July 24 – August 26, 2019

While Mina does often instruct us to look at her butt, I think what’s happening here is we’re supposed to see the cute little flowers tucked into her pocket. She  loves that the lawn is full of clover!

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With Halloween approaching, we thought we should see whether the next candidate for a costume would fit her yet. It fits perfectly, and she spent the afternoon wandering the house like a fluffy blue dream.

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We opened Mina’s purse the other day and discovered that she has four different pairs of sunglasses. A girl needs options, I suppose.

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The kids mostly get along lately. Linus has an incredibly cruel streak that he brings out sometimes. One afternoon I heard him tell Mina, “There was only supposed to be one baby, but…” then he just kind of shrugged. Poor Mina just forgives him and comes back for more.

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Linus got to celebrate his fifth birthday on his actual birthday! I think we had more than 40 people in the house at the height of the party. Linus was very sweet about sharing all of his toys.

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Mina has been working on her chopstick skills (which she calls “short sticks”). She’s getting really good!

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I think I posted some phone photos of this earlier. I found some fingerpaints in the closet and let the kids go nuts with it in the driveway. Removing their clothes was a very smart idea.

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Little Nana… When did he get so big?

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This turned out to be a very active day for us. We headed to Acton Arboretum for what we thought would be a little stroll, but then we agreed that it would be fun to take the longer loop.

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The kids have stopped running from dogs, and now they just slip off the trail and hide behind a tree when they see one coming.

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Linus consulted the map to make sure we were on track. He actually does understand how to read a map, and can usually find where we are if there are enough symbols.

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Mina went all out with accessories for the hike: bracelets, necklace, and shark chopsticks.

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Don’t worry: we always do tick checks before bed. The kids are very trained. They strip off all of their cloths and spread out their arms and legs. Somehow I’m the only one who ever gets one, though.

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So after the hike, we headed back to Bedford where the library was hosting a touch-a-truck event.

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And then we headed over to our favorite sushi place for lunch. All that before lunch! Yen took advantage of the lighting to do a little study of Linus.

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The kids ordered their favorite: tomago. It’s a sweet-salty egg dish that’s sometimes served over sushi rice, but they prefer it plain. The little romantics discovered that if you put two pieces together, you get a heart!

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Mina’s hair is getting so long, but she’s refusing to let me cut more than the bangs. I miss her little bob!

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Lunch picnic! I think Linus lives on these crackers lately.

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Mina’s current hobby is constructing huge things she tells us are jails. Then she puts bad guys in them. I have no idea why the obsession with jails, but it’s been going on for a few weeks now.

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This is not a jail, it’s a stump grinder. We had 11 trees removed a few months ago, and we finally got someone to come over to grind the stumps. Linus was fascinated and constructed models of it for days after.

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Then they went outside to dig through the remains of the trees.

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Wow, there’s a lot of hugging this month!

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I was so excited last weekend because we got to go to a real county fair. Usually “fairs” out here turn out to be nothing but a fairway, but this was a real 4H fair! We got there early to take in the horse show, which was dressage and a trail course.

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They didn’t have a lot of animals (as you’d expect from such an urban place), but we did really enjoy the agility courses. In addition to the horses, we saw sheep, dogs, and even rabbits put through their paces.

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The kids got to make spiders out of pipe cleaners and wool.

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There was a demonstration of miniature steam engines. Linus was enthralled.

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The next day we decided to hike a trail we haven’t visited in a few months. The kids have named it the “fungus trail.” Have I mentioned that Linus is obsessed with seeing different fungi, and that we’re all working together to find him different specimens?

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Look for this one on our Christmas card in a few months, I’d imagine.

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This was really an interval course. Linus made us stop to see fungi, and then Mina made us run to the next stop.

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This was our prize find. I think it’s chicken of the woods? We’re not brave enough to find out for sure.

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This state park is built on an old farm, part of which is still working. They grow corn, raise horses and cows, and make their own ice cream.

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Yen hates these so much! But this one did make for a lovely photo.

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We love watching Mina run. She just goes flat out, and it looks effortless for her.

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This came around the corner in front of us. It was all we could do to keep Mina from knocking him down and taking over.

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