Fitting It All In

I'm starting to get to that point I get to every year. That panic point. I start thinking of all the things that we wanted to do over the summer but haven't had time (or good weather) to do it. I think about how quickly the summer flew by in a flurry of baseball games and running around and here we are just weeks away from a new school year. I start worrying about all the "must do"s still on our list: football practices and games almost every night, school shopping, school orientations, along with a ton of other meetings and responsibilities that are beginning to pile up. And I wonder how we will fit enough fun summer memories in there to keep us warm over the long school year.

I also feel a new sense of panic when I think about Joey getting older. How many more years will he still want to hang out with his entire family over the summer? How long do we have before he isn't so excited to go on field trips and adventures with our family? Will this be the last year? Panic!

Thankfully, the weather cooperated this past weekend enough that we were able to cross off a few fun trips off of our list.

On Friday the kids and I went to Bookworm Gardens. This is one of our favorites and it is in our very own city. And we finally had a warm sunny day to enjoy it.

On Saturday we all went up to Green Bay to Bay Beach, an amusement park where all the rides are either 25 or 50 cents. The kids LOVE it there. We all do.

The kids were extraordinarily well behaved. It was amazing. And I loved to see all four of them hanging out together, running from ride to ride. The boys were especially attentive to Grace, trying to include her in to the fun as much as possible.  It was very sweet.

We even got a family selfie on the train ride. Score!

After many, many hours at Bay Beach we had dinner at one of our favorite places to eat in Green Bay. Kaleidescope. If you are ever in Green Bay and need a fantastic place to eat I must insist on this place.

We got home very late on Saturday night and had a difficult time getting up for church the next day. We were all tuckered out.

But that didn't stop us from taking a trip down to the Milwaukee Zoo. We hadn't been there for a while and we figured it was about time we got back. The weather was perfect. High 70s and sunny.

We actually only had a few hours to look at all the animals because we were unaware that the zoo closed at 5 on Sundays.  Oops! We still managed to see all of our favorites: bears, monkeys, giraffes, tigers, gorillas, birds. We had a great time.

The kids were extremely good again. This time because I promised they could take their wallets and pick something from the gift shop but only if they were very well behaved. They definitely were well behaved. 

We stopped at another restaurant on the way home and were thoroughly and completely spent by the time we got home.

I can safely say that we took advantage of our weekend and filled it with fun.

Now if only the weather could warm up a little more to get some swimming in before school starts I think we'll be all set.