The end of summer, that is; the end of summer always comes. While the weather is still pretty steamy and the kids just went swimming at a local lake before supper, school starts tomorrow and, thus, so does the autumn.
The end of summer never officially arrives until Isaac's birthday on August 30th. This year he turned eight and we celebrated at my parent's house with lasagna, caesar salad, garlic bread and a book cake. Perhaps the book cake was an effort on my mother's part to encourage his growth in reading. Whatever the reason, the cake was delicious and just seeing the photo makes me crave chocolate icing. Fr. Joseph Hattie also joined us for the celebration and his presence was such a blessing to our family.
Two days later, the first of September, we celebrated Dave's 42nd birthday. We ate leftover cake, ahem, and new ice cream bars down at the lake. Hannah and I insisted on taking some photos of all eight kids. It is far too easy to put off taking photos in the belief that a photo will be achieved the "next time". The next time inevitably becomes the
next time and the photo never happens. Rather than allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good, we snapped these amateur iPhone pictures and I am delighted with them. (Any Lynch family readers: note Jacob's eyebrow - the spitting image of Gran's.)
Subtle variations on a theme: are they really all ours?
The above photo was snapped a little too late as the light began to die. The below picture was brightened up with the help of a filter. I love these photos if only because the shocking height difference between the twins is just that, shocking. I think that they are well on their way to achieving their birth weights as adult heights: 5 lb 4 oz and 6 lb 5 oz translate very easily to 5'4 and 6'5.
School starts tomorrow and Sarah, after an absence of two years, starts grade one full-time. She is more than ready, but I feel quite sad that her six years at home are drawing to a close. It seems that life is a series of endings: the sands of time run swiftly 'neath my feet.
