Art Camp

Tim attended Highland's Art Camp this year and LOVED it! On the last day, they had an art show which he was SO excited about...

Sporting his own creation

and standing next to his bird (it's the red one). Nick admired the bird when he brought it home and Tim has been SO proud of that piece in particular...

A self-portrait (he decided to give himself straight hair like Nick's)


His motorcycle chicken

Hunters climbing down a mountain

Three little owls

and a sculpture of a marshmallow

Les Fraises

I guess this year hasn't been good for strawberries around here... a warm spring combined with a late frost got a bunch of the blossoms. Our strawberries produced a really small crop this year so the kids and I headed out to Tates to get a few more. They weren't keen on the idea at first but once we got there and started picking, they were fantastic! Nick probably filled 4 quarts on his own and Tim got at least 1 good solid one in the container and another in his belly :) A totally successful adventure!

Nothing quite like a good book

The week after school let out for summer, Nick decided to start reading Harry Potter. I have been absolutely floored by the speed at which he is plowing through the books, and kind of shocked (and dismayed) to head up to bed at 10pm and find him still reading away or asleep with his head on the book :) Five weeks later, he's partway through Book 5 - it took me ALL of last summer just to make it through all 7 books! I've been thrilled that he is reading (and loving the books so much) but a little apprehensive about whether or not the books are age appropriate. Ugh... I'm hoping that some of the more mature topics will just go over his head or get overlooked while he focuses on the plot.

Milk Run

All of the boys and I did the Bangor Y Milk Run this year. Tim was so excited to run his marathon!! The kids enjoyed a little horsing around with friends and each other before the race started and then we were off! Greg and Nick stuck together and Tim and I brought up the rear. Tim started off like gangbusters and then started to slow a little and then a lot With a litle coaxing and an entire package of GU Chomps, we made it to the finish line! where the kids could enjoy a cool beverage They were most excited for the door prizes though - both Tim and Greg won a cooler full of dairy products!

10 years ago

today, I married my best friend :)

It's been 10 happy and exciting years, and here's to many, many more!

Chairs

So, I decided we needed some chairs for our firepit and instead of just white ones like we have on our deck (that just get dirty and then require washing (that may or may not get done), I thought that we should pick a color. Since we still had almost an entire gallon of purple exterior paint from our front doors, purple they are! The boys were so kind as to help me put them together and prime them and after several weeks in the garage getting a coat here and a coat there, here they are:

Summer kickoff

We kicked off the last day of Nick's school with a barbeque complete with our first family fire in the fire pit. The boys got to roast marshmallows in old-school style on green sticks They thought it was kind of neat and each wanted sticks where they could roast more than one marshmallow at a time. Mom helping Amanda stick to her diet Nick's marshmallow trick A great way to start summer!

Fire Pit

So, thanks to Pinterest, I decided that we NEEDED a fire pit at our house. I mean, seriously, can you think of anything better than relaxing by a fire, drink in hand, burning stuff? Right. While I did see pix of pits that could be made with $30 worth of materials from the HD, I wanted a more organic look and decided I'd do one better and use only what I could get for free... Ta-da.... Greg and I christened it (read: we made sure it wasn't going to fall over and spread flames everywhere) And it was awesome! Does it get much better than this? Well, probably if we had chairs.... to be continued...

Pardon our absence

We've been out having some fun!



We'll tell you about it when we get a chance!