In Summer

We're finally ALMOST on summer break. Matthew has three days left and Garrett has four. IT NEARLY KILLS ME DEAD EVERY YEAR. Coop them up in a classroom all winter long when it's cold and miserable outside and then let them go free long before July 2. For the love of all things warm and good! LET THEM FREE.

The sun is shining.

The water's running.

The pools and splash pads and sprinklers are waiting.

The milky white skin needs to brown. The brown skin needs to blacken.

It's time for the school to shut its doors. The office staff is ready. The teachers are ready. The students are ready.

We've already started our summer with trips down the slip n slide and stops at the pool. 

On Friday I checked Garrett out early. I was wearing my bathing suit* and I did not apologize. "We're going to the pool," I said. He missed lunch and fifteen minutes of class. I hardly felt bad about it.

 

Look at how happy they are in the summer. (Also look at his stomach. I...just...I'm thirty shades of jealous right now.)

It's the MOST wonderful time of the year.

Also. This kid is almost halfway to eighteen. Excuse me. I'll be over here with my head stuck in the sand, pretending this isn't happening. Pretending he's not all but grown up.

And then another also. Hi, Baby. Your brother has insisted on growing up and leaving me already. Will you please stay small even though your tibia is as long as his and you have more muscles than most adults? I mean it, Matthew, please keep those scrumptious chubby cheeks forever.

There's nothing quite like being a kid in the summer.

*And some other stuff. I didn't just waltz into the school clad only in swimwear.