The end of summer vacation

It actually pains me to write this post.  Our summer vacation is officially over.  I am so sad.  Our family had a great summer together (which is not to say that every day was awesome, but overall it was exactly what we needed).  Mark had all last week off and we were able to pack in some end of summer activities with the kids.  Here is some of what we did the past few weeks;

We went to Longwood Gardens with some friends and had a blast exploring all the gardens and tree houses.  Here are all 5 kids in a rare moment of rest...

We fed the catfish

Here is Grace with my sweet friend Jocelyn, who is 8 months pregnant and was such a trooper on a really hot August day.  Grace just loves her

Mark's parents came for a visit and the kids got to spend some quality time with Meemaw

Mark's aunt and uncle celebrated their 50th Anniversary and we were so touched to be included in the celebration.  Here is a picture of the happy couple

Their daughter-in-law made a cake that was identical to the cake they had at their wedding 50 years ago, including the cake topper.  It looked great and was such an awesome idea!

My sister Cathy, my mom and I were the hosts of a baby shower for my incredible sister Patty last weekend.  If you have been reading my blog for a while you may remember Patty and her husband were pregnant with triplets and lost all three babies.  So this shower was indeed a celebration!  I was in charge of the dessert table and it was fun to make it special for her

She is having a baby boy (if you couldn't guess) and his name is Colin.  So I had a custom cake made and cookies to match.  So good!!

And here is a picture of the four of us 'Rothman girls'.  Not the best of any of us, but we have so few pictures of all of us it will be a treasured reminder of this awesome day.

Mark and I took the boys to the Delaware Museum of Natural History one day, while Grace spent the day with my parents.  It is a small but good museum not too far from us.  Can you tell my boys have been trained to pose for pictures?

After the museum we went out to lunch at a mexican restaurant and then to T@rget.  Also trained well in this area, they never pass up a chance to go shopping at T@rget!!

In the midst of all these fun times, lurking in the back of my mind continually, has been the fact that school is starting soon.  John will be starting first grade, Luke will go to Pre-Kindergarten and Grace will return to her special ed school.  It is not the first time they will all be in school, that happened last year when I sent Grace to school when she turned 3.  But it will be the first time I am going to be sending them all off and not have any kids at home (although it is only for 2 mornings a week).  I am struggling with letting them go.  I am also struggling with letting John go for a full day.  I know that I can't do anything to stop it, Monday will be here soon enough.  So I am holding them close this weekend and praying that my heart doesn't break when he gets on the bus and goes to 1st Grade on Monday...