Maine! We made it!

We drove 5 hours and made it for check in at 3:30p

We headed down to the dock to fish and swim. 

Hooray for summer!  We're here.

Georgia focused on wiggling her loose tooth.  Going into 2nd grade and she still has never lost a tooth!

The dock is the place to be!

The water is pretty cold!

But Lily jumps off the high dock at high tide.

Sunset













and evening jumping!

Getting bigger, but still so little!

Lily with her favorite.

Rob was quite taken in by them, too. 

Eyes still closed, getting bigger.

Katydid

Oh my!  There here!  I heard one as we left work and I gasped in horror.  Katydids are an autumn insect to me, a bug of cool September nights. 

I looked at my friend Nooni in alarm and she sympathetically nodded her head, saying "I heard one last night, too."


Then I came home to find one making its way across my screen door. 

A reminder to suck every little bit of summer out of this next month before the kids go back to school.  Ready. Set. GO!

Connecticut River visit

I dragged the girls to the dump and then we had to wash off our hands off before we went to Upingill. (Lily had touched a sticky recycle bin and wanted a honey bun at Upingill.)  I decided to turn down the road to the dock and rinse off in the river.

Once we got there
We couldn't leave.
It was too beautiful.
All my morning errands and plans of efficiency went by the wayside as we sat there in the sun.

We saw fish and mysterious sticks floating by.  Motor boats and canoes passed us, too.

Lily drew tatoos on our feet and we just let the sun soak in.

Later, at work; I was glad I had enjoyed a taste of the perfect summer day before heading inside until midnight.

Very cute puppies

I cannot resist taking pics of these sweet plush puppies.  A week old now.  A bit more active and vocal and a little more rotund. 

Oh Cookie

Guess who she met up with?  I let her run free off in the woods and then she wouldn't come back.  She kept barking and barking and then her bark got more high pitched.  As I maneuvered through the woods in my flip flops towards he barking I wondered if she had met a bear, so when I saw the porcupine slowly shuffling up the Hemlock tree and I was relieved.

Poor girl.  She tried to wipe them of on the rug, which did not work.
She winced as I took them out, but she was very brave.

Home Drive-In

My friend had a "Home Drive-In" party with a projector that shows on an awning.  It was great fun driving out to Charlemont.  In Northfield it rained most of the day, so I thought it was going to be cancelled,  But I guess the weather is different up there, so our hostess saw only blue skies and told us to come on up!




Georgia chased the piglets and shocked us all by catching one!

The sun went down and we settled in to eat marshmallows and watch the movie.  I really love to be out at night, especially when there is a fire burning.

Puppies!

Our friend's dog had puppies.
We went to visit when they were a few days old.

They were so tiny; they looked like guinea pigs or rats.















Here's the proud and mellow mama.

Lily likes the tiny runt.

After a quick visit, they're all back to nursing.

Picadilly visit

Calendula is blooming at the farm!  Like bright suns.  I picked some to make a healing oil, but I didn't have time to sterilize the jars so I just dried the blooms for winter teas.  It is good for stomach aches and menstrual cramps and is also an immune booster.  I like to drop the dried flowers in a cup of hot water and see them unfurl and bloom again.  In the cold winter, it reminds me of this gorgeous summer blooming time.













The ducks are getting so big!  They're blooming, too.

Kid's Cyclocross races

Rob talked the girls into racing this summer at Look Park in the kid's cyclocross series.

The girls were so nervous; I thought they were going to bail, but they didn't. They actually raced around the track and had a great time.

Lily came in third, which made her feel really proud.  I am so not sport competitive that I don't really get it.  Why would it matter who goes around the grass loop quicker?  But I kept my mouth shut and let them all enjoy competition and pushing themselves to win.


Georgia came in last, but she didn't seem to mind.  Everyone cheered her when she crossed the finish line; she was beaming.

Drive In

I love the Drive-in.  We went to see Despicable Me 2 the other night and it was fun to watch the sun set and see everyone get settled in their sleeping bags.


We try to go at least once and each summer and after hearing that it might be the Drive-in's last year (Yikes!) I dragged the family there and enjoyed some popcorn.


(see Greenfield Recorder article about the need for the Drive-In to upgrade or close.
http://www.recorder.com/home/7853852-95/areas-last-drive-in-faces-big-choice)

The girls snuggled sweetly (Usually means Georgia is scared.) The movie was mediocre (Holy disappointingly boring gender roles), the people around us seemed to be chain smoking and the family right next to us pulled out their own olfactory warfare by burning a yellow Yankee candle.  Uggh. Rob and I both had headaches from the smells.  But I still like it.  The stars, the snuggling, and the outdoor celebration of summer.

Nightime walk with Cookie

I have been enjoying these summer nights.  This evening I thought I'd take Cook for a walk at dusk.

She was a bit nervous leading the way.
The mosquitoes were out, but it was pleasing to see our familiar walk at a new time.  I imagined the deer and the owls were just waking up.

Ninja Georgia

came to me after working hard to find all these dark clothes. Later, I discovered the contents of the winter hat and mitten bag exploded all over the place.  Becoming a ninja had apparently been urgent.

She sidled up to me and stated clearly, "All I need is a knife."
I did not give her one,

New Moon

I was so brave!

I went for a swim alone in the dark of the new moon.  Here is a view from the small dock
It was lovely.
Some friends were going to come, but one by one they bailed.
Rob encouraged, "You could just go." and I did.
I drove the winding roads to the lake.
First I sat on the dock and watched the sky and the water get darker and darker, then, finally I stepped out into the cool dark water.

 I swam out toward the center of the dark quiet water.
I could see my hands in front of me, moving gracefully in the water, pure white in the dark in front of me.
I turned over onto my back, looking up at the great darkening sky as I floated.

Magnificent.

I'm so glad I went!
I felt purified and changed as I emerged from the water.
Bright orange lightening was flashing above the nearby mountain.

The Basement

I have been planning on going through the baby clothes and get them off to goodwill forever.
It used to be a task that was very fraught with sadness and regret; I had always wanted more children (My role model for mothering had always been Maria Von Trapp from Sound of Music, but I just realized; she didn't birth the children herself! And she had a cook, a housekeeper and a butler!)  I don't have any of those things and my body was done. 
Which is actually great.
I'm so happy to have the two girls I have and I'm thrilled to have the time to spend with them.  It worked out well.

Today Georgia was off on a playdate and Lily decided she would help me tackle the bins of clothes.

It was still a very tender process, not because I wished for more babies of my own to fill out the clothes, but because I thought about my girls when they were babies.  It was so sweet to go through their tiny outfirts and blankets.  It almost seems impossible that my girls were so small.  It was perfect to do it with Lily because whenever I got too sad, missing those tiny girls; there was a giant 11 year old telling me to pull it together and keep going.  And that was her! The same girl who used to wear the lime green leather shoes when she learned to walk (still her favorite color!) So it tempered the pain to have her there with me.  There was nothing to mourn.  We had a lovely time when she was small drooly and cute and were still having a great time. Carry on.

But she also was moved by the tiny clothes and we decided to wash up the most precious and put them in a bin to use as doll clothes or for just having.

Don't tell Rob.

Then we went for a cooling jump in the Northfield Inn Pool.
We became members at this local pool this year (They had a big sale!) so we can go 7 days a week 11a-7p.  Awesome!  I'm a bit paranoid about water and children and supervision, so I love that there is an alert lifeguard there at all times.

We have been going almost every day.  This evening we had it all to ourselves!

Fireworks!!!

We settled in with some friends and enjoyed the festivities; fried dough, weird little train rides, avoiding plumes of smoke, procuring mustaches and glow sticks while we were waiting for the fireworks!

I got a video of the finale!

BOOM!!
It's always a great night until the traffic getting out of town.

The new hangout

When she was really litttle, Rob promised Lily the "room above the garage" as a hangout when she turned 12.  She has been drawing pictures of what it will look like, furnished with Pottery barn Teen items from the catalogs she finds before I quickly toss them in the recycling.

The girls headed up there on this hot day to check it out.

I thought they'd be disappointed by the grimes and dust and nails, but they had fun and are excited. 

The entrance is a bit steep and narrow for me.
(Which might be why they like it. It's kid territory.)