Upper Valley Visit

I am not sure we could have packed more into this visit if we had tried!  We had just a wonderful time visiting with the Yukica's whom we had not seen for over a year.  We are very glad they are back on this side of the U.S. and are extra excited that they have a new baby on the way next spring! Audrey is really hoping that it is a girl... she is terribly outnumbered with this group;)

On Saturday we made stops at the Montshire Museum of Science (where I took lots of pictures for the Western Maine Play Museum ideas;)) and the Upper Valley Aquatic Center... so much fun:)  Thanks to this visit our kids are now in love with fish tacos, which is great for our upcoming trip to San Diego.  Sunday we got to stop at King Arthur for breakfast for the adults (because our children ate all of the breakfast... big surprise) then went to hike Mt. Cardigan.  It was initially very foggy, but just as we were finishing lunch on the summit the clouds cleared and we had an amazing view of the fall colors!  Surprisingly, Ben hiked up the entire way.  I carried him down mainly because we didn't want it to take all day;)  It was a really fun and relaxing trip, thanks so much Yukica family!  

Farmington Fair

Sadly, it is looking less and less likely that we will be making it to Fryeburg this year for the fair.  On the bright side, Farmington has a pretty great fair and they give the kids a half a day at school to attend!  It was a gorgeous fall day and the kids were more than thrilled to check out all of the animals in the barns and spend some quality time on all of the "big toys" wishing they had a big snow plow;)

All three boys participated in the pedal tractor pulls... all in the same weight class... Noah was too tall and had a really difficult time pedaling and steering, James was the perfect size and I fear that Ben will be out of the weight category before he is developmentally ready to pedal that tractor with weight;)  Maybe next year for Audrey:)

Trey's Birthday Weekend

As is becoming a yearly tradition Gabe was on call the weekend of Trey's birthday party, so the kids and I headed to Mattamiscontis for a visit the night before... this was after I realized that I had not seen most of the Pelkey family since Christmas... there is also a small chance that I needed some man power to make all of those angry birds and piggies;)  The kids got to get in some fishing, hiking, tree climbing and 4 wheeling time.  Ben caught an impressive tree branch/bush, Noah came up empty and James caught this fish... it was pretty comical... it is hard to be left handed and figure out how to reel in a squirming, fighting fish... he was really good at swinging it around and trying to hit everyone with it though;) Also, despite the picture, Audrey had a blast on the 4wheeler... so long as I was hiding out of sight.

The next morning we got up and going for a great party to celebrate Trey's 4th birthday!  Angry birds, kids, food, outside play... I am not sure what could have been better. Happy Birthday Trey!

Ben's Superhero Party

Ben's request for a party this year were to have a super hero party and to have a blue cake with blue frosting.  Easy enough for us.  It was still warm enough for swimming so that was an added bonus:)  We spent the morning making silly string webs, playing pin the mask on the super hero, throw the bat-a-rang and the biggest hit, capture the evil villain/bad guy (Gabe) and wrap him in toilet paper.  Thank you so much to all who could make it and made Ben's birthday extra special!

Benjamin Turns 3!

This big guy turns three today and I am not sure where the last 3 years have gone!  Ben is growing into a loving, caring and super fun boy.  His language has exploded in the last couple of months and he has lots to say (many years to make up for I think;)). He can finally say Audrey (pronounced "Aud ee"), but I do miss they days when he could only refer to her as "Aud do".  He tries so hard to tell jokes and everyone usually ends up laughing even though they don't make sense just because he gets such a big kick out of it himself and he has a contagious laugh. He is still working on some self control and like every good three year old not getting his own way can be an awfully difficult life lesson.  He is very loving towards his siblings and is always willing to help on a project if he thinks that it is "only for big boys".  We love you little big man and we can't wait to see what year #4 has in store for you! 

First Day of School 2014

Goodbye summer, hello fall... this happened today.  The boys are off to school and Ben, Audrey and I are adjusting to being home by ourselves.  Noah is now in second grade and in a new school and James is in Kindergarten.  They take the same bus, but are in different schools this year (although the schools are just across the street from one another). Noah and James both had really great days at school and I am sure in a few days Ben and Audrey will be adjusted to not having their big brothers at home (and me too!).

Labor Day

As the last official day of summer, we had a beautifully hot day.  We went to our favorite playground with a bike track in the morning.  Noah is doing really well riding his mountain bike!

We spent the afternoon lounging around the pool.  Daddy was home so I was able to get some great photos of the kids enjoying the pool.  Audrey has changed her tune and now LOVES the pool.  I can't even sit out with the other kids now because she always insists on going in the water.  This is a huge change from just a few weeks ago when she would scream and scream even if the water touched her.  She not only wants to get in the water, but she is legitimately trying hard to swim... and she is super cute:)  Ben is doing really well in the water swimming with only two bubbles, though he prefers to stand in the shallow end and squirt everyone.  James continues to be part fish, not only swimming on his own, but diving to the bottom of the shallow end, swimming across the pool underwater and doing front flips underwater.  Noah is getting much stronger as a swimmer and his biggest accomplishments of the summer are being able to do 3 flips underwater without coming up for air, swim the entire length of the pool underwater and diving to the bottom of the deep end of the pool. **I apologize for James' nakedness, but that happens a lot in the summer;)**