BFFs and Bomb Pops

So everyone says it goes by fast. And boy, does my heart knows it. I mean, it seems like just yesterday that Ella Bella was teeny tiny peanut. Just yesterday, I was holding her in my hospital bed, feeling the most amazing sense of complete and utter fulfillment...looking down at her tiny blue eyes that were open so wide, at her little mouth shaped in an "Ooooo," as she took in the world around her for the first time.

If that feels like yesterday, it feels like an hour ago that we first took Ella Bella to All Saints Preschool in her purple dress and matching purple headband. She walked in the room so confidently, so comfortable in her own skin, so openly and so capably embracing this new experience, this new part of her life, this new place. Where she'd meet new little people and continue what I hope will be her lifelong love of learning.



And in the blink of an eye, this week was her last day of school.





Surprisingly, I didn't cry. Maybe it's because I know it's not over yet. She has a whole 'nother year at All Saints before she enters the Big Leagues of kindergarten. Maybe I didn't cry because it all seemed too...too perfect. Too dreamy. Too ideal.





Seeing my girls eat bomb pops on the green grass under a bright blue sky.



Watching these darling little girls pose for photos, hands around each others' waists, like they were going to prom or graduating high school. Loving how these little girlies so openly welcomed Kate-Kate into the last-day-of-school love.





Knowing that Ella would see lots of these darling kids in school again next year, and that -- miraculously -- she'd probably get to see her best friend, Lily, almost every day (maybe for the rest of her school-aged life!), because Lily's mom and dad just happened to buy the house right behind us! (This fact brings me so much happiness...I need to dedicate a whole 'nother post just to that!)



Or maybe I didn't cry because I knew that the weekend before us...that always exciting first weekend of summer...was just a day away.



Lots of reasons not to cry, I guess. So I didn't. But sitting her now, at 12:30 a.m. on a Sunday night, just 3 days after Ella's last day of school; and after spending two glorious sunny days at the pool, watching my girls splash and 'swim' and smile ear-to-ear in the sunshine, I'm having one of those moments where I consciously tell myself to remember everything about days like these.

Today, I want to remember packing up the beach bag with PB&J, strawberries (for Ella) and blueberries (for Kate), each with their very own kitty cat, two-level tupperware container.







I want to remember their matching swim suits (green polka dot, blue polka dot, bikini!)...and I want to remember how much fun it is to be able to buy them 4 bathing suits a piece because that wonderful mecca-of-mine called Target sells 'em for $8 a piece. I want to remember that they were the only little girls at the pool who kept big bows in their hair during their entire, 4.5 hour inaugural swimming expeditions.



I want to remember watching Chris hold one girl in each arm, their little elbows wrapped around his neck, as they waded together through the water.



I even want to remember Kate's completely ridiculous temper tantrum, which started the moment we told her it was time to leave and didn't end until well after we drug her out of the pool, fought her into her carseat, drove home and she finally gave into her tearful exhaustion while laying with her Daddy watching TV.

Four years ago, when Ella Bella was born, and a year after that, when Kate was born, I knew wonderful, beautiful things were to come. I guess I didn't realize how these little people would completely and utterly transform the way I feel about even the simplest things in life. Ella's perfect last day of preschool. Our first family trip to our new pool. The way the girls slept so hard, for 4 hours each, when we got home from the pool. Seeing their sweet, sunkissed cheeks and running out to the grocery store at 9 pm to buy the brandname sunscreen (because the cheap stuff clearly didn't work). Letting them have 'brinner' for dinner, even though there's basically no nutritional value in pancakes and syrup, because hey, it's summer!

I didn't realize how completely happy these every day experiences would make my heart feel.

A little bell goes off in my head, several times a day...reminding me that these moments are fleeting. Reminding my brain to please, please hit the video record button that I hope will remember how delicious my girls look, and smell, and sound on perfect summer days like these.

I'm already thinking about 13-or-so years from now. Envisioning my little Ella Bella graduating high school, not preschool...posing for photos in a cap and gown with her BFFs, wondering if Lily will still be there by her side. I can see her walking into her college dorm room as confidently as she walked into her first day of pre-K. And although I shed no tears on her last day of preschool, my throat already tightens, just thinking about the day when she and her baby sister Kate leave our house for real, to go start their own big girl lives.

I hope when that day comes, I can press the 'play' button in my memory and look back at this very post and remember every detail of these sweet summer days with my sweet Ella Bella and Kate the Great.