August Photos

Sooo, what kind of pictures do I have here today? I feel like I am writing a school essay titled "What I did on summer vacation", except mine is called - "What did I do in August? I can barely remember even though it's only August 26th...let me check the pictures, maybe they will spark my memory" Long title, but then again, I was never very good at titles.


Here is Rufus in the garden...these Echinacea really last such a long time and the yellow finches LOVE them. And boy do they propagate!!

We had some friends visit at the beginning of August - there were six adults and eight children. The kids were soo sweet and it was a joy to play with facepaint with them...Declan chose the leopard face

My little butterfly...

The princess...

The whole painted gang (minus the two unpainted babies)

One of our friends' sons is really into superheroes and he brought along his black Spiderman costume and Declan was delighted to show off his OWN black Spiderman costume. Some serious male bonding ensued.

And here are all of the Quayles (visiting all the way from Texas). Check out Colleen, she is such a cool gal - let her daughter try her hand at painting a butterfly on her face! Tony and Colleen are some of our oldest friends and we were so bummed when they moved to Texas. Now we see them once a year (if we are lucky) when they come "home" to visit family in the summer.

And here we are...

We visited my grandma a couple of times this month - we really need to get out there more often!!! She just turned 94 and I feel so lucky and blessed to have her in my life - I better start showing it even more! Here's Brendan playing with the dollhouse in her living room (kept there just for the grandbabies)

And Declan in her living room, showing off his angelic "pose"

And Declan in her front yard, practicing his tree climbing. My grandma lives on 17 acres and there are loads of great trees to climb, but you have to watch out for poison ivy and "gardener snakes" (as Declan calls them)

And here is Brendan walking up the hill to my grandma's house. I love this shot because I have so many fond memories of this place. We visited my grandma every Sunday of my entire childhood and I spent a week or two every summer staying with her and my grandpa. All that land was sooo fun to explore and she always had a dog or two running around to play with. What joy I experienced there!

We also had a couple of campouts in our backyard. I say "we" but I really mean Brian and Declan. Brendan and I slept in the house. I'm just not crazy about sleeping in a tent with a baby. Which is why the tent was in our backyard and not at some campground somewhere. But Brendan did enjoy the novelty of the tent and of eating our dinner in the backyard.

He also enjoyed the cicada that Declan caught - here it is:

And closer still...

The "men" and their tent...

And Daisy enjoying the comforts of our air mattress in the tent

No camp-out would be complete without s'mores, so we borrowed my parents' fire pit and roasted some marshmallows. (We also caught a mass of fireflies, but I have no pics of that)

My boys in the sandbox - that was certainly used A LOT in August!

We spent hours and hours in the garden...

Random...but cute

We went to my 20th high school reunion and had a blast.

We went swimming at our community pool and at Kathy's new boyfriend's house. Good times...

And more fun at the zoo...here is Declan on the train...

Me and Brendan on the train....

And the boys checking out a peacock

The End

Updating

I need to do some uploading from my camera and then more uploading to the blog, but for now, I'll do some updating. The big stuff around here is that Brendan is 99% weaned. Yes, weaned, as in from breastfeeding. This is BIG BIG BIG stuff because I didn't wean Declan until he was 18 months old and Brendan is a mere 14 months. Now, my plan was to wean him at 12 months, but stuff just got in the way and I can list about 20 different "reasons", but they are all excuses because the truth is, I was the one who was not ready. It IS very liberating to be free from breastfeeding (especially at bedtime). But it is also a little sad and lonely in a way. Breastfeeding has always been a wonderful bonding experience and I don't hate it, not at all. But, Brendan was probably ready a LONG time ago. His first night without breastfeeding was so easy and every night since then has been just as painless. He just goes right to sleep. No grumbling. Hooray for Brendan! He is such a champ.
So, now that he has been weaned, I can finally let my mother babysit AND put him down to bed at night. Previously, for all date nights, Brian and I waited until after Brendan was in bed. Since he goes to bed at 7pm, it wasn't that big of a deal. This Saturday is going to be different. It's my 20th High School Reunion and we are going to be out of the house by 5:00 or something. Cuckoo.
Anyhoo, I better go and play Star Wars with Declan. Adult Swim is officially over and the little guy is itching to jump back in the pool, so to speak.