Here comes Summer!

You can't tell by the cold, rainy weather, but today is actually the first day of our summer vacation. Thomas, who is still young enough to take everything quite literally, was disappointed this morning when he looked out the window and saw dark clouds instead of a bright sun. Sorry, bud, but it looks like someone forgot to send Mother Nature your school calendar!

There are two things in particular that I have been looking forward to about this summer vacation. Number 1: I no longer have to leave the house by 8 AM to drive the 30 minutes round trip to drop Thomas off at school. This equates to sleeping in a half an hour longer, and saving whatever it was we were spending in gas on his hourly daily commute to and from school. My plan for the summer is to come up with a more economical and earth-friendly way to get around next fall. In the meantime, Number 2: We've got the bikes all set up and I'm going to be a bikin' mama! The parts of town that we frequent, including Chris's and my offices, are pretty much on a flat plane, so we've agreed to take this summer off from driving as much as we can. Chris has already biked to work for several days and has really enjoyed it. I admit that I took the car today because it was raining, so hopefully tomorrow. As for the boys, Chris's primary objective over the next week or so is to teach Thomas how to ride the two-wheeler, and we can tote Gord along in the bike trailer. Good times.

I didn't take very many pictures on Monday, but here is one with my grandparents, mom and Allision, minus Tom who was being a pill.


Thomas had a great last day of school. He cleaned out his desk and his locker, had his favorite pizza lunch, and said good-bye to his friends with an extra amount of excitement. He has had such a great year! This year, we've really seen Thomas blossom. He absolutely loves going to school and loves doing schoolwork at home. Since August, his reading skills have improved to the point that he can read almost anything without having to sound out the word audibly, and he seems to really "get" math. He made a special notebook to record his thoughts and stories over the summer, and the past couple of days I've caught him getting up early to go downstairs and write in the quiet morning. It's really sweet.

We owe a huge thanks to his amazing teacher, Mrs. Cook. She is the perfect 1st grade teacher and you can just feel her love for those kids when you meet her. She is a truly admirable person and we're so glad Thomas will be with her again next year.

After school, we met Chris and Gordon at Casper's for a celebratory ice cream treat.


Nothing says, "Here comes summer!" like ice cream!