Random Summer Fun

All in all we had a nice summer. Here are some pictures of our other random summer adventures and fun ....Yes - our kids get a little bit of inherited pyromania - we love our little bonfires.

Indoor smores - a new treat this year and now preferred over campfire smores - mostly because they like to watch as the marshmallows poof up in the microwave.

Playground time after swim lessons. We ended up missing the first two rounds but got in for the last one. Ry ended up as the only kid in his level so he got a private instructor (probably a good thing) he was really terrified of the water at first and had some moments where I wasn't sure if he would keep going but overall his teacher was really great and he gained a lot more confidence in the water. Alicia on the other hand had a huge class but ended up really shining and ended up being promoted to the next level when swim lessons start again. They both had a really good time too despite the freezing water!

Finally Fireworks - with Friends!

As noted earlier - the kids were pretty disappointed about missing the fireworks on the 4th of July. Fortunately though (and I'm still not sure exactly why) a lot of towns around here seem to spread out the fun and one of our neighboring towns hosted fireworks later in July that we got to go to. Alicia had been begging for a playdate with one of her friends who happens to live in that town so we decided to just all go together. We all stopped at a nice little ice-cream shop for after dinner-treats. Then we all walked around the town and down to the fireworks and sat and waited while we had the endless cycle of - "when are they going to start?" "not until it gets dark!" When they did go off it was great though and the kids gave commentary and amusement through it all.

Camping on Lake Champlain

After our first family camping trip last year, the kids were anxious to go again this year. As crazy as things were though it didn't happen until our friend Zach talked us into going up to Lake Champlain to come fishing with him. We shared a campsite with Zach, Wendi, and one of their other friends and had a really nice weekend. The weather that had looked to be cold and rainy was beautiful. Alicia enjoyed investigating all the secret spots of the campground and the nature center. Mark caught some fish and Alicia caught one (with Wendi's help). Zach did show Alicia how to hold a bass by the mouth though so that was her big fishing accomplishment of the weekend.We got to the marina the first night just at sunset.

The kids keeping busy while we were getting all the gear together for the first expedition of the weekend (there were two ropes for swinging and Alicia was on the other one).

The kids and their dream catchers that we made at the nature center.

Saw this and thought of Mark's Sister Kathy - figured she would approve of the nature center lessons even though we didn't see this one.

Alicia loving the garden flowers.

Other than that the memorable moment of the weekend was probably the way home when Mark's kayak slipped and cracked the windshield. Thankfully it wasn't major and we got home fine (which was our big concern considering it bent the pole for the roof rack (thank you Wal-Mart) and one of our tie ropes.

Berry Berry Delicious

Summer wouldn't be summer around here without berries from Wellwood! We went back later with some of our friends but we ended up picking in the rain so no pictures from that day.

Family Fun on the 4th

The 4th of July ended up in a day of family fun randomness. We started off by deciding to hit the beach (a 3 hour trip for us) so we drove down to Portsmouth, NH and got there just about lunchtime. Still Mark and the kids were anxious to hit the water... and so was everyone else, it was a packed beach at high tide but everyone still had lots of fun.
On the way home from Portsmouth we stopped in Condord, NH to stretch our legs a bit and ended up going to see Cars 2 in the movie theater. Both kids loved it. We were all so beat by the time we reached home that we missed our turn to go watch fireworks so they were a little disappointed about that but I think they were so tired that they couldn't have stayed up for them then anyways. It was just great to spend some time together and remember to be thankful for all of the freedom that we do have in our country to be able to do so.

Last Day of 1st Grade

Ry and I got to spend most of the last day of Alicia's first grade hanging out with her class and helping everyone pack up. 1st grade definitely had it's ups and downs and I think we all learned a lot. She really loved her class and her teacher.

Alicia's Weekend Project

Saturday morning, pretty much first thing Alicia decided she was going to write a book. I didn't really think much of it but then I start getting calls for help.... she's got Photoshop up on the computer and is trying to figure out how to delete something she didn't like off the cover. I help, go away and then I get another plea for help a few minutes later.... "Mommy, the cover's done, how do I get to the first page so I can start writing?" After trying to explain the basic differences between Photoshop and Word, I opened up a Doc for her to start in.

Here is how she spent the majority of the rest of the weekend...

Hi, I am Christian and my sister’s name is Elizabeth. I am a traveler with my Mom. Elizabeth stays with Dad. Mom has two bags, so does Dad. Mom has a bag for her clothes and the other bag has her tools. One night we went to see Elizabeth and Dad but when we got there Dad was not there. Elizabeth said he was getting dinner so we waited there till Dad got home. We had a yummy diner. When we were done with diner Mom said she would clean. Dad said he was going to the Lydia Museum. “No, not that museum,” said Mom. “That one is too dangerous.” “No it is not dangerous,” Dad said and he walked out the door like nothing happened. Mom followed Dad and she hugged Dad as if Mom knew what was going to happen. Then we all got in the car except Mom. After Mom got in the house we took off. When we got there we saw two people. They were coming toward us. Elizabeth was not scared. I was scared. But when they got to us they didn’t seem too creepy, they seemed friendly, at least one did. There was a woman and a man. The man said “come this way sir and ma’m and you sir.” We followed him into a room. The woman took Dad’s clothes bag. She was reaching for Dad’s tool bag. Dad saw her reaching for his bag. He said, “I’ll keep this one.” When we came in our mouths dropped. The room was huge. There were statues of Egyptian gods and in the center of the room was a box with a stone. The stone was blue, almost glowing it was so beautiful. The woman said, “We will leave you. I will give you the rules and don’t break any of the rules and they left. “Okay, so what do we do now,” I said. Dad said, “I need you to turn around for a minute.” So I turned around and Elizabeth turned around. We waited till Dad said it was okay to turn around. He handed a chain to me, it felt heavier than a chain should feel. Dad said to follow the two people who let us into the room and he told us to lock Joseph, the museum keeper, up. We followed the man in to his office and he shut the door and we chained Joseph’s door up. And after we locked his door up we went back to the big room that the man took us when we got there. Dad was turned around looking at the stone. I realized Dad was writing on the stone. And he was writing “open”. I was a little scared. Then the stone exploded. I woke up to find a piece of the stone in my mouth. I spit it out of my mouth. I looked at Dad but he was looking at something else something in front of us. I held my breath. Something was standing in front of us. Dad said, “how many did I release?” “You released all eight.”

That's where she left off for now (granted I did edit slightly for some sentence structure and grammar/spelling issues but not much.... except for maybe the spelling part, she is after all, my daughter) ... slightly more than the couple of sentences on each page with a big picture that I was thinking was the plan. She wants to finish it, draw the pictures for it and turn it into a real book that will be in bookstores and libraries and people can buy.

Can you tell what book we listened to twice on cd last week? Another hint.... the title of her book is "The Red House".