Late summer camera phone recap

My camera is out of commission and a new one hopefully in the mail this week. Here are some iphone late summer highlights: beach trips, Ege's arrival, Dre's visit, wood stacking, Irene, sweet exchange students returning for visits, free peaches, silly shirts, face plants, visiting cousins, boys with popsicles. The usual really.

Winter Panic

So winter panic has been setting in for me this week. It is turning into the end of August. The house isn't done being sided. We have an exchange student coming in a week. We have no firewood stacked (or bought or split) for the winter, and that is our only source of heat. I have frozen one bag of kale and one bag of pesto. I think late blight is trying to set in in the garden. AHHHH!!!!And then a quick picture of the kids to calm me down.

More catch up: fun with Peter

So little baby Peter doesn't know this, but he has officially reached the age of babiness that I love and find truly irresistible. Lucky for me, Mary humors me and lets me steal him away sometimes. Because even though he is completely delectible, I also remember what it meant to be a momma who always had a baby in her arms, could never put him down. It's nice to have a friend whisk him away for a little while. So it works out for both of us.

My friend Mary and her husband are deeply entrenched in the workings of a dairy farm. Her husband is actually the vegetable farmer for the operation, but really they are half of the team that run the farm. All four of the people involved are first-generation farmers, running one of the few, if not only, organic dairies in the state of NH. They lost the lease to their land and will be moving the entire farm (roughly 100 cows, plus pigs, chickens, and people) this spring. Can you imagine? Luckily, they're moving into Ann and Larry's territory. So we can still be friends:) In the meantime I'm just going to breath in Peter's adorableness.

A few other recent visitors!

This is Dre, our Fresh Air kid for the summer! Great experience so far! So good with my kids and a nice kid in general!And then my cousin Sarah, with child, and David for a brief absolutely lovely afternoon by the sea...

A few recent developments.

I am so far way behind on postings. I give up. I'm not going to catch up. So I'm just going to put a few pictures of what has been going on.

Our new window, aka stage. Looks awesome.A cousinly visit with ONE picture as record. Sorry Caroline.
Lots of flowers cut and bunched and headed to market over and over and over again.
A few trips to York's Wild Kingdom where you can ride antique amusement park rides at your own risk...
New potatoes.

A few from before...

Almost like Hawaii

One of my favorite things we did with Brittany while she was here was to take her surfing. It isn't quite like Hawaii, but it was lovely. I rode a few waves, and I think Brittany got up once. Makili donned his own little wet suit and in general we all had a lovely time at the beach. I miss Brittany.

Lucky two (soon to be three) times over.

We were lucky enough to get to stay with the Ainsworths in Connecticut on both our way in and out of New York. And not only that but we surprised them by bringing the other Mattys. Nice aren't we? And they're still letting us come back this weekend:)

We had a blissful summer time there, eating desert on the back porch, jumping off the dock, taking walks, eating Suzanne's amazing cooking. Yum. We are so grateful and lucky!


Oh, and by the way, this is what you shouldn't do: Give a 2-year-old access to markers on a long drive.

The Matty's take Manhattan (or Brooklyn to be precise)

We had a great time on our quick trip to NY. Raph helped Gabe build a bike out of bamboo at the Bamboo Bike Studio while Laura and Ann and I managed the kids through NY. I got to meet up with my good friend Evan and her boys too which equaled a lot of boys 4 and under. They got along quite well though. It was really nice to see them. Makili LOVED the subway. I loved the fountain we ran through after the children's museum and the roti we got nearby at Glorias. There was ice cream in Chinatown and you know, a mellow and not-so-mellow NY trip. The best part: off of work!

Nothing so soft

There is nothing so soft as a newborn's head. And nothing more special that being able to see them so tiny before they were who they are. Our newest friend Daniel was born July 3, and I was so lucky to meet him last week. Good thing I got those tubes tied or I would be vacillating. I offered Amy to take him off their hands...

Cousinly Love

We've had a terrific week with the cousins and more pictures than you can imagine. Here a few I can squeeze the time in to post:) Makili and Gabrielle are so cute together. They get along SO well. They're are into being competitive (I can eat faster, run faster, sing louder, etc. than you) but actually they don't really care. But they think eachother's jokes are hilarious and that is pretty funny.
Oliviann and Remick largely ignore each other's existence when antagonizing the other one, as Remick was doing below by trying to get Oliviann to hug him non-stop.

Such unbelievable cuties...