Family Vacation 2010: First Stop- Philadelphia

Phew!  We had a wonderful family vacation this year- very relaxing and rejuvenating, but many miles traveled, just over 2,000 to be exact.  I am forever indebted to the creator of the portable DVD player.  The overall highlight of this trip by far though was getting to spend time catching up with friends.  We left on a Friday night after work and drove to Milford, CT to spend the night.  We drove in some pretty intense rain/thunder storms that night.  It really felt like we were watching the lightning from a planetarium.  Saturday morning woke up, realized I had left Noah's hat and sandals home... grrrrr, and drove to Philadelphia.  In Philadelphia we stayed with our friends from Dartmouth Gerry, Emily & their (almost) 2yo son Matthew.  They were kind enough to host a BBQ for dinner with other Darmouth & Bowdoin friends living in Phily.  It is far more pleasant to have a backyard BBQ than to drag the kids out to eat and expect to catch-up:)  On Sunday morning Gerry, Emily & Matthew took us to the "Please Touch Museum" which was thrilling for Noah and James.  I am quite sure that Noah would have stayed all day if time had allowed. He got to "drive" a city bus, work on building a car, "drive" in a real car while James danced to the music in the passenger's seat, see a puppet show, and shop in the grocery store, just to name a few highlights. I was really bad about remembering to take pictures this whole trip!  Here are some from the museum with Gabe's iphone.  Thank you Gerry & Emily, we had a great visit!!

Summer Gardening Experiment 2010

We have had a very full summer already and it is only the beginning of July! We have tried hard to take advantage of this beautiful weather... in doing so we have taken on a new project of gardening. We learned of a new community garden in our neighborhood which just opened up a few weeks ago. We have been working very hard at it and here it is in the bottom picture. No, we did not grow any of these from seed:) Since the planting started so late everyone has put in the already started plants... maybe it will bring us better luck?? Lettuce to the left, then cucumbers, butternut squash, 3 types of tomatoes, and celery & peppers in the right most row. The top three pics are of our "garden" growing in pots on our stairs... lettuce, tomatoes, herbs & cucumbers. We are considering this year an experimental year, I will try to keep you posted with the products of our harvest.... you should all be expecting canned veggies, salsa and dried herbs for Christmas gifts this year:)

July 4th, 2010

We had a really fun fourth of July weekend this year! Gabe had both weekend days off, it was beautiful weather, and we were able to have a nice mix of fun and relaxation, which is rare since Gabe usually only has one day off and we try and pack it as full as possible. We spent Saturday doing projects around the house, weeding the garden (more about this in the next post) and having friends over for some pool play, a BBQ and smores. Sunday we played in the splash pool and had a picnic in Deering Oaks park, then went to the concert and watched the fire works in the East End. Uncle J-me and David were "vacationing" in Portland and joined us for the fire works as well. The boys both did so well, loved the fire works, loved the glow sticks I got at Marden's for 88 cents, and most of all... loved his peanut butter whoopie pie dipped in chocolate (We were going to get ice cream, but the line was so long that we got whoopie pies instead).

Noah the baby

For a while now Noah has been telling us "when I grow smaller I be a baby". He often wants to be carried like a baby and etc... we don't encourage it, but it hasn't really interfered with him doing "big boy" things as well and sometimes it is funny, so we tolerate it. Here he is squeezing himself into the baby bed he bought for his baby at the thrift store for 25 cents.... I still can't figure out how he can contort himself like that... and, of course, James it oblivious...

Our First Campfire!

We recently celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary! My parents gave us a fire pit as a gift and we have LOVED it. These are some pics from the inaugural fire... this kids had been very sick with the coxsackie virus, but were feeling better by this day. Thanks to Aunt Annie for Noah's chair- he loves it AND, most importantly to him, "it not too tippy".

James Turns One!!

James turns one! I can't believe it has been a year already, but at the same time he feels like he has always been a part of our family. He has become so fun lately! He and Noah are really playing together now and stay up way too late laughing with each other in their room... it is hard to discipline that when they are so funny to listen too, I wish we had a camera in there to see what is so fun:) Now that he is one, James has actually started to crawl, thankfully he isn't very fast so I don't mind. He still can only say "dada", but Noah and I are working on that;) These pics are from his actual birthday.... we had cake for breakfast, went to play at an indoor playspace (which we won passes for at the library) and finished the day up with ice cream with daddy. He is crying in this pic b/c we tried to get him to take the cone away from his mouth...

2010 Aviation Day- Portland Jetport

The Portland Jetport has an annual aviation day where visitors can see the different types of planes and helicopters. They could even climb in some of them. Noah was, of course, thrilled by all of these planes. It was a pretty foggy/overcast day so they weren't really able to do the air show portion, but the kids had a great time anyhow. The middle picture is of Noah sitting on a helicopter- "that not an airplane, that a helicopter", I have been corrected more than once.

James' First Birthday Party!

We celebrated James' first birthday the weekend before his actual birthday b/c this was the only weekend Gabe had off this month. Noah had picked out a "construction" theme which was very exciting for them both. As you can see, James enjoyed the cake, but he was a bit tentative at first and only ate it after he had destroyed it:) He received lots of great presents and big brother Noah helped, but was not as upset about this not being his party as I had thought. Each time I would ask him about James' party in the week leading up to it he would say, "James' party, not my party". We gave James some of the musical instruments from our music class and in the bottom pics he is demonstrating his abilities as a one man band.

Noah & James & the Lobsters

On my way home from work I have found this local family farm that sells lobsters for fairly cheap. My parents were on their way for James' birthday weekend so I picked some up for them & Gabe. They weren't very lively lobsters so James had a ball, but Noah on the other hand was a bit skeptical of the whole thing. You can really hear Noah's language progression in this clip. He is saying that the lobsters have bandaids on their claws so they won't pinch. Don't forget to turn off the music at the bottom of the page. ** I can't get the clip to load for some reason, but I will keep trying!**

Noah the teacher

I was down cellar folding laundry while the boys were upstairs, Noah eating lunch and James playing with toys in his highchair. From the cellar I thought I could hear James' highchair move across the floor, but it wasn't much and there was no crying, so I finished folding the laundry. When I came up this is what I saw. Noah had pushed James up to the refrigerator and was pointing at all of the pictures and telling James about them. It was such a sweet moment as James was being a very interested pupil. To top it all off Noah says to me, "Mommy, I got James some milk, he wanted milk". And, he had gotten into the fridge, took out the sippy cup and gave it to James. What a thoughtful big brother.