Summer 2014 Continues

More assorted photos from our summer adventures:

On my birthday, the kids celebrated with me at Dunkin Donuts.

 We also went to the Old North Bridge (for your Revolutionary War buffs) and tossed rocks in the river while chatting up the park ranger.

 

 Later, we met Dan for a delicious dinner followed by ice cream cake for dessert. Happy Birthday to me!

Dagny LOVES doing sidewalk chalk on the driveway and fell in love with the bunny I drew, she even laid down on it telling me "I hug him!" 

 Finley and his friend, Ben, had a blast at their two weeks of Drumlin Farm camp.  And I enjoyed my first real carpooling experience with Ben's mom, what a life saver!

He milked a cow, climbed a mountain, brushed a pony, and did lots of other awesome nature stuff. He was truly disappointed when the two weeks were over, that's a ringing endorsement for camp!

 This has certainly been the summer of Legos for Finley.  We may be able to throw out ALL his other inside toys and he wouldn't mind, it's all legos all the time!

 One more Mud Run photo with my friend Megan that we got off the event's website :) We also signed up for a fall 5K road race in October together--less muddy but hopefully just as fun!

 We went peach picking and while the peaches weren't quite ripe and I had to do most of the picking since the fruit was high up, the kids had a delicious time.

 We took the purple commuter train in, again, to meet Dan for dinner and walked around Porter Square afterwards.

 The other night was Dan's final summer league frisbee game.  Dagny and I both ran on the track (I ran several laps while high fiving Dags each time I passed and then she and Dan ran a lap together to catch up to me).  Dagny also perfected her frisbee toss.

 

Suddenly, a big dark cloud came over and dumped about 5 minutes of huge raindrops on us.  The kids weren't thrilled, but the double rainbow sure made it worthwhile!

I have a couple of weeks left before school starts again and I will be very sad for this summer to end.  May August pass by slowly....

The Bolton Fair

Last weekend, it was a gorgeous summer day and after watching Dan play frisbee for a game, we headed over to the Bolton Fair for some old school county fair fun.  After parking among hundreds of other cars and wading through the tall grass, we arrived at the fair and I was pleased that there was only an admission fee for me--both kids were free!

We saw a sheep dog demonstration, a birds of prey exhibit with amazing owls, played some drums, and then made our way to the kiddie amusement area.  We walked around scoping out what rides Finley would want to try and then bought some tickets.  Finley's first choice: the crazy bus!

 He was bouncing with anticipation as we waited our turn.

 Finally, we boarded the "bus" and while Dagny wasn't thrilled---she was a good sport.

Accidental selfie by Finley.

 Here was our view from the top.

 Finley loved it!

 Then, it was Dagny's choice and she chose the carousel which we all hopped on.  Finley headed for the tractor ride after that which was a group of stationary, sparkly tractors that went around and around on a circular track--it went faster than he was anticipating, but he smiled and waved as we watched.  Finally, Finley climbed through a tunnel/net obstacle course.

 Dagny tried going in and Finley was a dutiful older brother, guiding her through, but she chickened out and came back out rather quickly. Finley pressed on and eventually came out.

 We walked further on and made our way to the huge sand pile.  Child Heaven.

 "Snowing down!"

There was a bobcat and a mini-excavator for the kids to climb near the pile and the entire pile was next to the tractor pull arena!  Genius.  I probably could have wandered off and neither Finley or Dagny would have noticed or cared.

 Then, it was tractor pulling time!

Finley tried out the bobcat.

 And for the first time after dozens of truck driving opportunities, Dagny pleaded to get into the seat and both kids "drove" the mini-excavator for a while.

 When I was finally able to drag them from the sand, trucks, and tractors -- we couldn't just pass by the brand new mowers, backhoes, and tractors that were on display and probably for sale.

 Dagny  LOVED this riding mower.  She climbed in, asked to be buckled, and then "drove" for quite a while.

 With the promise of a fire truck that I had spotted earlier, we left the tractors.  Finley got to spray a real fire hose (with great accuracy, I may add) and then both kids got into the fire truck though I only managed to snap Ms. D.

 By now it was well past lunch so we wandered through the food options and I spotted a vendor that boasted "100% vegetable oil" so I inquired about peanuts and they assured me it would be 100% safe for our little allergy guy.  I ordered some sweet potato fries and a fresh squeezed lemonade and we found a shady spot to eat.  Kids devoured everything and just as we were headed out, we saw a free popsicle stand and couldn't resist.

 While it was an odd-tasting tangerine-carrot popsicle, free is free!

We were lucky enough to find our car without too much searching and the kids blabbed about the fair all the way home before passing out for much needed naps for all three of us.  When Dagny woke up, she immediately asked, "Can we go to the fair now?" Next year, sweet girl, next year :)

A Weekend Away

This weekend the kids were away in NY with Dan.  He took them down to spend some time with his parents and play in a temple alumni softball game with his dad.  They drove down first thing Saturday morning and after some playing and napping at GG and Grandpa's house, everyone headed out to a neat playground.

 Dagny was very proud of doing everything all by herself, but thank you to GG for being right behind her just in case!

 Dagny's really improved her upper body strength this summer!

 They also played some baseball, soccer, and frisbee in the park.

 A big highlight of the day was feeding ducks AND swans! Good thing we always have cheerios in the diaper bag, which apparently made excellent bird food :)

Grandparents = McDonalds and the kids couldn't be more thrilled!

Thank you to Grandpa for all the great photos and for sacrificing himself to be behind the camera, I sympathize!  The rest of the weekend was lots of fun as Dan and Grandpa won their softball game, Finley made friends with the son of one of Dan's best friends from growing up, and Dagny got some special alone playing time with GG.

And don't you worry about me, I stayed home to enjoy some girl time with good friends.

 Then, I worked on a project for the natural playground at the kids' preschool.  I removed and cleared out the raised bed on the left to make way for the mud kitchen that Dan is going to build this month.  

Also, I cleared out and painted the bed on the right to make a "dirt box" for the children to dig, plant, and create in using gardening tools.

 A great weekend was had by all!