One Crazy Summer

Summer is once again coming to an end and it has been a full and fun one.  Tomorrow morning  all three of my "babies" hop on a school bus and head off to elementary school together.

I am both sad and excited to see them go.  I will not be one of those mothers who cries as the bus pulls away.  I may even feel compelled to raise my hands in a brief celebration of victory.  But I am aware that I will never be the mother's of an infant, a toddler, or a preschooler again, and that comes with it's own joys and sorrows.

I will never change another diaper, they have visiting nurses for that.  I will never prepare a bottle for a midnight feeding.  I will never again scrape babyfood off my kitchen floor, the highchair, the walls, the baby.   I will never again put my children in the dryer.

I will never again misalign the snaps up and down the inside of my children's pants.  I will never again spend my mealtimes cutting food into tiny pieces until my food is cold and congealed.  I will never again struggle through the grocery store with a baby on my hip, another in the basket, and a third pulling random colorful items off the shelves and tossing them in the cart while I'm not looking.  I will never again rock my babies to sleep, though Allison has been requesting and receiving lullabies at bedtime lately, and every once in a while I still pull her into my lap and snuggle with her while I sing.

I will never again be vomited on.  Seriously children, I am so done with that so you are never ever drinking alcohol while you are living under my roof!  I will never again put 2 kids on the bus at 7:55 then bring a kid to preschool for 9:15 then rush home to get a kid off the bus at 11:30 then pick up my preschooler at 11:45 then get the last kid off the bus at 3:05.

I will never again be mystified by my child's incoherent babble, I will misunderstand them for completely new and unexpected reasons.  I will still lose sleep, though not because my child is hungry or wet or playing "let's torture mommy and scream loudly for no reason until she comes in and holds me and then stop screaming and pretend to fall asleep until she puts us down in the crib and then instantly start screaming again".  I hated that game.   I will still plan birthday parties but the theme won't be Sesame Street.

I will lose my cell phone again, it is inevitable, but not to liquid dammage (not covered by warranty) after a dixie cup of juice is dumped into my purse; I'm sure I can be more creative then that.   I will still love them with complete abandon, though now I can share that love with them on a whole new level.

That's only a small sampling of all the things I won't be doing anymore.  It pales in comparison to all the things we have yet to do together.  As you all know, I have three wonderful, gorgeous children and this summer we made a lot of fabulous memories.  We'd like to share them with you.

We started the summer with Allison's 5th birthday party.

Then she rocked her first dance recital.

Then we went camping with some good friends.

After the camping trip we made our annual 4th of July pilgrimage to up-state New York to visit Memere and Pepere.  

We took the kids to Breezy Grounds picnic, lake and water slides.

We had fun at Grandma and Grandpa's lake house.

And we finished off with Alex's 9th birthday party at One Stop Fun.

It was long, hot and fun, but all good things must come to an end.  We're trading in bathing suits and sunscreen for packed lunches and homework.  And as mixed as my emotions are about seeing all three of my babies hop on a bus tomorrow, I believe the image below sums it up appropriately.

Click here for a slideshow of all of our summer pics