i celebrated turning thirty-one over the weekend with some quality garden time, farmers markets, good food, friends, and crafting.  and as a special gift, the pools closing coincided with my birthday weekend, meaning that saturday was dog days of summer!  (we go every year, here are last year and the year before)

the markets are vibrant and lively - you can feel summer coming to an end.

 bella helps with the harvests and then the sowing of cool weather veggies.  it looks like we're going to be eating a lot of pesto this winter.

^^a cross stitch i made for our new nephew, emil.^^  we got out to colorado for a couple of days to meet the adorable new addition to the family, and this project was so perfect for relieving flight anxiety.  i think i'll do one on every trip from now on.

 dog days was a blast, as usual, though belle didn't do a lot of leaping into the water like she normally does.  it's hard to believe she's almost ten.

 ^^my pick for best in show this year^^  must. eat. all of the water!

 we even managed to get some swim time in, ourselves!

 a few nights ago we were lucky enough to spot this cicada molting in our back yard.  its wings came out in ridiculously vibrant colors.  i've always loves collecting their shed exoskeletons, but have never been able to see it happening.  really cool.  a few days later a praying mantis kept following me and trying to land on me.  i'm taking both of these encounters as signs of positive transformation, rebirth, and inner calmness/inner strength.  all things that will be very helpful in the coming months ;)

while 30 was a fantastic year, 31 is shaping up to be miraculous!

ah summer.  my favorite season is finally here.  dc completely skipped spring.  it was just cold for a really long time, then a little chilly, and now it's in the 90s.

weekends these days are the best.  they're all day fun in the sun.  last weekend norah came over for a pool party.  she was so cute splashing around her little pool.

 weekdays have also gotten more relaxing.  the days are long so you feel like you have so much more time to get things done.

a very nice summer afternoon routine has begun to develop.  i get home, switch my pumps out for crocs, and head outside to check out our garden's progress.  as usual, it looks like everything has grown five inches overnight.  with all the rain we've had the growth is getting out of control! then, like clockwork, the ice cream truck goes up and down the street and i once again get its song stuck in my head for the evening.  the girls like to run around the yard, do some rolling, and eat some grass.  the other day we made clover necklaces and crowns for the girls' heads.  they were happy enough to help pick the clover flowers, but didn't really like wearing them :)

at some point after checking all of the garden beds and playing in the grass, we head up to the porch to sit and enjoy how quiet and peaceful our yard is while drinking some cool lemonade.  it's so easy to sit and do absolutely nothing until it's just about time to throw dinner on the grill.  to top it off, after dinner the fireflies have started coming out, twinkling over the darkened lawn.

why can't it always be summer?

pax brought lots of snow and we spent most of the snow day shoveling and 

playing in it.  we got between 12 and 13 inches!  poor bella :)

here's a 35 second video of the girls and i having some fun.  bella's bunny hop is the best.

the leaves around town have been changing into the most beautiful colors over the last few weeks.  and now they are falling.  all of them are falling. 

and now our yard's got a leaf problem :)

 we've never had to deal with this many leaves before.  in texas and colorado they fall year round and you just mow over them.  i guess we could have mowed these into mulch too, but then we wouldn't have had a giant pile of leaves to play in.  and we wouldn't get to use the blower.

 the leaves seemed to make a comfortable bed.  they didn't try to escape.  and blowing the yard must have stirred up lots of good smells.  bella had her nose in the air most of time she was outside with us.  her little nose held up high and twitching to catch the scents is one of the cutest things she does.  you can see the bliss on her face as she enjoys two of her favorite things: sunshine and smells.

it's furlough day 14... we've officially been shutdown for a fortnight!

i think everyone is getting a little tired of talking about the shutdown... the conversation has kind of moved to what people are doing to entertain themselves without the money we're not getting paid.  and our dc friends are getting a little concerned about what's going to happen with the trash and other things that are usually paid for by the state government when the emergency money runs out.

here's a pretty hilarious buzzfeed of people disobeying posted signs to keep out of monuments.

and now, happy columbus day!
i meant to post pups and pilsners a week or so ago, but then the shutdown happened and i forgot.  so here we go.

pups and pilsners is a small beer festival that you bring your dogs to.  we met up with a few of our friends and their dogs to sample craft beers and hang out for the afternoon.

the best part of this thing was watching everyone with their pooches.  so many cute personalities, breeds, colors, ages, sizes... everywhere you looked was cuteness!

let's get the human pics out of the way.  cheers friends!

 first prize for cuteness goes to this baby bulldog.  o.m.g. he was perfect.

 second goes to yoda dog.  the cutest, you are.

 third prize goes to this man.  he is not only carrying his wife's bright orange kate spade bag, the bag has a chihuahua in it.  the man's got confidence.

 obviously people holding their dogs are cute.

 ^^mark and sweet baby yalla are on the left.^^

 ^^i was already being creepy taking pics of everyone else's dogs... why not their kids, too?^^

 ^^tiny killer standing on chad's foot and a huge great dane.^^

^^of course both of the two most beautiful dogs to ever exist on earth were there.  just look at that drool.  love her.^^