Summer!

It's summer!  I am trying my best not to over schedule us this summer.  Cal is still doing her Little Bella's camp-- which is going so well!  She's loving it!  Meanwhile, Hazey and I have been hitting the trails while she's with the girls.  Both kids are officially doing summer track on Monday and Wednesday evenings and it is super adorable.

They are also taking swimming lessons at Maple Street pool everyday for a week.

And after swimming, they bike on the pump track and we have a picnic lunch.

I'm not doing a really good job of not overscheduleing us!  Summer haircuts have happened and 

we even squeezed in strawberry picking with Tom and Cara.

We wrapped up June with a lovely visit from Nana and Grandpa.  They spoiled us to a home cooked meal, lots of books, and lots of snuggles.

And they even volunteered to hang out with the kids so that John and I could get out for a mountain bike ride.

And Hazey got a new big boy bike with gears!

7.5 Fairy Birthday Party

I kind of decided a year and a half ago, that it would be a lot easier to throw Cally a birthday party in the summer than it is during the week leading up to Christmas.  I didn't exactly tell Cal that this is the way it was going to be, but I made a good enough argument and she decided it would be a great idea.

For months, Cally tried to decide what kind of birthday party she wanted.  Scott mentioned that it would be fun to have her come back to where it all started-- High Meadow (that is where she came home to from the hospital).  Fortunately, it was not being rented the weekend we had our eye on.

The weather could not have been more perfect and the kids had a ball swimming and they even built fairy houses.

Dinner involved putting a tofu pup, turkey dog, or hot dog on a stick with dough wrapped around it-- weiner wraps of sorts. They were such a hit.

And the cupcakes were attempts to look like toadstool mushrooms....

It was a perfect way to celebrate Cal and the official summer solstice.

Almost Summer

We got our camping shoes back on and managed to get to Branbury State Park on Lake Dunmore for a beginning of summer adventure.  Thanks to Kevin Mahoney for pulling the trigger and getting a site for a few nights.  I wasn't sure if I could pull it off with all the end of school stressors, but I'm so, so glad we did it!

The kids rock climbed, swam, and played with fire.  The adults mountain biked, swam, drank good drinks and ate great food (thank you Mahoney's for dealing)

Claire and I even managed to convince John and Kevin that they could set up and enjoy the first night while we went to a Brandi Carlisle concert at Shelburne Museum.

Meanwhile, I got out for my first adult hike that I'd been in years!

While I was grading projects and getting through the end of school year "stuff", John got busy bulding us a mud room!

Hazen had his last day at Poker Hill School.  It was incredibly bitter sweet.  He's so, so ready to move on to kindergarten, but we are going to miss this place so much.  It has been a fixture in our lives for four years!

Cally started a mountain bike program called Little Bellas.  It was canceled the first two week because of rain/thunder.  I drove her there with rain and 45 degree temps.  I wasn't sure how well it would go.  But this is the smile I arrived to at pick up!  She LOVED it and her coach is going to Rio to compete in the olympics!

In other news, Cally bridged from a Daisy to a Brownie!

And John and I got out for a date night to see Ray LaMontange at Shelburne Museum.  A perfect night and a perfect start to our summer.