Summer recap...

Goodness, but it's been a while! It's been a funny ol' summer - but, fortunately, one laden with (mostly) happy events, lots and lots of things going on, massive amounts of time spent with The Girl and The Boy, and wonderful people.

Two major things (in my opinion, anyways) happened this summer...

• The Girl got the results of her GCSE exams.

Nervously opening the Official Brown Envelope in the back of the car, being anxiously eyeballed by myself and The Boy (whom I think was actually more nervous than either The Girl or I were about the results!)

Trying to see through the haze of nervousness as to what she had been awarded for the months, and months of hard work and due diligence...

 

 

 

SHE PASSED!!!

 

 

Actually, she did incredibly well - a nice little mixture of 'A*'s, 'A's, a 'B' and two 'C's. As biased as I actually am about her, I couldn't - in all honesty - be prouder of the way she pulled herself together and *earned* her exam results. Whilst The Boy and I were waiting for her to come back to the car with the envelope, we were watching a horrific number of her school friends walking back up the road either in tears of despair, looking furious, or simply blankly distraught.

So, yes; I was a little worried. I knew she'd put the graft in once it sunk in that she had to stop coasting and actually *work* at getting to college (she wants to be a criminal psychologist or a lawyer when she "grows up", so, yes; good exam results now *are* going to be important later on!), but... would it be enough?! To say that I had tears in my eyes would be an understatement. Actually? I drove home, called the important people who needed to know (and who had been just as anxious as her brother and I were), shut myself in my bedroom and sobbed my heart out in sheer relief and pride. She's now attending the local college (which is a feeder for Oxford and Cambridge Universities) studying Law, Psychology, Photography and History... and we're all so incredibly proud of her.

Secondly...

•  The Girl turned "Sweet Sixteen".

This was another day of immense relief (for me). The Girl - actually, I may have mentioned this before - effectively died in my arms when she was 3 days old. She was born with the reflex to breathe actually missing from her brain and it took a *long* while for other parts to start compensating for its absence. She also has severe sleep aponea. I wasn't entirely sure I'd get to watch her enjoy her first birthday, let alone her 16th, so...

We tend to head off for a day-trip somewhere for The Girl's birthday and, because she is growing up, and because I am fully aware that this year will probably be the last birthday she's going to actually *want* to spend with her doting mother and little brother, the choice was entirely hers. She chose to go to Hever Castle, because - as she said - not only had she loved it there the last time we went (her 9th birthday, when The Boy was a baby), but also The Boy will be studying the Tudors in school later on this year, and she wanted to watch him enjoy it for the first time he'd remember, too.

We had an absolute blast there!!! Watching The Girl charging around with her little brother, running races, posing on fountains, helping him not to fall into the boating lake, and answering his questions about the history of the place? It made me feel like the luckiest mum in the whole world. The bond that they share together is one that constantly and consistently amazes and humbles me. There's eight years between them, and yes, of course they have their spats like any siblings do... but the adoration that they feel towards one another literally shines out of them when they're together. And I find myself longing for it to last the rest of their lives, y'know?

Posing on the steps going up into one of the terraces at Hever.

Of course, The Girl was making an homage to Usain Bolt (?sp) as it's also been our country's Olympic year... but I'm not entirely sure what The Boy was pretending to be. I know his sister fell into fits of giggles afterwards, gasping "Jazz Hands!" through her laughter (and later put this image on her FB with the tagged words "my little brother's absolutely perfect!"), but...

Sometimes I feel it's probably better *not* to ask, y'know?

:)

So. What else happened?

The Boy caught whilst dunking his water fight sponge in the bucket

There were water fights in the back yard.

Hikes to the top of the largest nearby hill so that we could cloud watch...

  

 ... and so that The Dog could stand knee deep in a cool stream at the bottom of the hill and patiently wait for his beloved Boy to throw stones for him to try to fetch (yep, some people have dogs that like chasing balls and/or sticks... but our dog? Prefers dredging large stones out of bodies of water - although I'd like to state for the record that I supervise very closely and have been known to call a halt to proceedings if the stones go in too deep, or The Dog's stubborn streak shows even the slightest hint of putting in an appearance...).

And, luckily, only one bout of vague illness - which was The Boy's summer cold, where he spent a day lounging around on the couch looking helpless, coughing/sneezing a lot and feeling very sorry for himself. Fortunately, The Dog was on hand to make him feel better...

The Dog: "I know I'm not *really* allowed on the couch, mum, but my baby boy is poorly and he neeeeeeeeeeds me!!!"

... by curling up with him (that red glowing thing in The Dog's mouth, incidentally, is not a sign of demonic possession, it's his comfort ball... The Dog has a tiny little quirk where he simply *has* to have something in his mouth if he feels at all anxious and, to be honest, I got a little tired of it being my hand, my sleeve, the hem of my jeans or one of my children's limbs - he's from working gun dog stock, so his mouth is *very* soft - he can carry an egg for a mile and a half and not break it, f'example! - so bought him a special ball that we can find easily when he gets a little mouthy).

There was also a horrendous amount of work (boring!), and a lovely lot of crafting (which will follow in another post, because there's quite a lot of it...), but overall?

It was a good summer.

And one which I will look back on when I'm in my actual dotage, with fondness.