Well, I'm back.

I've had a hard time getting around to blogging about our summer, partly because I was mourning  Scituate and freedom from school and routines, and partly because I was using Isaiah's precious nap time to scrub our grout. The grout was really bad, and barricading him out of the sections I was working on just didn't work. He is a wily little guy.

But our summer was lovely as only a Scituate summer can be. We are so lucky to be able to get away to such a beautiful little corner of God's Creation.

I don't know what I am missing more: the garden, the beach, our after-dinner walks,

...or my family. The Bird family reunion portion of our stay was a blast. There were 21 of us under my parents' roof, which I half expected to feel like this:

...but even with the heat wave, it actually felt like this:

The little cousins are growing up so fast and it is so much fun to watch their personalities evolve into such unique and lovable little individuals. My girls are still laughing about the time Leah asked to get taken out to the sandbar, thinking it was some type of snack bar, and then was terribly let down when we explained it to her that there were no fries out there...just hermit crabs. 

There was also plenty of one-on-one time with Nanny and Papa: drip castles, Stratego and fishing with Papa; baking and tea parties and gardening with Nanny. (They sound like caricatures of perfect grandparents, but they are for real.) Isaiah fell in love with both of them...it was a wrench to tear him away and stick him back in our little house in the desert.

The kids and Nanny at the beach on one of many gorgeous evening walks:

 

 

While we were gone, my crawling baby turned into a toddler...(sob)

 

...and my big girl turned eleven...(double sob)
 

We also had lots of nice time with our little nuclear family since Luke came back to travel home with us. One of the things I love about being there so long is that the girls have only each other for playmates...which I think is good for fostering sibling love. Here they are on one of our hikes at the Norris Reservation, (pretending it was Mirkwood of course.) It was a little too green and lovely to be a convincing Mirkwood, but it is as close to a deep dark forest as these kids are likely to get. Audrey kept asking to be Bombur, so she could "accidentally" fall in the North River and then pretend to be asleep while we took turns carrying her. Oh Audrey.

 

 

Here's Luke, our anti-Mr. Banks, flying a kite with Kateri.

 



The girls came home with tanned skin, bleached hair, and horribly scraped up knees from their  dangerous hobby of riding scooters at breakneck speed down sandy sidewalks.

 

I came home with my introvert batteries recharged.

 

We all came home full of happy memories,

 already dreaming of next summer.

Thank you, Nanny and Papa!

12/12

"A portrait of my children once a week, every week, for a year"

This is a lazy iPad version, but I am cutting myself some slack to account for traveling.

Lili: assisting Papa at the grill

Audrey: chilly enough for her new sweatshirt: heaven!

Kateri: chilly enough to be wrapped in a blanket on the hammock and snuggled by Nanny: heaven!

Isaiah: enjoying all the colors of the garden

11/52

"A portrait of my children one a week, every week, for a year"

 

 

Lili: reading...again

Audrey: running a race in the backyard, dirty feet and a (miraculously) clean dress

Kateri: tuckered out midday

Isaiah: very serious about cheering on those backyard races 

Some Dallas Birds...

...came to visit us a few weeks ago for the baptism of our newest cousin: Thaddeus Joseph. It is so funny to see this band of boy cousins come along after 7 girls.

Boy cousins playing Matchbox cars was a new and strange sight to see at the Speier house.

It kind of looks like they choreographed their dance beforehand.

We tried to beat the heat with popsicles and sprinkler fun

Oh Leah...you are the happiest child. Sometimes I think your real father was Buddy the Elf.

 

 

As usual, I dropped the ball on picture-taking, but we had a ball with these two little cousins and Aunt Becca. We can't wait to spend some more time with them in Scituate!

 

10/52

"A portrait of my children once a week, every week, for a year"

 

Lili: not doing an awful lot to prove her sister wrong

Audrey: enjoying some frozen grapes

Kateri: surprised and slightly embarrassed to be caught playing airplane pilot and talking into her headphones

Isaiah: baring his lovely flabby farmer-tanned arms



Paper airplane notes and blue toys

One fabulous thing about summer vacation is that the girls get to spend so much time playing together, just the three of them. Which gives them ample opportunity to work out disagreements by themselves and practice conflict resolution. At least that's what I told myself when I found a paper airplane with this correspondence between Audrey and Lili scrawled on it:


Sorry, Lili.
Do you want to play blue toys*?
O that's right I fergot, all you like to do is READ!

I  was going to say later, but now it's NEVER.


I don't know what prompted this rather backhanded olive branch, but I didn't hear anything about it, so I guess they worked it out on their own.


*blue toys: our eclectic collection of action figures. It used to be housed in a blue plastic bin, but it cracked and was replaced by a new clear model. They still call them "blue toys" and spend hours dividing them up into hilarious random teams like this one:

The roster from left to right: Piglet, "Una's Lamb," Shan Yu, a freaky bald My Little Pony that I need to throw out when no one is looking, a Cowardly Lion Pez dispenser, a stegosaurus, Greedo, Richard Parker (a new addition; thanks, Aunt Becca!) Sully sporting a wikki-stick bandage, Strawberry Shortcake, Gold Batman, and a baby giraffe who seems to be borrowing someone's Endor poncho.

9/52

 

 

"A portrait of my children once a week, every week, for a year"

 

 

Lili: enjoying a homemade popsicle

Audrey: loves a good game of solitaire. Good thing she remembered her purse

Kateri: hanging around

Isaiah: Siesta with a sister; who needs a baby monitor?