Happy Halloween Birthday

Last night we had a hearty birthday dinner, thanks to Thomas and Julie, in honor of Wes's Halloween birthday. You can see Julie and Thomas in the background peeling potatoes while Wayne decorates the cake completely by himself.
Here is the finished product. He did a great job.

Thomas, slaving away.

The dinner was delicious. Julie and Thomas prepared a pot roast with carrots and potatoes. It was amazing - the roast was flavorful and perfectly moist. Julie also made stuffing and we had corn and rolls.

Then of course, there was cake!

Estelle savors every bite.

Meanwhile, Heather - we just have to strip her down when she dives into cake.

And Cole, well just don't even get me started.

Cole helps with presents.

The little girls had gone to bed by this time.

Wayne demonstrates his Halloween spirit.

Julie had gotten out this big sing for decoration.

Wes thanks everyone for all the terrific gifts and cards. Thanks everyone. It was a fun birthday.

Painting Party Weekend

It was a whirlwind weekend around here when all of Wes's sisters came to help paint our old Drew Place house.

But first, on Thursday, Sandy and Elijah came to visit Julie, Thomas, and Estelle. He can walk all over the lawn with this little push toy, and any day now he's going to let go and toddle off on his own!

Friday morning we started getting ready for Grammie and Lisa's arrival. Heather and Estelle started the day off with a little excercise by running back and forth from Grammie's bedroom door and through the kitchen.

After their excercise was done, Estelle helped me vaccuum Grammie's bedroom.


Then they both tested out Grammie's bed to make sure it was suitable for her.

Mary arrived and read a book.


Saturday morning, the painting began. Wes and Thomas were in charge of rolling the walls and ceiling.

Mary, aka "Drippy" did a lot of the edge work.

Laura arrived from Massachussettes and got right to work taping and edging.

Lisa will probably need to see her chiropractor after this.

Martha cleaned and painted.

Wayne and Joanie cleaned all the windows.

Later, after the painting was done, we all came back for a big dinner that Joanie had prepared - pulled pork sandwiches, pumpkin soup, cole slaw, all kind of breads, and oodles of desserts. This picture shows Martha wearing her spiderman costume.

Laura belatedly celebrates her 50th birthday with all of her sisters and her Mom. She brought her own cake and party hats.

Here is Laura with the kids who can hardly be distracted from their cake.

Sunday was such a nice day, we had lunch on the porch. Estelle and Heather in their high chairs,


Cole with Lauren and Chelsea. He was so excited to see them.

Later in the afternoon, Susan and Cedric came by and we all went for a nice walk up Perron Hill. Cole with his Godmother Susan, Heather, and cousin Lillian.

Cedric pushed the girls in the stroller.

Then had to give Cole a ride on his shoulders. Cedric is Cole's godfather. Don't you think they look alike?

Wayne, seeing that Cole ws getting a ride, coerced Thomas into giving him a ride.

Then it was time for supper, each boy flanking Estelle's side, eating a hearty meal of leftovers from the weekend meals.

Thank you so much everyone, for all your painting work. It's such a load off of our minds to have that job done! We really appreciate it more than we can tell you.

This is What You Do When Your French Cousin Comes To Visit...

Color and draw with crayons in the basement...

play some music,

make a fort in Cole's bottom bunk,

and watch Madeline before bedtime.

It's all more fun with Estelle, Julie, and Thomas around!

Estelle is Here!

Wayne, Cole, and Heather have hardly been able to contain themselves for the past few days, knowing that their cousin Estelle, from France was coming to visit. At last, the moment of her arrival came this afternoon.

Here are Estelle and Heather playing with the doll house in Heather's room. They got along great. I thought Heather might be a little jealous of having another little girl around, but she's been very happy to play with Estelle.

Wayne and Estelle danicing.

Wayne, Cole, and Heather show Estelle the pond.

Cole could not leave Estelle's side all afternoon and evening and kept giving her hugs and kisses. We kept hearing him say to her, "Do you love me, Estelle? ...Estelle do you love me? I think you do."

What a tired bunch these kids were by the end of the day!

Leaf Jumping

Jumping into a pile of fall leaves - fun anywhere you live.

No winter hats needed this week. It's been sunny and beautiful. Hope you are all enjoying the fall.

One Man's Junk Is Another Man's Treasure

See this big, old maple tree on the edge of the hay field? It marks the spot of our new everyday afterschool destination.

And here's the reason. Long before Wayne and Martha ever built Elijah's Place, someone else lived here and used this spot as a little dumping ground. Martha? Joanie? Julie? You got any names or history on this?

Whoever it was that lived here years ago, left a lot of "treasures" to fascinate and capture the imagination of the little boys who would live here in 2008. Cole is convinced that this is all the remains of a shipwreck. Somehow there was an ocean here a long time ago and after scraping against these rocks (in a manner similar to scraping against an iceberg) the ship sank, leaving all this wreckage and artifacts to find. Here, Cole is using Wayne's metal detector to search for items buried under leaves.
Wayne too, searches for hidden clues as to what all this stuff could be and who it could have belonged to. He doesn't agree with Cole's shipwreck theory.

Wayne's searching pays off when he finds this old rusty thing that he says looks like a little milk can.

Here are some of the things they've found so far. Lots of broken glass, some metal objects and parts of things, and an old mail box.
Meanwhile, Heather plays in the leaves.

Wayne finds enough pieces of this blue glass bottle to almost put it all back together. We need to find one more piece to complete it.

When we were done and walking back home across the field, Cole said, "That was a really fun adventure!" Then when Wes got home, they dragged him out there to show him their findings too.

I'm sure we'll head over there again soon, We'll keep you posted on anything interesting that we might find.