Summer Arrives and Skips Spring

While Gabe was in Florida enjoying pleasant, tolerable temperatures (low 80s, cloudy, etc.) the kids and I were left on the coast of Maine to endure record breaking, sunny, humid days in the low 90s with little relief at night... and no AC....seriously?!?!?!? The best way to sum up the weekend is to say that we didn't go anywhere further than the back yard. Although it was appealing to seek air conditioning in a store, the thought of being outside long enough to load everyone into the car, then wearing Audrey in the Moby wrap was unappealing;)

This weekend turned out to be wonderful and relaxing for all of us. We played in the sprinkler in the mornings and evenings and played in the basement during the day.  I was even able to grab lots of pictures throughout the weekend.  The highlight for the kids was a breakfast picnic on Saturday. Audrey has finally started smiling responsively which the boys are just thrilled about!  James's favorite "nice" saying is currently "Look, Audrey is smiling at me!" with a huge smile on his face (his current "not so nice" saying is "Get out now!" or "Get out of my house now!" both lines from The Lorax).  It seems as though she loves the attention from them just as much as they love to give it to her.  We are really enjoying just playing outside, finally!  The $20 water table, $10 elephant sprinkler and $5 plastic pool continue to be some of the best purchases we have made:)

Gabe's Florida Visit 2013

Gabe took a long weekend to visit Grammy Grammy and Grampy Grampy in Florida. The top pictures are the view of Clearwater Beach from a roof top lounge called "The Crow's Nest". The bottom two pictures are taken while visiting Grammy Grammy at the rehab hospital.  Gabe really enjoyed his time visiting with his grandparents & mom.... although the highlight for his was his first every pedicure:) 

Random Silliness

I don't really know what to say about these pictures given that they pretty much speak for themselves:)  This is a nice summary of an average day.  Some chaotic crazy moments when all you can do is laugh and some really sweet moments are mixed in with the pictures omitted here... the fighting and crying;) FYI- Audrey was not harmed in these pictures despite all that love she is getting from Ben...  

Lily Ann Arrives!

Meet my beautiful new niece, Lilly Ann!  She was born 5/28 weighing 7 lbs. 6 oz. and was 20.5 inches long... exactly the same as Audrey... weird... I think we should be worried at the duo they are sure to make Amy and Dennis;)  Here is also my beautiful sister who doesn't look at all like she just had major surgery... seriously, I am so jealous.  Everyone did amazing (including you Dennis), thanks for letting me be a part of yet another amazing birth experience!

side bar: I will leave out the story where I got up at 3 am to be there on time and had a moment of panic when leaving the hospital in a sleep deprived state unable to find my car thinking that I had been towed because I may or may not have inadvertently parked in a handicap spot... don't worry, it was a false alarm :)

Memorial Day 2013

This weekend marks the start of a very busy week.  Grammy and Grampy Civiello came to visit and we are heading to Bangor at the beginning of the week for the arrival of a new cousin (more on that later;)).  We had a great visit with Grammy and Grampy who took the kids to the Children's museum and played so Gabe and I could get some much needed packing done.  We took a day trip to our new house in Wilton to check things out and everyone handled the ride well.  Monday we headed downtown for the memorial day parade before heading north.  The kids love parades and this one did not disappoint... except for the pushy teenagers next to us who took all of the candy... Noah and James shared a mini tootsie roll.... they were happy, but seriously.

Noah Plays Tennis

This spring we gave Noah the choice of many activities (Tball, gymnastics, soccer, etc.) and he chose tennis.  He is so excited about tennis, but he is not great... it was painfully obvious that the other parents took this very seriously and had likely been training their children for a few years now... this was Noah's first time holding a racquet;)  He had a blast playing and more than anything he probably enjoyed the one on one time he had with daddy who brought him to the lessons:) 

Mother's Day Weekend 2013

 

Since it has taken so long to get these posts out I have forgotten a lot of things... especially if I didn't get pictures.  So I apologize now for leaving out things that we really did enjoy:)  This weekend I spent most of the weekend packing.  Sunday afternoon we took the kids to Smiling Hill Farm's "barnyard" which has expanded significantly this year.  As always the kids enjoyed feeding the animals and climbing on the really cool wooden structures.  This year they have a petting zoo...  Ben is a hugger.... the last three pictures are a series of what happened when he had the uncontrollable urge to hug this sheep.... I thought I had this on video, but I don't.... the last picture is missing here most likely because I would have been an irresponsible parent if I had snapped the picture instead of preventing him from being trampled... In the last picture you can see the sheep trying to stand as Ben squeezes her... he fell over backwards and learned that most sheep do not like Ben hugs;)

Noah's Mexico Night

This year the kindergarten class at Hall School studied a until about all things Mexico.  This all finished in a celebration night at the school. The kids sang songs, danced and recited poems from Mexico.  Afterwards Noah got to show us his books, piñata and other mexico activities he had completed.  The night was finished off with some great Mexican snacks:)  Great work Noah, we are very proud of you!! (I forgot the camera at home and only had Gabe's phone, so we didn't get many pictures, but James had lots of fun taking photos of himself;)).