Belgrade Lakes Visit- June 2012

This week Gabe actually has some vacation time, so in true fashion, it is raining.... not just a little rain and overcast, but RAIN and lots of it.  Our trip this past weekend was by far the closest and the last in our tour (I am again no sure that Gabe knew about this need to travel we have in the Smith family, or he may not have agreed to marrying me... he has adjusted well;)).  We visited with one of my friends from nursing school and her family who live in the Belgrade area.  They have 2 boys in the same age range as our kids, so I think it is safe to say that the kids had a fantastic time and the parents are tired.  The first day and a half we were there it was not raining, so we got in as much chalk drawing and playing outside as we could.  Saturday morning it hadn't started raining yet, so we got everyone ready quickly and convinced/forced everyone into the canoe.  Noah liked the idea of the canoe, but riding in it was less than pleasant..... he complained the entire time that it was too tippy (once we finally got him in) and that Gabe was paddling wrong. James did well at first, but when he started to throw a fit because he couldn't have a paddle he started "tipping" the canoe which made Noah extra anxious.  Benjamin was fine, except didn't really enjoy wearing a life jacket (it is probably a good thing no one else was watching the scene).  The first few minutes were fun and we will remember to bring all 3 blankies next time to subdue them and we should do better:)  Noah did agree to get in the canoe later with just Gabe, but he enjoyed it even less, so we may put a pin in the canoe riding until next year... 

Later on Saturday we ventured to the Maine State Museum which he kids really enjoyed and did surprisingly well at not touching.  We spent the rest of the weekend playing and visiting which was a nice relaxing change of pace from being home.  Thanks friends for providing us with such a wonderful place to stay and visit!!!

Philadelphia Trip- 2012

On the road again... This time to Philadelphia!  We had originally intended to drive straight through and arrive in the early morning hours Saturday, but as medicine does, Gabe wasn't able to leave work until almost 2 hours after we intended to leave...... so, once we entered Connecticut we decided that arriving that so late wasn't worth it and got a hotel.  We learned an important lesson... we have outgrown that time in our lives when we were willing to stay in any hole in the wall place.... with 3 little ones we will only be staying in trusted chain hotels from now on..... Anyhow, we arrived in Philadelphia early on Saturday and got settled into the house.  We have some exceptional friends who allowed us to stay at their house while they were across the country... what a difference that made to the comfort of our trip.  Thank you Carroll Family, you made our stay very easy and comfortable, but we did very much miss visiting with you!  

The kids would have been very happy to stay and play with all of the "new toys", but we did make them venture out a bit.  On Saturday afternoon we drove into the Museum of Art where our friend/one of Gabe's college room mates was curating his first exhibit. Check it out if you are in the Philadelphia area: http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/760.html  Gabe really enjoyed being able to attend and visit with everyone.  The kids and I checked out the neighborhood and got some exercise before heading back to pick him up.  On Sunday, my college room mate and her family made the trip up from Maryland to visit with us.  The kids could have spent all day at the "Please Touch Museum" in Philadelphia.  It got to be a bit of a zoo in the afternoon so we headed back for a BBQ (Thanks for the grill Gerry, Gabe only had one small fire... Thank you Ross for being the voice of reason;)).  We were also able to spend some time with more friends from Dartmouth, Noah and Sarah.  Thank you all for coming to spend time with us!  We look forward to our next trip!!

James's "New" Bike

James had been getting pretty frustrated with his tricycle lately.  He sits back in it and the pedaling is a little awkward, but he is persistent, so every bike ride seemed to end up in a breakdown.  He is still a smidge too small for Noah's bike, so enter Craigslist.  We found this beauty for next to nothing and he couldn't be more excited about his "cool new bike".  He does so much better riding this bike!  I do have to say it is a bit more dangerous for me keeping up the two of them on bikes now, but I am getting my exercise;)  On James's first spin around the block, Noah preferred not to ride his bike, but to "help" James instead. It took James about half way to figure things out, while Noah dutifully pushed him to help him get started. By the end he had got the hang of things.... so much so that his biggest challenge now is to stop talking long enough to pay attention to where he is headed:) 

Kite Festival 2012

This past weekend we took a break from the car and we able to host Grammy Civiello for a visit. Thankfully she is much better at remembering to take pictures than I am! On Friday we spent some time down along the East End beach, bike trail and the playground. It is a great area for Noah to ride his bike, the kids to explore on the beach and burn off some energy at the playground. Saturday morning we traveled to South Portland for the kite festival.  It was a perfect day for kite flying, good music and being outside.  Some of the kites were pretty impressive, like the stingray in the bottom two pictures.  On Saturday afternoon we went to the barnyard at Smiling Hill Farm. The barnyard has many animals to feed as well as lots of wooden structures to play on.  Always a favorite with our kids is a "real" version of Mary Anne from "Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel". We all had such a fun time and because of the gorgeous weather the kids were absolutely exhausted from all of the outdoor exercise:)  

Upper Valley Visit- May 2012

Our travels took us back to the Upper Valley this weekend. We love the Upper Valley.  I realize fully that this is most likely because it is where we started our family and spent 4 years of our early lives establishing a home, but we always feel very nostalgic when we travel there:) We were able to visit with some dear friends,  have a great time watching the kids play together and catching up. Friday afternoon to break up the trip we stopped at the Children's Museum of NH which all of the kids really enjoyed.  I didn't get many pictures of Noah or James, but Benjamin LOVED this mirror that was in the corner.... it was so fun to watch him interact with all of the other "babies".  On Saturday we attended a soccer clinic and were impressed an Noah's continued improvement in soccer playing.  After lunch we played at the aquatic center which our kids are always thrilled to play in.  They have a current pool, a lap pool and an indoor waterpark/playground.  Probably the best part of the weekend for Noah and James was getting to play outside with Oliver and Isaac and explore their woods;)  Thanks Yukica's for a really fun weekend!!

Harmonica and the Piggy Bank

Noah and I ran some errands together today at naptime.  While shopping the clearance sales at the Gap Noah found a harmonica for $2.50, so I let him buy it. He was pretty excited about it and couldn't wait to show Gabe, James and Ben. When showing Gabe and I how he could play, he looked at us thoughtfully and said, "The next nice day I would like to take my harmonica and piggy bank outside". I thought he was talking about the Curious George episode where George found household things to make music, so I asked him. He said no and embarrassed, he walked away. Gabe figured it out that he wanted to sit outside, play his harmonica and put his piggy bank out so people could put money into it for his playing.  He came back in the kitchen and told his plan to us again and we asked him if he wanted people to put money into his bank for playing the harmonica.  He got a huge smile on his face and said "Yes!". He then ran to get his piggy bank and sat it on the couch to get it ready. He asked Gabe to help him take the bandana off from around the pigs neck. Gabe asked why, to which Noah replied, "I don't want my piggy bank to look silly".   OH MY GOODNESS!!!  It was so cute that I wanted to cry... I hope someone will come and put some money in the piggy bank on the next nice day..........:)

Bar Harbor Visit- 2012

 

Gabe has very limited vacation time this summer, so we are in the midst of trying to squeeze all of our trips and visits into a few weeks.  This past weekend we spent some time in Bar Harbor. It was really great to be there in the "off season" when it was not overrun with visitors.  We drove up late Friday night after Gabe got out of work. The kids and I spent the morning playing with cousin Trey at the Children's Museum in Bangor, in the afternoon we explored the sand bar which low tide had left.  Sunday morning we were able to do some hiking up Bubble Mountain.  It is fun to see the progression with the kids by doing this hike every year.  Noah hiked up and back without complaint, James made it almost to the top, and Benjamin was not impressed to ride on Daddy's back (I think because daddy doesn't have any hair to play with).  We had a picnic at the top of Cadillac Mountain which was just as cold, windy, and overcast as last September.  The sun didn't show itself the whole time, but it ended up being a very fun trip away!

The New Bed and Noah's "Crunchers"

We got the kid's new together and they had a bit of a rough transition to the new set up of the room, but a week later everyone is back on track. It seems as though every time we change something on them (including daylight savings time) it takes them 1 week to adjust. During that week sleep is poor and everyone is extremely grouchy. This time around we were, at one point, concerned that Noah had a brain tumor given his extreme personality change, but he woke up Monday morning back to his sweet and thoughtful self (working in pediatrics is a mixed blessing sometimes;)).  James also struggled with this change because I put the crib back in the room for Benjamin... he kept screaming that it was his crib and would put all of his "friends" and bedding into it.  I did not see that coming given that it has been many months since he has been out of the crib, but he doesn't easily forget...  We have named the top bed "the tunnel bed" and the bottom bed "James's Cool Baby Bear Cave Bed". James loves the book, "Baby Bear Sees Blue" which has really made him interested in learning his colors.  We decorated the bed with a blue bird, a brown trout, red strawberries, a black baby bear, a green leaf, a yellow sun, orange butterflies, black bats and a rainbow.... he loves it! The next step will be to get Ben in there.... it may be a while.

This week has been very cold and rainy, but we did get outside to ride bikes and play at the beginning of the week.  On Monday Noah pretended (all day) that he had a broken leg and needed "crunchers" to help him walk around. It is amazing how many uses there are for empty diaper boxes... It really made me smile each time he talked about needing his "crunchers".   Last night Noah lost his second tooth!  He was pretty excited:)