the sticks,  Tis the Season

there’s nothing like summertime…

July 15, 2007 /

would have been such a great shot

We’re still out here in the sticks and still enjoying summer, even if it is 100 degrees in the shade. Rapunzel drug out the slip-and-slide I bought for her about a thousand years ago. That’s the great thing about my mom’s messy house, you can find anything. She never throws anything out. The slip-and-slide only had one gigantic tear down the side but it still works splendidly.

100 degrees in the shade

She’ll never admit it but Rapunzel has a crush on a neighborhood boy down the street. He’s actually a really nice kid but she’s only nine! So it’s kind of cute/funny when she constantly is asking if he can come over for this reason or that. She tries to play it off as if she really doesn’t care but you can tell.

She kinda reminds me of myself when I was in college (I was a late bloomer) and I had this crush on my best friend’s boyfriend’s friend who was sort of interested in me but not really. The one who I pined after for way longer than I ever should ever admit. I still feel sorry for my old self who used to sit by the phone and make up all kinds of elaborate reasons why he didn’t call. At one point I actually convinced myself he couldn’t call me because he was dying in the hospital. I was so pathetic. The part that reminds me of Rapunzel was how I would come up with all kinds of creative ways to work this boy into any conversation I had with my friend hoping she’d talk to her boyfriend and get some clue as to why he was blowing me off. Of course it never worked out between us and last I heard he was dating a girl with the same name as me.

Anyway, I felt sorry for Rapunzel (and also she was driving me bananas with her constant “Auntieeeeee I’m bored. Can I carry Baby Bug around all over the place and drop her on her soft cantaloupe head?”) so I told her she should invite the neighborhood boy over to play on the slip-and-slide.

You should have seen the glee in her eyes. She tore out of my Mom’s yard so fast I had to yell after her to put her flip flops on before she burned her feet off on the hot asphalt road. The boy seems to like her too because next thing I knew he and his brother and three friends came over to play in the slip and slide.

It was a big muddy splashy mess. They had so much fun. I should have taken a picture. My mom’s yard is toast but you can’t put a price on fun like this. I know she’ll always remember these summers just like I remember my summers from that age.

summertime

It all reminded me of being a kid and how fun it was to wear a swimsuit all day long and eat peaches right off the tree, fuzz and all.

16 Comments

  • OMSH

    July 15, 2007 at 7:56 pm

    I’m with you on the heat. And slip-n-slides, pear trees, aunt piles, go-carts, and the never ending supply of water from the water hose are the foundation of a lot of my summer memories at that age too.

    Wonderful fun! :)

  • Bethany

    July 15, 2007 at 8:33 pm

    Well, I never ate peaches off the tree or had a slip-n-slide, but I many happy memories of the horse tank we (and half the other kids in the neighborhood) swam in, eating cherries and drinking iced tea on our neighbor’s front porch, playing kickball with the crabapple tree, the corner of the house, and the cracked square in the sidewalk as the bases…ah, summer. :-)

  • Susan

    July 16, 2007 at 5:40 am

    Makes me want to be a kid again and not stuck behind this corporate office desk all day. Maybe I’ll go home after work and break out my old slip n’ slide because I never throw anything away. Haha! I think it was called the “banana”?
    Great post..so carefree!

  • Amy

    July 16, 2007 at 1:16 pm

    HEY! You never told us about when the DH finally SAW the porch. What did he think? Did he like it? I like it.

    ;-)

  • andrea

    July 16, 2007 at 5:22 pm

    You made me want to run out and buy a slip n slide right now, I used to love those things.

    The picture of the girls is so cute. I love how expressive all of their faces are.

  • mar

    July 16, 2007 at 8:09 pm

    That top pic of the the 3 girls is so fab – one that the whole family needs a copy of! I have a few pictures of my kids that I know I will always have around – they just capture their essence so well!

    Mmmm … we’re still a few weeks away from peaches – can’t wait!

  • BeachMama

    July 17, 2007 at 4:59 pm

    Fresh peaches off the tree remind me of my Aunt’s house in Delaware and I always wanted a slip n slide, but we never had one. My Sister and I did find our old sprinkler from when we were kids in our parents garage last summer, so we let the kids run through it for old times sake.

    Some of my favourite memories of being a kid stem from summer fun. Your neices will remember these summers that you were able to go and hang out with them and I am sure they will rank among the best.