mow day.

mow day.

i love this life with littles.

in a shadow box with the sparkly red jessie boots.

school'zzzzzz

out

for

summa! 

{i have an entirely new appreciation for this after 8:15am kindergarten.}

ladies and gentlemen,

i give you...

the bikini she's worn since she was 1:)

{above-1 year old}

{above-2 years old}

 {above-3 years old}

 annnnnnnddddd

drum roll please...

4 years old.

i feel like we've been on borrowed time with this treasure since she was 2.

it's going up in a shadow box.

with the red sparkly jessie boots.

the dreamland is over.

i can't believe kindergarten is over.

the dreamland of half in the real world of school days we've been in are over.

the dreamland being the one thing that annoyed me all year long.

half day kindergarten:)

and as much as i'm ready to say goodbye to it,

and all of the annoying things about it,

i'm sad to see it go in the most ironic way.

because it was the last of our days home with me.

at least during the school year anyway.

and even when it was hard, and i was dying for him to be gone all day,

{or least for more than 2 hours and 45 minutes},

i can look back on all of those half days of kindergarten 

where we read books at the table over lunch,

put chase to bed for his nap,

and taught brennan how to read,

i sit here and wonder what i was complaining about anyway.

funny how that happens.

he just can't wait to eat lunch at school next year and finally get to go to recess.

and i'm dying to know how we're going to do homework during chase's nap time again 

when brennan doesn't get home from school until after chase wakes up from his nap time?

#problemsthatarentreallyproblems #justsayin

and maybe some quarters

i just love sunday nights:)

and my eagle scout that builds me a fire,

and then nurses it all night long until 11pm when we finally turn in.

if you build it,

they will come:)

when you live on the corner, everyone ends up at your house. 

'cause they're taking their sunday strolls around the block.

with their dogs and their kids,

and sometimes just with their spouse.

and there's nothing better than a yard full of friends 

who know how to open the baby lock on your gate to let themselves in.

this way you don't even have to get out of your chair, 

and you can just direct them to the pile of sticks and marshmallows right by your side.

and so sean chips away at the wood with his ax,

and adds chairs around the outside as the group grows.

and the people come walking into our yard with sugar cookies,

children,

soccer balls,

and every new way to create a s'more you could possiblely imagine.

it's magic.

magic on a sunday night.

tonight's new addition:

FUDGE STRIPES. 

who knew?!

andrea did.

fudge stripe cookie

mashmallow

fudge stripe cookie.

or if you're weak like most of us ladies,

you can do it open faced.

no pictures, inhaled too fast.

my dream for next week: fudge stripes cookie, pb cup, mashmallow.

it's gonna be amazing.

some people bring marshmallows.

some people bring graham crackers.

some people just bring themselves.

it's great.

it's just really great.

and then we all sit around the fire,

talking about stories from our lives,

like the fire emits some kind of truth serum out of its flames,

and you're all "yeah, i used to eat my boogers and pee my pants at recess."

wait, what?

it's where you talk about going rock climbing,

what "IOWA" stands for,

writing jingles to frozen songs for your neighbor's advertising company,

and listen to the high schoolers talk about what they're going to do when they graduate this week from high school.

and you sit there trying to spin your head around how you were just the one graduating from high school,

but you're not anymore, ya know?

and it's really great to not be, but really great to listen to kids talk about it themselves.

by the end of the night,

when our kids are tucked snug into their beds 

{WAAAAAY past their bedtimes, might i add--

like we put them in bed at 10pm tonight. yeah...brennan has school at 8:15am.

it's gonna be awesome tomorrow morning.}

so when they're all asleep,

and all of the neighbors have trickled home,

it's just sean and i that are left to poke the fire until the last flames go out.

and we talk about how we can't believe that brennan is done with kindergarten,

and also we discuss about if we really need to put sport court down 

under the bricks for a legitimate fire pit pad off of the patio,

and all of our hopes and dreams for the future of our home and our life,

and can we squeeze in two more treatments of humate for the lawn before october?

stuff like that.

next week,

i'm bringing out a deck of cards.

and maybe some quarters;)

just for good ol' days sake.