Summer is Here

Summer has begun. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, summer arrived a little early and brought with it extreme heat. The heat broke for about a week and it was fantastic. We were even able to open the windows for a little while to get some fresh breezes. But by Sunday the heat returned and we are looking at another couple days of 100 degrees. Ick. At least we made the most of it while it was decent out.

I spent time in the front yard pulling weeds and making the front nice. It wasn't really the plan but I got a $20 coupon for plants so I figured why let it go to waste? (Yes, $20. We keep getting "Welcome to the neighborhood" deals in the mail. Yipee!) So I pulled some ugly old things and replaced them with blooming yellow laternas. Yeah, I never heard of 'em either but they are nice. Nathan was clearly happy to be outside too. He played with a kickball, his car, buckets, sidewalk chalk and whatever else he could to entertain himself for a long time until I had to bribe him with a popsicle to get just a few more minutes out of him. He loves the "pops".

Over the weekend, my godparents, Kate & Larry were in town. We joined them with Mom and Ed to see some fireworks in Butner. You know, Butner - where Madoff is in prison. That's the only reason people have heard of this town. That's because there isn't much there but at least they put in on a good fireworks show. We sat on the grass in front of a lake, had a picnic dinner and chased Nathan around for hours. The chasing part was exhausting but this is the norm. He likes to explore everything around him, especially the people. He will just walk into a group of people and be part of their little circle like he knows them. Of course he is always welcome. Smiles and hellos are given in return for his forwardness and curiosity. By nightfall I hoped he would settle a bit but he wanted to keep running, even if he couldn't see a thing. When the fireworks started he was in awe. For about a minute. He enjoyed them like we knew he would but the kid doesn't slow down. At least he sleeps well at the end of the day.

Saturday we had out first big shindig at our new place. It was a great turnout. I gave the tour a million times and my favorite part is seeing the reaction to the "blue room". Our bonus room is really something and everyone's jaw drops when they see it. "This is enormous!" I know!

Food was good. Company was good. We used every part of the house. We threw the big kids upstairs, we used the deck, the front yard and even the very back yard. Leo wanted to have a little bon fire where the old owners clearly had their own fire going. It's a perfectly cleared spot for a swing set or a fire pit. The fire pit option wins for now. The fire was a success that we shared with the few friends that lingered and Nathan fell asleep on my lap - something he hasn't done in a long time.

Sunday was another day of partying as we were invited to our neighbors in the afternoon. There were tons of little kids. I'm so glad Nathan gets to play more regularly with kids his age. There is an abundance of them around here!

Yesterday we had another visit to the pool (we also went last week when Kerri, Rob and Logan joined us) and visited with some other kids as well. And today is a day of packing. We are off to Wilmington/ Myrtle Beach for a few days. We will stop at Nonni & Poppi's for a night, Myrtle the next, then back at Nonni's again. They are at a great stopping over point! And it looks like super hot weather here which means perfect beach days by the water. I would say we are off to a great start of summer!