Happy Tuesday! Crazy that the weekend has already come and gone. The summer months sure do fly by – especially when we have fun filled weekends like this past one.
Saturday morning we spent cutting, splitting, and stacking wood. Like last year, my parents had wood delivered, and they split it with the neighbors.
My parents have a wood stove that heats the house in the winter, so getting wood ordered like this and cutting it themselves is kinda a part of country life up here. The whole process requires cutting the logs into managable sized pieces, splitting them with the wood splitter (Dad borrowed it from his brother), and stacking it.
Avery jumped right in this year and wanted to help. He tried the wood splitter, but after a go at it, we fell into a routine. Dad cut the wood with his chainsaw, we picked it up and carried it to the splitter…
Avery is all about being strong like Grampy, so he was in charge of getting the smaller pieces.
Mom and Dad split it and put it into the tractor trailer. Avery filled his up himself. And he was all equipped for the work day too, his Mickey Mouse work gloves, earmuffs, and sunglasses for eye protection.
When the tractor was full, Avery and Grampy would drive it over to the wood shed behind the house, dump it, and go back for another load.
In the meantime, I would stack the wood. Avery helped for a while, but then he made a few runs himself with his tractor, getting wood and bringing it around to me.
Avery was loving it and after a while he took a break and started sweeping the garage – such a good little helper! After three hours of this (and many water and popsicle breaks for Avery), we were whipped.
We cleaned up and headed out to the islands. (‘The Islands’ are the islands in Lake Champlain) to a birthday party for Avery’s second cousins. On our way, we stopped to fish on the causeway bridge.
I caught two, Grampy one, and Avery struck out. He had fun picking out worms and trying to snag the fish when the bit.
At the party, Avery had fun playing with his cousins. They had a water balloon fight…
And they played with the new sprinkler we got as a gift. Avery watched for a little, but then he jumped right in. You can see the birthday girl in the pink tutu…
I don’t know where it came from but at one point, Avery had a cute shield:
We had food and cake and the birthday girl opened lots of fun presents. The kiddos had squirt guns out and played with balls and badminton for a while – then it was time to head home. On our way, we stopped for ‘Green Chocolate Ice Cream’, as Avery calls it. (aka Mint Chocolate Chip)
This was the small size! Avery licked up all the sprinkles and then he was done with it… one minute he was eating…
Then he handed it off to me (more squats for me to do later!) and in a few minutes, he was OUT.
It was perfect timing too, because it was 7pm, and on weekends since Avery doesn’t nap, I try to get him to bed by 7pm, so he can sleep 12 hours straight. He slept until 8am the next morning.
Sunday morning we geared up and Avery, Mimi, and I went kayaking on Arrowhead lake. It was such a nice day out. We paddled around for hours and spotted geese families with their babies swimming and eating, turtles sunning on logs, a red winged black bird pestering a blue heron, a fish jump, a male and female duck, and Avery picked some really big lily pads.
We took a jump in Uncle Michael eyes pool (burr!) and after dinner, Avery went thru the notch with Mimi and Grampy for some rock climbing… 
And more ice cream…
Avery passed out on the way home again. Such a fun filled weekend!!!
We’re off camping this coming weekend, so I’ll have lots more pictures and stories to share when we come back. And this weekend it’s officially Summer! Once this rain finally stops, maybe it’ll feel like it!
❤ Meghan
RatnamResidence 