End of Summer Implosion

We start the summer with overwhelming possibility. The sun! The pool! Swim team! Tennis team! Tennis lessons! Golf camp! Lacrosse camp! Biking! Outdoor play time! In Buffalo, we soak up the summer months with abandon knowing that in a few short months we will be buried under a foot of snow.

And then we hit mid-August. The camps are done. The summer activities have wound down. The boys are bored with their normal outdoor pursuits and to be honest, I think they are all a little sick of each other. (Note to self: next year find a camp for August that separates them, at least for a few hours a day.)

A few days ago, I was tired of the bickering and yelling so I sent them outside to play for a few moments of peace while I prepared dinner. After five minutes of relative quiet, I heard screaming and crying coming from the side of the house. Griffin ran to the backdoor and yelled, "Mom you have to come now! I think Brennan broke his leg!"

I dashed outside, following Griffin to where Brennan lay on the grass, clutching his leg, screaming bloody murder at full volume. Aidan stood next to him looking surprisingly guilty.

It took me a good five minutes to calm Brennan down, get him ice and assure him his leg was not in fact broken.

"How did you fall anyway B?" I asked as I checked his leg.

"I fell off the basketball net." He said, hiding his eyes from me.

What? Apparently, the boys took the old Fisher-Price Grow to Pro toddler basketball set out of the garbage, laid it on its side and used its base and pole as a balance beam. But not just a balance beam would work for these boys of mine! Oh no. To make it extra interesting, one boy tried to balance his way across the basketball balance beam while the other boys shook it back and forth, trying to shake him off.

"Seriously?!" I asked, looking at all three of them, their eyes gazing at me sheepishly.

"You have a swing set and tree house! A sand box! You have scooters! Bikes! Hockey nets and soccer balls. You could play tag or hide n seek. There are a million and one things you could play! And this is what you guys come up with?"

This is the day I started counting the number of days until they go back to school. And it is still too many,