The Last Days of Summer 2014

We are all trying to settle into our new routine now, although it will be hard to solidify the boys' and mine until next week when the Milton kids are back.  This week was like a dress rehearsal, which I am grateful for, but it's hard to know the exact timing of my commute before all the area schools are back in session.  

Anyway, so far so good.  The boys seem to be loving school.  They came home today saying "disaweek."  It took a few times of them yelling it to realize they were saying "days of the week."  Then Sebastian started saying, "Sixteen.  Eighteen.  Thirteen.  Fifteen."  He was using "big" numbers but not in order.  Still, I am impressed with the learning going on in just a few days.  This is going to be great for them!

Before these are too distant a memory, here are my last photos from summer.  It feel like they were taken an eternity ago...

Once again this is really just a collection of playground photos it seems...boring for others, but helpful for me to remember all the playgrounds we checked out this summer so that we can revisit the best ones next summer! :-)

This was the Norton Community Playground on rte. 123.  The boys liked it a lot.  They spent all the time playing with the vehicles (which were in better shape than at most public playgrounds) and riding the "roller coaster."

The roller coaster is that gray track in the background.  They figured out that if they went down backwards, they'd fall over backwards when the car hit the mulch.  They thought that was great!

 We checked out the playground at one of Mansfield's elementary schools.  This one was really too old for them.  Plus they were having a meltdown when we got there...

 And the meltdown was because we hit a yard sale on the way there and found this child's guitar for the boys.  They were so thrilled about it that they screamed the entire way to and from that playground because they wanted to play guitar.  We ended up taking it away because it was causing too many problems.  Here's Sebastian before the guitar went bye bye.

Another picture taken on a gorgeous Sunday.  This was at "our" playground in Easton.  There is never anyone else there!  We ran around on the grass, looked for stray baseballs, and the boys perfected their somersaults and played with Papa.

After the playground we took a trip to Casserta Pizza in Providence to end up the summer right.  The boys were great and enjoyed the "wheels" on their pizza (black olives).

This is Adrian on day one of preschool...the first trial-run day I should say.  I didn't get a picture of Sebastian because he was already out the door.  But Adrian was thrilled with his Thomas lunch box.

The boys only went to school Monday and Wednesday last week; they adjusted so well they didn't need more time.  And I had to pay for the adjustment period, so I was happy not to have to send them more days since I was still off and able to spend time with them.  One day my car needed to get worked on.  So we dropped off the van at the garage in Bridgewater and walked to the massive new playground.  But, one of the benefits of slowing down and not driving, I spotted another playground on the premises...over by the softball fields.  You'd never know about this one if your kid didn't play softball on the fields (or unless you were walking by staring at the facility like I was).  We were the only ones here while the main playground was PACKED.   Also, turns out it's one of the Torie's Place playgrounds in honor of Victoria Snellgrove.  We've visited two others (the one in Easton described in the last post) and another one to come in a minute.

 Kind of hard to believe she was killed 10 years ago after the Red Sox beat the Yankees in the American League Championship.

This is the other Torie's Place that is local, at the Gordon Mitchell School in East Bridgewater.  The boys loved this one, too.  Was good for climbing and there are horses next door that you can see through the playground fence!  Added bonus!

The boys like to "hang like a monkey" off anything they can!

One day Mini, Tio Jim, and Baby James came over to play.

Before Baby James left, we took a walk around the neighborhood.  James kept up quite nicely!

 The boys finally enjoy running around the back yard.  They like to take sticks and chase each other with them.  Another favorite is running around with frisbees in their teeth.  I think it's disgusting, but the first day when I was in disbelief of what they found to be fun, I got a few pics before I put an end to it.

I looked at this tree in our backyard the other day and realized this is our fox's tree.  The fox used to leave surprises for Jim and me when we were kids.  He left notes and other things (including the clue that was the start to a treasure hunt) in a special tree (that looked like this one) for us to find.  It obviously made an impression because I am still talking about it!  I'll have to see what the fox can come up for the boys...

Last Sunday we went into the North End with Anne, Brad, Baby Patrick, Christina, Nick, and Lorna.  Anne and Christina had planned a food tour where we hit a bunch of different places and all had a small sample at each place.  We had Ernesto's and Regina Pizza, green leaf cookies, an Italian Sub, Cannoli's....yum!  When we were done, we went to let the boys run around in the Greenway.  They had no bathing suits, but I had a change of clothes for them.  So they ran in the water and loved it.

The funniest part of the day was that as we were arriving at the parking lot to leave the car, I said to Carlos that I should text my friend Ani, who lives in the North End, to see if she was around to come meet us.  About 2 minutes later Carlos said, "I think I see Ani!"  I thought he was kidding, but sure enough, there was Ani!!!  We yelled out the window at her, parked the car, and she came over.  It was great to see her!  We did our food tour and she did her errands and then she met us later at the Greenway for a little while.  It was so nice to see her!!

I miss summer already, but am also looking forward to fall events.  I know it's crazy, but we put up the Halloween decorations inside already!!!  Nothing outside yet...I'm not that weird!  ;-)  But the boys LOVE ghosts, pumpkins, etc.  They kept asking for "the Halloweens" (meaning the decorations) so I figured, why not?  Every morning after they get dressed and before breakfast, they ask to go in the living room, which is where the bulk of the decorations are, and see the pumpkins.  We've even read some of my favorite Halloween books!  Boy is it fun to relive your own childhood through the eyes of your kids!  I'm enjoying it more than they are at this point!