Another month free of posts...

I still cannot believe July is over, and we're already well into August!  We had a fun month, mostly filled with standard summer stuff (with a wedding thrown in for good measure).

It's been hot, and to combat the heat we've been spending a lot of time in the sprinkler and kiddie pool.  The benefit of this heat is, of course, the photo ops!

Aurelia appreciating a good popsicle on a hot day!

 No need for a bathing suit - the water is fine as it is!

Dashiell figured out that you could easily drink from the sprinkler...

...which of course leads to this.

We've also gone on a couple of good local field trips, including blueberry picking at Parlee Farm:

 

She ate more blueberries than we picked!

Dashiell had to make sure every blueberry he picked was perfect

Feeding the chickens

Aurelia thought the chickens were hilarious

 Trips to the Stone Zoo:

My little flamingos

Trapped in the spider's web!

And the mother of all awesome field trips, flying kites on Spectacle Island in Boston Harbor!

View of Boston from the island

There was a beach on the island, too, so the kids had fun digging and building things in the sand!

As Boston Harbor and Spectacle Island used to be essentially a garbage dump - way back in the day - it is a great place to find sea glass and other cool things.  Dashiell found 8 awesome pieces of sea glass and a couple pieces of old china!  However, as we were about to board our ferry back to Boston, we were informed (via loudspeaker announcement to everyone) that we were not allowed to remove any natural or artificial "artifacts" from the island, including sea glass, as they were considered "cultural artifacts".  Of course Dashiell heard this and I swear he must have thought he'd be sent to jail if he kept any of his finds.  So he gets all upset and has to empty his pockets.  But when we got on the boat he realized he still had one piece of sea glass in his pocket!  Horror!  I tried to convince him that it was an honest mistake and it would be okay if he kept it, but no, he had to get rid of it.  So my poor guilt-ridden kid walks back to the boat crew, sea glass hidden behind his back, and tells them that he has one more thing to give back to the sea.  It was kind of heartbreaking, really.  And since that day he keeps bringing it up the sea glass and how he really would have liked to have one piece of it.  Poor guy!  Too honest for his own good!

The other fun thing we did last month was go to a wedding!  It was on a farm in the middle of nowhere New Hampshire for a couple of Rick's friends/co-workers.  We just took Dashiell since staying in a hotel with Aurelia would be hell (Worst.Sleeper.Ever.  Besides me, according to my mom).  'Reelsie had a great time with the grandparents, and we had a fun time at the wedding.  The bride has a daughter who is Dashiell's age (who was the flower girl), and she and D were having a blast!

 Playing in the sand at the pond with the flower girl!

Diggin' the rope swing!

 

Cute little farmhouse where the groom was born

 

The other big activity for the summer has been replacing our fence!  Good fences make for good neighbors, but bad fences make for crappy neighbors.  Ours was a bad fence, installed improperly by the previous owners, and it was about to fall down.

Rick's dad hacking down all the plants so the contractor could get to the fence.

 The front of the fence, with its over-grown rhododendron.  You can't see the broken gate, but it looks just as crappy as the rest of the fence!

I've been feeling guilty about the awful fence for years, but very few fencing companies will fix a fence that's not their own and the price of replacing it with a similar fence is astronomical.  So we didn't!  Our contractor gave us a deal on a completely different kind of fence, and we couldn't be happier with it!

We have neighbors again!  Since taking these pictures I've been working on getting the plantings to look better, but it might be a wash until next summer. We also took down the fence lining the back yard too (you can kind of see it in the first picture of this post) and it's completely opened up our teeny back yard!

Yay!  Next project: Knock down the too-small stand-alone porch that always needs painting.  Oh yeah.

Just a couple more pictures from yesterday - we were supposed to go to the pool with some friends, and seconds after I handed D his swimsuit to change into I got a message from the mom saying her son threw up at CVS and they had to cancel.  Bummer!  So we quickly changed our plans and headed to the park for a picnic!

That afternoon we drove to Great Brook Farm to visit the animals and eat super-tasty ice cream.  We almost didn't go because D wanted to stay home and play with his lego windmill, but once I mentioned the ice cream we were good to go!

After dinner last night we took a little walk around the neighborhood, and Aurelia decided it would be much more fun if she lounged in the wagon instead of sitting up in it:

Goof. :)

So yesterday turned out great, despite our cancelled plans! 

And finally, one last Aurelia story:  I often wear a small pendant necklace that's an old typewriter key with the letter "D" on it (for Dashiell), purchase by Rick long before Aurelia was born.  Yesterday when I had it on, Aurelia was checking it out and said, "A!".  I told her, "no, that's a D. Can you say D?"  So she says, "D!", then I swear she said "Whe-ah (where's) A?"  Ha!

This month's coming adventures:  Minnesota, followed quickly by KINDERGARTEN!!  I can't wait to post about them! :)