365::240

Today....meeting your teacher for the first time, doing a little reading and getting reaquainted with the playground. YOu are so excited to go on the bus and see your friends tommorrow! You are the big kid in the school now....don't forget how proud I am of you:) Love you my big second grader!

Goodbye summer.

This afternoon we all attended Breanna's preschool open house (it's her third year there and she just waltzed right in!). The program has expanded from one classroom to three since we started there. The new space and classroom looks amazing. Although I'm sad to see summer vacation end, I'm so excited about this school year for everybody. There are some really great things going on.

After some playground time, we headed home for some dinner and a campfire in our PJs to celebrate the last night of Summer Vacation. Lucas was his usual self and had us in stitches with his yelling and funny faces. The fire was warm, and the conversations great. A great ending to the some of the best times of my life..... Until next summer......

365::239

Harvested. I'm so excited about a possible Mother-daughter date to make some relish out of these.

365::238

Another lost tooth!

365::237

Right Now.....(and what we should have been doing all summer)

I'm convinced that my mission in life is to potty train these two.

We are going bottomless as much as we can and doing pretty well at it too (only a few accidents).

Roll up the carpets, it's going to be one wild and crazy ride (but worth it in the end).....

365::236

Just a perfect weather day with a bit of fall in the air....and a great cousin visit (complete with a lot of fooling around and wrestling by two school aged children). Thanks so much for the pool time and lunch, we'll be sure to do it again real soon:)

365::235

What Love means to a 4-8 year old...

Trevor: "It means being sad and missing someone when they are not here to spend time together with you...."

And Other Touching words from the mouth of babes. (taken from an e-mail)


A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, 'What does love mean?'

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined See what you think:





'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.
So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love..'

Rebecca- age 8



'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'

Billy - age 4



'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.'

Karl - age 5



'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.'

Chrissy - age 6



'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'

Terri - age 4



'Love is when my Mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.'

Danny - age 7



'Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.
My Mommy and Daddy are like that.. They look gross when they kiss'

Emily - age 8



'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.'

Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)



'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,'

Nikka - age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)



'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.'
Noelle - age 7



'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.'

Tommy - age 6



'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.'

Cindy - age 8



'My Mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night...'

Clare - age 6



'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.'

Elaine-age 5



'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.'

Chris - age 7



'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.'

Mary Ann - age 4



'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'

Lauren - age 4



'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.' (what an image)

Karen - age 7



'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross.'

Mark - age 6



'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.'

Jessica - age 8


And the final one

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,

'Nothing, I just helped him cry'

Summer Memories 2009

We remember (in random order):

How much it rained

Strawberry and blueberry picking (making my own jam for the first time!)

The big waterslide in our yard

Days at Aquaboggin

The cousin photos

Our garden (the weeds!)

THe Star Wars Cake and Trevor's birthday party

Visiting with Barb (and she almost ended up in the ditch!)

Breakfasts at Becky's

Riding bikes

Our bird feeder contraptions

Conversations with Lily

the VA Beach vacation (and the flat tire incident)

The guys on the waterslide at Trevor's party (what was Mike wearing?)

"See all those ribbons....Those are for parking!"

Grandpa's jokes ("DO you Know what the He** you are doing?")

A candle in Trevor's birthday pancake

"You can never have too much Caulk"

Trevor:" Mom, maybe you can google it or look on the BLackberry?"

Being at the lake with perfect weather (and not so perfect)

Breaking in the new fire pit with the disco poker stick

S'Mores

Lobster

The Ocean

Playing in our own yard

Fort Williams, playing on the playground and the kids running into the water with all their clothes.

Family, celebrating and being together....Just looking over and seeing everyone in one place in MY yard.

Seeing Bre and Kevin playing together

THe outdoor concert...kids running, playing football, baseball and ring-around-the rosie

Having fun until we collapsed

Spending time with the grandparents and great-grandparents

All the kids playing in our new toyroom

The kids fishing off the dock

The sunsets

Hose fights

Trevor's fun with his friends Nick H. and Niall

Canoe rides

Duck, Duck goose

Red light Green light and Musical chairs

The library reading program

The kids making up their own games with the weave poles

Jeff swimming after the runaway shovels in the rain storm

Pop-pop's visit (sorry you ended up at the Kids' table!)

Sam's poor neck

Lucas: " Me need a book on fishing"

The Carranos' visit

The horrible beach parking

The lighthouse tour

reading books, fighting over flashlights and finally Sleeping in the tent with the smell of all that great fresh air.

Shopping at L.L. Bean and Lunch at Gritty's

Lucas' "disher" of icecream

making our own ice cream and eating the freshest farm food

Farm Camp

Our anniversary weekend in Boothbay

Staying down at the beach with our dinner and until it got dark

THe Sea dogs game, catching a fly ball and the fireworks

Yorks Wild Kingdom

Bre feeding the ducks and deer

Watercountry

Our vacation weather (perfect!)

Lunch in a downtown cafe (with the kids!)

movie night

The sidewalk art festival

Chasing Waves

Lucas napping on the run

not missing a thing.

School starts in one week---Oh MY!

365::234

For some kids, the social aspect of school is a difficult one. Not you, ever since preschool you have been everybody's friend. That is your gift my boy.....don't take it for granted. It's such a blessing. You are really enjoying spending some one-on-one time with some special friends this summer.

365::233

Back to the grind....after a really busy on the go week last week, we are savoring the last bits of summer rediscovering how nice it is just to stay home.

365:232

Today...

On our last day of vacation, we went searching for a perfect bakery breakfast and waves and found them both. We haven't seen anything like this in years (and on a sunny day to boot!) Thanks Hurricaine Bill:) What an amazing end to a perfect week.

365::231

today...

a 5K

a little relaxing and reading time

a healthy lunch in a little cafe downtown

a sidewalk art festival (alot of window shopping and "look at this...")

a nap in a backpack

a thundershower

a fishing game

some art time

some silly time

a homemade pizza dinner

a movie night.

tommorrow.....

a stop at the farmers market, a Scratch bagel breakfast and hopefully off to spot some BIG waves. (last day of vacation:( )

365::230

Just the perfect hot, sunny, day for Watercountry (boy were those weather men wrong)! We had such a blast we stayed from open until closing! We're definately going back next year:)

Highlights:

The pirate place (and three other AWESOME kiddie areas)

The Double Geronimo

bringing our own lunch

The weather!

the Dragon's den

Lucas napping in the stroller

Mommy even riding some of the scary ones

The Friendly's 1500 feet outside of the park (we were soooo hungry!)

Lucas on the ride home (boy I wish I had a noise cancelling headset to block out all that yelling from excitement).

Today's inspiration

here.

and here.

365::229

Yorks Wild Kingdom.

Today's highlights:

• getting to see Breanna feed all the animals to her hearts content
• the kiddie bumper boats (Lucas running off the ride and saying, "I loved that!")
• Lucas napping in the stroller
• The giant slide
• The Ferris Wheel
• The fun house
• Taking my girl on her very first carousel ride (and she loved it)...
• Having something fun for everyone.

What a fantastic weather day! Tommorrow.....water country!

365::228

Tonight..... many hot dogs, peanuts and ice cream were consumed, one foul ball was caught, and a spectacular fireworks show was watched which involved staying up way past bedtime. Who cares if our team didn't win, I think we all died and went to seven year old boy heaven.

(and to me---the smells at the ball park on a perfect summer evening are pure heaven!)

summer.

Last night, it was so warm that we found ourselves having a picnic dinner down at the beach until sunset , making sandcastles, playing catch, walking, smelling the air, listening to the waves crashing and watching some great windsurfing action . This is the stuff that childhood memories are made of.

365::227

There is just something about camping (even if it is in your own backyard). Maybe it's the smell of the air, the mosquitos, being outside, or seeing the first star come out. Maybe it's just about being together with nothing else in the way. Yeah, I think it's about that.

Just about one of my favorite pictures ever.

pretty girl....you are going to change the world. Love you.

365::226

Today.....waking up in our tent to the smell of the fresh (and muggy) air, A lighthouse boat tour of Casco bay, a great lunch at Gritty's pub complete with a strawberry ice-cold beverage(virgin) for Trevor and I (while Lucas napped), a shopping trip to L.L.Bean, ice-cream for dinner, and camping in the tent for a second night. A Vacation day doesn't get much better (or busier) than that. We are determined make enjoying every last bit of this summer a priority this week. There is no room for laundry doing in here.