What better story to share on the Labor Day holiday than to tell you how T and I (and C sometimes, and grandma other times) spent our last full week of summer 2012!

I already mentioned that Monday we went to probably what was our last Bella Terra show in a while, then we headed over to the local Splash Pad. It was a great day and a hard one to top, but we managed to try daily for the rest of the week regardless.

Tuesday we met some friends out at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana. We became members a few months ago, and we are definitely getting our membership’s worth, trying to visit once every four to six weeks or so. It’s also a place C will take T sometimes, too, so that’s an added bonus as well. And they are still giving out the FREE Santa Ana Zoo and Orange County Zoo tickets to every attendee, so I’ve got quite a stash of those going, too (anyone want to go to the zoo sometime?!). I’ll talk more about our visit in a future post because as you can see from the picture, the boys had a very fun time all while “discovering” something new on this visit that kept them busy for a good 20-30 minutes (awesome!).

After that we snuck in a last-minute library visit. T had been wanting to go and get some books and play the computer games, so we stopped by for about an hour or so. Remember when I mentioned in this post how the local city budget for libraries was at-risk of deep cuts? Turns out now that our city manager has managed to find a way to restore more than half those cuts. So relieved! I can only hope that this includes saving our beloved Bayshore branch from becoming self-service, too.

Then once C got home (yes, this is STILL Tuesday!), we regrouped and headed back out to dinner with some friends in town from Northern California. These are the same friends whom we visited back in February, s0 T was very excited for the surprise visit with his friends A and D. Thankfully, we were able to enjoy a delicious meal at the Original Fish Company in nearby Los Alamitos (halfway between Disneyland, where our friends were staying, and us here in Long Beach), and we also were allowed to savor a lovely visit with good friends over a semi-leisurely meal (thanks, kids!).

Wednesday, Grandma Beep came into town, but before that, T had his last swim lesson of the summer. Though it is still officially summer break in these parts, the pool was noticeably less busy, so that meant T had the play area all to himself post-lesson. He enjoyed diving for rings and kicking across the play space on the kick-board… all by himself. PS – we re-up’ed the swim lessons for another six weeks because he’s enjoying it so much, and because I just have to see if we’ll ever get to the point of him jumping off of the one-meter diving board (I sure hope so!).

Once grandma arrived, we took our annual Aqualink ride together, just the three of us. It was a beautiful day so while we stayed inside of the boat on the way there (with our drinks in hand, of course), we went outside for part of the return trip (it was pretty windy as you can see). I am glad we got that in; that makes three years in a row for us on the “yellow boat” – cheers!

Thursday was a play day for grandma and T while I took care of some stuff around the house (including writing and posting blog posts – thanks for the time, Mom!). But Friday we three were back at it with a jam-packed day full of backyard pool (thanks Auntie Kel’s Aunties!), lunch out, and sampling a new ice cream parlor (to us anyway). I’ll follow up about the ice cream later with its own post because, yes, it was that good… actually, it was some of the best I’ve ever had in Southern California! YUM!

We then wrapped up the evening at home with a few games of Bocce Ball in the backyard. This was a set I’d gotten for C for Father’s Day at Target, but we had yet to crack into it or head out anywhere with room enough to play. Luckily, C took some time a few weekends ago to clear out some old junk from the yard and clean it up a bit, so we had our patch of “grass” back to go outside and play on. While not expanse, it was just the right size for a few test games and for T to play with us, too.

So that’s how we wrapped up our summer in a photo nutshell. I hope you all enjoyed your last moments of summer break with the kiddos before they returned to school, and if you are lucky enough to have a few days left, cherish the good times together!

And now it’s time for school chores. Time to stock the backpacks, dig out the lunch boxes, and wash the new uniforms. Tomorrow, T has his orientation at his new school, and the day after that (AKA in two “night sleeps”), he has his first day of Transitional Kindergarten (AKA Preppy-K, or Pre-K to others). I don’t know how much I’ll be posting until we settle into our new routine, but you bet I will check in later this week to share how Wednesday goes. BIG week ahead for us, RMT’ers!