Noah's Preschool Halloween Party- 2010

Noah's preschool had a little party where the kids paraded in, showing off their costumes, then sang several halloween songs.  This was pretty interesting to hear since Noah has been giving me little bits and pieces of the songs that he could remember all month long... I recognized only one;)  They had all of the kids stand in the middle of the circle to show off their costumes, all the princesses, super heroes, etc, Noah was the only one in the "pumpkin" category, but he turned only to face away from me.

Fall Fun 2010

Baby Dennis came to visit us recently and the boys wasted no time teaching him how to play in the leaves.  He was a very good sport, but I think he will enjoy this more next year:)  Nanny also convinced us to go to Chucky Cheese ( I have been holding out for quite some time) which turned out to be much cleaner and less chaotic than I thought (to be honest though, I did have pretty low expectations). I don't have the pics of that, but I can assure you it was a blast for both kids.

Just like our squirrels...

... storing food for winter.  This past weekend Gabe didn't have to work AND we had no plans, imagine that, not sure when the last time that happened was.  So, we took full advantage of that and didn't use the car the whole weekend.  We did get lots of winter cooking/freezing done. As you can see in the top picture, the kids started to get a little stir crazy and had lots of fun playing with the squash- James pushing it in the stroller and distributing it throughout the house, and Noah carrying it in his baby carrier. We cooked: pot roast, oatmeal, baked beans, chili, potato soup, pasta fagioli, butternut quash soup, half a bushel of butternut squash, applesauce, apple pie, bread, stuffed peppers, and froze a bunch of hamburg.  Bring on the winter:)  We still have half a bushel of squash to cook, but all in all a productive time... I think it will be easier next year when James is able to help and not deter the process;)  It wasn't all work though, Gabe took the kids to the playground while I got some cleaning done.  On Sunday we took a walk/hike up to our garden plot and spent some time in the Evergreen Cemetery. We thought going to the duck pond would be fun for James given his love of ducks (it is the only animal he can make a sound for)... as it turns out it was only torture for him not to be able to chase the ducks into the water, so we left in tears. The other pics are of Noah's crazy straw, which James was very jealous of... I left off the one where he tried to reach up and dump the water.  This will likely be the last post before Halloween b/c I have LOTS of work still to do on the costumes, and as I have found, sewing in not possible to get done while the kids are awake;)  Stay tuned!

Katahdin Falls Hike- 2010

 So, I definitely didn't get work done on our last day at home either... instead we went for another hike... 2 days in a row... I wasn't sure Noah would make it.  The Katahdin Stream Falls hike was twice as long (2.4 miles round trip), but not as difficult at Turtle Ridge... thankfully more flat spots!  Grammie, Nannie, Elizabeth and her friend David joined us and they all brought their PATIENCE!!  Noah did walk almost all of the way, but he wasn't exactly speedy, and we had several neurotic 3yo moments of breakdown, but all in all both kids did better than I had expected.  Both days of hiking turned out to be the perfect temperature, with little wind on the trail, and overall absolutely beautiful fall days!

Yoke Pond & Turtle Ridge

Gabe had to work all weekend and Columbus Day so the kids and I took a trip north.  There are lots of things I should have done that weekend (the kids may not have Halloween costumes this year if I keep procrastinating), but instead we visited with lots of family and got lots of good exercise hiking.  On Sunday we took a ride up and around the Jo-Mary area.  It was BEAUTIFUL!!  We hiked turtle ridge which I thought my mom had done before since she suggested it, but no... we eventually found the trail and it turned out to be a great hike.  Noah was a trooper and hiked the whole way (1.2 mi round trip) with roots, rocks and all.  He only feel once, but kept going (Thankfully!). In the top picture he is showing James a rock. And, as you can see, he has gone from a crippling fear of heights to wanting to climb up on the highest rock... not without fear, but you can tell that he is fighting his fear more and more:)

Noah's Haircut

In an effort to save some money I was trying to hold off on getting Noah's haircut, but it was getting really long... As it turns out his wonderful cousin Hillary volunteered/was pressured/forced into cutting his hair.  Despite the fact that he was way over tired and over stimulated he sat very still.  He LOVES getting his hair cut more than anything and was thrilled to get it done... as was his mother... Thanks Hill it looks great and he won't stop talking about getting his hair cut:)