Week 38--Rehearsal Prep

Monday, Sept. 13th

My only picture...a screenshot, pulling inspiration from the world wide web for the rehearsal dinner.

Tuesday, Sept. 14th

Pop and Kiki joined us for Taco Tuesday.

Wednesday, Sept. 15th

I loved those days.

I finished at Bunce.  Loved Isaac's solution to the wall going down to the basement.  

After a month of hibernation (?), these guys made a roaring comeback.

Rocco loves my phone for pictures.

Thursday, Sept. 16th

I went to Back to School Night for Trevor's high school.  Loved that we opened in prayer.  Loved that their one-community summer read was The Red Bandana.  Loved that their school word-of-the-year is "selflessness", loved that the classrooms each display a red bandana as a reminder.

As I said, we learned more about 9/11 because of the anniversary.  THREE times, this story came up.  It was Trevor's summer reading, Nathanael told me BU wore this special uniform on 9/11 this year and showed me the picture after hearing the story himself, and then this beautiful video was recommended to us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S77KYbkmjwc

I had never heard Welles Crowther's name before, but love that my boys learned his story of true heroism this year, and so glad he's still being honored 20 years later.

Tailgating in the ChickFilA parking lot.

Rocco and I finished my Christmas present from Lisa.  Love that picture and all the years of memories it represents!

Friday, Sept. 17th

Quick run up to Riverview to drop off some $......it's gettin' real!

The pressure of the week-before-wedding, has-to-be-perfect haircut!

We had the distinct honor to speak on a panel at youth group.  The subject was healthy dating and marriage, which we do NOT claim to be experts on.  But we do hopefully come across as open, honest, and authentic.  Super special to sit across from C4 and Kelly as they spoke on the dating aspect, exactly one week before their big day!  Also, it's always fascinating to see teens amongst themselves. 

Saturday, Sept. 18th

Colombo, Jr. was inducted into the Brewer High School Football Hall of Fame.  In 1968 his team went undefeated and won the State Championship for the first time in school history.  Fun facts I learned while watching the livestream: there were 107 players on the squad, Friday night games drew 3,500 fans, and there were weekly parades before games.  Like the good 'ole days!

My husband took Rocco up and swung through Boston to grab Milo.  It was sold as a fun night at hotel- bring your bathing suit!- and honor Papa at his ceremony.  In reality, they arrived just in time for the 4-hour ceremony and listened to speech after speech after speech.  But they were champs, even if they didn't get to swim.

We had a group chat going as we watched the livestream.  Here's Ollie pointing to Papa.

I also pulled 25 pounds of pork this day and made all the mac and cheese in prep for Tuesday rehearsal dinner, finishing up the day with a run to Ikea with C4, Kelly, and her mom to pick up a couple more things they needed for the house.

Sunday, Sept. 19th

Soccer all morning (on outdoor turf).  Renna played in back-to-back games and then we stayed right there to watch Gianna.

Week 37--9/11 Remembered

Monday, Sept. 6th

We had one of the best weather days ever for Harkness, and since we were forced to a new spot ("our" spot has a dead tree so that area is closed), we got a better view!

On our way home we stopped by C4 and Kelly's.  They'd been working on setting up all day.

Tuesday, Sept. 7th

The official start to another year...

Homeschool was a soft launch this year.  We did 50% throttle up until the wedding because my days were filled with errands, crafting, planning, and reduced mental capacity for school.  

Just the two R's at home this year.

Still love this picture!

Wednesday, Sept. 8th

I had about 3 days of work over at Bunce, but this was our "big" work day with Isaac and Pop included.  Pop put up the faux wall in the basement- it came out great!  Isaac did the dozen miscellaneous fixes, patches, etc.

Annual girls' night out in Mystic.  

Thursday, Sept. 9th

Gulp!

The whole crew and then some.  The dining room was closed and it was raining, so we improvised.

More cookies!  Even Mason helped!  This was the night we finished!  163 bags (180 guests, but I knew some wouldn't take a bag....also, I was DONE baking cookies!) with 4 cookies each...652 cookies baked, bagged, twist-tied, tagged, and bowed!

Friday, Sept. 10th

We re-fi'd Bunce and closed on it this day.

Saturday, Sept. 11th

The faces of all of the victims. 

Twenty year anniversary of 9/11.  The kids spent more time than in the past years reading, watching of videos, learning about that tragic day, the weeks and months following, and the true heroism of so many.  

As we sat out at Renna's soccer game, a small group of us noted how similar the weather was to that day 20 years ago.  Warm, beautiful, blue skies.

Renna's team lost to their hardest opponent of the year.  Our coach's underwhelming pep talk at the end, "I don't know what happened."  Apparently he felt like we should've won, we just somehow fell apart.

Sunday, Sept. 12th

Football is an increasingly big deal at our house.  Now that 5 people are involved with Fantasy Football, everyone seems to spend Sundays caring about the games.  To celebrate the season opener, instead of Daddy's Dinner, I made a big spread of all the dips and apps.

Some type of "football" / wrestling / loud, painful / apparently fun game.

Week 36--LobsterFest

Monday, Aug. 30th

There he goes... off to college.  My precious 3rd born.  He's studying engineering and commuting to the Storrs campus.  My heart struggles with these milestones.  I have to dig to find reason to celebrate because my knee-jerk is to mourn what is no more.  My kids are always ready before me.

I hugged him close and prayed a blessing over him.  I held him tight as the tears filled my eyes.  He gently said, "It's okay, Mom...I'll be home at five o'clock."

Looking so professional in her scrubs as she headed out the door to her first clinical.

Tuesday, Aug. 31st

She had her headphones on and was feelin' it, so I got a lovely poolside show.

Wednesday, Sept. 1st

Renna and her friend played outside in the second significant dumping of rain in just two weeks, leaving the same areas flooded as 10 days before.

Rocco's rainy day.

Thursday, Sept. 2nd

Throwback!!  

Case Mtn's rushing waters.

I had to pop over to the church to look for something Brent needed, as I stepped off the elevator and headed to the storage area, I literally gasped as I saw the wedding backdrop being put together.  It caught me off guard and gave me that "oh my gosh...this is getting real!" feeling.

Back at it!

Friday, Sept. 3rd

No picture.

Saturday, Sept. 4th

The TBQ crew was up and out early for a practice meet in New Hampshire.

Renna's first game this fall, which happened to be a 4-game tournament over 2 days.

I kept Dakota for the day for Lisa so he helped Nathanael clean the pool.

We hosted Saturday night- the prelude or appetizer to LobsterFest and the Boyd's treated us to Tony's Pizza and Colombo finished off his fireworks stash.

Sunday, Sept. 5th

Our 17th Annual LobsterFest.  It was such a perfect day.  We started early (with an amazing brunch!) in order to get more time together.  Between periods of drip-drops we managed to squeeze in Bingo, football, volleyball, board games, and also held a Fantasy Football draft for the cousin league (FFCL).  Indeed, we squeezed more into one day than ever previously attempted!  Haha!!  Lisa's amazing at capturing a day!

Amanda figured out how to call numbers over the bluetooth speaker and sounded exactly like a Bingo hall.

Lobstering.

Funny YouTube videos.

Kiki joined the FFCL, so C4 explained how the draft and trades would happen.

C4, on his own, stepped up the league stakes for their second year.  He bought a trophy and gave it to Trey for winning last year.  It will get passed around year-to-year to the winner.

"The Draft".  Serious business.

There's Lisa!!!

It was unfortunate that Renna missed a lot of the party (and I missed her games!), but her team won the tournament going undefeated all 4 games.