Wonder

At the end of every July, our little town puts on quite the festival. Saturday night fireworks are part of the festivities and it's a tradition for us to wake Rowan up and watch from our front porch. This year we thought Tate might like to get in on the action as well, but he was way too deeply sleeping for us to wake him up. So Rowan had some alone time with both mom and dad. I loved hearing her running commentary about the fireworks: "That one is my favorite! It's sprinkles down and looks just like a dead rose." "Do you think this is the grand finale? I hope it's not; I want this to last for hours." And my absolute favorite "Mom, are people doing these fireworks? Or is God making them for us?" She didn't want to miss a moment of the action. When we retreated from the front porch to the big windows in her room, she ran as fast as she could. She kept asking us to wake up Tate, even though we both tried. She couldn't believe that she will be 6 years old the next time we watch these fireworks together (and, admittedly, neither can I).

I started to wonder when it will be that we won't have to wake her up at 10 because she'll still be awake. When she'll want to go to the fireworks with her friends instead of with us. When she might just catch a glimpse of the fireworks out her car window as she's driving to a friend's house. And I hope that she'll remember our little tradition. Maybe she'll remember sitting on my lap on the front porch swing or sitting, cuddled up with Lance at her window, and she'll have just a little slice of childlike wonder one more time.

Half-Full

How is it that this lovely summer is about half over? We have been busy beyond belief this summer, even though I intentionally kept several weeks with no plans. We've had fun every single day. We've been swimming in lakes and pools, we've jumped on the trampoline, played on the jungle gym, pumped as high as possible on the swings (except Tate, who still needs a good push). We've played with neighbors, friends across town, friends in other towns, friends in other states. We've been on vacation (Lake Michigan beach house, thanks to Mark and Sonja; and family camp, thanks to the sheer insistence by my mother that we absolutely must go to family camp). We've done swim lessons, soccer camp, safe city and VBS. We've picked strawberries, tomatoes and snap peas from our gardent. We are doing our best to make the very most of this summer.

So while it's easy for me, an outspoken loather of all things winter, to already start to dread the winter that is to come, I'm looking at this summer as half-full. I really feel like we've made an entire summer of memories and we still have over a month left!

This weekend, Lance and I head to Philadelphia and NYC to celebrate 11 years of marriage. The kids will spend the weekend at Grandma's. We'll come home, refreshed after some great adult time. They'll come home, all sugared up and spoiled from some great Grandma time. And we'll spend more time making memories.