Spring is SLOWLY arriving:)

Spring seems like it might really be coming, the snow is almost gone! Recently we had a pajama day and the kids all decided to "nap" together in bean bags in the living room... it didn't last much longer than it took me to take the picture. The Children's Task Force in western Maine holds an annual 5K "Race to Prevent Child Abuse" and we thought this would be a good way to start off our running season.  Noah decided that he hadn't been running enough to enjoy the 5K and opted for the kids fun run this time around.  Thankfully, our friend Aaron joined us at the race and "ran" with the 3 boys, then watched all 4 while I ran in the race (Gabe was, of course, on call).  The kids were a bit disappointed that the kids race consisted of running only 3/4 of the way around a block, but this was quickly forgotten when they received a medal, a whoopie pie and a coupon for a free ice cream when they crossed the finish line... I had mixed feelings about this;)  Personally, this race taught me an important lesson- running 3-4 miles around the track at the gym does not equal running 3.1 miles on the road, in the cold with lots of hills... it seems like common sense when I write it out here...

This past week we got the pleasure of having our little friend (Audrey's BFF) Jackson come and play with us a few days while his day care was closed.  Thanks to the gorgeous weather we were able to spend most of our time outside swinging and climbing trees... so cute! Sadly, two days in a row birds flew into our house.  This first one was such a big beautiful bird!  My intention was to leave the bird outside on the ground under the window until Gabe made it home, but when the boys got out of school I looked out of the window and it was gone... I turned the corner and there was James with the dead bird in his hands.  He thought this bird was the coolest thing ever!  He made up a back story for the bird's final moments, "The bird was just flying along and flew past the bird feeders, but he was going too fast. He turned back to look and said to himself, 'Hey that looks like a good restaurant'.  Then, BAM he ran into the window and died."  He decided the bird's final resting spot should be down by the pond on the bridge, so he hiked down and placed the bird there.  The next day a chickadee ran into the back of the house and James repeated the ceremony at the pond.  He was excited when he discovered that the first bird was gone, but found a clump of tail feathers in the bushes.... I hope that this isn't a continuing trend:)

Easter 2015

On Saturday we joined friends for the annual Wayne Maine Easter Egg Hunt, which was really well done and enjoyable for both parents and kids.  It had to be inside because of the continued winter weather, but I don't think any of the kids cared!  Audrey has spent most of this Easter season thinking that all of the Easter Baskets were really hats and wearing them as such.  Saturday I think that she finally figured out their actual purpose;)

Nannie and Grandpa came to visit early hoping to avoid the snow, but Easter morning looked more like what we would hope for on Christmas morning!  The kids hunted for eggs and were more than a little excited that the Easter Bunny left some stormtrooper bunnies for them to enjoy.  We tried hard for a family photo and got something "acceptable" after 40 or so tries.  It was a bit easier to get one of the kids after church with the promise of being able to eat their chocolate bunnies;)  Happy Easter!

It's Technically Spring:)

Spring has officially arrived... However, the only sign of it we have seen here was the opening of Giffords... ice cream on a cold day, that's the dream, right?:)  We thought our most recent skiing adventure was our last, but we were determined to have one nice day at Saddleback this year!  So, we tried again (thank goodness for the Irving buy one get one free passes!).  We finally had a "normal" winter day- sunny, temps in the teens/lower 20s with no wind and it was fantastic!!  We made it to the peak and enjoyed a really fun day of skiing to end the year.

This area was fortunate to have the Harlem Allstars perform at the high school.  Noah enjoyed this show so much!  I left early with the other 3 who weren't quite as enthralled, especially since it started after bedtime. Noah has been working hard to complete his AT-AT and he has made some impressive progress.  The other kids are all dying to have a turn and help him build it... Audrey and Ben have started to enjoy playing with one another when the other boys are at school.  They spent most of the morning one day talking to each other and whoever/whatever was on the other side of this heat vent.  Whatever they were saying was obviously funny and captivating... it kept their attention for almost an hour!  Happy Spring!

Audrey Turns 2!

Our baby turns two today!  It seems like not that long ago we were having her, Gabe was away at a conference, we were putting our house on the market and buying a new home all in the matter of a week or so... I don't remember what happened after that... it's all a blur;)  Audrey has really developed a fun and easy going personality over the past year.  It has been fascinating to see different parts of her personality mimic parts of each of the boys' personalities.  She is gentle, caring, loves jokes and making people laugh. Her brothers all adore her and love teaching her new things.  Now that she is old enough to mimic them in both actions and words they think that it is so neat when they teacher her something new!  She loves playing cars, riding on cars with her brothers and wearing any pair of shoes she comes across.  She has a knack for sports and would prefer to play outdoors over almost anything else.  She loves books and is surprisingly patient as her brothers are learning to read to her.  We are so lucky to have her as part of our family and can't wait to see what the next year will bring! Happy Birthday Audrey!

Audrey's 2nd Birthday Party!

This big girl turns 2 next week!!  She had a Peter Rabbit/bunny birthday party last weekend.  In full disclosure, our library has close to 100 cake pans you can borrow, so a few weeks ago I took her and let her pick out which pan she wanted... I plan to do this for everyone here on out;) This year she loved opening her gifts and preferred hummus and chips to her birthday cake.  She had a wonderful day celebrating with friends and family.  Thank you to everyone who was able to attend!

Audrey's 1st Skiing Adventure

We have had some pretty poor luck skiing at "big mountains" this year with bitter cold temperatures and nasty wind chills. It was going to be sunny on Noah's birthday this year and Gabe had the day off, so we decided to take the kids out of school and have a family day of skiing... hey, it's the middle of March, it can't be that cold...right??  The day before I checked the weather again... it was certainly still going to be sunny, but actual temperature was single digits with a windchill in the high teens below zero... what?!?!?!? To make a long story short, we had already paid for the childcare and couldn't change it,  so we went anyway hoping the weather forecasters were wrong.  Of course the top two chair lifts were closed because of a wind hold, but Gabe, Noah, James and I happily rode the t-bar as high as we could and enjoyed skiing with almost no one else on the mountain... it was mostly fun;)  The good news is that James has gotten to be such a good skier, after his lessons at Titcomb, that we can bring him almost anywhere Noah and I can go.

After a morning of skiing (where the temperature didn't rise at all despite the sun) we picked up Ben and Audrey and warmed up in the lodge for lunch.  After lunch we got Ben and Audrey outfitted and we all skied the bunny slopes for the rest of the afternoon where it was "warmer", but not really warm enough to be pleasant for the younger skiers.  Noah loved Audrey's skis so much that he kept saying, "Aww, aren't these so cute!  Let's just buy them for her, look how much she likes them! She looks so cute wearing them".... it will be interesting to see how that kind of attitude with play out with the rest of Audrey's "lifetime milestones". Ben is getting better and better, so by next year he should be able to ski on his own.  Audrey really loved skiing with me (not so much with Gabe) and seemed to like going fast, especially after we got her some goggles and covered her face completely with her balaclava;)  All in all we had a great day skiing and Audrey is excited to do it again!

Noah Turns 8!

It has been 8 years since we became parents and welcomed this sweet guy into the world!  It has been so much fun in watching him grow into such a kind, thoughtful and helpful little man.  He has been so helpful this past year with chores around the house to keeping his siblings in check. He participated in both soccer and basketball this past year, but his passion seems to be in both skiing and running. He is also hoping to restart his violin lessons this year.  He loves to create and build with legos, read books and is always looking for new and exciting ways to play star wars.

On his birthday this year we let him skip school for a great day of skiing (see the next post).  After returning home we had supper and he was very excited to open his gifts and to get right to work on his AT-AT:) Happy Birthday Buddy!