SUMMER BREAK

SCHOOLS OUT

I heard that school bus pull up out front this afternoon and you could hear the kids over the engine of the bus. Those kids came running out of that bus screaming and yelling and excited as if the gates at Disneyland had just opened and they wanted to be the first one on the rides. Book bags that had been duct taped and held together by whatever means to finish the year were flying everywhere and being kicked down the street. The rest of the day has not been a quiet one in our neighborhood. Summer break from school has started. And since it's a Friday, the seniors who graduated yesterday and are still in town will be out tonight throwing water balloons, and being noisy. Nothing is safe out front tonight from good old fashioned fun. Water balloons, moving for sale signs to different yards, trash can bowling, you name it, they will think of it.

But it takes me back to a time when my girls would come running in excited for summer break. They would show me the last of their papers they brought home (and I never knew they could talk and move that fast), change their clothes and head outside. I loved summer break. I always cried when it was time for them to go back to school.

Summer is a time for fun. A time to influence your kids for good. A time when they aren't exposed to all of the crud of the world. Growing gardens, helping grandpa irrigate his garden and lawns, riding bikes, playing in the sprinkler after the pool has too many holes in it to hold water, coming indoors for a popsicle because it's hot outside, even though they had one an hour ago, and deciding the house is nice and cool and they find something else to do. A time to just be kids. A time to laugh and giggle, have friends over all day, climb trees and hide from mom while she frantically looks for you. Camp in the side yard with the cat in your tent. Spend the night at your cousins apartment who is in college. And the all too soon, "I'm bored" comment. And then, unbeknownst to them, you take over.

A time for mom to reconnect with her kids again. Summer is too short and all too soon they will be off again, learning, growing, and expanding their horizons. And you know all too soon, they will be grown up and on their own.

I envy those moms today who's screaming out of control excited kids were getting off that bus.