Counting down to summer

We’ve been counting down to summer for about a month. Not the official, middle of June, longest-day-of-the-year-summer, but a kid’s summer: stay up late, sleep in, play all day with a backyard full of boys Summer. It begins the day after the last day of school, and this year, although not in school himself, Brisco has been in charge of officially counting it down.

To him, summer means going to the beach, swimming at Grandma’s, late night ballgames, and having his big brother home all day long. Mornings are brighter because no one has gotten up and gone to school, and more days than not, he’ll get a made-to-order breakfast, courtesy of “Daddy-O,” his new nickname for the chief-breakfast-cooker at our house. No wonder he’s been counting it down.

The most exciting part of Cooper’s new-found freedom has been staying up past his 8:30 bedtime and catching the end of his nightly ballgame of choice. Much better than having to wait and see how it ended the following morning on the highlights.

Of course a mom knows it’s summer by the slamming of the screen door, the piles of dirt-caked shoes that accumulate in the entry, and the endless quest for that perfect recipe of homemade ice cream. But perhaps the most tell-tale sign that summer is here are the extra faces that show up in the backyard, with or without a glove, ready for a game of baseball.

Why, just today, less than a full week from the final ringing of those school bells, there were five little boys batting balls and rounding bases in the blowing dust and hot, early morning summertime air. And tomorrow there will be just as many, or more, eating buttery, grilled cheese sandwiches and pretzels dipped in mustard or cleaning out the fruit bowl or sharing a two liter of pop someone grabbed as they walked out the door of their home, on their way to ours.

I smiled, watching them just being boys, as the carefree feeling of being young tickled at my memory. It was just enough to make me look away while they chewed with their mouths full and spilled drinks at the table. It was enough to make me close my ears to talk of bloody bear bites and 100 ways to die and explaining to the youngest of the bunch what it means to “let one rip”.

Yes, there are so many reasons to love summer, and our boys are slowly discovering each and every one. From swimming and slushies to fishing and flip flops there’s a whole world of summertime fun just knocking on our back door. And they’re all bringing friends.

And that’s All in a day’s work!