goodbye summer nights

summer is quickly coming to an end.

of course there are the obvious signs -
the sun sets sooner.
it's a bit cooler at night.
the grass is overgrown because mowing grew old about a month ago.

but the number one way i can tell?? my backyard empties out about two hours earlier than it did a month ago! :)

tonight there were 8 kids over playing for a while. star wars was the game of choice and even our littlest jedi grabbed a light saber and did his best at fighting in true jedi form:) as i watched them i just sat back and smiled. when i watch how gentle the older boys are with him, i am so thankful that my kids have each other. i'm thankful that every day they are faced with relationship challenges that they can learn from and apply to other parts of their lives :)

as i sat longer and watched the light saber fights that were going on, i also realized that as crazy as they all get sometimes (ok often) - there is something very special about the relationship between 3 boys. and as outnumbered as i may be i am SO in love with each one of them and the way that they love each other that i cannot imagine life any other way!