Buh-bye Summer; Hello new school year!

Dear Summer:

Thank you for being so good to us.  You rocked.  Seriously.  After a winter from hell, it was just what we needed. We're sad to see you go summer, but a new school year started today, so thanks.  For the fun.  For the memories. 

Signed, The Burdorfs xoxo

A photo recap mostly via my Instagram account. :)

 

One set of twins is nuts, two sets is just crazy!  Always happy to visit our friends the Bodammers. 

 Garage sale chairs.  Spray paint.  New-to-us kitchen chairs.

When your mom's the editor at the paper, that means attending small town festivals.  This particular weekend, the boys were lucky enough that some of the drumline kids left their drums laying around.  They were in seventh heaven.

 I promised the two oldest they could have a few friends over for a summer party since with all the hospital stays, they didn't get to have birthday parties.  Shaving cream.  You can't go wrong with shaving cream!

 Who would be crazy enough to take out four kids under the age of eight golfing?  Right, us. :)

 A stop in Independence, Iowa, on our way to the Field of Dreams.  Road trippin'.

 The kids and I headed up to Mankato solo in July to celebrate McCoy's first birthday.  New tradition: baseball and softball.  So, so much fun.  My best memories of my childhood are on a field.  If I can pass that on to my kiddos, I think I'm doing something right.

 The races!  Randomly one Friday night we went to the races in Marshalltown for the first time.  The kids' piano teacher goes because her husband races.  It was a good time!  Extra cool, they got to go to the pits after the races.

 Reading.  I did lots and lots of reading.  In fact, Jenna and I had a reading contest this summer as per our summer list.  I think I ended up reading like eight or nine books, which is a ton for me.

 Some of our summer nights consisted of things like this....

 The Blank Park Zoo.  A 80 degree day and some family time.

 

The Iowa State Fair!  We love to go every year.  

After back-to-school night, I had to make a quick trip to Marshalltown, so we stopped at DQ for some cherry dilly bars to take home.  Cheers to the end of an awesome summer!

 

 This morning was NUTS!  I'm so out of getting kids ready for school shape!  Because I'm always honest with you, I have to tell you this story.  In the midst of chaos, Jenna wanted me to do her hair, Brody was arguing with me about wearing these "fancy" clothes instead of "sporty" clothes, Blake projectile puked on the kitchen floor and I was trying to make Brody some french toast bites all at the same time.

Long story short, Jenna's hair got done, I didn't give Brody a choice on what to wear, the kitchen floor got cleaned up and we got these annual photos taken before we loaded up the mini van for school.  I dropped the kids off and headed home to get Blake's meds done for the morning.

 For some reason, I opened up the microwave and saw...Brody's french toast bites.  Brody didn't eat breakfast on the first day of school.  What kind of mother doesn't feed their child breakfast on the first day of school?  Especially the child who is constantly hungry?!  Apparently...me.  I kept waiting for the teacher to email or the school to call me about it.  Thankfully, they didn't. 

Tomorrow is a new day!  A day where I will feed all my children breakfast! :)  Here's to a great school year for Jenna in third grade, Brody in first grade, the twins in preschool (starting next week) and Aaron teaching. :)