A Beautiful Summer Solstice

Violet enjoying blueberry pancakes.

Tasting honeysuckle.

Snack Picnic.

Violet heading for the pond.

Praying Mantis Egg Case

Violet looking so much like baby pictures of me.

Look who chose this day to stand completely on her own!

Mama and Pen swimming.

Solstice dinner, tofu-spinach quiche, salad, bread, and  ice water with mint from our garden.

Violet drumming down the sun with the water pitcher and the quiche serving thing.

Goodnight, Glorious Sun.

We had such a nice Summer Solstice. The day began with delicious blueberry pancakes made by Steve. Then we all went for a walk at Mount Hope Farm in Bristol. We gathered wildflowers along the way, scoped out all the blackberry and raspberry for picking in the coming weeks, and while we ate the grapes we brought we watched a beautiful swan and a family of mama and baby ducks swimming among the waterlilies

When we came home we were surprised to find our praying mantis egg case had arrived earlier than we expected it, so their home had to be set up. After that we all took a nice long nap and slept through the hottest part of the day. Then, while I made our dinner Steve and the girls walked to the common to watch the carnival setting up - oh, is Penelope excited about that!

We all walked down to our little beach, Penelope and I swam and swam. It was so wonderful.  Happily my aunt sent me a bathing suit just in time for this, as the only one I had was a maternity suit from last year, which wasn't going to work.  Because Violet is very little and Steve is a water weenie, they both stayed on the shore and baby played very happily in the sand. Violet chose this very special day to stand up completely unassisted. There she stood, feet firmly planted in the sand, watching the setting sun just like a big kid. After we dried off and changed we enjoyed a picnic dinner and then some solstice appropriate stories while we ate chocolate chip cookies and watched the sun go down. It was a beautiful day.