Summer Snippets

And just like that, Summer's over.

Ours consisted of a little bit of everything.  June was filled with field trips, swimming and water parties by day and family kickball, tag and frisbee by dusk. 

July was reunions, vacation, parades and fireworks:

And far too much smoke.

And then there was August. 

The Dog Dog Days of August.

We had absolutely nothing on our schedule.  And I left it that way-- curious to see what the kids would come up with, and desperately needing some down time to think and study and plan.  The guilt of leaving my older children to fend for themselves won over occasionally and we headed to the pool, or a movie or spent a day in the kitchen here and there.  



My usual attire.



 But August has mostly been a whole lot of nothing that they got to turn into something. 

Like tent play:

and a backyard campout:

Lemonade stands and bake sales:

The Parade of Homes came to our corner of the woods this year-- right next door

Over the course of two August weeks, 8,000 people parked on our street for a tour. 

That's a lot of potential lemonade.

Abby sat out for most of the first stand, where her brother made record sales,

And then decided to get in on the action with some additional goods and goodies the following week:

Let's just say, it was mighty successful.

She's dedicated all of her proceeds to a future kitten.

Most of August has been sunny and HOT.  Too hot to play outside.  Too hot even for the pool. 

What to do when it's 102?

We kept an endless supply of crisp cold watermelon...

and hunkered down for some serious

S-S-Scrabble!

Oh, that Scrabble angst.

I love that my kids are at last old enough to play. It makes it super easy to win. (hee)

This summer saw the end of our hiking hiatus, now that the twins are old enough (and willing) to go the distance.  As long as we were in town, we managed a weekly hike- some we completed, some we didn't.  But all were like manna for my soul.

 



My sisters and me.

  

  Ahhhhh.  Summer.