Summer is over. :( We did have a nice summer this year complete with good vacations. At the end of July we went to Montreat, NC which is one of my favorite places on earth. After spending a week there, my kids now understand why I love that place so much. They are anxious to go back next year, too!

After NC, we headed over to Williamsburg and Virginia Beach. It was blistering hot, so they didn't enjoy Williamsburg quite as much as I'd hoped. The boys LOVED watching the workers in the blacksmith shop. All three enjoyed the hot chocolate samples next to the old capital. I got a kick out of watching the tourists step in the road apples. Weird, I know. :)

They also loved the brickmaking shop. GooseyGirl fell in the mud which, of course, made it all the more enjoyable. I told them that I now realize how cushy their little kiddo lives are and that I was going to dream up lots more chores for them to do at home... they didn't seem to believe me. :)

The beach was perfect. We went to a naval base called Dam Neck. Of course, all three thought this was hilarious and sought to use the location's name in a sentence when ever possible. We were able to get on base since my dad had retired from the military after 25 years. He would have been so happy that we got to enjoy the perks of his sacrifice. While enjoying the beach we got to watch the jets from the nearby Air Force base zoom over our heads. It was awesome!

Finally, this week was the first day of middle school for my kidlets. This will be the first year they aren't all together. RocketMan is in a separate section from GooseyGirl and BirdMan. They do have piano all together but that is it. I'm interested to see how they do with the change. They've never relied on each other in the classroom or even sat by each other much. They just found comfort in knowing brother and sister were there with them. I'm sure they'll have a great year. Back to the studio! After all, you come here for quilty stuff, right? I've got a bunch of clients with quilts in the fair and I haven't heard yet who got ribbons. I'm crossing my fingers for all of them!