Goodnight, Summer.

For most, summer has been over since Labor Day...the official "end of summer".  For me, I have held onto summer with everything I can...and for those of you that know me personally know that I will be rockin' my flip flops well into fall and sometimes if I am lucky into winter.  It just depends on the snow schedule here in Delaware.  I will rock flip flops in 30 degrees...but I draw the line at snow.  So while I do enjoy the change of seasons and love the fall, I hold onto summer tight.  Summers have always been my favorite time of year.  I can do without the 100 degree days but the memories are so sweet.  Swim team practice in frigid waters at the crack of dawn, boating on the Chesapeake Bay...spending my days and nights surrounded by the water...those times are some of my favorite memories as a child.  It's the nostalgia, I suppose, that keeps me clinging to summer.

Knowing what is coming...the cold, dark days...leaves me clinging to these amazing summer memories...

Like spending time on the boardwalk...
{Thank you Maddie and Jamie for taking Kayla on all of the rides!!!}

I love these pictures of her on the very same boats that I probably enjoyed in the 70's...whoa...just dated myself...and scared thinking she was riding on some seriously old rides...

And the games...oh how my girl loves the games...and...of course, winning!

And spending family time at the zoo...

Oh these two...they are my everything...and the way she loves him and he loves her right back...it's pure bliss.  She has him wrapped around her little pinky...and he knows it.  We are two very lucky girls.

And a day at the park...

She just can't possibly make me any more happy...her smile lights up my life.

During these first few weeks of kindergarten there has been a lot of compromising on her "princess" outfits that she just has to wear to kindergarten...has to...as in she might just not make it through the day without a tiara and a fancy gown.  For those days, we compromise on tutus and tank tops ...oh to be five again and get away with looking great regardless of your fashion sense!

I guess the other thing that keeps me clinging to summer is my birthday...that evil reminder that another year has flown by faster than the one before.  And while I do love any reason to celebrate, celebrating another year gone just isn't as exciting as it was as a child.  But nonetheless, we run through the motions and we celebrate.  I no longer celebrate myself, I celebrate my life.  Thankful for the friends and family and love that I have in my life.  I am a very lucky girl.  I woke up to this...

Dozens of notes all over the house...feeling very loved, indeed.

We celebrated this year at Moro...a restaurant in Wilmington.  It is a very contemporary, upscale restaurant...reason number one we shouldn't have taken my Mom.  Look...I love my Mom...she's my best friend...but there are many ways that we are different and one is that she isn't exactly an adventurous eater.  She is more of a meatloaf and potatoes kinda gal.  So...imagine her surprise when she read items such as escargot and foie gras on the menu.  I imagined her ordering just a salad or perhaps just going with a diet coke so you can picture my shock when she suggested we order the Chef's Five Course Taster...kinda blind ordering...trusting the chef will read your mind and pick out exactly what you yourself would have ordered...

Course 1: Buttered fish with popcorn and fennel seeds
Course 2: Jumbo lump crab with melon sauce and salsa
Course 3: Lobster risotto
Course 4: New york strip steak with corn relish
Intermezzo: Pistachio sorbet
Course 5: Assorted desserts


I watched my mom's face as she ate...course 1...epic fail.  Course 2...not much better.   Course 3...well...you get the point.  The bread...well, that made her happy.  It was indeed the most expensive bread she has ever had.  

I will never forget this meal.  Funniest.  Meal.  Ever.  Ever!  Comments like "wow...this is the best course so far...and it is just supposed to cleanse my pallet" and "well, we can always hit up McDonalds drive through on the way home".  She was kidding of course...well...not really!  If the meal was just any other meal it would have never etched itself into my memory the way it has.  Laughter is good.

My Pandora bracelet has a new addition...a princess carriage charm.  My princess picked it out all by herself.  A forever reminder of just how magical the land of Once Upon A Time and Happily Ever After truly is at the age of five...and a little symbol that tells me it's ok to believe that my life is a fairytale...because it is.  My girl drew a picture of me on my birthday card and signed her name.  To me, there could be nothing sweeter in this world.  


Goodnight 33.  Goodnight sand and sunscreen and summer days and nights...goodnight.

Oh...and for those of you wondering...we decided not to cut her hair chin-length.  Instead we are hiding the pieces she chopped off in braids and behind large flowers, feathers and bows.