Here we are one week into September already, and I'm a week late making the weeks late post that I had promised myself. I guess my September recap will be just be that much shorter.
On August 8th, we hosted our first non-birthday party in years. It wasn't quite the same as our old Fourth of July parties, being lighter on adult beverages and heavier on pre-adults. There was a lot of Rock Band, some kids running under sprinklers, a tremendous mess in the playroom and overall - a good time for all. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to make it, but it was as close as we had come to having the whole old gang back together in probably four years.
The following day, Sandy and Everett welcomed our new nephew into the world!
The next day, our own baby turned 4 years old! We had her party at Nana and Grampa's this year, and the theme was Tinker Bell again. She says that the next one will be too, and I wouldn't bet against her!
The following weekend was Raven High Adventure weekend (I blame Angela). It was probably the hottest weekend we've had all year, so what better way to spend Saturday than on a hike?! We decided to make our first family hike an easy one and tackle nearby Bradbury Mountain. There are lots of geocaches scattered amongst the trails. Unfortunately, geocaching has been a VERY negative experience lately. The kids have become extremely competitive and petty about who finds them and even moreso about who gets to open and close them. One of these incidents got us off to a very bad start, and it was quite a chore to motivate them up the mountain. Everything got better as soon as they stepped on to the rocky summit, though. It was a clear day, so we the view was pretty fantastic. Still, unwilling to push my luck with the kids, we opted for the shortest (and steepest) trail back to the parking lot. After a few minutes of playing on the playground, we headed for home.
Sunday, we took the girls on a ferry ride out to Peaks Island. We didn't have much of a plan for when we got there, though, so we mostly just wandered around a couple of the beaches looking for geocaches. We found one, but the other was apparently MIA. I did meet two other geocachers while looking for it, though. The girls had some ice cream and we hopped on the ferry back to Portland. Casco Bay Lines is a fairly cheap way to kill some time and cool off on a hot day.
The following week, the girls finished up their swim lessons. They both made BIG progress this session - it must have been the goggles. Big girl went from barely being able to blow bubbles in the water a couple of months earlier to going completely underwater (briefly). Little sister breezed through her preschool class.
The next weekend was the resurrection of the annual camping trip with the boys. This is a family friendly blog, so many details will be spared, but suffice it to say... we were very wet pretty much all weekend as New Hampshire received the edge of a tropical storm. There were tornado watches, a leaky tent, nobody felt like going hiking and we didn't even bother with a campfire. It was probably the worst boys' camping trip that we've ever had, but to a man we all agreed that it was better than being at home (sorry, Ladies...)
The following weekend, Rick and Karrie (inspired by our party 3 weeks earlier) had a party at their house. Lots of Rock Band, lots of dip, lots of laughing and a really slow-moving fantasy football draft were the highlights. Hopefully, we're on a roll and this will become a more regular occurrence. Roger and Michelle were up for the party and spent the night at our house.
The following morning, we took the kids for a surprise trip to Fun Town. Roger and Michelle were kind enough to split up at times and take our kids on some of the rides with them. Angela does not do bumper cars and I wasn't feeling up to doing much of anything after tempting fate on the Tilt-A-Whirl, but I did have a log flume ride in me. Unfortunately, the girls enthusiasm for log rides is waning (and we had zero chance of getting my oldest or Roger and Michelle's son to go on it), so future pictures might be solo, which won't be nearly as funny (to me, at least).
That night, I closed out August much like I started it - with a trip to the Pavilion in Boston to see a show. This one was a nearly-last-minute surprise. Ever since going to see Zappa/Dream Theater with Everett, I wanted to see the August 30th Flaming Lips show, but I had been spoiled by sitting 8th row and didn't really want to drive all that way for bad seats. Unfortunately, the show was basically sold out and there weren't any great seats left. I kept checking every day or two, and occasionally some seats would open up but I was able to resist. On the Friday before the show, I was amazed to see two front row seats available. I only had 10 minutes to make a decision before the seats went back into the pool and I didn't know if Todd, my fellow Flaming Lips fan, was available. I knew it would be tough to get anyone else to go, but I risked it and bought both seats. I excitedly messaged Todd and waited til late on Saturday when thankfully, he told me he could go. You can now print your own tickets, so I just emailed him a PDF and met him down there.
The show was pretty great, as all Lips show are, but I wasn't really up on some of the new tunes. The classics, like Race for the Prize, She Don't Use Jelly and Do You Realize were worth all of the trouble. Being so close, I was able to get some great photos.
The next couple of days weren't so great... skipping the awful details, one of my cats had to be put down on Tuesday. RIP Billy Kitten.
On Wednesday, big sister started 2nd grade! The first three days seem to have gone well and she's still very enthusiastic about school. If she could just master tying her shoes...
This past weekend, I took the kids up to camp for a night. I was mostly looking to bring home the old canoe for next weekend's Fun Day canoe regatta. Unfortunately, one of the gunwales was a little rotten and we decided it probably wouldn't stand up to the trip. My grandmother and her husband, Roger, came down to play cards on Saturday afternoon and they brought my uncle Ken and his wife, Bonnie. I hadn't seen Ken and Bonnie in probably 4 years, so it was great seeing them.
We took a trip to our favorite book store in Belfast, where I was feeling generous. Little sister chose 3 workbooks and big sister got three chapter books, which she had finished by the time we got home the next day. I wish the library had more complete collections of the many series that she is into! Aunt Minnie sent her home with a couple of boxes of REALLY old chapter books. I'm a little nervous about letting her handle them, but she's a pretty conscientious kid. Little sister is doing very well with learning to read. I'm not letting her near those old books for a few years, though!
The trail camera is back up and working - I got some videos this weekend, but nothing great. Stay tuned for some antlers soon (I hope).