end of summer...

can you believe it's fall already? where did the summer go?? and here in Portland, it feels like fall. we usually get an "indian summer" in these parts and it can stay warm and sunny through the end of October, not so this year.

what's funny is that we went all summer - with at least two triple-digit heatwaves - and no kiddie pool for Molly. and then i was walking home from work a couple Sundays ago and a house on my street had a pool out front with a free sign on it. i grabbed it and ran home (almost "taking off" a couple times with the lift the kiddie pool was getting)!

so there we were, right before fall kicks in and we finally have a pool for Molly - poor girl! thankfully we had one more week of warmish weather after that and we took advantage of it! during the week she had a pool party with her buddy Beau and on the weekend with me she took a dip in her pool, played with her new shark squirt gun, and even gave her trike a wash!

the other big end of summer event was the 1st Annual Charleston Ave Block Party!! wahoo! we blocked off the street and all came together with food and music and toys. it was so much fun. you've all heard me go on and on about all the kids on our block who are super close to Molly in age, and you've even "met" most of them via this blog. now i can be sure and introduce you to the whole crew!

at the very top of this post you'll see (from left to right) Molly, Mishya, Amelia and her little brother Beau. Beau was born just two weeks (exactly!) before Molly and the two them are total buddies! to the right you'll see Molly playing with Beau (with Beau's dad Sean). they're having fun on a slide that Mishya's grandpa had made for her and her brother when they were little. the slide now lives in our backyard and Molly loves it!

next up, Vincent! Vincent will be turning one in just a few days! he's the youngest of the crew on the block, but he is mighty! here he is with Molly and Zero and his mom, Ingrid. here's a funny, Zero and Ingrid knew each other from the theater world and we just happened to move in directly across the street from them. we also moved in four houses down from a woman Zero worked with at the daycare...Charleston Ave is a small world unto its own.

and then there is Adriana - she's about six months younger than Molly. and she is such a beautiful, sweet, kind little girl. sometimes i see Molly around her and i worry that she'll bulldoze right over Adriana. but that's totally not the case. my daughter may outweigh her by 10 lbs, but Miss Adriana holds her own, i mean check her out with this meat!

yay Charleston Ave!

also marking the end of the summer season was St. Johns last farmers' market. it was its first year and it was such a huge success. for the last market we invited some friends to come join us and Molly got all dressed up in her farmers' market outfit her friend Janie made for her (see to the left and at the bottom). it was one of those last warm and sunny days. we saw many of our friends at the market (boy does Molly make us popular, not nearly that many people would have stopped and said hello if not for her, she really saves us!) and we saw one of our favorite bands, Jelly Jar, play. an all around lovely time!

and then just because i thought they were cute, a couple shots from this last weekend. the first is from saturday morning, when i found miss moo had strapped baby doll into her chair and was feeding her breakfast. too cute! and then later in the day we went for a walk and Molly insisted on bringing "tiny bear" (as she calls him) in the stroller, dressed in some of her undies. that got quite a few comments from passerbys.



happy autumn to everyone!