Here's some of what we've been up to for the past two months.
The kids went back to school on Tuesday, September 2, and not a moment too soon. Well, actually, it turns out that summer is about two weeks too long... but that's another story.
As usual, we went apple picking in September.
This year, Casey plays on the travel soccer team. Here he is before his first game (with his pal Sky) in his new team uniform.
Every September, on the Saturday closest to 9-11, hikers from all over New England scale the 48 peaks of New Hampshire that are 4,000+ feet high and fly the American flag. The boy scout troop that Beau now belongs to (he crossed over from cub scouts to boy scouts last spring) typically climbs one of the peaks. This year, they climbed Mt. Hale. Here is Beau holding up the Stars and Stripes.
Over the summer, in addition to outgrowing his jeans, Beau outgrew his bike. Since he's now riding his bike to school every day, finding a "new" bike for him became our September project. After weeks of trolling the ads on craigslist, we finally found a great bike for a great price.
Casey's ice hockey team played in a tournament over Columbus Day weekend. They came in third. See that hair plastered to his head? That's from sweat! I love hockey because it makes the kids work hard. (And tires them out.) Oh, and Casey -- who plays defense -- scored three goals over the course of the tournament.
And here's a small video of Casey's goals at the tournament in Nashua. He's number 16 in maroon. Also on Columbus Day weekend, while raking leaves, Casey and I found two Brown Snakes. (Yes, they are "brown" but they are also called "Brown Snakes.") We kept them for two nights so that Casey could show them to his classmates, then we released them back into our yard so they could find appropriate places to hibernate.
Beau wants me to tell you that on Columbus Day weekend he was at MassJam -- once-every-five-years, state-wide boy scout event. Yes, he's now old enough to leave us for whole weekends at a time.
