Blame it on the weather

This weather is officially getting the best of me. I started writing this post four or five days ago but got distracted or overwhelmed or something and since everything is so HOT and STEAMY here I can't seem to get motivated to finish this post. Every time I get to the computer lately I spend my time poking around the internet on unneccessary stuff, like how much Hello Kitty bento boxes are going for on eBay or other people's blogs (people who are evidently more dedicated their craft than I) or other stupid stuff like THAT THING that many of you know I like but that I will not mention here for fear of the mockery that would ensue. (I SWEAR, there is only one __________ website that I check out and only because it is funny and makes me laugh, which I definitely need as I deal with four little kids in this weather.)

Aaaaanyway, I know some of you (Lorna!) have missed photos and updates for the last two weeks, so I'm cramming it all into one post.

Here's a recap:

Fourth of July. We went to the Thomaston Fourth of July parade on Saturday and then had Kathryn's fifth birthday party in the afternoon (FIVE! can you believe it?).

The kids love any parade, big or small. This one fell in the "big" category and they were thrilled with the bands, floats, revolutionary war re-enactors and especially the CANDY. Candy is never as good as when it is chucked at you by a troop of Boy Scouts or from a fire truck.

Kathryn's birthday was June 27 but we waited to have the party at Nain and Taid's on the 3rd of July. Kathryn had requested a Pink Sparkle Fairy birthday, so I did my best with sparkly pink stuff. For fun the kids all decorated wands with plastic "jewels" - even the boys, though their wands were more manly. Less tulle and ribbons and more dark blue and moons.

My camera was not present for any of the actual Fourth of July festivities (I know, I get a Bad Blogger Card for that), so there are no photos of the second parade we went to or of Curtis's birthday cake (a huge trifle with cake, pudding, whipped cream, cherries and blueberries - I always do some sort of red, white and blue cake for him) that we brought to Tommy and Laurie's annual Independence Day party. I really missed some good shots, like the kids loving the fireworks. At one point Dexter, who had been open-mouth thrilled by the exploding lights in the sky, said to me "I LIKE it, Mommy!

The second parade was a hoot, too. It was, literally, about 25 people who rigged up floats pulled by tractors down a dirt road, with about 20 spectators. Fifteen were from our family. They have been doing this parade for something like 20 years now and it is one of the more awesomely hilariously weird things I have seen. It's so great and they have such a fun time doing it. I promise I'll remember the camera next year.

For me, one of the biggest highlights of this summer so far was spending time with my cousin Ann and her family, who visited Maine for about a week and a half.

I really didn't know Ann (or any of my cousins for that matter) growing up, in part because they lived in Kansas (or Colorado or Texas, for the the other cousins I barely know or don't know at all) and also because my mother was not particularly close with her half-siblings.

I so very much enjoyed getting to know my cousin and her great husband Amba and kids Cole, Hugh and Trevor. It was like opening up this whole branch of the family I knew but...didn't really know. I am just SO HAPPY that their original travel/vacation plans to the Northeast got changed around so they could spend time with all of us here in Maine and Katie in Vermont.

The kids had tons of fun playing with their second cousins once removed (we think that is the right designation for what they are...). When they visited us here in Rumford we went up to Roxbury Pond and had such a great time we didn't leave until nearly 9 p.m.