20 Favorite Photos from August 2011

August was a month of sun and laughter and ice cream. It also marked a few milestones, namely Thora's last day at her beloved preschool. She started there way back in February of 2010, when she was a wee little 2 year and 10 month old baby.






Because I'm suddenly feeling nostalgic, here she is on her first day of preschool.
















And here she is this past August, running up the hill in her favorite sundress and, yes, a blue cape, on her last day of school, a year and half later but somehow lifetimes older. Uggh, it's bittersweet, the feeling a parent has watching their child grow up.










Anyway, on to my favorite moments captured on camera (there are a couple videos below, too). For a look at the whole photo album, click here.




In early August, my friend Hilary and I took 5 kids (four of our own, plus one) down to her in-laws place on the Cape. We had a great time. And as luck would have it, Zach's family friend Hannah came down too. Hannah is 8 and yet she gets along really well with Thora and Zach who are both 4. Here they are hunting for minnows and crabs.









Here is Auric eating some raw corn, the only way he would eat it this summer. He loves to shuck it and dig right in. I can't blame him. The corn is so sweet, we barely warm ours through when we eat it.










This moment just breaks my heart. We had dinner at Zach's grandparents' house and then hit the road, around bedtime. Thora sacked out almost immediately, but Auric took a while to go to sleep. At one point I looked back and saw him holding his sister's hand while she slept. This kid! Just when I think he can't do anything sweeter than honey, he goes and proves me wrong.






This month also marked Auric's first trip to the movie theatre. We saw the recent Winnie the Pooh movie. It was great. The kids did pretty well. Although, at one point, Auric's slow progress down the aisle took a turn for the embarrassing when he wandered right in front of the front row and through the doorway marked EXIT. Sean caught him, before he could actually get to the exit door. These things happen when you try to get a toddler to sit still for over an hour. And the theatre was only about 1/3 full with families just like ours, with antsy kids who needed to wander around. However, it was slightly more embarrassing than normal since several other kids had decided to follow his lead. Oops. (Sorry, other parents.)






During one of my Tuesday afternoons with Thora and Zach, we went to Ricky's flower market down the street and picked out some summer annuals to spruce up our front steps prior to my birthday party that weekend. Here they are helping me re-pot the flowers.









One of Auric's favorite outdoor activities is STILL jumping in puddles. He comments on all the puddles he sees, no matter how small or random. (One time he identified a dime-sized "puddle" in the recessed bolt of a manhole cover.) Here he is, strutting his stuff in his much-loved fireman rain boots. (He also has an impressive strut these days.)








And surprisingly, this outfit of jammie top, diaper, and firefighter rain boots is not unique to this one moment. In fact, unbeknownst to me until just now, there's a very similar outfit in the below video, "Auric Loves to Race." Enjoy.



And while we're on Auric and his cuteness, here is another short video, "Auric's Budding Vocabulary Part 5." This footage was all taken during August, when he was 1 year and 11 months. I captured on camera one of our favorite Auric-ism: "Slop Shoe" for "flip flop." Also, at the end, he is asking Kitty if she's okay. This footage was taken during the infamous hurricane that swept through the northeast. We were very lucky and suffered no damage and only a 40-minute long power outage. However at one point, the wind blew a tree branch into a power line or transformer across the street and there were two, firecracker-loud pops that startled us all, but particularly Kitty. Auric was super sweet to her when he found her cuddled on the far side of our bed. Enjoy.







And now for something completely different, here are Thora and Zach, dressed to the nines, and probably right before, during, or after one of their weddings. They're too much.






Later in the month, we traveled out to Kimball Farm with Zach's family and River's family. Hilary and Summer took the three big kids on a fun, tethered hot air balloon ride. I have a significant fear of heights and so I was perfect for the job of babysitting the three little kids, Auric, Ellie and Lila down in the parking lot below. For a great post, some pictures, and a video of the trip 300 feet in the air, and the rest of the day, check out Summer's blog post here.

Here is my favorite shot of the big kids at one point in the day. I think this was after the balloon ride and after the most ridiculous game of mini-golf I've ever witnessed but before lunch and chasing away chickens, and incredible ice cream. Now back to that mini-golf game, if you can, imagine three 4 year-olds, and three 1 year-olds, and despite us getting extra balls for the the little kids, they keep trying to take the balls of the big kids. There were golf balls flying everywhere, and I had to jump into about 4 streams for missed shots. It was hilarious.




In mid-August, I had my second annual kid-friendly kegger celebrating my 35th birthday. The festivities ping ponged between our place, where the keg was, and the park across the street. It was loads of fun. I was happy to have so many friends with whom I could share the celebration. We began the festivities early with our friends Greg and Dana, and their daughter Etta.







And here are some of the infamous Cambridgeport Moms.













I don't think there's a story behind this one. I just love it.
















Here is what Thora and Zach's green thumbs created! And yes, Thora's classic red boots were reincarnated as planters. She wore them everyday through June and July, and at some point she wore holes in the soles. I wasn't willing to let go of them, so I was glad to give them a new lease on life. And in case you're wondering, she is currently wearing to death a new pair of red boots.









Back to Thora's big milestone, she finished up preschool in late August. It was only tearful for me and her teachers. Thora was blissfully unaware that she would never see these people again, friends and teachers who'd been such a large part of her life for the last year and a half. Instead of being sad, she was proud of her new big girl step of becoming a kindergartener. Her time in preschool was great for her and I'm glad she had this wonderful environment. Here she is getting a surprise hug by her favorite teacher, Stephanie. Actually, maybe she wasn't as blissfully unaware as I thought, since I couldn't get her to go give Stephanie a hug, hence Stephanie's surprise hug.





I made sure to have a fun playdate planned for after her last day of school, as much for Thora as for me. (I was realistic about the likelihood that it would be a tearful experience for me.) And this afternoon proved to be a great diversion. Here is Thora, Zach, River, and Aidan, enjoying treats from the ice cream truck, while taking a break from the playground near Harvard's campus.









And here's Auric and his friend Lila, being photogenic as usual.















August also saw Thora's first cognizant trip to Fenway. (We took her when she was about 17 or 18 months old.) Each summer, when the Sox are away, the minor league teams get to play a double-header in the legendary stadium against their league opponents. It's called Futures at Fenway. The tickets are cheap, the concessions are cheaper, and it's a great way for a family to see some baseball. Here's Thora eating her first-ever cotton candy.





I love this photo for two reasons. It shows one of Zach's many great qualities: he is happy-go-lucky! Here he is laughing about a single peanut (as opposed to the more common double peanut). And secondly, it shows what a major production it was for them to eat these peanuts, as is visible in Thora's expression as she navigates biting through the shell, with residue from a former peanut on her face. (If you click the above link and look through the album, you'll see that residue in several photos.) Their endeavor with the peanuts involved a 4 year-old's sense of wonder as they examined the strange shapes and contours of almost every peanut, the work of cracking them open, and the glee at finding peanuts at their feet that they previously thought were lost forever. Oh, to be 4 and at the ball park.




August brought us the annual Middlesex County 4-H Fair, which brings Thora and Auric, and this year their friends River, Lila, and Aidan, up close and personal with farm animals and their kid caretakers from all over the county. Our kids loved our day at the fairgrounds. And for the record, Thora was the only kid with pink hair there.



And I had to include this picture for Thora's expression as she gazes at River. Is that telling or what!?! Thora has known River since she was an infant. But it was this past April, when Hilary and I took Thora, River and Zach to the Big Apple Circus, that their relationship became more complex. Regularly, when telling a story about that night at the circus, Thora will say, "You remember that night, Mom? The night River and I fell in love?" Sometimes I forget that she's four, when she talks like a character from a Gene Kelly musical.


And on that note, stay tuned for my September photos!