Summer Can't Be Over!

It went too fast, as usual.  August was unusually cool and rainy here, so we didn't even get to give summer a proper send-off before school started!  That's right!  Owen started pre-K this week.  He was so excited at 'meet the teacher' night (last Friday), that he was kind of disappointed that he had to wait a whole weekend before he got to go back to his classroom.  It's been harder for Hadley this year; she's cried or whimpered every day when we drop him off.  She misses him, and it's so sweet! He loves school so far and has resumed napping, which I guess means that they are tiring him out. :)

So, a quick recap of the rest of August...  The kids have gotten a lot of wear out of their rain coats/boots, as I mentioned.  They no longer jump or cry when it thunders.  That's how common thunderstorms have been this month.  I love it!

Owen thought this would be a great time to break out the water guns.  Hadley was his faithful sidekick until things went horribly wrong...

The kids got totally soaked and chilled, but they had so much fun.  Worth it!

On another soggy evening, the kids danced and entertained the crowd at a free outdoor concert.

Apparently, we also had some flash flooding while we were in Oregon.  All that rain led to epic garden production.  This was waiting for us when we got home!  Not to mention the dozens of cherry tomatoes I had to toss that over-ripened on the vine and my parsley jungle.

The kids have enjoyed picking and eating our raspberries right off the bush.  I think they are finally mature plants, since we are getting some store-worthy berries. Because our raspberries don't make it very far from the garden, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to go picking at a local farm.  Owen was in school, so it was just me and Hadley.  She was putting her raspberry-picking experience to good use, until I asked her if she'd eaten any. I could see the lightbulb go off, and after I told her she could eat some, no more berries made it in her basket.  I swear she must have eaten a pint!  (Don't worry, it's a family-friendly establishment that encourages lots of sampling.)  We did make it home with three pints, some of which ended up as raspberry jam.  Yum!

On a rare hot day, we went to the beach again.  This time, it was at a lake only 30 minutes from home, and we took some friends with us.  The kids got ridiculously sandy and tired, but all in the name of summer!

Not to be left out are our usual haunts of the zoo and Bear World.  Besides the rides, the kids really liked petting a fawn, and I got a kick out of the funky chickens.

Turning indoors, we checked out the grand opening of an interactive art museum in town. We were the first ones at the door, and Owen had a blast dancing around in the green screen area for at least 15 minutes by himself.  (I spared you - the video is only 17 seconds long.) They also had a two-story slide, art projects, music room, and a theater, so we'll probably be back.

And, of course, we had lots of good ol' fashioned fun at home.

Owen has become very interested in helping me with dinner every night, which is wonderful. But what is the other kid doing while being minimally supervised?  Improvising block stacking from the pantry!  This is one of her many ways of telling me she's hungry.  :)