Summertime

Last Friday was Aunt Sarah's last day in Rhode Island.  The kiddos really enjoyed her visit ...

... and, despite the smiles, Madeline was sad to see her off at the airport.

The weekend got off to a quiet start ...

... but once everyone was dressed ...

... and we'd checked on Summer's papier-mâché skulls (made by her to protect jello brains also made by her) ...

... we were out of the house and off, first to Petra's second birthday party, and then to a play date with Oliver's good friend Benji!

The play date was Oliver's first focused just on him (sans a Madeline-aged sibling), and he had a great time.  He and Benji play really nicely together.

On Sunday, Summer spent much of the day working, so I took the kiddos to the zoo.  Madeline befriended another goat (she called it her "Buddy Goat").

And for some reason, for most of the trip neither kid would remove their sweatshirt despite bright sun and temperatures in the mid-80s.

After the zoo, we went to Newport Creamery for a fine lunch of macaroni and cheese, apple sauce, and ice cream.

Then later Sunday afternoon, we went to visit Jeff, Carissa, and Kyla at their new house.  Oliver and Kyla got along splendidly, and the rest of us had a blast too.

This week, while Summer had been teaching a course at Brown, Madeline has been with me.  She's spent some time at my office, and I've spent some time working in unorthodox locations, like the yard of the nearby elementary school, where Madeline found a birds' nest.

Meanwhile, Oliver has been living it up at his school, which he really loves:

All in all, Madeline has been (surprisingly) fantastically well behaved for me all week, allowing me to get a lot done.  But by the end of the day yesterday, I sensed that she wasn't using up quite enough energy to suit her.  So today after lunch, we took a break to go running together.

We planned to run around the block that houses the elementary school.  So we got our game faces on ...

... and we ran around the school twice, for a total of about 0.6 miles!  At the end, we were tired.

In fact, the plan worked so well that Madeline took a (very rare) nap later in the afternoon.

An illustrated story from Madeline

Maddie has a map and powers and Oliver and an eraser.

There were two dragons that were really mean.  And there was a queen.  And there was a princess that was nice.

Maddie and Oliver went across the mountains and feeled the bumpy bumps.

They rescued the queen and the princess.  They carried them to a safe world where no mean dragons and no mean queens were. 

There was also a wicked queen.  The wicked queen liked to eat dragons.  She got really big and fat from eating dragons.

Maddie and the wicked queen and Oliver pushed the dragons into a tube.  In the tube was a world with no people and no other things that the dragon could be mean to.

The wicked queen is going to eat the dragons as soon as they're in the tube.  Now she already ate them.

The wicked queen is only wicked to dragons because she eats dragons.  But to people she is nice because she helps push the dragons into the tube.  The people need her to eat the dragons so the nice queen and the nice princess will be safe.

She helps Maddie and Oliver because she's their friend.

July continued (Update 4 of 4)

Then on Sunday we went to the beach!

We'd planned on East Matunuck, but the parking lot there was already full by mid-morning.  So we continued all the way down to Westerly for our first trip to Misquamicut.  The water was nice ...

... and of course the kiddos enjoyed playing in the sand.

As did Aunt Sarah.

Then we were back to weekdays again.

Aunt Sarah walked with Madeline to the library and the bakery.

And we visited the garden and playground once again, where Oliver swung joyfully.

One day, Madeline, Aunt Sarah and Summer joined me in the city for lunch.  We paused for a picture of our little Clover in front of a storefront that appeared to have been designed just for her.

And Madeline enjoyed her lunch of shumai, which she ate exclusively using chopsticks (albeit with unorthodox technique).

Then I returned to the office and the others checked out the workshop of puppet troupe Big Nazo.

Much fun was had trying on Big Nazo's bizarre costume creations.

Then, back outside ...

... Aunt Sarah took Madeline to Burnside Park in downtown Providence for Del's frozen lemonade ...

... and to enjoy Play in the Park programming with Miss Katie of playSCIENCE.  This involved making a whimsical musical instrument and parading around the park, which is how Summer and I found Madeline when we were done working.

Yesterday we tried to round out Sarah's Rhode Island culinary experience with a trip to Iggy's Doughboys at Oakland Beach, for clamcakes, chowder, and doughboys.  After eating, we wandered by the beach in the mist and light rain ...

... until the light rain got heavier and we headed back to the car.

Summer has been getting ready to teach a course next week, so there are brains floating around our house.

And today, Madeline, Aunt Sarah, and Summer took a trip to the zoo, where Madeline got to visit with her beloved goats.

Tomorrow Aunt Sarah flies back to Oregon.  We will miss her, especially as we begin our short stretch of improvised childcare.  Wish us luck!

Start of July (Update 3 of 4)

Every night these days, Madeline writes or draws or otherwise makes marks in her journal.  It's become an essential part of her evening routine.

In other news, last week we dined at Olneyville New York System so Sarah could try hot wieners.

Madeline, as is her wont, had a clam strip roll instead (and coffee milk).

Then we visited the garden, which is overflowing its plot!

 Madeline again sampled a carrot we grew from seed.

On Friday, we met Taylor at Colt State Park.  The kiddos romped as usual.

Then on Saturday, we went over to Tiverton for our standard visitor fare of Evelyn's fried whole belly clams and lobster rolls.

Good times were had by all.

And afterward we went to Gray's for ice cream!  The kiddos both got cones -- their first, I think -- and made suitably huge messes.

End of June (Update 2 of 4)

Next came Lily's birthday party, at Pulaski State Park.  Madeline spent the first part of the party finding tiny frogs ...

... and sharing them with Lily.

Oliver spent the party being characteristically jolly ...

... until, that is, he fell and bashed his face on the concrete floor of the pavilion.  He was ok though!

Then Aunt Sarah came!

Beautiful weather welcomed her to Boston.

She and Madeline spent lots of time over the next not-quite-two weeks hanging out together ...

... dissecting owl pellets ...

... going on adventures in the neighborhood ...

... and visiting the pool ...

... among other things.

Oliver also really enjoyed bonding with Aunt Sarah.