Fresh Air Fund Week Part 2

Thursday the kids and I took S to climb Center Hill. He seemed a bit apprehensive at hiking a mountain, but when we reached the top he seemed quite proud of himself and was asking if we could run down and climb back up again.  I thought is was too early, but we were able to pick some wild blue berries on the top as well.  After the hike we spent the afternoon swimming at a "lake beach".  The weather wasn't particularly great, but the kids went in swimming anyway and built lots of sand castles.

Friday we went to story hour at our library where we read a book about a superhero, then made thank you cards for active duty military personnel.  After the library, we picked some strawberries.  There was a fair bit of complaining from everyone, but they all pulled through and we still came home with a flat of strawberries for dinner... and full bellies of strawberries for the way home.  Our friends joined us for a BBQ that night and all of the kids were exhausted by the end.  I think that everyone stopped to eat, but it wasn't for long.  They spent most of the time in the pool and by the end of the day S was not only going under water, but jumping into the deep end too!  It has been really neat this week to see his courage and determination to try new things and to push himself outside of his comfort zone:) 

Fresh Air Fund Week Part 1

Last winter, as a family, we decided to host a Fresh Air Fund child for a week this summer.  For those unfamiliar with the Fresh Air Fund, it is a fantastic organization that pairs children from New York City with a family anywhere from New Brunswick to Virginia for a visit during the summer and have an opportunity to be outside.  For more information their website is: freshair.org

Meet our friend S, he is from the Bronx and was 7 years old when he came to visit (and turned 8 while he was here!).  Noah, James and I picked him up in Waterville on Monday and he was surprisingly happy and agreeable after being on a bus over 8 hours:)  On Tuesday, the boys introduced him to our chickens and all of the kids spent the day running around outside, swimming in the pool and playing on the swing set.  That afternoon Gabe took the boys fishing and, I think, that S was a little excited about catching his first fish!

Wednesday was a long and somewhat exhausting day, but it was also so much fun!  We took a day trip to Boothbay Harbor.  It was low tide in the morning so our first stop was for some tide pooling. We were luck to find the perfect spot to dig around.  This may have been a point where S thought we were a bit crazy encouraging him to pick up and touch crabs, snails and other creatures... He was a great sport though and kindly refused:)  We had a picnic lunch at the Maine State Aquarium with an incredible view of the harbor.

The Maine State Aquarium was a fantastic experience.  They have a lot of things to look at, learn and explore packed into a small space.  All of the kids were enthralled and eager to learn about the animals.  Their favorite tank was the one allowing you to see the baby skates and sharks inside their egg pouches.  It was during this time that S and Noah mustered up some courage and started touching the animals (honestly, I think that it may have been Audrey being unafraid to touch anything that prompted them).  By the end they had spent a lot of time touching everything in the touch tanks and taking time to pet the sharks and skates as they swam by.

We took a quick trip downtown and had some great timing at the salt water taffy shop where we were able to see all stages of taffy production (and then maybe we tasted some too).  We wrapped up the trip with ice cream and a walk along the footbridge over the water.    

We brought home some lobsters (Gabe may have traumatized S a bit when he brought him into the lobster pound to see the 3.5 pound lobsters) to cook for dinner.  I love the pictures of S and Ben holding the lobsters before we cooked them because it shows how brave they were in just one day, going from not daring to touch anything to holding up and eating these crazy lobsters:)  

Yukica's Visit

We had an awesome 4th of July weekend this year!  Well, Gabe was on call, but I think that we all still had a good time;)  Our friends from Vermont came to visit and the first night we left the youngest two home with the dads and Rebecca and I took the oldest 5 to the fireworks.  It was a perfect night for viewing and everyone really enjoyed the show.

We have a very kind neighbor who's hobby is restoring antique cars.  He came over earlier in the week looking for some children to ride in the back of his 1956 Ford truck and throw candy during the parade... the boys were thrilled to say the least!  Jack was a good sport and rode in the back with the older boys to facilitate the candy throwing and to discourage jumping.  We spent the rest of our time together BBQing, swimming and getting snuggles from this sweet baby.  Thanks for the visit Yukica Family, come back anytime!

The top left picture is how we spent an hour of our rainy weekend day... this is the Eiffel Tower made from all 2X2 and 2X4 lego duplo blocks.  1- I have found a new website that I am sure we will be using frequently to build other structures and 2- we may have too many duplo... is that possible?

The Carlile's Visit!

To start off our summer visiting/fun/crazy series the Carlile Family drove up from Boston last weekend.  Their kids  celebrated their last day of school and jumped in the car to visit.  We had so much fun and such a relaxing time playing, swimming, exploring and visiting that this was the only picture taken, and Gabe gets the credit for it:)  A sign of a great visit I guess!  We played outside for most of the weekend and had a great campfire to roast s'mores... I am pretty sure I wasn't hungry at any point this weekend;)  We continue to be amazed at how well our kids like each other and when they are together they just pick up where they left off at the previous visit. This could be said for the parents too;)  We actually got out a real, live board game to play after the kids went to bed... it was a bit of a shock to realize that 1- there is a very likely possibility that we haven't played a non-kids board game in over 8 years and 2- Our 90's version of Trivial Pursuit was painfully outdated... as in we are getting old... The Carlile's even brought their dog, lucky, with them and Audrey did so well with him that it is safe to say that her dog phobia has lessened significantly in the last year:)  The picture on the right was Audrey's idea of how to best play Headbands on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Summer Begins!

We have had a great first week without school!  We moved the chicks outside which was bizarre because they seemed so big in their plastic tote, but so little in their coop.  They seem to be thrilled to be outside in the sun!

On Gabe's day off this week we took him for a "hike" up Center Hill in Mount Blue State Park.  There is a gorgeous view from the top, but it only takes about 5 minutes to reach the top, so not great for exercise;) We found lots of neat bugs in preparation for the boys heading to bug camp next week.