Last Day of Summer Vacation

Koen heads to Kindergarten tomorrow!  Can you believe it? Look for a post tomorrow about how it goes, but as for today, we are wrapping up summer with a quintessential Melder day around the neighborhood enjoying the outdoors.

This morning Doug was home between 9 and 10am, so I was able to get the two big boys outside for a walk much earlier than we usually get out with Penn (and Penn enjoyed a peaceful rest).  Koen was on his scooter and Tavin was pulling (and also riding) in the wagon. Classic summer 2012 pastime.

We bumped into friends along the way which made our walk even more fun (and pretty standard too - we love our street, full of young kids!).  We got home in time for Penn to eat at 10am and then after that was done, we headed back outside to Osceola of course to meet our friends Miss Adrianne, Owen, Claire and Carson.  Again, another one of our favorite Summer 2012 activities!  Here's a few shots.  I wish I had gotten one of Tavin and Claire.  He just follows her around the whole playground, it's adorable.  He's enamored that he has his own little friend.  Really precious.  But here's Tavin on the big boy swing.  He loves it!

He loves swinging next to big brother of course.

Here's Koen and Owen eating lunch (and Carson hovering).

Penn is such a sweetie.  He was awake much of the playdate, but fell asleep on my shoulder and stayed asleep a few minutes in the stroller before stirring his way awake again.

And Adrianne got a picture of me cuddled up with Penn in his super sweet hat.  I don't know what you think, but I see a familial resemblance.  =)

We got home in time for Penn's next feeding (the 1pm - our life is quite scheduled these days thanks to Penn's great appetite and how he loves his routine!).  The big boys played pretty well until naptime and then all 3 boys are sleeping hard this afternoon.  With that great blessing I decided to make spaghetti sauce from scratch from our explosive tomato garden.  The house smells awesome.  Can't wait for spaghetti and meatballs later with all 4 of my Melder boys.  

Well, it's been a great summer...special time with Koen and Tavin, the arrival of Penn, a visit from my parents and a month-long stay for my mom, visits from Nana, PopPop and Aunt Abbie, a family vacation at my parents' in NH and lots of hanging out around our "hood" getting used to our new routine and rhythm as a family of 5.  We are so blessed and so thankful for a great few summer months.  Now we look forward to figuring out this new season with Koen heading to Kindergarten.