Summer Vacation Day One

Today was the first day of our summer vacation. We slept in. It was wonderful. No getting up and starting to morning routines to get the kids to the sitter. No rushing. Today we got up and made pancakes. We pumped up the bike tires and went for a bike ride. We paced ourselves. It was the first trip out since last year. Best not to over do it on day one. We covered about seven miles today. We broke up the riding with a stop at some of our favorite places. The swings at Waterfront Park. There are lots of open ones on a Wednesday morning.

Happy summer.

Summer Draws to an End

Here we are on Labor Day the day that has become known as the end of summer. Although we have a few weeks yet before it official changes over to fall. It feels like it is over. School has started again, the nights are getting cooler, and we harvested our pumpkins.

They were little ones this year. We cooked them up yesterday and have enough to make about four loaves of pumpkin bread. We toasted the seeds too. Although those are mostly gone now. This summer has been the season of the morning glories. Check them out...

They are climbing the birch tree that was stupid enough to bend close to them. We joke that you can't sit for long on the deck or they may close in on you. Even the ones Marty has planted next door have hopped the fence and are circling my sunflowers and humming bird feeder.

The other highlight of our summer has been this little guy.

Cabbie is tormented by him, but the rest of us have enjoyed him. We have even spotted a second one which has Chloe dreaming of a yard full of baby chipmunks next year.

Summer Travels

In an attempt to catch up with a blog gap, I will give you some pictures to sum up our most recent trip to Maine.

There was beach combing.

Green crab capturing... always catch, observe, and release!

A new addition of riding the wagon down the hill. The first time I saw them attempt this I held my breath and had to fight the urge to look away, but Chloe actually steers it quite well.

Ocean swimming.

They captured a snake... again catch, observe, and release.

Ah the fair...

More ocean swimming, with Aunt Andrea this time.

An Evening Bike Ride

We ended up at Perkins Pier on our ride this evening, more tire swing fun!

We also did some rock throwing.

It was a hot day but a wonderful summer evening.

Sleep Over

The girls decided that Chloe should have a sleep over in Lexa's room tonight.

Not sure how that will end, but they are all set up in there.

Only Child

Chloe is at her first slumber party tonight. She has gone to sleep over before but never a slumber party. There will be about five girls all "sleeping" in a tent in her friend Sami's backyard. I am under no expectations that she will be sleeping. I was under strict orders not to embarrass her at the drop off. I was allowed to take one photo prior to leaving and none when we got there.

A lot of rules. Alexa is very sad about not having Chloe home. She didn't want o do anything too special because then Chloe would miss it. So we settled on a movie night. We did pick our first lemon cucumber for dinner. Not having ever had or grown one before I wasn't completely sure when they were ready to be picked. It seemed ready though...

and it tasted yummy.

Evening Bike Ride

Yesterday after dinner we went bunny hunting, also known as a bike ride. Alexa's count was one bunny and lots of ducks.

We ended up on the tire swing. I call it the arm workout portion of the ride.

Another Beach Adventure

I have been a bit hesitant to head to the beach lately. The lack of rain and hot weather have raised concerns over algae blooms. However, after reading the parks and rec web site that ensures that they are testing the water daily I felt OK about us going. It was windy when we first arrived and the kids had a blast in the waves.

I was amazed and saddened though to see exactly how low the lake water has dropped. There is easily fifteen more feet of beach since the last time we were there a few weeks ago. As much as I am enjoying all the sunny nice weather. I hope that we get rain soon.

Of course, with the bach at Leddy there is always the fun of playing in the snow from the ice arena on your way out!

Cardboard Box Parade

The girls wanted to participate in the cardboard box parade on Church Street again this year. I was a little worried about how we would pull it off since I did not have any boxes in the house. In a last minute effort we were able to get some from the grocery store. They got right to work painting them this morning. The theme, as always, is to be your favorite book character. It is part of the library summer reading program.

Alexa was Chester from the book Chester by Melanie Watt. She was him last year too.

Chloe was a cat from the Warriors series by Erin Hunter. She has been plowing her way through those books this summer.

They were even interviewed by a reporter, so maybe they will be in the paper this week!

We finished the afternoon up with ice cream!