The Last Day of Summer Vacation

Here's Wayne in his third baseball uniform of the summer. Now it's "Fall Ball" which is much more relaxed, noncompetitive, and leisurely. The good thing is that he gets to play with some of the kids he will be with next spring when he steps up to major league, which I think is ages 11-13.

 They had their first fall ball game today. He got a good hit here, but an outfielder caught it.

 Playing third base, below. I think Wayne has had a growth spurt recently.  A couple of times when his team was walking out onto the field, I'd think, "Who's that tall kid on our team?" Then I'd realize it was Wayne.

 On the pitchers mound.

 In the catchers gear. They won this game by one run.

 The other day we dug up our potatoes from the garden. Wayne had been wanting to make homemade potato chips, and I figured this was our last chance. Here he is slicing up the potatoes.

 I cooked them in the hot oil.

 And he salt and vinegered them.

 They were really good and they disappeared in a flash.

Tomorrow morning, 6:30 a.m. A rude awakening. 

But not for Heather. She starts on Sept. 4th.

And not for me. I start Sept. 10th.

My vacation is just beginning.

Mrs. Dudley, One Last Time

We can tack this on to our list of the "Last of the Firsts" - having Mrs. Dudley as kindergarten teacher. I was always hoping that she would not retire until all 3 of our kids had passed through her classroom. It looks like we're going to make it.

Yesterday, Heather had her individual classroom visit and some preliminary testing. Over the next week or so, before kindergarten begins, Mrs. Dudley will be testing each incoming student so she has an idea where everyone is starting off. I left Heather for the one hour testing and when I came back, Mrs. Dudley went over her results with me and kept using the words "phenomenal" and "incredible."  Heather is already at a mid-year level for reading and literacy and even first grade level for much of the math. 

Beauty and brains. What more could we ask for?

Soccer

Heather and Cole have been participating in GREC soccer. (Wayne is too old - the age groups only go to 8 years). Those two kids behind Heather were in preschool last year and will be going to kindergarten this year (elsewhere, not Glover), but doesn't she look so much older than they do?

 They do not actually play soccer, they just learn a lot of skills.

 I like that there are cows in the background.

 The boy with the number 3 on his shirt is Jaden, Jason and Betsy's younger son. He'll be in Kindergarten with Heather. She and he are good friends from t-ball and from playing on the side lines at their older brothers' baseball games. I can't remember exactly which day he was born, but Jaden is 3 or 4 days older than Heather. They get along great.

 Cole didn't want me to take any pictures of him, but I snuck this one with my zoom lens.

Flying Away

On Estelle and Lena's last full day in VT, they came over to spend some time in the sun with Wayne, Cole, and Heather before flying back to France the next day.

There was some  blackberry picking in the corner of the hay field.

 They found a monarch caterpillar which we took inside and kept in a plastic container.

 There was some wiffle ball. Estelle has good form.

 There was lunch on the porch.

 And there was a little bit of gardening.

Now to show Estelle and Lena what happened with their caterpillar. We fed in lots of milkweed leaves for about a week. Then it made a cocoon. 

 After about 10 days, the cocoon becomes transparent - you can see the butterfly all scrunched up inside. This means it's almost ready to come out. We noticed this change on Tuesday evening...

 ...and on Wednesday morning, the butterfly emerged. Along with a friend we had found. (In all we have 4 cocoons). When they first come out, their wings are all crumpled and crooked. The butterfly has to be able to hang so its wings will straighten and dry and become strong for flying.

 After a few hours we took them out to the garden and let them fly away.

C + W

We've only had the C+W open once this summer. It was while Estelle and Lena were still here. Martha and Chris also made a surprise trip up to Glover to wish Julie and family bon voyage back to France.

 If you saw this motley crew on the side of the road, would you stop to buy anything?!

 Chris flings Lena over his shoulder while he and Martha sing the "Sack of Potata's" song.

 Joanie brought down some fresh out of the oven mini peach pies that she, Estelle, and Lena had baked.

 It soon became more fun to listen to music in Martha's car and sing and dance than stand in the C+W and wait for customers.

Fun times all the time!

Islesboro, Maine

I took the boys to visit my mom this weekend. While we were there, we took a ferry ride to the island of Islesboro.

It was a foggy morning while we waited to board the ferry.

To kill time, Wayne and Cole explored the rocky shore.

The ferry ride only takes about 15-20 minutes, but for Wayne and Cole, it was the journey of a lifetime.

We're almost there. You can see Grindle Point Lighthouse up ahead.

The view of the ferry returning to mainland.

Cole was surprised that he couldn't budge this anchor.

The ferry docks right near the lighthouse, so this was our first sightseeing venture.

It's also a museum.

Visitors are allowed to go all the way up to the top.

The museum had this 3D relief map of Penobscot Bay. I've drawn the green line to show our ferry route from Linolnville Beach to Grindle Point.

After the museum, we drove to Pendleton Point, where there is a beach and picnic areas.

After some tide pool exploration and some lunch, it was time to head back a catch the ferry home. While we waited, Wayne and Cole climbed more rocks near the lighthouse.

Drift wood is fun.

We say good by to Islesboro, home of John Travolta. (We didn't see him.)

We had a good weekend for visiting Gramma - and perfect weather for exploring an island.