we are hitting up outdoor concerts with old buddies,


and linking arms for late-night toasts.

we are soaking up sunflowers out at pope farms conservancy,

and taking a few more dips in the lake.

we are all keeping good attitudes when our bikes break (pictured below: james, after his pedal fell off his bike, being carted home in the bike attachment that i was using for towels and beach buckets).

we are dancing to zydeco music

and digging in the sand in milwaukee.

we are catching fireflies in our pjs with our best buds,

and we are acquiring new grocery-getters.

and the annual end of summer party, orton park fest, with the annual night-time aerial dancers cycropia hanging and swinging from the old oak trees and entertaining the masses. james was sure he remembered that it was scary ("creepy") from last year, but as soon as it started, his fears melted away and he did NOT want to leave when it was over. it's that good.

and, OF COURSE, our cousins! they're back from london, they're as wonderful as ever, and we had to get some lunch delivered by tiny model train with them at our favorite two toots in their hometown of glen ellyn to celebrate their joyful return stateside.