Last Day of School

Although it seemed to drag on at times, Noah and James have both officially been upgraded to 3rd and 1st graders!  Everyone was pretty excited for their last day and to have them home for the summer:)  They only had a half day, so we had 4 extra kiddos over for a bit of a celebration complete with swimming, watermelon, playing with the chicks and a movie.  Congratulations guys!

James Turns 6!

This big guy turns 6 today! He was very excited to share his birthday with the last day of school.  We had some breakfast ice cream waffles, followed by a fun afternoon with friends.  We had his meal of choice- stromboli for dinner followed by cupcakes and presents.  He may have been most excited about the Star Wars cereal I just happened to find at Hannaford this morning;)

Over the last year, he has grown into a very kind and thoughtful brother and friend.  He is not afraid to speak up when someone isn't following the rules, but is also the first to "bend" the rules if something would be funnier... he is the king of practical jokes.  He loves all things Star Wars and legos.  He is extremely creative both in the stories he concocts as well as in the structures he builds from legos or our recycling pile.  He really enjoys swinging, swimming and flying down the hill on his bike.  He learned to read this year in kindergarten as well as how to ski last winter.  We love you, James and can't wait to see what the next year will bring!!

Fiddle Camp 2015

The day after the Twilight Run was school for Noah and James followed by a trip with Gabe to Fiddle Camp.  Noah and James are both enthusiastic about playing the violin and since Gabe and I are not in anyway musically inclined (except for playing the tuba and baritone in high school, of course;)) we thought this would be a great opportunity for them.  They got to sleep in a tent, stay up late, swim, meet new friends and learn the violin while Gabe learned the guitar.  James ended the weekend saying that he wished he could live at Fiddle Camp.

While the two big brothers were at fiddle camp Ben, Audrey and I enjoyed some quiet time at home fixing the chicken coop and trying to acclimate the chickens to grass. I think that they enjoyed their time being only two kids, they were over the moon when Noah and James returned:)

Twilight Run 2015

Another Twilight Run in the books and another amazing experience.  This year Noah and I combined to raise $750 for the Maine Cancer Foundation.  Not to mention that our team of only 8 (3 of whom were kids) came in 5th place in team fundraising! I can't say enough about how great this event is.  Noah has been training hard again this year and set a goal of finishing in 28 minutes (honestly, I thought this was a bit lofty and finishing in 28:something is what I expected).  Well... halfway through the race I said, "Noah, I can tell you are running really fast because I am tired!".  He finished in 26:24, 8th overall in his division (which is men 19 & under)!  I have never seen him so proud of himself. James and Gabe are both excited to be part of this event next year:)  There is a really neat video of the event on the twilight 5k website and I will try and paste the link here.  Noah and I are crossing the finish line around the 1 minute mark:)

http://twilight5k.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=1123507

More Chicks;)

The chickens are now almost 2 weeks old and getting some beautiful feathers on their wings.  We lost 1 and gave 5 to a friend, so we are now getting to know our flock of 10.  These little gals are so entertaining... we all could sit and watch them all day.  The kids constantly want to hold them, laugh at them and make "special presents" for them.  Now that we are sure who our flock will consist of we let the kids name them.  We have- Eggs, Peck, Pippi Longstocking, Miss Trunchbull, Matilda, Thumb-Thumb, BFG (Big Friendly Giant) and Grandpa Joe.  Two still have names TBD.  

Our Chicks are Here!

Monday morning at 7:15am I got a call from our post office saying that our chicks were in.  The kids and I frantically got dressed and went to pick them up.  All 16 of them fit in this small box and they looked great! Before school, with the kids help, we were able to get all of them settled into their bigger box fed, watered and warm.  Noah and James were so excited to get off the bus and see the chickens at the end of the day!  We have made it to day 2 and everyone is still alive so we will see how this goes:)