June 16

Today marked the first official day of summer vacation. Although the kiddos make me tired sometimes, I realize what a tremendous blessing it is to have this extended block of time with them, although we didn't do anything special during the day: they spent most of it wearing their pajamas and playing Isaac's new Wii games (before we went off to Chuck E Cheese for the last bit of Isaac's birthday celebration in the evening).

At lunchtime, I served them peanut butter and grape jam mini sandwiches and cheddar cheese, which they happily ate while sitting together at the kids' table. It's a blessing to see them together. And summer is particularly special to me because three years ago, my kids had one last summer all together before Logan passed on. The memories of them dancing and laughing and playing duck duck goose and coloring and writing and reading are precious to me. And although our new memories won't include my Sunshine, they will include the other most important people in my life.