I get a "Kick" out of you

Now, with summer over, we need to find ways to keep my son from immersing himself in his schoolwork( Heavy, heavy sarcasm in that last statement. You could say, it is the definition of sarcasm). Actually, it is all too easy for a 9 year old to immerse himself in TV and/or video games.  In the past, we've done a park district karate class or soccer clinic.  This year, instead of just instructional time, he's playing in a soccer league.  And a well run league it is.  3 practices a week with a game every Saturday. It has been a new experience for mom and dad trying to juggle extracurricular activities like cub scouts, soccer practice/games, and volleyball games and dance classes for my daughter.  Needless to say, while we have always been a pretty structured household as far as dinner times and sitting down together at the dinner table each night, that structure has kind of flown out the window for now.  You have dad with one kid going in one direction and mom with another in a different direction.  New experience.  But, its all good.  The kids like being involved and its good for them.  And, when I feel a little worn out from the running around, I remember the same mantra I would quote at various times since we had kids, like while changing diapers, when the kids would crawl in bed with us and steal pillows/covers, or the 3 am ear infections, "Someday, you're gonna miss this." A few shots of the soccer star.

Another year...

I'm very late in getting these posted, but, in following tradition, the kids once again stood in front of the neighbors tree to get their "first day of school" pictures taken.  I'll let you guess which one wasn't happy at the moment.  But, it is what it is.  Unfortunately, this might be the last year of pics in front of the neighbors tree since the tree shows little signs of life.  Zero signs of life to be exact.  I'm hoping to convince him to just cut it down from 8 feet up, at least until the kids are in college.  I'll let you know how that goes.

And now, the end is near.......

The end of summer that is.  While not a blazing hot summer, it was still a good one.  The kids, I believe, had a great summer.  4 trips to waterparks.  Several trips camping up north.  And many sleepovers and days of just hanging out with friends.  A few disappointments but nothing major.  No boating this year due to icky spring/early summer weather and then all of a sudden its July and you haven't even gotten the boat prepped yet.  So, we decided to keep it parked.  Not as much grabbing the camera and going for a drive as in the past.  And, of course, the natural evolution of children, where they don't seem as hip to do the things we did in the past, especially with their parents.  But, I guess I need to get used to that.  Maybe its time to have another one...........................Sorry, I was laughing too hard to type there for a minute. So, tonight's shots are of the final summer sunset and my boy getting the last swim of the year in at the beach.  Hopefully, winter will hold off a bit and I'll get some wonderful autumn shooting in.