last hurrah.

so at some point in august, i determined that september 1st would be our first day of school.  it might have been just after i got the curriculum i ordered and was excited to start.  or it might have been because mikey kept asking when we'd start school (he was mainly excited about the magic school bus science kits i had bought).  or it might have been because i'm a homeschool newbie and didn't realize that all the "cool kids" start after labor day.  (i'm kidding on the last one.  but definitely will go for after labor day if i were to do this again next year.  not that i'm committing to anything beyond this year though...  maybe.)

in any case, i had casually mentioned my september 1st start date to phil and then promptly changed my mind about it a couple days later.  unfortunately for me, phil took that initial start date and ran with it.  held me to it even after i explained my many valid reasons for waiting an extra week.  but nope, he was firm on september 1st and no delaying the inevitable.  and this from a guy who is normally pretty flexible and goes-with-the-flow.  i think it was mostly because he's been having to study like mad for his upcoming oral boards (it NEVER ends, i tell ya!) and having the kids and me on a not-summer schedule would be easier for him to get in more regular hours of study time.

or something like that.

and so set was he on the september 1st start date that he even took us out for a "last hurrah/homeschool kickoff" day o' fun on august 31st.  man, who is this no-fun-havin'-immutably-set-in-his-ways guy anyway?  :p

so our summer's last hurrah took place at knott's berry farm.  it was hot.  jonah was hot.  daddy made a fan to cool him down.  jonah doesn't like to be hot.

but the kids loved all the rides they could go on there and managed to have fun despite the heat.  

there were lots of kiddie rides but most of them still required an adult to ride with the littler ones.  so phil and i had the enviable task of switching off between riding with the kids and staying with jonah and manning the camera.

and yes, the kids did want to go over and over and over on each ride.  lucky for them that there weren't too many other families having their last hurrah/homeschool kickoff there that day.  they must've all gone on labor day.

so allie was very sure she wanted to ride this envelope drop ride.  mikey was very sure he did not.  but i made him go anyway because allie didn't want to go alone.  i know, mother of the year right here.  but apparently allie was having a change of heart before the ride even started.

then the ride did start and she immediately dove for cover.  what else could i do but keep taking pictures?

yup, definite change of heart.  and the thing hadn't even dropped yet.

then it did.

and that's about when the operator stopped the ride to let the howling girl in pink off.  and that's mikey radiating an "I TOLD YOU SO" look her way.  unfortunately for mikey, the operator didn't realize he also wanted off and had only lifted allie off.  so then i heroically stepped in and told mikey he could jump off too.  he happily complied.  see?  mother of the year, right here.

all the while, this girl reveled in her good decision to stay on terra firma eating bon bons.

but all was well again as soon as he was back on the ground.  and especially when he got to fire a gun.

and this ride was definitely a favorite.

i lost count of how many times we whipped around this turn.

this girl however, was not a fan of the must-wait-your-turn rule for this ride.  (not to worry though, she got on this ride plenty of times too.  she just didn't like the times when it wasn't her turn).

say it with me now- "humph!"

like i said, i lost count of how many times we whipped around this turn.  but it was a lot.  so many in fact, that the mugging for pictures was getting out of control.  i think i'll go ahead and share the ones phil was in.  i'll spare you the ones i was in. 

so silly.

downright ridiculous.

the girl even got in on it too!  and had a ball with her daddy, i might add.

and because it was hot that day, we let the kids get dripped on.  this girl thought she was getting dripped on with dry drops.

here's her daddy steering her in the right direction.

yep, there's the wet drops.

finally she was brave enough to lift her head.

and then we couldn't get the monkeys out of the drops.

kids and water.  like sunshine and chocolate.  necessities in childhood.

ok, so i think she had fun, no?

summer's last hurrah.

then we told them to go run around to dry off.  cuz it was still hot and we didn't happen to have towels on us.

and this?  well, i don't know what this is.


and that, in a nutshell, is how we said goodbye to summer and hello to homeschool.  homeschooling adventures coming up next!