Never-ending summer

This has been a loooooong summer. Memorial Day was early and Labor Day is late, and it's been cool most of the time so the days have really blended together. So many of my friends are chomping at the bit to get their little fillys off to school, they all can't wait for "normal." But not me. I would like to have a never-ending summer. Here are just a few of the things I will miss when my kids go back to school on Tuesday:

• The way not-quite-7 year old Quin has been my fool-proof alarm clock, waking me up by crawling into bed with us right around 7 or 7:15 each day. Seriously, I will detest having to set an alarm to get up at 6:30 in order to leave for school by 7:35. But most of all, I am dreading the loss of that awesome cuddle time with my precious boy.

• I will miss the extra-long stories that Tate tells over his breakfast, usually around 9AM, that involve a combination of dreams, outright imagination, action movies and tall-tales books he remembers in random snippets. The way his stories wind and ramble, with his earnest, wide eyes and theatrical movements have become a wonderful part of luxuriously long summer breakfasts, and they will be cut short far too often.

• I will miss all the weekends with nothing planned aside from the occasional birthday party, a possible cookout with friends, or a neighborhood street fair. The idea that in summer, activities happen spontaneously, or they feel as if they organically grew out of the great weather, extra daylight and more vacation time for everyone, makes weekends feel like their own mini-vacation. During the school year, it seems like even weekends are jam-packed with activities, so I will miss these longer, lazier times where we just enjoy being and doing whatever we like.

• I will miss the kids staying in pajamas until noon, or costumes all day long, and the idea that they can CHOOSE what to wear. And trust me, some of their clothing and costume choices, including hats and footwear, have provided much entertainment for our neighborhood! But now they will have to conform so that they get along in school... I will miss the free-spiritedness of their clothing choices, and their creativity in dressing each day.

• I will miss summer produce and all the fun I've had cooking and eating it. Rven though our farmer's market goes until October, the summer growing season is winding down. The Honeycrisp apples only have a couple more weeks, for Pete's sake!! I will miss both the food itself and the feeling of plenty of time to drive to Michigan or Wisconsin, just to get "the good stuff." (Again, those weekends are too packed for a random 2-hour drive to get fruit or veggies or cheese!)

• I will miss the really crazy late bed-times and watching movies "on a school night." Back come the rules we KNOW are important to ensure adequate sleep and not too much electronic stimulation, but I will miss all the "treats," such as watching a hilarious, 20-minute Phineas & Ferb with the boys on a Tuesday night, or starting an Indiana Jones movie at 8pm, knowing we'll all be up until at least 10pm on a Sunday night. Crazy stuff, but the boys and I love feeling like we're doing something special, not really radical, but unusual for kids whose usual bedtime is 8:30.

• I will miss sandals and shorts. The weather is changing, and I know the boys can't wear their Keens and Tevas forever, and I can't wear my Clark's cork wedges until it snows...but I'm still sad that the sandals-and-shorts part of summer is effectively over after Labor Day. I love this easy, summer fashion for all of us.

Oh, I know there are many good things ahead. But right now, I am lamenting the end of summer and squeezing out the last few drops of it. Being a Sweet means knowing how to really maximize summer, the most precious season of the year.