Well, summer is officially upon us in New England, after a shaky and uncertain start. If ever more evidence was needed than this photograph, I am not sure.
So despite the fact that I have a couple more days of work at school, everything has taken a decidedly summer feel since Memorial Day. Even the grass seems to have excitedly come to life like never before, growing at a mutant-like pace, although I think that has to do with my wife’s tinkering with a secret chemical cocktail of fertilizing agents. That being said, the lawn has never looked better. Now all I need to do is wrap up school and some National Writing Project work for the real summer to start.
In fact, Ali and Hadley already kind of got started with Keri in the now annual Girls’ Trip 2011 (Version 4.0 in its current iteration I believe.). This time the three ladies headed north to the Green Mountains of Vermont for Ben and Jerry’s and Cabot Cheese tours among other sites. The slideshow below bears a nice witness to the trip.
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Since then we have had a lovely Mother’s Day. In fact, Hadley and I awoke early to make orange-cranberry muffins, only to discover that neither kids would eat them once they were baked. Hadley decided it was the cranberry that she opposed. Still, it was a beautiful day, rendering one of my favorite recent pictures of my girls.
This weekend Father’s Day arrived, which has been another lovely day. French toast and bacon for breakfast and a few small gifts made for a great morning. Yet even more impressive was my daughter’s second race on Saturday. Shortly after Ali and Keri ran a 5K, Hadley participated in a kids mini marathon for the second year in a row. Last year she did well, but was a little intimidated with all of the people and action surrounding her. This year, however, she performed wonderfully and very nearly beat everyone to the finish line, if not for slightly tripping over another little girl near the halfway point.
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Of course, none of us was worried about winning, but she was pretty impressive on the track. She certainly was proud of herself, although I think her mom and dad might have even been prouder.
