Memories of Summer Fun – The Observer

Oh, summer. I’m entirely glad you’re here. For a long time after college I thought summers would never be the same. I could scarcely tell where spring ended and summer began, other than the tell-tale signs of the stifling Louisiana heat.

“No one told me,” I thought.

No one told me that after school is over, summer feels exactly the same as any other time of year. Five-day work week, weekend. Five-day work week, weekend. Work the weekend sometimes. Repeat. My wardrobe changed according to the weather, but life did not.

Then I had kids. Summer still felt the same as the rest of the year.

But all those children became school age. And they brought back summer.

Summer in a glorious way.

They wrote summer fun to-do lists. The lists were longer than any sheet of paper we own. Not one idea was deemed not worthy of the summer fun list. There were big ideas, like traveling to Schlitterbahn water park on that list, but scratched on that list were things like:  “pante nails.”

Because when you’re young and dreaming of fun, nail painting and road trips to water parks go hand-in-hand. We did our best to check off as many items as possible on the summer fun list. For so many years, we visited local museums, did picnics, participated in free bowling. They were allowed to write whatever they’d like on the list. Sometimes, I couldn’t even decipher what they were writing on the lists, because we allowed them to add their own words and five-year-old scribble scratch rarely made sense.

But here I am at the start of this already sweaty summer, wondering where all the summers went. I know we made the most of them, but it feels like they’re gone. Our oldest heads to LSU this upcoming fall and our youngest will be in 8th grade. They aren’t writing things like “pante nails” on their summer fun list this year.

Instead, they’re all working jobs or babysitting or at school practices (that go on during the summer when you’re in junior high and high school). And this summer has shaken me with the realization that our “let’s plan out the most possible fun” days are over.

We still have fun, but it looks different.

They’re no longer wanting to participate in a  summertime coloring contest or library story time.

Fun these days looks like friends over or them gone with friends.

One even has a “real” girlfriend. (And let me tell you, that’s a game changer). A good game changer, but change none the less.

Graduation didn’t bring me to tears and neither did all the end of year ceremonies. May was so full I could barely breathe.

But a summer where it seems like they’ll spend so much time away has me slightly teary eyed at the thought that I don’t have littles under my feet on my days off during the summer.

It’s what I thought would never happen. 

They’re somewhat independent and I’m somewhat free.

But part of me wants one last summer fun list that’s ridiculous and over the top and slightly impossible to accomplish. (For real, some of their younger lists included: overflow the bathtub with bubbles and throwing water balloons at the neighbor’s house. Those did not make the summer fun cut, but thanks for the thought, crazy children).

The summer fun list taught me lots though.

I used to think I needed to write their summer fun list for them, but then I realized my list didn’t hold a candle to theirs. Mine tended to be “big ideas.” Theirs included so many little moments of fun, that I realized little fun moments are just as treasured as the big fun times. I wish I had saved the summer fun lists. But by the end of the summer it was always so torn, tattered, scratched out, checked off and generally mutilated by the tiny hands that went over and over it throughout the summer days. They loved the list until it literally didn’t exist.

So we will have fun. I’ll welcome their friends into our home and tell them to be careful when they head out the door, driving themselves to their own places they want to go.

But I’ll hold the memories of those summers of carefree fun so close, knowing they were some of the best we had. Good ones are still ahead, but I’m thankful for all these kids who brought summer days back into our home and forever in our hearts.