Trey and Lily Visit

My sister has ended up back in the hospital to help get this flare of ulcerative colitis under better control.    We were lucky enough to be able to have these two cuties, Trey and Lily, for a few nights and the kids all had a blast!  The big brothers love to bake, so we made some cookies while the little sisters were napping on day #1. We did lots of drawing, painting, cooking, playing outside, swimming and reading. I have some great video of the bigger boys "reading" to the girls who were soaking up the attention;)  They are all such good big brothers that is was a great help.  Gabe and I were exhausted, but in retrospect it was not as overwhelming as we thought it may be, so come back anytime for a sleepover Trey & Lily!

Noah's First Day of 1st Grade

We officially have a first grader! That's right, today our first born is off to his first day at a new school, riding the bus for the first time all by himself.  He was super excited and had a great day.  James was confused  about why he didn't get to go to school too today, and spent most of the day asking where Noah was. Ben, on the other hand, was thrilled to see the bus pull up in front of our house not once, but twice today:)  Gabe was pretty proud because when we asked Noah what he wanted to be when he grew up this year he said, "I want to do what daddy does" (Gabe considered this an improvement over his answer of "constructioner" he gave last year).  Stay tuned for James's answer to this question on his first day of Pre-K next week...

End of Summer Play

Here are just a few random pictures of how we ended the summer.  We went several days without even leaving our house!  The top two pictures are of the kids finger and brush painting... this was the defining moment for Gabe when he desperately wished he were back at work... he couldn't handle the mess Ben was making even with my reassurance that he was having fun and it would all clean up... this was nice affirmation that we have chosen the appropriate roles on this team;)

The next two pictures with Noah wearing the pack because he desperately wants to grow up to become a daddy so that he can carry his babies in the pack... Ben just wants to do whatever Noah is doing;)  The last week or so before the start of real school Noah felt it was important to teach James and Ben in a Pre-K class EVERY day.  The kicker is that they listened to him teach them as he read stories, had music time, play time, brought them to me for art time, etc.  The best part of all of this was that while my name was "Mrs. Arts and Crafts" because I did art things, Gabe's name was "Mr. Clean" because he was sweeping at the time, a name he wasn't able to shake despite his attempts to do other school things:)

The kids we most thrilled this week by our trip to visit our friends in Belgrade Lakes at "the clubhouse" as our children have affectionately named it. We got to spend the morning visiting, playing and going for a boat ride.  Watch out friends... now that we are only 30 minutes away you will be seeing lots more of us!  We will definitely need to plan some time next season for an overnight trip as there was some severe disappointment/unrest when they realized we weren't sleeping over;)  Thanks for having us!

Maybe the most telling part of our relaxed home time was the random picture of the kids in various states of dress-up... I think James wore that Knight costume for a few days... this is him with his hand stuck in the sprinkler trying to get the ball out... yes, I did take a picture before suggesting that he just let go of the ball and his hand slipped right out.  We will certainly miss this summer, but I think we are all looking forward to getting back into a more consistent and predictable routine!

The Dreaded Woodpile & Blueberry Mountain Hike

We have been working off of a summer bucket list this year and since we are nearing the end of summer we are trying to cross off as many as possible.  "Take a hike" was next up, I guess our "hike" into the falls didn't count, it didn't take long enough... who knows, but we were ready to explore what our new home had to offer.... this all sounds really good... We had read up a bit on line about some potential trails.  We were deciding on the way between Mt. Blue and Blueberry Mountain.  Mt. Blue seemed a bit too much for us and we really wanted to complete the hike, but Blueberry Mountain seemed a bit sketchy by driving though and parking on some private land... we chose Blueberry Mountain.

The description was misleading, at best, as to the degree of incline... it was a constant straight up hike with very little flat respite... we should have turned around at many various points along the way- at the beginning when we did nothing but climb upwards, in the middle when the kids started to get tired, almost near the end where we stopped for lunch and realized that we really didn't bring enough water, but no, we pushed on to the top.... maybe this was not our best parenting moment... Noah was fine and although it was difficult for him he did well... Poor James... at 4 years old this was not an appropriate hike for him and if Gabe and I hadn't each been already carrying another child we would have carried him the whole way down after he made it to the top.  Instead, we took extra care to make sure that he didn't fall and bent over backwards to cheer on his great work and he made it!  Seriously, I have never been more proud of that kid, he is a determined little guy when he wants to be.  I carried Ben on the way down and was holding James's hand at the end, Gabe, Noah & Audrey had gone ahead to the car.  As we were crossing the last field James said to me, "Mommy, we have to hurry up and get back because I think that Audrey really misses me!"  really I wanted to cry.

When I got back to the car Gabe was telling me that the lady he was chatting with (before we even started) while I was feeding Audrey in the car said that it usually takes the 11 & 12 year olds 3 hours to hike the trail, 2 hours to get up and about an hour to get down........ this would have been important information to know before we started!!!  However, everyone survived, it was an excellent view, totally worth the perseverance (I think), but we can now cross it off our list to never go back with the kids... and maybe no more hiking until next summer... maybe they will have forgotten by then;)

The bottom few pictures are of our never ending summer project.  Who says kids can't stack wood at 2?  The DHS worker might if they got called about the bruise on Ben's chin when the wheelbarrow bar hit him, but whose keeping track? (Don't worry dad, I did make them put shoes on after I took the pictures... safety first:))

Audrey's Baptism

On the last day of our trip we had Audrey baptized.  It was a bit last minute, as when I was packing for our trip I noticed her christening gown which I had bought months ago and realized that it may not fit her for long... luckily my church loves me and agreed to fit us in on that Sunday.  All of the kids did very well during church and Ben did... as well as you can expect any active 2 yo to do;) Fortunately for us this is the church I grew up in, was baptized in, we were married in, and all of our children have been baptized in, so they were probably more tolerant... or maybe it was because we bring food... either way...  You will have to excuse the size of the top picture, but it is one of our favorites.  

Following the service we hosted the coffee hour and were able to visit with old friends and some family.  After that we all headed back up to Grammy and Grampy's for a get-to-gether to celebrate. Audrey didn't agree with this plan and no sooner than everyone arrived she decided that it was past time for a nap, so we all enjoyed visiting while she slept. We had an attempted family picture which kind of went ok... better than nothing;)  The disappointing thing this time around was that we were unable to take pictures in the church afterwards because there was a funeral moving in.  Luckily, I had taken some pictures of Audrey in her dress at home in the event that things got a bit chaotic on that day... imagine that;)  

All in all we had a wonderful visit to the Katahdin area and were very fortunate that we were able to visit with all of the family and friends that we did!  Thank you so much to both of our parents for hosting our brood!

Vacation North- Grammy & Grampy's

The second leg of our vacation was to spend the next two nights at Grammy & Grampy's house.  The kids almost immediately wanted to get in the canoe, fish, swim and play on the beach all at once.  I think that they had accomplished all of those things in our first 30 minutes there;)  Once they settled down they had a great time exploring the pond!  Day #1 we spent just relaxing, fishing, swimming, canoeing and playing.  After nap time Great Grammy Civiello came up to make gnocchi for dinner.  Our kids love to cook/bake (really just so they can eat whatever it is, hopefully undetected;)) and they were very excited to help with supper and take part in making the gnocchi, which I am quite sure they mistook for play dough;)

On day #2 we took on the adventure of "hiking" to the waterfall.  There is a chance that, other than the bears, we were the first ones to visit this summer.  How do you know that? you may ask... Well we had to carry the kids the whole way in because the grass was taller than they were... and we saw lots of animal feces along the way.  They best surprise for us were the great late season raspberries all along the "trail".  After a surprisingly short walk and some great navigating we arrived at the falls.  Besides the poor trail, another downside to the lack of hikers was all of the moss covered rocks down by the water... moss is pretty slippery when wet so both Gabe and Grampy fell... the upside was that no one dropped any kids, but as Gabe repeatedly told me, neither of them would have fallen if it hadn't been for the kids, so we are just happy neither of them sustained more than minor injuries.  After our hike we stopped to watch the rafters come through the cribworks and the kids got quite a show when some of them even jumped off a cliff close by... Ben didn't understand why he couldn't run free here, but he took his forced containment better than expected... Audrey slept in her car seat under that blanket the whole time:)