Before Meaghan and Angela left IL we wrangled them into a day of fun and sun at Raging Rivers.  It was great to have reinforcements with me because Blake and Alexandria have vastly different interests at a water park.

Alexandria likes to do calm, relaxing, barely-getting-wet activities.

And Blake wants to be as busy and wet as he possibly can be all day long.

It's even hard to get him to hold still for pictures.

And I am pretty sure she's the youngest 80 year-old, I know.  I think it's safe to say that her key to staying "young" has been staying busy.  The woman has a schedule that most of us can't hold a candle to!  In fact, her schedule is so full that last December she told all of us to mark a spot on our calendars for her 80th birthday dinner at Moonlight.  My "planner" genes definitely have some roots on the Foiles side.

We had some good company at our table.  I don't think Ryan usually wears his napkin quite like that, but we were all trying to get Jaxson to realize how fashionable bibs were.

Grandma and her children.

Grandma, children and their spouses.

All of the grandchildren, except for Todd.

No one was brave enough to suggest all of the great grandchildren.  They were all getting pretty restless by the time we were done eating.

Even though none of the girls approved of this picture, I still thought it was cute.  Sorry girls, it's going public!

We all headed back to the farm for some of Grandma's homemade ice cream and b-day cake (and about four kinds of cookies).  On the way, my car mirror met up with a road closed sign (Matt was driving).

Table cloth art.

Vicki always has the coolest gift ideas--an apron that we all signed for Grandma that Vicki had embroidered.

While Dad and Mom were vacationing in Colorado, we had a little house party at our place with the rest of the family.  With the exception of Blake's massive crying fits over his bad luck during Chutes and Ladders, we had a great time.

Biscuits and gravy for breakfast. 

We played a 9 person game of Chutes and Ladders that involved Blake crying and running into his room on every other turn.  I am pretty sure Meaghan was the Chutes and Ladders Champion!

We spent most of the rest of the day at Forest Park with a picnic and some paddle boating at The Boathouse.

Matt had to work on his weight distribution to keep our boat from taking on a lot of water.

The highlight of the trip for Alexandria was seeing this bride having some wedding pictures taken.

I don't know if Drew was trying to catch one...

I'm going to interrupt my regularly scheduled blogging to post events from today, Blake's very first day of Kindergarten.  I might not remember all of the emotions of the day as well if I wait until next week to blog about it.  Speaking of emotion, I cannot remember a time besides maybe the days that the kids were born, where I have felt so emotionally exhausted.  Whew!  Shortly after lunch I had to peel my contacts off my eyes and resort to glasses for the rest of the day.  I am not cut out for this letting go business.   None of us are though, right?

So Blake and I both woke up around 6:30 this morning, about two hours ahead of our normal wake-up time.  We had a nice bit of quiet time, made scrambled eggs and toast together, discussed appropriate bus behavior since this was a topic I wasn't sure we'd discussed yet, and had a really nice, easy morning.  But when I went into Blake's room to get his school clothes ready, the tears sort of snuck up on me.  I cried for a few moments and then pulled myself together, only to lose it all over again when Matt popped his head in and asked if I was alright.  Just a few minutes later, when I almost had it back together again, Blake came into his room to get ready and I lost it again. 

Of course, Blake wanted to know if I was crying because he was growing up or if it was because I was going to miss him so much.  He tried cheering me up by doing several goofy things, and when those didn't work he said, "Well, Mom, you know I'm gonna tell you all about my day when I get home!"  That actually did make me feel a little better.  I regrouped pretty well at that point and did really well until we all started walking to the bus stop.  Luckily I had my big sunglasses on then though (thanks for that tip, Karen Anderson!) so it wasn't as obvious to Blake or all the other moms and Kindergartners at the bus stop that I was still teary.  All through this time, Blake was just as happy and excited as could be, which really did make things easier for me.  He was so eager to ride the bus today!

Alexandria woke up moments before we walked Blake to the bus stop, so she had her breakfast on the go this morning.

There are several K-2nd grade students that get on at our bus stop, so I think that made it easier for all of us.  I feel so much better about the bus knowing that it only has K-2 students on it!

He was just so pleased with himself here that it was hard to be too sad.  He later told us that he was really nervous on the bus ride to school, but he wasn't nervous on the way home because he had a friend to play with in his seat on the way home.

So we were walking back to our house when we passed by our neighbor's drive, and I started welling up all over again.

C'mon guys!

But that's not the best part of the day...three and half hours later, he came home.  And the whole family was there to greet him.

Somehow Matt escaped all of my pictures today.  I am so thankful that he was able to take the day off.  Tonight he said, "I never thought kids going into Kindergarten was that big of a deal, until OUR kid went to Kindergarten."  I think I made him cry a little bit too.   I'll do better tomorrow.

Thanks to all of you who have written supportive comments and/or messages on here or FB.  They have really brightened my day and been an encouragement to me on this emotional day.

I'm going to miss you an awful lot.  Here's why.

My heart is aching as Summer winds down in a more official way this year than it has in the past six years since I left my teaching career and started my mothering career.  And I have been thinking of my many friends (and praying for you all) who will be sending a first born, second born or even harder, their youngest off to school this year...or perhaps even harder than that, my sister-in-law who sends her first born to his last year of high school.  But mostly instead of feeling sorry for myself, I am feeling blessed for these last six years I have been able to stay home and soak up every moment of my children's lives to this point, even some of the uglier moments, like today's shouting match between Blake and our neighbor over some dirt and the wheelbarrow.  The good, the bad and the ugly.  Oh, how I'm gonna miss this, even though there were plenty of moments that I'd have gladly fast forwarded through over the years.

During the most recent new song night at church Bill led the kids in a few songs.  They were pretty cute during this one.

A couple of weeks ago Blake and our neighbor, Lydia were married in a completely spontaneous and unofficial ceremony in our front yard.  I wasn't even invited, but Matt was there to take some pictures with his phone.

Shortly after we returned home from our second weekend in ES, we had visitors!  Andy, Katie and crew were passing through on their way home from Florida, so we finally had a chance to catch up with them.  We've been trying to get together on and off for the past year basically.  So glad this worked out, although they didn't get to see more than 30 minutes worth of Matt, as he had a flight on Tuesday night to NYC.  It only took he and Andy about five minutes to get caught up on the last year though.  They're pretty efficient like that.

The corn on the cob received rave reviews from the ladies at the kiddie table.

Getting ready for some night swimming.

Love this one!

All cleaned up after bath time.

Movie night.  And if you look closely you can see how much Alexandria loves her friend Wrigley, enough to share her beloved ladybug blanket with her.

Enjoying some cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Wednesday morning.

Cam taking orders.

After some outdoor play time we headed to The Mills.

Riding the carousel.

And riding the train.

They were so cute waving at all the people in the mall.

Fishing in the toy store.

Good times, my friends, good times.  Lord willing, next time we see the Andersons they will have a new family member!

In the spirit of reality, I finally took Blake shopping for his school supplies in early August.  I guess I only have a few more days of denial that Blake will actually be going to Kindergarten this year.  We had his orientation last night, met his teacher and several classmates, and checked out his classroom and school, so we are well on our way to starting this school year.

Target was the spot for our school supply shopping expedition, of course.

Post-it notes were not on the list, but those bright colors caught Alexandria's attention.

Our second stay at the Two Week Meeting was considerably shorter than the first one, totaling less than 24 hours in ES.  But we were still really glad we made it back for the second Sunday.

The power was off in the downtown part of Excelsior Springs on Sunday, which made for a warm Sunday morning service.  Fortunately the power came back on around noon, and the ladies still managed to serve us a delicious lunch in the church basement.  Best beef and noodles I've had in a long time!

Andy Houseworth makes some announcements, while Joel and Brett pass out water bottles to help cool people off.

The Morton and Harvey children enjoyed some play time in between services.

Thanks again to the ES congregation for all of your hard work with the meeting.  I hope you are all resting this week!