Labor Day weekend is considered the unofficial end of summer, but for kids it's O.V.E.R. on the first day of school. I sympathize. Deeply. Especially since I'll suffer with them.

See...in the summer my sister sends her kids off to hang out with their Uncle Bobby (me!) a lot. While she does the (no doubt) mind-numbingly boring Things she "needs" to do, we go off and do someThing fun. Like going to a baseball game, eating nothing but junk food, and/or blowing Things up in my backyard.

The end of summer means that my nieces, nephews, and their Poor Old Uncle will be forced to spend way too much time with adults for the next few months. I mean Real Adults - not people like me who were forced into this sorry state by the inexorable, unforgiving Hands of Time. These adults actually volunteer to grow up. (Yeah...I don't get it either...)

I don't know if you've noticed, but most Real Adults are zero fun to hang out with. No...I take that back. Real Adults are less than zero fun. They're like negative 100% fun or someThing like that. (Don't ask me to do the math - BORRRRRing. Besides, I don't have to take a test.)

Suffice it to say that the negative fun factor is why I insist on being in charge of the family's last summer party - for the kids. (Okay, maybe a little bit for me, too.) You just can't trust a Real Adult like my sister with such a weighty responsibility. Believe you me, I went to enough of her "yawn on the lawn" Labor Day soirées to know.

At my end-of-summer parties there are zero dorky games, zero nutritional foods, and zero yawns. Just positive 100% fun. The kids deserve it on their first holiday weekend. They have a long, long school year ahead.

We all do.

See you next week,
Bobby