This week in pictures: Celebrating the end of of a wonderful summer

It has evolved into a tradition that since Beloved has to go back to work near the end of August, I take the final week of summer off to play with the boys. We try to cram as much summer as possible into this last week, and this year I think we outdid ourselves.

Before we could get started on the fun, we had to finish our chores. (I’ve had the idea for this photo in my head all summer long, but it took me until this week to get around to executing it. No five year olds were harmed in the staging of this photo, I promise!!)

We finally made it back to Britannia Beach to watch another perfect summer sunset.

(Can you read what he is writing? “I love you mom.” I could barely get the camera focused for tearing up, I tell ya.)

I took a few portraits on the beach, thinking of the warm golden glow of the sun, but I ended up liking the black and white versions better. Go figure!

(Frameworthy, yes? This one may be coming to a wall near you soon!)

And remember the great drama camp drama? All’s well that ends well, said some old guy who wrote plays.

I was also in a black-and-white frame of mind when I captured the boys’ bumper car fun at Midway Indoor Amusement Park (with which I was highly impressed on our first visit, BTW. Lovely staff made our experience excellent.)

We also spent a nearly perfect afternoon at Baxter Conservation Area, which I will blog in more detail later this week. Here’s a sneak peek:

And last but not least, another shot I have been thinking about for weeks. In between our many adventures this summer, I’ve been learning a lot more about Photoshop and refining my post-processing skills. Having mastered the head swap, I thought a composite shot like this would be a breeze. Um, not so much. But the boys and I did have a lot of fun making it, and I roped Beloved in to teaching me a few things to help me pull this shot together.

The best part was showing it to the boys and asking them if it was anything close to what they’d imagined when I was taking the various pictures I used to pull this one together.

“Wow,” said Tristan, his eyes wide and a grin on his face. “Actually mom, this is way cooler!” I’ll call that a win!

I’m feeling a little sad on this Labour Day Monday that the summer of 2013 is more or less over. But at least we’ve got a boatload of photos to remind us how much fun we had!