Seven Quick Takes: It's the end of summer vacation and I can't believe it!

Let's do some quick takes!  How about 7 of them?

1.  I know everyone says this but I can not believe how fast the summer has gone by!  And experience tells me that the older the kids get the faster the summers (and years in general) fly by.  And you know what school starting means...check in Monday for my obligatory mom blogger post with back-to-school pictures!  You know you're excited!

2.  My husband (who is in charge of the garden) plants sunflower seeds every year.  And being the frugal and sentimental man that he is, he takes seeds from the current years dead flowers and saves them and replants those seeds the next year.  Here he is with one of this years flowers which by the way, is a fourth generation flower!

 Last year the sunflowers didn't grow very tall but this year they are huge!  I think it's a perfect combination of hot sun and lots of rain.  Who knows?!  At the end of the season, he'll harvest some seeds and save them and he'll do it all over again next summer!

3. I took Peter to the eye doctor earlier this week for his annual exam and while we were waiting to go back, we played around with some new frames.  He kept choosing the most horrible glasses to try on.  We had the best time laughing at all the different styles he chose.  We decided these made him look like Bill Gates circa 1980:

Okay... perhaps Peter has less hair than Mr. Gates but you get my drift.  Peter's eyes haven't changed since last year so he's sticking with his current (rarely worn except for school and even then only if he's in the back of the class) pair.

3.  We always have lots of peppers in the garden and this year is no different.  So I tried my hand at pepper jelly.  Ya'll - it was so good and so easy that I'm making another batch today!

I am excited to get this stuff on top of some cream cheese and crackers.  And I think it's also going to be really good over a pork tenderloin that's cooking in the crock pot.  YUM!

4.  And speaking of yum- when we took our bike ride from Falmouth to Woods Hole, we had some really good bruschetta at our lunch stop.  Sarah and I replicated it as best we could this past weekend.  She and I scarfed it up.  So good!  (And yes, the tomatoes and basil are from our beloved little garden.)

5.  And speaking of our garden...

I have absolutely loved having fresh flowers all summer.  I can not tell you how many smiles they have brought me.  I'm going to be sad when they are gone.

6.  The kids are excited about school starting...not because they are ready to learn but because they miss their school friends.  I'm predicting that they will be hopping out of bed on Monday and Tuesday but by Wednesday I will be dragging/threatening them.  I have a new plan though...now that they are both in middle school, they will be getting up to their alarm clocks.  No more mom waking them....we'll see how it goes.

7. We have a fairly laid back weekend on tap.  A Boys Scout event tonight, a Girl Scout event on Sunday afternoon, basketball workshop and yard work and errands in between.  I hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy what's left of summer vacation!

Head over to Kelly's for more quick takes!