It brings me great sadness to say that, as of today, preschool is officially over for my boys for the summer. I don’t know why school must end so early in the year, but end it does.
As I was driving the boys to school on Monday (their last Monday of the year), I felt this surge of panic run through me . . . what will we do this summer? will we have fun? will I do a good job teaching them things? will we go crazy? will our house (which is still on the market) get destroyed? will anna run away? (she is VERY into taking off down the street/sidewalk/wherever-she-is right now and with two boys in tow, the chaos escalates!) will I be able to handle 3 kids all of the time? will they know that I love them? will I be able to keep my cool? will we manage to go to the pool without having to call 911? AHHH!
At the very same time that these thoughts of insecurity about my mothering and my lack-of-planning spill into my mind, I simultaneously have competing thoughts about how I cannot believe that time is flying past us and how I need to hold my babies close and keep them near . . . didn’t the school year just start? weren’t we just there for our first day of school? how did they get to being 3 years old? where did the chub go? how did they turn into little boys so fast? oh, HOW?
Accompanying their adorable class picture comes the picture that we sent in of the boys at the beginning of the year . . . and, they look like babies. BABIES. They are literally growing up before my eyes, and I recognize the depth and speed of it when I look back at their pictures (and this blog)--It is wild seeing how much they grow in 9 months. Somehow, it seems that I sent babies to school this year, and am bringing little boys home for the summer. They are going to the potty on their own, pretending, singing songs at the top of their lungs, fascinated with drawing letters and spotting letters everywhere we go, counting and counting some more, peeking at bugs and slugs and anything that crawls, spotting construction signs and trucks and trains from miles away, they continue to adore their sister and their cousin “char-char”, and they could not be more thrilled to spend every second of the summer in the pool. (Again: How am I going to do this?) I am excited to have the summer to be together, and while I surely have my shortcomings as a mother and while this stage of the game can be quite challenging, I feel quite certain that I will miss this time. And, miss it a lot. And, well, we can all pray for grace and patience for me . . . and for our house to sell (please, LORD, let this house sell) . . . and for fun times together this summer! So, without further adieu, the last day of school—in pictures:
these are the tiny ones I dropped off last september . . . (remember this first day of school blogpost?)
and, here we are today . . . (why does Anna look equally as disgruntled?!)
smooches!
times two!
and, making “the silly face!”
These next few pictures crack me up! In the first one, the boys are showing off their classic Murphy smile. No Murphys are good fake-smilers—case and point: cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!
this fall:
And now, silliness—our strong suit! They are SO BIG. And, so sweet. And SO MUCH FUN.
(Hudson had a run-in with the concrete curb last night . . . whoopsie daisy!)
My cute little William.
And, my sweet, sweet, Hudson.
And, before we knew it, Sister was off . . . and bolting down the sidewalk as fast as her chubby, adorable legs could carry her. I have a feeling that Sister and I will be having a talk or two or many about boundaries this summer. This is not going to be pretty, folks.
And, together with my boys in September . . .
And, today. (Guess who took this picture!? Not bad!)
(And, budding photographer #2, Hudson Hall!)
And last but not least, a picture with their very favorite Mrs. Sawyer. Oh, how they love Mrs. Sawyer! What a great, fun school year!
Here’s to fun in the sun this summer, great playtime together and with friends, lots of forgiveness and grace, and even more snuggles and smooches!!(those are really my favorite, you know!)
