August began with a visit from tropical storm Isaias on the 4th.  I took these pics of our tomatoes and dahlias in the front planting bed in case they were torn apart by the storm!

Andrew decided we should buy a portable generator, ordered one from Home Depot, and picked it up the same day.  Thank goodness, because we were all set when we lost power on the 4th!  Well, after a few visits from the electrician.  It was enough power to keep our fridge and freezer going, internet and lights.

The damage was pretty incredible, a lot of large old trees came down.  We were without power until Saturday the 8th but we were in good shape with our generator.  I was sad to see the damage to the village paddle courts, which have since, thankfully, been repaired.

I was also doing the laundry in the sink!  The kids were back at Badger Day Camp for three weeks in August, and had a wonderful time.  It was different this year with smaller groups, no buses, no laundry.  But still such a wonderful change of pace for the kids, and break for the grown-ups!

Sarah’s counselor was very diligent about taking pictures, so here are a bunch from her group, the Flamingos.

Sarah was very impressed by some of her fellow campers’ bracelets, and came home telling me about rainbow friendship bracelets.  So I dug out my old friendship bracelet kit from when I was a kid and taught her how to make them!  Blaine even got in on it for half a bracelet.

It turned out Sarah’s campmates were doing something new called rubber band bracelets, I learned when someone gave her one as a gift!  We bought a kit and now she is a rubber band bracelet factory.

Blaine’s counselor for the Jets was not so into photos, so I don’t have any of his group!  But I did have to pick him up early a lot for PT and OT and he was sad to miss out on the daily ice cream afternoon snack.  So we made up for it by seeking out the best ice cream sandwiches around.  The winner was this giant chocolate chocolate sandwich from Bona Bona.

We also took in the local sites and sought out this Mamaroneck historical site, called the “Skinny House.”

I took advantage of the Badger weeks by going on solo hikes all around town, on the Leatherstocking Trail, at Sheldrake, and at the Hommocks Conservation Area.  The sign says, “Leave only footprints” but the local yutes seemed to be leaving solo cups and natty light cans.

One day I also made my first pandemic trip to Costco, where I had to wait in a long line outside to gain entry.

One night we went out for dinner and stopped at the newly redone Constitution Park to check out our family brick.  The kids were sad the cool new playground was not yet open (and still isn’t).

We tried a lot of new 5-star fruits on fresh direct, including these plumcots.

Sarah’s new favorite book is called “Quit Calling me a Monster” by Jory John illustrated by Bob Shea.  She thinks this particular page is hilarious, where the monster says, “It’s not like I ever call you names, do I?  I could easily be like, ‘Look at that little meat snack over there!’ or ‘There goes the kid I’m going to chomp up!'”

In August we also got some caterpillars in the mail.  They quickly got bigger and formed their chrysalides, and then it was time to wait.

We ended up with some nice cherry tomatoes in the front planting bed!  Most went to the squirrels, but we got a few!

I took this one because of how much I love that Blaine loves to read on the beach.

Sarah’s baseball season came to a close!  All the kids were on coach pitch by the end, and they all had a wonderful time!  Thanks to Andrew and the other parents for coaching!

Luckily by the time we were ready to leave for Cape Cod all of the butterflies had emerged from their chrysalides!  They were painted lady butterflies.  We released them on the morning we were leaving!

One of the butterflies emerged a little crumpled, we think because the chrysalis had fallen onto the ground in the container.  Blaine named it “Weaky” and we left it a little food and wished it the best!  🙁  Poor little guy.