Looking back on July from mid-August, I can see how much we were really enjoying the summer. It seemed like everything was opening up and getting safer. We even dined indoors on this one occasion below! Little did we know that delta was coming.
Another banana bread showdown — this time the previous winner (Eleanor Hennessey) took on the America’s Test Kitchen Kids Cookbook recipe. The Hennessey recipe won again, 3 votes to 1! Pictured below on the right.
Sarah got her first actual haircut since the pandemic started.
The kids did some trial classes at a Taekwondo place in Mamaroneck.
For my birthday this year we got some water in the basement! The pump Andrew purchased three years prior helped out a lot, and we borrowed a wet vac from some friends to finish it off after the water stopped coming in.
Apart from the flooding, my birthday celebrations were wonderful! On Friday we took an uber into the city for dinner at Sushi Seki, a place we used to frequent when we were young and lived in the city. It was still delicious!
On my actual birthday I played tennis in the morning and then we spent the afternoon at the beach, where this magical moment occurred when we were all four reading. My dream come true!
Later on we were joined by some friends to share a bottle of white wine and some pork pate and other snacks that Robin and Reeves had sent (thanks again!!).
Andrew made an ambitious meal for my birthday dinner — lamb chops, dal makhani (not pictured), arugula salad, and homemade roti (which was a first!). It was all beautiful and delicious!
And there was cake, of course!
Our neighbors were away for a week and asked us to keep an eye on their cucumber plants and harvest anything that got too big. Blaine enjoyed this new responsibility!
One weekend we decided to drive out to Long Island to try out a different beach and ended up at Robert Moses beach – it was beautiful!
I was impressed at their beer and cocktail menu, available right on the beach.
Here’s Blaine trying out his new plastic trombone (aka p-bone) which is lighter and easier to handle than a standard trombone. He’s supposed to be joining the band at school next year, hopefully the trombone gets some use!
I seem to be missing camp pictures! After the first week of tennis camp for Sarah, both kids went to one week of half-day camp at the Clay Art Center in Port Chester. The theme was to build your own zoo so the kids got to sculpt several animals and their habitats. We had to buy some bookshelves for their rooms to display all their art.
The next week the kids did a half day camp at Macinspires, focused on the education edition of Minecraft. This was probably the highlight of their summer, playing video games for half the day! We also got to learn about something called “griefing” which is when kids antagonize each other within the game…
After that the kids spent four weeks at the Rye Nature Center Camp, which has been wonderful. The counselors are experienced educators and the camp is small and has a different theme every week. Apart from the mosquito bites and one fall in the pond (Blaine) the kids had a great time and learned a lot!
Then the kids have also dipped their toes into fencing, taekwondo, and Sarah is taking some piano lessons in addition to continuing with her swimming lessons and Blaine is doing his PT and OT. It’s been a busy summer!