Summer's last days

Sorry for the delay.  It turns out writing the blog is not as fun for Maddie as I'd hoped.  Summer is almost over and she has asked to be removed from blog duty.  Permanently.  Marina is waiting in the wings though, and will be very ready to take over next summer! We had a great second to last week of summer.  School starts back a week from tomorrow on August 10th! Everyone is oh so excited! To keep them school-ready, the big girls have been reading and writing for one hour a day nearly every day, and they have both made significant gains. Marina was starting with fewer skills than Maddie, obviously, so she's seen the biggest growth this summer.  Here is a before and after from Marina. The first paper is from mid-May. The second is from mid-July.  She's catching up fast!

Of course all work and no play makes us all very dull girls, so here's the rest of the story:
Last week, we kicked off the Olympics festivities with a party at a friend's house. The kids practiced their skills and took home medals and treats. 

We rarely leave home without Abby and the kids, and judging by Ms. Abby's look at the party (on right), you can see why.  The folks are crazy fun.

      
I'm working part time now in a Kids' Rights Program (temporarily covering a maternity leave), but I try to keep Fridays off for just us.  Last Friday, we took a day at Lucky Ladd Farms. It was pretty deserted, so we enjoyed full freedom to play with no waiting!

On Saturday, we checked out Ice Day at the Nashville Zoo. We enjoyed free ice cream and Shreck and Fiona, and all sorts of other things.  We love having a zoo within 15 minutes!

And on Saturday, we were with our dearest Tennessee friends again to celebrate Grant's 5th birthday.

We had a blast! Our friends recently installed a zipline in their yard which zips perfectly at a speed fun enough for the big kids, but safe enough for Jess.  How fun is that?