God bless...

...these beautiful, unseasonably warm days that happen.



That we can pull on an extra layer and be by the ocean.



oh paper bag of treasure.....

You wouldn't believe how much fun you can have just dropping ( or throwing...) rocks into the water.



Or how incredibly happy it makes this mama to watch her boys explore this little beach.



It almost makes me wish for spring.
Almost. Let's not quite rush winter out yet...

we picked a rainbow in the yard.

and that guy? he's just hard at work...

end of july...

I wish I could just climb under the shade of a squash leaf today,
stretch out and catch up on my zzzz's....

delish

pardon my saying, but screw Christmas shopping, This is the most wonderful time of the year.....

seaside

I would head straight to the beach every morning if I could. Grab me a big green tea, and donuts for the kids because I love how happy they get when they see those sprinkles. A little transistor radio would be nice. and my yarn. Listen to the water, pick my seaglass and whatnot, take some photos of course. Just be in the quiet. Makes my heart feel all warm, you know.

And just sit and watch them splash until the bellies start rumbling for lunch.

Yeah, I could so start every day like that... Of course, this weekend seaside with no kids at all will be plenty of wonderful also...

Hope your weekend has lots of quiet joy.

beach roses

(at the beach playground.)

the season of the snail has begun.

eww. slimy.

mama and boy time

we got to do a little frog spotting, just me and the first-born.



This was the bravest of the amphibians.

grateful friday

of course I'm grateful for all the sun we've had.
for the rain before it feeding all the bulbs that are now flowers!
And for my wonderful friends who don't think me too strange for turning every opportunity into a tea party...

muddy baby toes.

For crying out loud, he's two and a half!
Do I have to start calling them little boy toes?
I don't think I'm ready for all that....

find of the day.

aqua sea glass really makes the top ten in my all-time-favourite-things-in-the-whole-wide-world.

really.

ps - Happy Saint Patrick's Day all! I suppose I should have posted green sea glass...

:)

beach lovin'

anything above fifty degrees is beach weather to me.

nothing is more exciting than throwing rocks in the ocean. woo hoo!

Let the season of sandy shoes, sandy cars, sandy floors, sandy pockets begin. Time to dust off the pails that will carry home all those treasures. Sea glass, smooth rocks, empty periwinkle shells. Bring it on. I'm just as bad as any little boy, filling my pockets up, and then Paul's too.

I can't wait...

grateful friday

I should be vacuuming.

Or tackling that tower of dishes.

And there is all that laundry waiting. already folded. in baskets. in the dining room of all places.

Did I mention there will be dinner guests tonight?

But instead I'm jumping in on a grateful Friday. ( whose origin I can't find. anyone?)



I'm incredibly grateful for all the vacuuming I have to do because it means we live inside, and have electricity.



I'm grateful for the dishes because it means we have enough food to eat.



And I'm grateful for the clean water we have to wash our ( abundance of ) clothes and bodies.



And I'm grateful for the sunshine and break from the cold we got yesterday, so we could have a tiny, brief picnic lunch.



And I'm grateful for God. There, I said it. Why do I not post about faith here?

And if for any reason you haven't yet, head on over to CraftHope for Haiti.

big boy project

There's a giant pine tree outside my parent's door. They planted it almost thirty ( more than thirty?) years ago, when it wasn't as tall as the deck. Now it towers over the house and drops giant perfect pine cones all over the place.

And what do you do with giant perfect pine cones? Hang them back on the tree of course! With some small alterations first: Namely, peanut butter and birdseed.

And the perfect assistant for this project? A big boy.



Loaders optional...



(Who am I kidding, Loaders are never optional in this family!)





ps - I just love those old pumpkin treat buckets, I've bought eleven from yard sales in the past few weeks, haha! For a total of a dollar and seventy cents! I love a steal like that!

weekend highlights

Saturday was a bust with all the cleaning/moving/rearranging going on around here. I was not pleasant to be around. But Sunday made up for it with family picnicking goodness.

Watching planes from the local airport put on a show.





They were dropping lengths of paper (toilet paper rolls?) and then circling around to cut them in two. Does anyone know a name for this? They were pretty low on the last pass, I was worried for a split second there!

Escargot.



( You may be thinking "eww" but you'd eat dirt if my father-in-law prepared it. Yeah, he's that good.)

And family photos. Will was napping, we'll photoshop him in later!

I won't give in!

We have to put on sweaters.
And the tea is hot, not iced.
And shoes are now required.

But I'm not ready to give up these early morning breakfasts outside. Snuggled in crochet, on the swing.

Okay, I was never back yesterday.

But if you were me, you wouldn't have spent a second here either. Not with everything else going on: Walking to eat breakfast out, playground and beach time, periwinkle and seaglass hunting,







Say what you want about our rocky New England beaches, they make the best seaglass, this is just a tiny fraction of what we brought home yesterday. Yes, I admit my addiction...



naptime, sunning time, fresh library books, "fun food" shopping*,

take out dinner with Uncle Reg, pooltime, feeding marshmallows to llamas and cows and a campfire! Phew! Who has time to blog? ps - Sunday is National Toasted Marshmallow Day, just so you know. ;)





And I did get that hat done at the beach on Wednesday! Plain and sweet. Not the best photo, I wanted to give it to the mama right away. (Hi Azzy!) Apparently the the secret to getting to sit down at the beach is more kids, not less, the occupy eachother pretty well! We only had to corral them back in front of us three or four times. Not bad in my book.

Now we've got a full weekend ahead of us of birthdays, and end of summer celebrations! That is if we don't get a hurricane. Of course, being trapped inside with cooler weather doesn't sound so bad. Cooler means I don't mind spending some time baking. And everyone in this house is partial to some wrapping up in blankets to snuggle.

You know, I better stock up on some essentials just in case we do get hit: More library books, popcorn, balls of yarn and of course, wine...

My word, this is a long and wordy post! Happy weekend all!

*Every now and then we head over to the local discount store and pick up fun food from the grocery department. Like lingonberry jam, organic pickles, stevia soda, lots of food in fun packaging. For a few dollars you can kill time a rainy day and see better things than you find at the regular market. I guess you could do this in the imported aisle at the supermarket, too.

beachin'

We're off to the beach with the cousins!
I'm packing yarn for a new baby hat, but we'll see how much of that gets done...
Back tomorrow.

I love being my yard this time of year. When everything is so bright and beautiful and alive. And there seems to be surprises under every leaf. New flowers or a hidden pod of blackberries.

It's enough to put a smile on your face all day. Even in the humidity. Even with the loud cars passing by. Even after your two-year old dumps two whole cups of carefully picked berries into the grass and runs his sweet, fat little piggie toes through them. Even then.