Okay, Okay.

Enough with the lack of blogging. 
It saddens me so much that this summer is (sniff, sniff) almost over.
I was lamenting how quickly it all went,  until I looked at the scrap books that Sam and Caroline have kept. 
We covered a crap ton of ground in the past 8 weeks!
There were day trips to The Udvar-Hazy, Harpers Ferry and the Big Slide Park.  CJ, Sam and Nate each got to spend a separate week up in NY with Nina & Pops.  We spent a week in Rochester while Jim was traveling.  There was Vacation Bible School, Christian Formation, daily Mass and Family Rosary.  I got to take an overnight trip to DC to the Basilica and see "Book of Mormon" at the Kennedy Center.  There was the Boilermaker and surrounding adventures.  We just got home from a grand tour of New England (aka - "All the places that Mommy and Daddy used to live before we moved to Maryland") that culminated in (not enough) time at Bow Lake.  Put that on top of time with friends and just time to BE and ...yep...this summer was just wonderful. 
I'm planning a couple more Little Adventures for this week...

Good news is that the kids are very much looking forward to going back to school.  Even Sam, who is more nervous than he cares to admit about going to a new school. 

Bad news is with all the Adventures and all the journaling the kids did as their summer homework, I was toast when I got any time that could be devoted to blogging.  Sometimes journaling with small children is akin to one of Dante's circles of hell. 
I'm sitting here with a chocolate martini in hand.  If that's what it takes to bring me back to blogging, I'm willing to sacrifice for the Greater Good.   
But, as the summer comes to an end...
...We're back. 

Most importantly, Happy Birthday to Ben-Ben.
Hard to believe that he has been around for 3 whole years. 
Sometimes it's difficult being the littlest, especially among hooligans like us.

But he does a great job and is learning to stand his ground.
As he said today, "I'm not your Baby Ben-Ben anymore.  I'm big."
Sigh.
We love you so much Benji-bot, Benji-pooh, Ben-jammin, Binyamin, Ben-Ben, Bubba, Bubba-doo, Turkey-Lurkey or Benjamin Elias (as he had made it known he prefers).