The school-time shift

This summer has probably been the worst as far as getting out of a school-like schedule.  There are probably many reasons for this.  Here are some I can think of.
1) Our kids are getting older.  When it gets late, they don't meltdown like they once did.
2) Their ability to sleep in has improved.  Thus, improving their ability to stay up late.
3) Lazy parenting.  What? At least I'm honest.
4) The sun.  It is BRIGHT at 8pm in the summer.  Not easy to convince kids it's time to sleep.
5) Fun plans that go late.

Therefore, come this past Saturday night after a late evening Friday at a minor league baseball game, we decided we would start our operation school-time shift.  I don't know if it's a couple of more routine evenings, or the fact that we've all caught up on sleep, but the entire household seems to be running smoother.  Though it's tempting to fall for the it's the last non-school night night let's live it up trap, I firmly believe that warming up to school nights is the way to go in order to give kids the preparation they need to handle those first few days.

And hopefully sleep comes easily to the kids tonight because instead of simply attending the bi-annual farm day we frequent, they actually worked it!  Paige has wished for a while now to be a part of food sales on this fun day, but it has always been busy / crowded and not a place for a kid to be involved.  Therefore, this year we came up with our own attraction and spent time putting farm animals tattoos on kids.  They were popular and kept us busy!  We put on almost 216 (not so easy) tattoos!

And Will ended up getting busy in the "country kitchen" helping to hand out drinks.  Both kids were talking about being worn out!  It was a great lesson in hard work.  And now, it's time for bed.