So much has happened this summer, and at the same time…so much hasn’t happened. I had a list a mile long of everything I wanted to to do with the kids the past 10 weeks or so: trips to the lake. Hiking the Appalachian Trail. I vowed that we’d spend so many days at the pool the kids would actually become bored with it. And then, as it usually does, summer happened.

We did, though, we did, go to the pool. No hikes, though. And no lake trips, even though we have three within forty-five minutes of us. Can’t explain that one. But we went to the beach and touched dolphins and we rode on an airplane. The kids drew and played and drew some more and hardly ever, ever, watched an electronic device. They stayed up late and slept in and rode roller coasters and saw sharks and ate raw oysters and ran in the rain. They played in sand and jumped waves and ate funnel cake still hot from the fryer. They decided that they want to live in Florida, but only if they can stay close to Winter and Hope. So, it was a good summer.

So I’m not going to tell you about the panic attack (just one!) I had over the book-related stuff, or the nights spent begging the stars above to just let us sleep already instead of intercepting the sleepless toddler (always) and the sleep-walking kindergartener (usually). I’ll try not to focus on the rainy afternoons that cleared up before we were ready for them or the days lost to my disorganization or “Mommy’s gotta do just this one thing for work” and then the next thing I knew we were ordering Mexican take-out for dinner.

If you ask my children if they had a good summer, they’ll say yes. Actually, more specifically, if you say, “Hey, kids! Did you have a good summer?” they’ll look at you like you just sprouted broccoli out of your head and reply, “Yeeeeessssss,” like you’re an idiot for even asking because who doesn’t like SUMMER? And then if you keep pressing, because you’re the most annoying mom on the planet who’s clearly in need of some sort of validation this last summer Thursday, and you insist on asking the children what, exactly, they liked about this particular summer, they’ll look at you and giggle and say, “Everything!” and then skip out of the room and do a jumping jack into the hallway.

Kids don’t need a good summer, you guys. It’s summer, for Pete’s sake. That’s good enough for them.

Silly mom. They probably would’ve gotten tick bites from that hike, anyway.