The internet was out all night, so I had to wait to publish this and now I feel like it's not even relevant to my life because I have taken so many pictures since yesterday morning. Of nothing, BTW.

I haven't even gone back to work for the semester yet.

I have no reason to NOT be blogging.  And yet, these last days have been zooming by with Ben's return to work and the start of the PTO season.  A nightly soccer camp the kids did last week.  Foot ball practice, etc.

And next week is the big one-- the week where I work practically FULL TIME.  (9:30-4.  4 days. YIKES).  Plus the kids have meet-the-teacher/school-supply-dump conferences, and Cooper's teacher comes over to pay him a visit at home.  So NEXT WEEK you might not see me around, but this week should have been cake.

Part of my problem is that Ben went to work and I was the free babysitter for 2.5 LOOOOOOOONG days.  It is hard to get anything done with 4 kids and a dog around.  I mean I got housework, baking, cooking, and laundry done, and we squeezed in some pool time, but there was precious little else happening.

But big things happened this week.  The kids are officially registered for school that starts on September 2nd, the same day that Cooper and I also have our first days in the classroom.  A BIG DAY.  I got a haircut for the first time in 2 years and spent a whole day at Anthropoloie by myself and it was lovely.  I filled up the dressing room, tried everything on, some of it more than once, then went BACK to the sales floor and found MORE stuff and did it all again.  I haven't taken the time to shop like that in years.  Harry went to his first slumber party and had such a ridiculously good time that I said he can have a back to school slumber party in a couple of weeks.  because I am clearly an idiot.

Last week, we spent a ton of time in the back yard.

We went to the free geology museum on campus that has tons of dinosaurs-- who knew??

And we took advantage of the students being gone still to have a beery lunch at the union.

Before heading to the Children's Museum

And then it was back to the back yard,  What can I say?  It's a classic.

Dorothy loves Beatrix so much, and I think the feeling is mutual.

A ridiculous picture, but here's my hair after a couple hours of shopping in the rain.

Ah, pigtails.

I love pigtails.