Canoe Races, Swimming and Playing with Friends:)

Last Friday the kids and I took a last minute overnight visit to my Mom's while Gabe was on call.  Saturday morning we got up and met Hillary and Aunt Amy & her family for the Kenduskeg Canoe Race.  It was impressive to watch the racers come through 6 mile falls, some making it look easy without getting wet and others dumping it completely and having to abort the race.  The water looked cold and I was glad it wasn't me;)  After the canoe race we were able to see Maddie and Maria play softball in Brewer.  The kids really enjoyed the game and seeing Uncle Jon.

The boys have been taking swimming lessons since after Christmas, every Sunday Audrey cries because she can't go too and every Sunday I tell her that when she is 3 she can go to swimming lessons.  I obviously should have been more careful since she is 3 now. So, we took her to swim after swimming lessons during the last week.  Truthfully she could be in swimming lessons, but I would have to get in the water with her and after 8+ years of that I was trying to avoid it and take the year off... Almost no one showed up to the last day of swimming lessons, likely because it was an actual nice day out, so Audrey got to get in the water while the boys were having their lesson!  We are really thankful to have such an awesome group of lifeguards:)

During public school April vacation week we have had a few extra friends over during the day and the kids had so much fun!  I thought that Audrey and Jackson would grow tired of each other after the first day or two, but they seemed just as happy to see each other and play on the third day as the first. They all play so well together it makes things easy on my end.  I spent today trying to pack things up, we are leaving for Boston/Seattle on Thursday!

More Art and Space at the Portland Science Center

This week's art medium is working gold leaf, or in our case aluminum foil;)  Ben painted lots of people with shiny eyes, Noah designed a crown with shiny jewels, James drew out and painstakingly used many tiny pieces of foil to create a Battleship game board.  Audrey continued with her abstract art theme.  We are having so much fun learning about new artists, their works and the different mediums they used in a time before craft stores.  

We have been trying to get to the Portland Science Center to see the Space and Robot Zoo exhibit for months and were afraid we were going to miss it if we didn't go before our upcoming vacation to Seattle.  Last week Gabe had a day off, so we all hopped in the car and went.  All of the kids have been really interested in space from both the PBS special about the year aboard the International Space Station and the new children's show "Ready, Jet, Go" which is all about space exploration.  They were thrilled to learn more about space and see some of the things they have been thinking and talking about in person.  James still doesn't have closure about which planet bumped into Neptune to cause it to rotate on it's axis sideways, but he was happy to have closure on some other questions;)  

Baking and Hiking:)

In our down time we have been watching "The Great British Baking Show" with the kids on Netflix.  It is technically a reality show, but not at all like American reality cooking shows.  This one has very real, average people who are kind to one another without the drama.  All of the challenges are normal baking without ridiculous twists and unrealistic time constraints. It is a great family show, all of our kids love to sit and watch from start to finish.  As a result, we have been baking some things that we wouldn't normally  take on.  One episode had the contestants making swiss rolls, so we looked up a recipe and everyone helped to make it.... it was easier than I thought! A more recent episode made some tarts and the kids got right on that and made these individual tarts with fruit.  They are becoming pretty good bakers:)

Last Friday, Shannon and I took the kids for a last minute hike at Bradbury Mountain State Park, followed by a shopping trip in Freeport.  It was supposed to rain in the afternoon, so we hurried to hike, but it didn't rain a drop all day! The kids were really good sports in the stores and waiting in the car while the adults took turns shopping;)

Easter 2016

Easter was the day after Audrey's birthday party this year, so my mom stayed for the morning egg hunt and left for my sister's to celebrate with Trey and Lily. It was a pretty big bummer when we were hiding the eggs the night before that my dad wasn't around to do that... it was one of his favorite jobs and has done it for the kids each time he was at our house for Easter.  James was feeling better this morning and humored us enough to get dressed up for pictures, but he didn't make it to church opting for a nap instead.  He participated in the egg hunt, but didn't eat any candy, so we knew he wasn't 100% yet.  We had an absolutely beautiful day to enjoy having an Easter dinner with friends.  Happy Easter!

A Sword Called Excalibur

Noah and James have been participating in the Children's Theater production of, "A Sword Called Excalibur".  The theater group comes in at the beginning of the week, the kids audition, then practice for several hours all week after school time.  James was a groundhog and Noah was a knight.  They had a great time all week practicing, staying up late and hanging out with their friends.

The weekend was a bit crazy to say the least.  On Saturday morning James woke up vomiting... super disappointing... he missed Audrey's birthday party and the play! Noah also missed Audrey's birthday party because, thanks to some poor weather and school being cancelled the day before, play practice was moved up on the day of the play to start when Audrey's birthday started.  But, in the afternoon we got to attend the play and all of the kids did an impressive job!  We filmed the parts that James would have been in to show him and Noah did a wonderful job as knight #2.  The kids both loved being in the play and are looking forward to participating again next year!

Audrey's Birthday Party!

Audrey picked out a fire breathing dragon cake at the library, but didn't want a dragon party. Instead, she was insistent about having a bunny party (like last year) with a purple fire breathing dragon cake.  Despite her face in the picture above, she did love the cake.  We dyed Easter eggs since Easter is tomorrow and we haven't gotten around to that this year.  We also enjoyed lots of bunny treats.  Thank you to all of Audrey's friends and family who came out to celebrate her turning 3!

Audrey Turns 3!

We officially don't have a baby anymore... or really a toddler anymore... Audrey is certainly a full fledged threenager;)  It is amazing how we went from years of hauling around diaper bags, changes of clothes, pacifiers, burp cloths, sippy cups, snacks, strollers, etc. to barely remembering the wipes.  Audrey is certainly growing into an amazing, strong willed, imaginative little girl.  She continues to refer to her older brothers as "my boys" or "my Noah, my James, my Ben"... This is probably because she knows that they would do anything for her. She knows what she wants and is not afraid to say what is on her mind. She loves skiing and participating in anything her boys are doing.  She can't wait to take swimming lessons and start soccer.

She has such an amazing imagination!  She is becoming a really entertaining storyteller and the other kids ask her to tell them a story.  Most of the stories are of bizarre dreams she has, but thinks they are very real and gets quite offended if anyone tries to tell her that they aren't real.  The stories she tells most are of "France the Dinosaur". He has been a main character since she could talk it seems like.  Lately she doesn't like France, "He is bad because he gets into my closet and puts on all of my pretty clothes, takes them off the hangers and makes a big mess.  But that's ok, Mommy will fix them."  She also has a set of monkeys  who won't stop jumping and fooling around and get off her bed. Happy Birthday Audrey, we can't wait to see what year four will bring!