February Vacation 2014- Part 1

Just like Christmas vacation the kids got an extra day of vacation due to a huge snow storm.  Actually, they had a half day on Thursday also, so we are doubly excited about all of the extra fun time!  We spent Thursday afternoon and Friday getting ready for Daddy's birthday and celebrating Valentine's Day.  I found a really cool math activity with a box of candy hearts and Noah and James really got into.  We played outside for a while in the afternoon, but quickly discovered that playing outside wasn't fun without snowshoes.  I got a pretty intense work out carrying each kid from the playset back to the house with each step going up to my thighs.... they all claim to have crawled out there, but somehow weren't able to crawl back... suspicious...

Saturday Grammy, Grampy and Aunt Andrea came to visit and we all went to the Children's festival at UMF.  There were lots of great games, crafts, face painting and puppet making which was perfect for our kids.  The picture above is of Ben, James and Noah dressed at a carrot, a blueberry and a strawberry.  After the festival, during nap time, Daddy and Grampy built a safety railing on the basement stairs and a clubhouse under the stairs for the kids.  They are very excited for this!  Noah calls it his restaurant, but with the understanding that it can be other things to other people.  James thinks it is a house and Ben thinks it is a car garage with a secret entrance he can squeeze through.  That night we celebrated Daddy's birthday since he got home just as the kids were going to bed on his actual birthday.

Sunday we braved the frigid wind for the ice fishing derby on Wilson Lake downtown.  Since it was free fishing day and James has been badgering us to take him ice fishing we went.  It would have been a perfect ice fishing day if it hadn't been for the whipping wind down the lake.  Thankfully, they had a few shacks set up on a plowed area of the lake and the kids got to enjoy the children's clinic demonstrations and spent a good amount of time "jigging" in the shacks... even Ben.  No one caught anything, but they had fun anyway.  Audrey enjoyed herself as long as we were in the tent and not outside.  We spent the rest of the sunny day inside after that;)

And Winter Marches On:)

The last few weekends have been very full and very fun!  Mt. Blue State Park had a "Get Outside" event with activities ranging from skating, to snowshoeing, to animal pelts/print identification, to cross-country skiing and snowmobiling.  The top few pictures are of the view on the ride the park ranger took us on... Uncle Jon, this is what we need for our family... think you can weld it?  The day was really fun until lunchtime when Gabe experienced his first "judgment" from on lookers when Ben threw an all out fit in the doorway of the packed lunch area... the other kids and I were in line pretending we didn't know them... we all got in the car and went home after that:)

We finished up Audrey's room and I remembered to get some pictures of her in it.  She doesn't really like the crib mattress so far, but I hope that is just a temporary adjustment.  We have discovered that she talks in her sleep which is really the cutest thing ever at this age.  At first I thought she was waking up to play at 2 am, but she would go back to sleep on her own with out crying.... then I checked on her and she was sound asleep talking away.  Audrey has also been experiencing a huge developmental explosion.  She now military crawls around to anywhere she wants to get to, she claps her hands whenever she gets excited about something, she "dances" to any type of rhythm (which makes me sad that we don't do a music class anymore) and she can say "hi" and "bye bye".  Her speech is far and away advanced for our family... we will see how that holds up over time;)

James continues to enjoy and do well at school... he is having far fewer "accidents" at school, so we are optimistic that by the time he is 5 he will be completely potty trained during the day. A few nights ago he came out of his room after bedtime and said, "I have the silly putty stuck in my hair".  I put some ice on it and made a cursory attempt at removing it, then like all good parents, I told him to put a hat on and we would deal with it in the morning;)  In all fairness this was not an emergency and it gave me a chance to google "how to remove silly putty from hair".  As it turns out the answer is baby oil... came right out the next morning. That same afternoon the boys and I went out to play in the snow while Audrey napped.  I was out front with Ben and Noah while James was making his way around to the front from the back. As he walked closer he had blood pouring from his mouth with a trail of blood in the snow behind him. It should be noted that he had no idea he was bleeding and was totally unfazed by what had happened.  Here is how the conversation went:

James: "Hi Mommy, could I please have the purple shovel?"
Me: "James, what happened?"
James: "Nothing"
Me: "Why is there blood dripping from your mouth?"
James: "I don't know"
Me: "James, look at the snow"
James: "Oh, I have blood coming out"
Me: "Yes you do, did you lick the fence?"
James: "Sort of"
Me: "Sort of?"
James: "Yes, my lip and tongue got a little bit stuck"

Seriously, that sucker bled for over an hour and at no point did he complain.  However, he does now say that he should only lick the snow when he is outside;)

Ben has been making huge strides in the potty training area!  I can't believe that we have a child willing to potty train before 3.5 years old!  He has been ready for about 6 months now, but I just didn't have the energy to do it. Since he is getting bigger though he is resisting diaper changes more and has started kicking while being changed so I finally just got rid of his diapers.  He is very motivated, does everything on his own (including cleaning up spills) and isn't afraid for falling in the toilet (it has happened a few times) even in public places.  This is one area that his bigger size is a huge advantage!

Noah has started learning to ski! There is a program offered in this area called "snowcats" that is run by the college and is fantastic.  They meet 2 days/week after school for 2 hours lasting 6 weeks.  The progress Noah makes each week is really impressive.  This is a picture of his group while they were competing in the "olympics". They called themselves the "rainbow trout" since their flag color is rainbow.  He is really enjoying himself and we can't wait for James to be old enough to participate in this next year... Now for me to learn to ski...:)

Last weekend Gabe's best friend from childhood, Dave came to visit.  In true fashion, that couldn't have been scripted better, he arrived to a scene of chaos.  We had other friends with 2 girls (4 and 6 yo) over for dinner and everything was going well.  But, wouldn't you know as Dave walked through the door our 3 boys were fighting over the yogurt on the counter spilling it everywhere and pulling each other backwards while kicking and screaming... fantastic!  Thanks for staying Dave!  It was a really nice visit after that including Dave helping us make a dump run and stacking wood in our basement.... oh the joys of being an adult:)

Winter Weekend Fun

Gabe's job schedule has been just fantastic this winter and such a welcome change from the previous 8 years!  We have been able to have a nice balance of fun family time and not as fun for the kids- family chore time;)  This past weekend we made a spider web to crawl through in the upstair hallway,  made a cool car track in the basement and enjoyed the snow.  We have been working hard to make our space more functional for us by picking away at the basement most recently.  Gabe worked hard to paint the floor which has made a huge difference in the cleanliness and our ability to actually use that space.  This weekend we rearranged things to bring the futon down for seating and an extra backup sleeping area.  This also allowed us to bring put the guest bed in the office and to set up a crib for Audrey in her own room.  Previously she was sleeping in the guest room in a pack n play.  It was really Ben's escapades with the changing table that made us realize we needed to use the other room upstairs for more than a guest room:)

On Monday Gabe had the day off for a fun family day at the dentist in Portland.  We dragged the kids  around Portland in the rain, to Trader Joe's and around Freeport.  James had a ball trying on sunglasses and all the kids, as always, enjoyed running around the clubhouse in LLBean.  

January Happenings

 

 

 

 

 

Noah's first day back at school after Christmas break was a snow day, so we got one more day of fun play.  We finally got to make a snowman since it was not snow falling from the sky, but freezing rain. There was an argument at the end of building this snowman about if it was a naked snowman with a belly button (one blackberry on the belly)- James, or if he had a coat on (3 blackberries on the belly)- Noah;)  The warmer weather has allowed us to pick away (literally) at our driveway.  It took 4 days, but we finally chipped away the 3-6 inch thick ice that covered the driveway.  Gabe and I could make it up the driveway, but with difficulty and a "running" start.  We had a babysitter, a furnace guy and the UPS man all have a difficult time making it up as well.  When even the suburban couldn't make it and went off the driveway we knew it was time to tackle it.  The before and after pictures are probably only impressive to us and I will probably cry the next time it snows, but for now it is done!

In other unrelated events, James continues to have a very special bond with Audrey and LOVES making her laugh. Ben still struggles with language, but can usually get his point across, he can't pronounce "Audrey" or instead calls her what phonetically sounds like "aww-doe".  James and Noah got to use James's umbrella when I got them off the bus last Friday.  Ben continues to pose his dinosaurs everywhere.  Ben has also started doing some crazy things at nap time which has caused us to remove most furniture from his room.  This picture is how I found him... sleeping sitting up in an overturned changing table (I didn't even hear him pull it over).  The other picture was of him sleeping with the shoes he insisted on keeping on:) The boys all decided to take a backwards bath. Noah and James had "fancy day" at school where they dressed up, music played at lunch and they ate their lunch on placemats.  Tonight James chose salad for supper and was so proud that he requested that I take a picture.  He ate almost all of it and said, "Look, I am a grown-up now!".

Lastly, this weekend Nannie, Aunt Amy, Trey and Lily came to visit.  We went down to the pond and everyone at least tried skating, but Ben, Trey and Lily enjoyed being pulled around in the sled much more;)  Thanks for visiting guys!

Happy New Year 2014

What can I say, I love school vacation and having everyone home to play during the day!  We spent New Year's Day play outside with our friends.  We did some sledding, snowshoeing and completed the day with an outdoor fire to cook hot dogs!  To finish up the rest of school vacation week we did some more sledding, made some oobleck, set up the play area in the basement and James even got to hold a snake!  We are thinking of trading in our fish for a snake in the tank;)  Lately, Noah and James have been requesting baths over showers and we have to take turns with who gets to take a bath with Audrey... I hope they still want to be around her this much in 5 years!