Back to School (Re-Do)

Apparently my bulky fingers on the tiny iphone screen deleted the contents of this post rather than published the updated original, so here's a second draft substitute of what I think I wrote (lame!) 

Despite being one of our shortest summers yet, the kids were thrilled to be back in school (albeit appropriately jittery the first day.) Love their school, love their teachers, love their friends, and while I'm not sure how well they're keeping up with their U.S. counterparts with all these Australian history/geography/animal lessons, at least they're loving it.

Which leaves me and Summer home solo again, where things like this happen:

"it's so boring around here without all those big kids around..."

Park play in pjs after morning drop-off

 And the two of us hit Questacon when she finally gets to be the one deciding when/where we go:

total melt down when the parachute went bye-bye

 Ahhhhh, welcome back, morning baths - we've missed you!

And literally as those photos were uploading, I turned around to a mysterious rustling sound to find this:

While I jest about keeping up with the kids, I don't miss the stress, strain and schedule of part/full time work. I do love staying home with them, but I recognize that it's not an opportunity that all women can afford or even desire. I respect those who so valiantly split their time, attention and energies between work/school/home. It's difficult it different ways. More scheduling, rushing, planning, and stress as opposed to so much picking up, calming down, tedium and insanity. Being a mom in both scenarios is difficult and crazy and should be respected and celebrated.

That being said, I'm definitely trying to soak in these last few months with our delightfully sweet Sum-Sums before baby bro enters the scene and shakes things up again. :)