My sweet little Beans,
August has been eventful! In the beginning of the month, Mabel was enrolled in a ballet class. Unfortunately, whether due to COVID or some other reason, she was one of only two students and lost interest fairly quickly. It was a fun attempt, but we ultimately decided not to go back.
We took hikes with Daddy, on his days off, gathering more hours for outdoors and exploring our little neck of the woods.
We traveled down to NC to visit our friends Renata and Julia and their kids. A weekend of fun relaxing in the basement of Renata's house while the kids rekindled old friendships. It had been over a year since we were last all together and they picked up right where they left off.
Next we hit up some museums on the particularly hot days. We went to the Barry Art Museum as well as Nauticus.
I tried my hand at crepes and found out I'm pretty darn good at it! So we got a little crepe crazy for a couple weeks.
In mid-August, the day before our big family trip to DC, Evie slid her back down a door frame and got one heck of a splinter. We were tossed about to different medical facilities before we landed in the children's ER. For as much effort as it took to get someone to take it out, it healed almost immediately. Thank goodness.
Our DC trip was the best family trip I've ever been on in my life. You girls loved the hotel, we saw so many museums and the gardens! Oh, the gardens. Such beautiful flowers and plants. We even managed to enjoy the National Mall despite the heat. We absolutely loved the Smithsonian Natural History museum but we also went to the Castle and the Air and Space museums too. The only snag we ran into was on the day we were set to leave. The Smithsonian zoo ran out of parking and we were forced to make alternative plans. Quickly, Dad set into action and found us a park to hike at and you girls played in the water and rocks for a bit before the rain chased us back to the car.
The drive home from DC was relatively uneventful until we got to the bridge we have to cross to get back to Norfolk. Traffic backed up so long and so far that I was very glad we did not decide to take my car. No AC would have been absolutely miserable. But we did eventually make it through and once home, we were all happy to see Sydney and Pepper. Pepper was only mildly annoyed to see we had returned.
Back at home, we made a paper chain to count down the days til school starts. We did school supply shopping and found out Mabel was waitlisted for the preschool program. So it's just gonna be me and Mabel at home this fall while Evie gets to return to in-person schooling.
Seeing as we'd been out of town a bunch, we decided to make a dedicated playdate to hang out with Grandma. She treated us to lunch and a trip to the trampoline park where both of you girls impressed me with your skills at climbing out of the foam pit. I, on the other hand, struggled some.
And of course you can't have one grandma without the other! Granny drove up for a day to spend time with you girls and do some thrifting and chatting with me too. We miss her being so far away, but she is coming back for the first day of school. :)
Each day this month, Evie has been doing reading lessons so she can return to school prepared for first grade. Mabel's been practicing her writing and learning letters. Since Mabel won't be able to go to preschool in person, I'm going to find her a preschool curriculum to teach from.
So as you can see, August was absolutely brimming with fun, adventure, conflict, injury, romance! Okay, maybe not really romance? But definitely the rest. Speaking of rest, it might be time to wind this down. Here are some photos from the month. I love you both so much I could cry. Thank you for being my incredible daughters. <3
Mom
