How can summer be over?

You know summer is over when you wake up to a thunder and lightning storm, and it's so dark outside it feels like November.

It's absolutely pouring rain outside and it feels like one of those days for sleeping in, sitting around watching daytime tv and eating chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven.

I think I had a day like that once. It was a lifetime ago. Sleeping in? What's that like? I forget. Sitting around watching daytime tv? Haven't done that since my college days. Eating chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven? Oh yeah, I can't do that either cause I. Still. Do. Not. Have. An. Oven.

How did this happen? Summer's over, it's back to school on Tuesday - sort of. We've been trying to cram in all the things we were going to do over the summer but never got around to doing, in this week. And here it is Thursday, and the storm really doesn't go well with cycling the KVR trail or having dinner at the beach. (But I bet we could easily find a parking spot!)

Last week my oldest was in a funk about how "we never do anything", "why don't we have rich friends with a boat so we can go tubing?" "I'm so bored." "we never do anything fun". "summer vacay isn't over you know". So after a day of listening to this, I suggested she come up with a schedule of things we should do for this week. And she did. We did a few of the things she wanted to do (still haven't found the rich friends with a boat), and hopefully we can get a few more things done.

My parents arrive today and tomorrow is their 50th wedding anniversary. We're not doing a huge party or anything - they didn't want that. Instead, they've offered to take all of us out for a nice dinner tomorrow night. They stay in the barn on the property that's been converted into a studio suite. So last night we all went over there and decorated it up with banners and a ton of balloons. We filled their tiny bathroom with balloons (hope they stop and use a washroom enroute!) and hid balloons in the fridge, the dryer, etc.

Now this may sound kinda odd, but we have this on-going joke with my parents. A few years ago near Easter time, we went over and hid Easter eggs everywhere. No big deal right? Well then at Christmas, when my parents and my sister and her husband were staying there, I felt we needed to up the level of the game. So I bought 3 packages of little green army men from the Dollar Store and hid them all over the place in the barn. In shoes, in coat pockets, in the beds, in the washer, the freezer, every little nook and cranny I could find. And especially in places I know they wouldn't find for quite a while. And I never told anyone. My dad, being the expert prankster, never said a word about it.

So fast forward a couple years to this summer and my dad was here looking after the dog and cat while we were away. We came home to find little green army guys everywhere. Glued to the trellis next to the deck, frozen into ice cube trays, attached to key chains, in our shoes, in the pillow cases - everywhere.

So, in the words of Daffy Duck "Of course you realize, this means war!"

Game on.