Private Nook

Hagan had a thanksgiving celebration at school where everyone shared their favorite snacks and made turkey art. SX picked Hagan up shortly after and then came to grab me from work and we drove up to Western MA to join SX brother and wife for the holiday. The parents had already arrived and we all settled into a warm, sunny house for days of delicious food and family. Hagan was on fire with energy and we made enough sweets to give the healthiest person diabetes. This included one gingerbread house kit which hagan decimated hastily. The rural community was quaint and quiet. There was trampoline fun and Legos and drawing and stickering and movies and greenhouses and homemade play dough and playgrounds and petting zoo.  We left Sunday morning for a leisurely drive back home but then got a message from Auntie Francis who was traveling through and we made it out for a lovely Portuguese seafood and sangria dinner. I am back at work trying to remember all my to dos after so much fun.

Still in the throes of an amazing birthday weekend with sister, brother, dad and Lindsey! All helped celebrate with smores, banjos, fire pit, beach, vintage shopping, eating delicious foods everywhere. In fact, I’m fairly certain I may never be hungry again. Hagan was thrilled to have nonstop attention and entertainment. The crowd is thinning now and will conclude on weds eve. This has certainly been one amazing birthday.

The Treehouser came home and we spent the weekend with viruses! Yay! But after, I managed to finish the Moth costume and we met up with neighbors for trick/treats, pizza and fun! It was a super great time until the over sugared kiddos met the bedtime hour with fights over toys. I seriously could barely keep myself from laughing. But we recovered the next day with Lego fair and a movie.

We’ve had two solid weekends of kids party going on at the neughbors/our house. The first was kicked off at the neughbors, a birthday party for their youngest. They went all out with activities, pumpkin patch and bounce house!!! Hagan and I spent the entire weekend there. This last weekend we hosted a smores party for the entire preschool. Seanix put in a fire pit before he left so we’d have something to roast marshmallows over. It was a big hit! And so nice to have a huge fire As the cold temps kicked in.

We look forward to welcoming the Treehouser home this Friday! It will be a much needed reunion.

Hag and I are weathering the absence of the treehouser. He flitted in for our Seattle guest for four days, took off again for the World Treehouse Conference in southern Oregon and is back for a day before flying out to Missouri. We are really looking forward to a lengthy grounding this next round so we can catch up on being a family.Hag is learning many new words and especially interested in trees right now. He is such a sweet kid… Except when it comes to the rabbit. He treats Walnut like a sibling, throwing toys at him and is then shocked when Walnut claws at him. Oh, boy.

We’ve had quite our fill of fun these last couple weeks. We all piled in the car with Uncle Kris and headed for the family lake house in Indiana to celebrate Gramma and Hagans birthdays. We enjoyed swimming, relaxing and catching up with family. Delightful time.

We then came home to send off the treehouser and fled to Philly last weekend to be part of a very stunning wedding while Hagan played with Auntie Hayles. We all had too much fun and are recovering this week with early bedtimes.

This evening we have a pizza date with the neighbors! And this weekend, Datty will come home just in time to help host my thesis advisor for two nights as I flaunt him around Colgate.

So much to do!

We went Friday afternoon up to northern New Jersey to camp and explore three different parks including High Point, Appalachian trail and some swimming holes! It was perfect weather and boy, is this state beautiful. We also took a tour of the Delaware water gap from the Jersey side but crossed over into NY briefly during the cruise. At the end of this week, we high tail it down to the Indiana lake house! Weeee, last days of summer fun!!!

We have been busy in bursts while having some time to recover. In general we are enjoying this tail end of summer. The treehouse datty returned, then left and returned again doing some work down in Nashville. While he was away we had a spontaneous visit from our Hawaiian friend who just happens to be visiting NY family. She came for just one night but it’s always fun to play host. We polished off the last of the summer sangria and enjoyed a late evening of girl time once the kiddo was off in dreamland. Hagan and I followed that up with my very first 4H fair experience. We met some friends, enjoyed every sweet thing that was offered such as cotton candy, funnel cake, ice cream. Hagan got to operate a back ho and pretty much didn’t want to do anything else after that. We also enjoyed larger than life robots, petted some cows and bunnies and watched RC cars and other racing sports until we were just pooped. Datty is home now and we will likely try to squeeze a camping trip in before we run down to Indiana for the Labor Day weekend… For 3 yr old celebrations with family.

More, more, more!!! Squeezing the life out of summer!!!

My bestie from grad school came to visit a week ago after attending an east coast meeting. It was incredibly nice to catch up and be social in a deep and cozy way. We had a girl outing in Lambertville with a philly friend and followed it up with a family outing to a Princeton peach festival full of animals, peach food and peach wine. It all felt absolutely divine. We spent the week catching up on some sleep after such a big weekend. This last weekend we kept it mellow, set out to discover Hopewell, an absolute gem of a quaint town. And did the usual weekend chores. SX left this morn to Nashville for the week on another tree adventure. So, this weekend might have to be a philly adventure for a dash of socializing…

We are all home playing house and enjoying each other while the summer gets thick with humid heat. I love it even if it makes falling asleep a challenge. Hagan has been healthy as of late for which I am ever grateful. He loves his daycare and I could not be happier.

We made a trip into New Hope last weekend to visit friends and lounge poolside after a lunch date in Philly to meet up with another east coast (Boston) Seattlelite. It was a big weekend… But perhaps this weekend will be bigger since my bestie from grad school is making a visit. We will be catching up over ice cold sangria, boutique shopping in New Hope and having girlie time with a Philly friend. I’m terribly excited.