Ready

It's that time of year when we are looking forward to so much that it's difficult to enjoy being in the moment.

I'm pretty much done with school and I think Sophie is, too. But come the 26th, we will say goodbye forever to the 1st grade and I could swear she just took her first steps a few months ago. How the hell can she be a second grader this fall if she just took her first steps a few months ago?

The fireflies are starting to appear and soon I will let the kids stay up late and run barefoot in the grass to catch them. We keep an old honey jar just for this time of year and I plan on keeping it forever. One day, the kids will clean out the basement or our attic and find that jar and hopefully they will remember how we kept it just for catching fireflies.

We will read Marshmallow Kisses which is just about the sweetest book you can read to your kids at this time of year.

We will eat hot dogs and watch fireworks and run through sprinklers and wash our hair with coconut scented shampoo because it reminds us of the beach.

John and I will drink wine and watch movies on the portable DVD player on the patio when it's not too hot out in the evenings.

We'll make real lemonade even if the lemons are still priced at $.75 EACH (wtf?) and munch on watermelon.

We'll swim at the city pool on Sunday afternoons to burn off the rest of the weekend. I'll get sliced mangos and coconut chunks from the food stalls near the soccer fields and the kids will get ice cream.

I can't wait for our family vacation in August. We will swim everyday and toast marshmallows over a campfire and walk on paths through woods looking for frogs and deer and chipmunks. We'll walk by the lake at sunset and go to the county fair and I will take my time looking at the knitted items that earned blue ribbons and then we'll take pictures of the kids next to the giant pumpkins and mammoth zucchinis.

C'mon summer. We're ready for you!