Bittersweet Memories

Hi there readers!  I was a little blog MIA last week.  I actually got quite a bit of writing done, but not much of it was for immediate blog posts.  Plus, if you read this post, you know that we were in the midst of our annual Birthday Blitz!  My hubby, my oldest daughter, & my youngest daughter all have birthdays within a five day span.  We've spent the last two weekends fully entrenched in birthday party madness and we've eaten enough birthday cake to satisfy even the most gigantic sweet tooth.

There is something about birthdays - kids' birthdays in particular - that is rather bittersweet, isn't there?  On their special days, both of the girls wanted to know exactly what time they were born.  They had questions about their first moments of life that brought back floods of memories for me.  I had flashbacks to their first few moments and their first few years.  We talked about past birthday cakes and parties they had had.  We recounted lots of memories.  It was a little sad to think about how quickly the time has passed and that, now that the youngest is six, we are completely finished and pretty far removed from babyhood and toddlerdom.

On the other hand, though, it is so wonderful to see the people they are becoming.  They most definitely have their own personalities, their own interests, their own uniqueness.  (Truthfully, I'm kind of glad that we've moved past babyhood.  We are able to go places and do fun things without worrying about naps, or bottles, or dirty diapers.  That was a wonderful stage of life, but we were all ready to grow up and move on.)  It was fun to see the joy on their faces as they opened presents and saw friends they have missed over the summer.  All those memories are fun, too.  It is always interesting to hear the parts of the stories that the girls find funny, or weird, or amazing.

Obviously, the whirlwind of the birthday blitz always leaves me feeling a bit nostalgic.  It leaves me with mixed feelings of happiness, reflectiveness, and a tiny bit of sadness.  And, I am always reminded of my favorite Dr. Seuss quote:

"Don't cry because it's over.  Smile because it happened!"

So, today I am smiling.  I officially have a first grader and a middle schooler (Yikes!).  I also have a third grader who absolutely cannot be forgotten even though she has to wait until December to celebrate her birthday.  We have exactly two weeks until they go back to school and we return to the busy, crazy schedules of school, homework, and extracurricular activities.  I plan to spend that time enjoying our last few lazy days of summer, making a few more memories, and hopefully crossing a few more things off our Summer Bucket List.

How about you dear readers?  Have you celebrated any birthdays lately??  Are you ready for the kids to go back to school or do you need just a little more time???