Four teenagers

When we were little, the summers were vast expanses of emptiness. The glittering void stretched farther than our childhood eyes could see.

Then we grew, and each summer adopted its own distinction. Two years ago we passed through The Summer of the Cows, in which the neighborhood families journeyed to islands all over the world, leaving the neighborhood empty for a time. This summer is The Summer of the Teenage Sisterhood.

Yes, my friends, this summer holds the remarkable distinction of being the only summer in all of history when all four of the "C" girls will be teenagers (13, 15, 17, and 19, respectively).

In the week since I've been back from college, we’ve been playing music and swimming and driving around town with the windows rolled down and the music turned up. We’ve gone to the theaters and to a water park. We’ve helped a sister graduate and watched her last high-school play. We’ve played sports and had a tea meeting with the neighborhood girls. We’ve welcomed friends returning from college and watched other friends graduate. We’ve played with little brothers and visited with grandparents. We’ve fought, and we’ve laughed. In short, we’ve done an awful lot of living in a week.

Upcoming, we have a trip to Europe, violin camps, children's camps, Broadway at Dallas Summer Musicals, a possible visit to WA to see our grandparents, and, sandwiched in between all that, plenty of crazy teenage moments.

Let the summer begin!