When my kids think back to summer I hope they will remember these daysof playing outdoors with friendsin the sunshine,or going indoors for pizza parties followed by ice cream sandwich partiesand then staying up late with friends to watch a movie.The times we said yes to play dates
and went swimming instead of being dragged on boring old errands or house cleaning.Our undivided attention to read multiple stories (that we can’t always muster during the school year, after homework and dinner and bath).
My own memories as a child are filled with summer days that were carefree, spent at my grandparents. I could play for hours in their backyard with my sister. In my imagination their backyard overflowed with fruit like loquats and plums. They had an old bathtub that grew strawberries at just the right height for finding and eating. There were sprinklers and then later, a hot tub for playing in as well. These pictures are my way of recording those moments, even for myself, because admittedly it takes a couple weeks for my brain to fully process that I don’t have work.