Even before I looked back at the photos from July, I knew the month had been busy, but looking at all the photos from the month, solidified that for me.
There were a lot of pool visits, a lot of running through sprinklers, a musical, grocery shopping trips, visits with friends, parades, carnivals, visiting my parents, cookouts, anniversary dinners, and blowing bubbles.
We had a little bit of snow this past week, more snow than we have so far this winter. Little Miss and Zooma the Wonder Dog had a lot of fun trapesing through it.
September went by super fast for me. I really mean that. One moment we were enjoying the end of summer and then bam! Autumn was all up in our grills (no, I have no idea where that came from and don’t tell my son I said it because he doesn’t like when I “try to be cool.” If only he knew I was cool before he knew what cool was. Am I right?). I thought I would take the lazy way out today — I mean, I thought I would brighten your day (*wink*) with some photos of our September instead of my normal verbal rambling.
Our summer hasn’t been super exciting but we’ve had some fun family moments and fun growing our garden, etc. I thought I’d share our summer so far in photos. I actually meant to post this in July and here we are — almost at summer’s end.
I’ve probably shared most of these photos in other posts, such as my Sunday Bookends posts where I share my photos of the week, but I thought it might be nice for some of you to simply see photos and escape all the drama of the world for a change.
You can see my daughter with the progression of her hair in these photos and I have to say I like it a lot better shorter. It’s easier to maintain too.
I thought I’d share our month of May in photos for something different today.
Scenes from the last week (or two in this case)
It appears that Pennsylvania has been a little confused about what season it is for the last couple of weeks as warm temperatures tried to move into the area. But this past week Pennsylvania said to herself, “Oh, right. We are due for some snow because it is winter. Here you go.”
So after a week of warmer temps and rain, Winter dropped six inches of snow in a few hours and another two the following day. My children had started to like the idea of being able to go to the playground in warmer weather when the snow came. Luckily my youngest decided to make the most of it and ran out into the snow and then pretty quickly back in when she got snow in her shoe. She went in and out a few more times for a couple of days and even convinced her brother to go out in it a couple of times. Apparently, since becoming a teenager he no longer tolerates cold well. Or he is just lazy. I’m going to go with lazy, even though I’m not a fan of the cold either.
After I told my son I missed him being adventurous and getting excited to go play outside in any weather, he took off without a coat or boots and jumped off our porch into the snow.
Luckily, he didn’t break anything.
My daughter took her favorite (today anyhow) toy with her – a ragged dog I bought for way too much money for Christmas that I probably could have made for $10. The thing comes in a ball and the child is supposed to dunk it in water to unravel it. Now that Little Miss knows it can get wet and be dried fairly easily she takes it with her everywhere, from into the snow and rain, to her baths. Her brother buried it all the way under the snow at one point when she wasn’t looking but stuck a tree branch over it so he could find it later. She realized it was gone within a few moments of coming back in the house.
She pestered her brother and me all day about going out into the snow but each time we got there, she would run back inside less than ten minutes later.
“You made us come out here and now you are leaving?” I shouted at one point as she ran toward the front porch.
“Yeah, well, I have SNOW IN MY BOOT!” she yelled back.
She was so indignant about it; it cracked us up.
On one of the days, we had snow a friend of my son’s came over and they had some kind of wrestling match in our side yard. No idea what that was about, but I know that beating each other up is how boys relate.
Watching the kids play in the snow made me think about how this will be the last winter they play in the yard of this house since by next year we will be living 40 minutes away, closer to my husband’s job and my parents. The day before the snow hit we visited a local playground that is set to be demolished sometime this winter or spring so that a new one can be rebuilt in the fall. The playground is a wooden playground that was built more than 30 years ago and is a favorite of my children, as well as other children in the community. It will be sad to see it go, but it will be safer and easier for the borough to maintain it once it is replaced.
I didn’t think the leaves were going to be very pretty in our area this autumn, and in some places they weren’t, but they waited to save the best for last in some cases, especially in our side and front yard where our two maples transformed from greenish-yellow to bright yellow and orange, fringed with red, in a matter of days.
I grabbed a few photos of the trees in our side yard and front yard before the rainy, colder weather sets in tomorrow and possibly blows the leaves off. And, of course, I grabbed photos of the kids playing in front of the trees before the leaves all fall off (whether in the rain or later) and we’re stuck with naked skeletons for the rest of the winter. Luckily, we have a tree that is a “late bloomer”, so to speak, which often doesn’t change colors until November and takes it’s time losing its leaves. That helps autumn to stay around a little longer for us.
My son also finished the shed he and my dad have been working on, another project they wanted to have completed before cold weather sets in.
We were late on decorating for Halloween this year, but the children managed to put up a few decorations this week before trick-or-treating, which was held a day early to avoid the heavy rain we’re expected to get.
Last week I was able to get a computer working (after finally finding a local computer repairman!) after I thought it had died almost a year ago and found a ton of photos from 2018. It was the most exciting thing that happened to me all week and I’m not sure what that says about my life.
The computer will still need some work because when I got it home it started shutting off when it was unplugged. The computer dude, as I like to call him, thinks I need a new battery. He’s probably right and I’ll figure that out in the next month or so. For now I’ll just keep it plugged in when I use it.
Some of my favorites from what I found are below. I found a whole folder of photos I took at a farm last year during my personal project to highlight area dairy farms. The rest were photos of the kids, some of them with our dog, who was just a young pup at the time, and some of family members who have decided (again) that we aren’t good enough for them or have passed away. I’m not sharing many of the family member photos. Too emotional.
It was so surreal to see how much the kids have changed in a little more than a year.
Do not be alarmed. This was my son’s idea.
Boondock Ramblings 