SCHOOL BELLS ARE RINGING!

more work and stress for me.

One of the glories of the Empty Nest is being able to ignore "Back to School" ballyhoo. I confess I'm old and cranky enough to look forward to shopping without other people's children behaving like children-on-a-playground in shops and stores.

Still, I admit to a bit of wistfulness that I won't be heading into September with visions of New Beginnings.....

Thanks for reminding me Noddy! I forgot to include the shopping! I havn't gotten to the required supply list in the packet yet!

Then the clothes and gym clothes, and sports uniforms

This is probably our last "no school this year" year (for the next 17 years or so, anyway, including college), and I'm looking forward to it. Suddenly the world is devoid of the big bully kids and only the toddlers and babies are left... perfect. Makes zoo-, museum-, and farm-going much more enjoyable. There are either kids the sozlet's age to play with, or babies in strollers.

That's really true about the some of those activities and it's great!

But I have to warn you, Soz, the museums and such can be worse when you go there and there are school field trips going on at the same time! (I think I recall you saying you live in a large city, if so, it can get bad!)

I used to love taking my toddlers around and exposing them to things. Sometimes we'd just do things like stand for the longest time and watch a construction site. The cranes and trucks and noise. Welder's sparks. All very fascinating to little kid who's never seen it all before.

One when we didn't have air conditioning, we hung out at an indoor ice-rink. We had a free show by Randy Gardner and Tai Babilonia who were practicing!