Monday, August 27, 2007

Summer's Gone

"I was riding in the car with my mom and dad,
Dad was driving the car, the kids were driving him mad,
Dad looked and us, then he looked at his wife,
He must have wondered where we all came from.
Mom just smiled and said, 'It won't last for long, before you know it, summer's gone."
So long."
~The Kinks

School starts tomorrow. If you count the hours spent in front of the TV or logged on to Webkinz, school can't start soon enough.
But, if you count the hours blowing bubbles, riding bikes, catching 'roly poly's,' or sliding down the waterslide in the backyard, school starts way too soon.

After having all 4 kids home all summer, the house is going to seem eerily (pleasantly?!?) quiet. People ask what grade the kids are entering and I have to stop and think.
Didn't Addysen just start kindergarten yesterday? Can she really be starting third grade?
And toothless little Cannon...did he really just turn 7? As a secondgrader- he's suddenly not so little.
And Brynnley - little wannabe princess that she is -- starting preschool. She's already emphasized numerous times that she does not need her mom going to school with her. She's a big girl now. Yes, she IS a big girl now.
And then there is Kenzie...born only last year...yet already talking and walking and climbing on the table.

Where does the time go?


School starts tomorrow and summer is gone.
Reflecting back, it was a good summer...a busy summer.
Much busier than the summer's I remember growing up. Perhaps the only difference, however, is the difference between a mother's and child's perspective.

We spent many mornings at the gym and many afternoons playing outside or at the park. We participated in Spy Kids and the library reading program. We flew over or drove through about 15 states. We celebrated life in the form of an 80th birthday party and as we welcomed two new nieces and a nephew to the family.We folded endless piles of laundry and shucked numerous ears of corn. We got lots of rain and spent many hours wishing for central air conditioning. We read, "Ida B. Applewood," "Junie B. Jones," "I Love You Stinky Face," and many, many, more. We crammed as much as we could into 2.5 short months.
Yeah, school starts tomorrow. If you count the hours spent in front of the TV or playing on Webkinz, it can't start soon enough.
But if you count the waterfights, fireflies, games of 'Sorry,' forts built, movie nights, fireworks, bbq's, pictures taken, laughs shared and memories made...it starts way too soon.