May 2018 Road Trip Adventures- Montreal

We are so excited to be taking a road trip/vacation making a loop up through Canada and back through upstate NewYork.  Our trip started Thursday night after Gabe got out of work.  We drove from Wilton, to Montreal where we will be for the next three nights.  

Our condo was "close" to Old Montreal so we went on foot during the day Friday. By the end of the day we had covered over 6 miles! The kids were still upright and a little grouchy, but they hung in there;)  We strolled Old Montreal and by far the favorite stop of everyone was the Basillica Notre Dame. It is an amazing building, the kind of which we just don't have on this continent like they do in Europe.  We stayed visiting much longer than we thought we would, but the kids were enthralled and asked lots of great questions of the tour guide.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the area, seeing the Old Port and eating frozen bananas.  We took a bit of a detour on our way home to walk through the underground city.  It is amazing that there are miles and miles of an underground network so that in the winter you virtually never need to step outside!  We finally made it home in time to hop in the car in search of poutine at La Banquise.  The poutine and dinner was amazing, but since they only took cash and we didn't bring enough Canadian money on this outing, we had to be careful not to go overboard trying all of the different types of poutine:)  We finished the day at the playground and all slept very well!

On Saturday we drove up Mount Royal for an impressive view of the city.  From there we spent the rest of the morning at the Biodome museum in Olympic Park.  Here the kids got to feed the otters and check out several different habitats and the animals that live in them from the Arctic and penguins to the tropical rainforest.  The elevator to the top of the stadium at Olympic Park was under repair so we had to skip that attraction. The Biosphere was our next stop.  We intended just to look at the outside and marvel at the ingenious designs, but to our surprise, the environmental museum inside it was open, so we headed into the second museum of the day.  There were lots of exhibits on environmental conservationism including alternative energy and other innovations.  They view from inside the sphere on the top platform afforded us our second amazing view of the city that day. On our way home we stopped at Schwartz's for smoke meat (for Gabe) for dinner while the kids and I tracked down Viader's for what were claimed to be the best Montreal Bagels. After another full day, we are off to Toronto tomorrow!

Midsummer's Night Dream

This weekend was definitely full!  For the past week, Noah and James have been working very hard at play practice through a children's theater group. The culmination on that work being the play "A Midsummer's Night Dream".  These are always fantastic because they present more complex plays into a manageable and entertaining way for kids.  Noah was Duke Theseus and James was a woodland sprite.  All of the kids did a fantastic job!

After the play, the Western Maine Play Museum was having a tropical themed dance party as a fundraiser in Farmington. So, we grabbed a quick dinner and headed there for lots more fun!  It was a long day and everyone was exhausted, but we had lots of fun:)  This week we are getting some school wrapped up in preparation for our upcoming road trip to Canada! 

Spring is on it's Way!

 

 

Things are starting to look like spring now that the snow is mostly gone.  The squirrels are out and about and James has started to be super brave with his tree climbing... I may have to make him start wearing helmet.  We burned the brush pile this week to make room for the climbing tree we nee to take down... the kids will be super disappointed about this, but we need to make room for a new shed AND it is a bit diseased and won't last long anyway.  

Also this week, Ben has started playing Tball.  He loves it and is getting the hang of it quickly!

March for Science, Boston!

The Women's March in January went so well we decided to continue our advocacy when the opportunity for a science march presented itself!  As the weeks grew closer, we talked a lot about why science was important and why we had to be advocates for it in government policies.  At the March for Science Boston, they were doing a separate kids section.  They had an essay contest and were asking for submissions of essays answering the question, "Why should we stand up for science?".  A winner would be chosen for each age group and they would get to read it at the march. It was open to all school age kids in New England, so I thought it would be a great writing activity for school.  

Ben drew a really cool picture of dinosaur extinction and said that without science we wouldn't know about dinosaurs. James and Noah both typed essays, then we went through the editing process writing MANY drafts.  I know that they were super tired of this process, but I think they learned a lot.  Since it was all of New England kids submitting essays, I figured there was no chance of them winning, so I put it out of my head.  A few days before the march I got an email saying that Noah had won the contest for his age group (3rd-5th grade)!  I was completely dumbstruck, but so excited that he won and would have the opportunity to read it at the march, not the kids march, but the actual adult march. James did really well too and was the runner-up for his age group (K-2nd grade)! 

Gabe didn't have to work this weekend, so we were able to make it a day trip to Boston.  It was cool and rainy that day, but they still estimated the crowd to be between 50,000 and 70,000 people!  When we arrived back stage some of the judges were there and made it a point to seek out James and tell him how much they liked his essay. They didn't need to do that, but it made him feel very special. It had stopped raining by the time Noah's turn came. He walked right out on the stage and did an amazing job reading his essay in front of all of those people. There were a few points when the crowd cheered and they were chanting his name at the end.  It was such a cool experience that I hope he will hold onto forever!  We are very proud of all of our kids being so articulate and excited about science:) 

Easter 2017

Easter fell on an absolutely beautiful day this year!  The snow has mostly melted in our yard and the sun was almost warm outside.  As always, the kids enjoyed the Easter egg hunt and having chocolate bunnies for breakfast.  They did an awesome job singing at church and managed to get a few nice pictures... they weren't all serious though;)  We ate lots of good food at brunch with friends and had a very relaxing day. Happy Easter!