Jim and Liz Get Married!

Gabe and I had a wonderful "postponed 10-year anniversary" get-a-way last weekend. Last year, for our actual 10th anniversary, I am not sure we even saw each other.  Gabe was still living/working in Portland and I was in Wilton with the kids (6yo, 4yo, 21mo & 4mo) living in our new home for only a week... so we decided to celebrate our 10th anniversary a year later.  This is honestly the first time we had left all of the kids overnight and everyone did really well, including us:)

Gabe and I were fortunate to attend the wedding of Jim (Gabe's college roommate) and Liz.  They reside in Chicago, but were kind enough to hold their wedding in Brunswick at the Bowdoin Chapel. The best part about the weekend was getting to spend time and catch up with old friends from college who we haven't seen for many years!  We certainly did some relaxing and were able to eat meals in a relaxed/non-rushed environment.  However, as it turns out, it is easy to skip meals when you are not running life on a strict schedule to prevent meltdowns by your children;)  Thanks for having us Jim and Liz and hopefully it won't be so long before we all meet again!  

James Turns 5 Years Old!

This sweet boy turned 5 today!  He loves playing with legos and cars and reading books.  He is very creative and will be a great writer and story teller when he is older.  He loves to make up stories about different characters and how they would appear in his life.  Although he sometimes prefers to play alone, playing Star Wars and fighting off the bad guys is becoming a favorite past time with his brothers.  He continues to have a soft spot for Audrey and seems to share a special bond with her that gives him lots of patience with her:)  He has done very well this year at school learning lots through his classmates (and Noah's homework).  He has started swinging and swimming on his own this summer and we are excited to see how he will continue to improve as the summer progresses.  We love you James and can't wait to see how you will grow in this next year!

Father's Day 2014

The kids were pretty excited for Father's Day this year.  They couldn't wait to make pancakes and bring them to Gabe in bed.  He was, not so gently, awakened by Noah playing the kazoo and James & Ben singing. Then, everyone insisted on cutting up his pancake for him.  They gave Gabe a tshirt with Darth Vader on roller skates and a boom box... they think that it is so hilarious and want him to wear it everyday:)

After breakfast we headed to church for children's Sunday.  Noah and James got to be greeters and play in the hand bell choir.  Their favorite part was at the end of the service when the high school kids played their guitars and drums... they still haven't stopped singing "Pharaoh, pharaoh" to the tune of "Louie, Louie".  Gabe finished the day with some golf with Noah and James and steak on the grill.  All in all a great day!

James' Lego Birthday Party

James finally got to have his lego party, he was so excited!  His friends came and made/raced lego cars, created some lego mini figures, built buildings, played pin the head on the lego man, and ate cake.  He wanted a cake with a race track around the outside and mini figures building on the inside, so that is what we did.  He had a wonderful day, thank you to all who came:)

Twilight 5K- 2014

Next up on our list for this week is the Maine Cancer Foundation's Twilight 5K.  This was Noah's first 5K and he was both excited and nervous that he wouldn't be able to make it the whole way.  We have been training from our house, but he was fixated on the fact that this was only a 2.6 mile route.  I tried to reassure him that all of the hills we had to run up more than made up the difference;)

Noah had a beach day at school, then we left as soon as we could to head to Portland. It was sprinkling and not super warm, but it could have been worse.  For the actual race the rain held off and  it was a great run.  We had a bit of a snafu at the beginning because they apparently do not allow strollers to run in the race, but thankfully Jacob waited to run with us and was able to take off and run with Noah.  I followed behind trying to run/walk/weave my way between participants as I had to wait and be the last one to start.  Noah was tired, yet so proud of himself as he excitedly told me that he had run the whole way without stopping, as I came across the finish line. He finished in 31 minutes which is way faster than I thought was possible for him.  Thank you Jacob for running with him, he had a great time!!

Our team raised just under $2,000 to support the Maine Cancer Foundation which put us in 10th place for fundraising.  Wonderful for such a small team!  We all had a blast and can't wait to run again next year!!

James' Pre-K Graduation

James' Pre-K graduation has kicked off a chaotic week for us, with lots of fun packed into a short time.  This big guy has really grown this year and learned so much from his fantastic teacher and friends.  We enjoyed some songs, a great slideshow and some treats as we celebrated their graduation into kindergarten next year!  The bottom picture here is of Noah and his friend Piper with their wonderful first grade teacher!

Roller Skating and Baseball

On Saturday the boys were invited to a roller skating birthday party.  This was the first time any of the kids had been roller skating and they had a ball:)  Thankfully, some of our friends were there to help the boys skate and they just loved dancing and skating around the rink.

The bottom picture here is of Noah at bat.  This is his first year playing baseball and he seemed to enjoy himself.  We are not sure that he loves actually playing baseball as he has a long way to go of practicing and learning the game, but he liked being part of a team of other friends his age.  We'll see if he decides to play again next year:)

Spirit Week- Spring 2014

We are easing into summer this week.  The weather has been great, the pool is finally getting warm enough to swim (although 62 degrees is not super warm) and the boys are finishing up the last few weeks of school.  This week was spirit week.  They had a change drive, crazy hair day, sports team day, school pride day, wacky Wednesday and the highlight, was dress like your favorite book character day.  James chose to be President Taft from "President Taft Gets Stuck in the Bath" and Noah was Randy Riley from "Randy Riley's Big Hit". The bottom picture was just a random afternoon of dress up for dinnertime at our house:)

Tiling & Lily's 1st Birthday!

Last weekend was very full, fun and fruitful!  Grampy, Grammy and Aunt Andrea came to tile the mudroom floor and play with the kids so we could get the garden it on Saturday. On Sunday Gabe started grouting, did some yard work and got out to golf.  The kids and I headed north to Lily's first birthday party, then to Millinocket for our niece and nephew's high school graduation parties.  We arrived home exhausted on Sunday, but very grateful for having gotten to spend lots of time with friends and family!