Heat Wave in Boston -- First Trip to Walden Pond

This week, Boston is having a heat wave: Sat., Sun., Mon., and Tues. temperatures were in the 90s. We survived the weekend (even played some baseball), but Monday afternoon, the kids and I drove out of town and made the first trip this season to Walden Pond where we swam and sat lakeside for 4 hours before heading back to the city, which by then had cooled off enough to be tolerable.

It was one of our best trips to Walden Pond in a long time -- just me and my own kids ... no extra friends or neighbors. The kids were happy to be cool and wet, they played together, and they each built a sand castle, which they destroyed before leaving. I didn't have the camera with me, so I only have photos that I took with my phone; if I ever figure out to download those photos, I can post them.

We survived yesterday afternoon with a trip the local library, where we enjoyed the a/c.

Today, thankfully, the weather has turned a cool, pleasant 80-something.

Blue Belt for Beau

Tonight, Beau performed his karate moves at the end-of-school-year performance. And he qualified for his blue belt.

Lazy Cat

Today, I made the bed around Trixie. An hour later, and she's still there.



But FINALLY I'm up-to-date on blogging.

Beau's Art Piece

Each spring, there is an exhibit of art work done by the Cambridge public school students.

Beau's tower (toothpicks, skewers, and glue) was exhibited as a piece from his school.

Memorial Day Weekend

On Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, the cub scouts helped place flags on the graves of the veterans killed in action.



On Sunday, we drove out to Tully Lake for the day. Some friends were there camping for the weekend, so we joined them for canoeing and cavorting.



Britt had his best day of fishing in years. This is a small bass. You should have seen the one that got away! (Seriously.)



We stayed through dinner and did the s'mores thing before we drove home.



Sunday, the scouts marched in the Cambridge Memorial Day parade. Casey is at the far end of the banner. Beau's legs are visible beneath the American flag that he is carrying.



We finished off the holiday weekend with a trip to the appliance store to buy a new refrigerator... but that's another story.

Birthday Celebrations

Britt claims that I don't celebrate my birthday but rather "birthday week." This year, it was only a couple of days of celebration.

Since this year my birthday fell on a Tuesday, which is cub scouts night, we had a family dinner on Monday: kebabs & veggies plus crepes for dessert.





Casey even did the washing up afterward.



Turning on the game at bedtime, the "boys" got sucked into the final inning of Jon Lester's no hitter. Can you see the anxiety in Casey's eyes?



With one out left to go, we were all tense,



but it was quite exciting at the end.



Next day, Mom arrived from TN, so while we all bustled off to scouts, she made a salad dinner for us to come home to.



We also had cupcakes,



and Beau serenaded us.



We ended the celebration by dancing the Macarena.

Early Birthday Present?

On Sunday, we finally got over our plot in the community garden. We got it cleaned up and put in some tomato and pepper seedlings and planted pole beans and squash seeds. Last year we got the garden underway on Mother's Day. This year, we got it in just in time to be an early birthday present to me.

Look: our plot is all cleaned up and it even has a "Beau" on it.