Noah Turns 7 Years Old!

It was 7 years ago on this day that Gabe and I became parents for the first time.  As with everything, it feels like he has always been part of our lives and at the same time the 7 years have gone by pretty fast!  Noah continues to be a very sweet, thoughtful and helpful little guy.  He loves  his brothers and sisters so much and is always thinking of things he can do to help them or make them happy. His most recent favorite past time is to play with legos and his goal for the summer is to run in a "grown-up race".  He loves school and is doing well with math and learning to read. His favorite subjects continue to be music and art.  He has really thrived this year and has made some great friends through school, skiing, swimming and soccer.

The top picture is of James and Ben both working very hard making a card for Noah while he was at school. The pictures below that were the result of Noah's request for a group picture with James, Ben and Audrey... No one really cooperated, but what we did get was a very funny series of failed attempts;)  After school we had Noah's choice of supper which consisted of ham, applesauce, and quesadillas... along with the fruits and veggies left over from Noah's class.  This was followed by the spiderman cupcakes James and Ben picked out of our freezer;)  Even Audrey had a cupcake and everyone was very excited about the special treat.  We then let Noah open his presents from us and was thrilled to have new legos and a real building set.  All in all I think he had a great day.  He is now looking forward to his bowling party with his friends this weekend. Happy Birthday Noah!

St. Patrick's Day 2014

Thanks to Noah's Kindergarten teacher last year, we had to set out a leprechaun trap.  Last year it was easy to convince him that that was something you just did at school... I had presumed that he would never remember it for this year... He definitely remembered and was quite upset that he hadn't made a trap for school.  His only requirement was that the trap be made from our recycling, so it did turn out to be a fun project. He didn't catch a leprechaun, but the little leprechaun did make a mess with the special St. Patrick's Day cereal:)

Fire and Ice Fest 2014

 

Well, we survived the last week and that is all I can say.  After James, Noah and Audrey had the GI illness all about a week apart we had really put it out of our minds... until Wednesday afternoon...  Gabe and I both got it 12 hours apart.... the last several days have been a blur;) The picture above with the overflowing bowl of cheerios was the result of Ben trying to pour himself the second bowl of cereal...

Last week was Dr. Seuss's birthday celebration week at Noah's school.  Each day was a special day and Wednesday (pictured here) was "wacky Wednesday".  Noah's class had a competition to see how many books they could read during the week and it was amazing to see how all the kids in his class really got into this.  They had reached their weekly goal of 60 books after just 2 nights!  As a reward they had a special party at the end of the week.

Thursday was Noah's "student in the spotlight" day.  Each student in the school gets a month to be recognized so that other students may get to know them better.  They are recognized at an assembly at the beginning of the day and have to stand up and say something about themselves.  Noah's was, "a special skill I have is skiing". It was really cute!  Later that same day was also his last day of the ski program where he earned the award for "sweetest helper on the hill".  We are very proud of him!

This past weekend was Farmington's Fire and Ice Festival.  There were a host of cool winter activities for the kids to partake in.  Sledding, tubing, snowman decorating, a hay maze (James's favorite), ice sculptures, horse/wagon rides, cookie decorating, s'mores and fireworks.  The kids really enjoyed themselves despite several bumps and bruises (James's face took a bit of a beating from sledding).  The highlight of the day was getting to see the Lego movie! The kids loved it and daily ask when we will get to go back again.  

This movie has really created what we can only describe as "lego mania" at our house.  For the past month all anyone wants to do is play with Legos.  All three boys sat at the table and played little legos for 2 hours they other day..... it was unreal..... no fighting, less asking for tv, I am not sure what could be better.  They love the little legos, but after we pulled three pieces out of Audrey's mouth we have scaled back the use of those and they have happily transitioned back to the duple (bigger) legos.  Even Ben loves to create things with them.  This picture is a bit blurry, but a good representation.  James made this model of me... "She is the strongest man in the world"... I choose to take it as a compliment because he seems to really like it, but I definitely see the irony that it seems to be modeled after the villain "President Business" who insists on routine, order and following the instructions in the cities.... hmmmm... touché James:)

On Sunday morning we took James for his first skiing experience.  He was more than a little unsteady, but absolutely loved zooming down the hill with Gabe.  Noah was so excited to have James skiing too and tried hard to teach him all he had learned this year;)

Skiing Fun in March!

 

 

 

This past weekend Gabe finally got to go "real skiing" beyond the bunny hill by our house with Noah and I.  Hillary and her friend Mary came to visit us and accompany Gabe to Sugarloaf.  It sounds like they had a great day getting out doors and enjoying winter!  The kids and I took a day trip to Bangor to visit Trey and Lily... it wasn't originally on my list for the weekend, but the kids had been asking me every morning for a week (since our last trip was cancelled due to Noah's illness).  They were able to enjoy the Bangor children's museum and (more importantly) burn off some energy.  They ended our visit with finally getting to play with Trey's toys and everyone was happy;)  

Sunday morning Noah and I took Hillary and Mary to Titcomb ski area by us so that Noah could show off his skiing skills.  After a morning of skiing we took in the end of the dogsled racing being held locally.  The kids loved seeing all of the dogs, the different kinds of sleds and even seeing people on skis being pulled by their dogs!  It was a really fun end to a fun weekend.  Thanks for coming to visit Hillary!!

End of February 2014

February vacation ended with a bang for us.  Noah became victim #2 of the GI bug 9 days after James got it... weird... I hope this is the end.  We had to cut our vacation activities short, but that just allowed us to play at home, play outside and spend time with friends. Although, it was odd to have a February vacation pass without getting to a single playoff basketball game! Noah and James have started swimming lessons again and seem really glad to be back into the swing of things.  Noah continues to love his skiing lessons and is getting really confident on the slopes.

This picture of Ben is him wearing my new ski helmet, or if you ask him, it is his helmet... and can only be worn like this... It is sometimes exhausting dealing with the mindset of a 2 year old;) Audrey continues to military crawl, but she can get herself into a sitting position and really just goes wherever she wants... getting the kids to keep the cellar door closed has been a challenge.  This is a picture I have gotten of all of the other kids. I don't know what it is about being able to crawl under the exersaucer, but they all have done it... it is like a bizarre little milestone they all reach:)

February Vacation 2014- Part 2

Gabe took some vacation time at the beginning of this week so we continued our "stay-cation".  Monday we made puppets inspired by the festival at UMF last weekend.  The requirement, per the kids, was for a castle, a little boy, a king, a queen, a knight and a dragon ("to chase the little boy back into the castle saying ahhhh!").  During nap time Noah, James and I took on painting the clubhouse... this really stretched the limits on my patience;)  Once I gave in and embraced the mess deciding that we would just paint over the floor spills with gray paint things got better.  James some how managed to step in the paint not once, but twice leaving footprints everywhere.  The kids picked specific colors and decided on the pattern themselves and they are pretty proud of the results. After painting the boys and I went outside to slide and snowshoe in the yard.  I put the extra pair of snowshoes on Ben just to see if he could do it and he just took off on them... I didn't have to carry him once.  Another win for his bigger size!  The snow has gotten so high that it is almost up to the fencing keeping the kids in the yard... We also spent some time digging out the swings and making them higher so everyone could still swing.  

Tuesday we went ice skating in the morning, took the kids to the library and out to lunch.  Nannie arrived for a visit at lunch time and got to enjoy the boys and their new obsession with "little" legos.  After nap time, in an effort to make sure the kids are super tired at night, just like real vacation, we went bowling.  Ben showed us that he needs to be a bit older before bowling again, but everyone had fun just the same;)  

Wednesday morning we took Nannie on a great snowshoeing adventure to the back of our property (Ben walked almost the entire way on his own).  After playing outside for a bit we made a campfire and roasted hot dogs for lunch.  That afternoon Gabe and I took Noah skiing for my inaugural run on my "new to me" skis.  Noah is way better than I am, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly;)  Noah even met one of his classmates there and had a great time skiing for the afternoon with him.  

We will see what the rest of the week holds as we continue to check things off our February vacation bucket list... basketball tournaments hopefully!