Grammie's Birthday

Lisa and Dan hosted a birthday barbecue for Grammie at Stuart and Emile's camp on Shadow Lake. They've rented it for the week. The weather has been questionable, but today, in honor of Grammie's birthday, it was clear, breezy, and beautiful.

Cole enjoys gazing at the sweet frosting as Lisa covers the cake.

Elijah is almost 9 months old. Look at those adorable curls on the top of his head. Does he just get cuter every time you see him or what?

Dan did a magnificent job cooking hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill.

Here she is, the guest of honor. Martha Alexander - 77 today and going strong!



Elijah devours a plate of food.

Wayne takes a break from tadpole hunting to refuel.

Cole enjoys the burger and fruit salad but keeps asking about the cake.

Wayne goes back to tadpole hunting.

His persistence pays off. A bullfrog tadpole.



How many people does it take to light 77 candles on a breezy day?



Well, she didn't have to worry about being able to blow out all those candles. Mother Nature did it for her.


Uncle Cedric tries in vain to convince Cole that the happy Birthday song is not terrifying.



Poor Joanie can't catch a break with W,C,H around!



And they keep Lizzy pretty busy too. Luck for me to have Joanie and Lizzy around.


Happy Birthday Grammie! We enjoyed honoring your 77 years. Here's to many more.

Heather

She's the cutest little girl this side of the Atlantic. What more can I say?

See for yourself:

Rainy Day Project

Cole's friend, Fintan, had a birthday party the other day. I took Cole, Wayne, and Heather. They all had a terrific time playing in Fintan's nice, big, flat backyard which contains a toddler friendly playground and a huge, built-into-the-ground sand box bordered by big rocks for climbing. There was grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, and Fintan's Mom, Sylvia, had made homemade buns and rolls in addition to the birthday cake. I think Sylvia makes bread for her family every day, early in the morning. It was a great birthday. Fintan turned 4. He was very excited.

Anyway, being at Fintan's birthday made me start thinking ahead to Wayne's birthday coming up in about a month. It will be coming up close after The Big Move and The Start of School. It will be a transitional period for all of us. Wayne wants to invite friends and have games and all that traditional birthday kid stuff. With a Batman theme. (Sorry Brian, Batman wins this time)

Yesterday was a rainy, rainy day so I decided to harness some of W,C,H's indoor energy and put it to good use. Wayne wants to have a pinata at his party, so we got started on a homemade one. It was our first foray into the messy world of papier-mache.

The King Arthur cookbook Grammie gave us has some kid projects and recipes for things like playdough and this recipe we used for papier-mache paste. Wayne is stirring out the lumps as it cools enough for us to work with.

While the paste cooled some more (it took a long time) we made strips of newspaper.

Heather had a great time ripping up newspaper. It was like a toddler dream come true. Little specks of newspaper everywhere.

We used a big balloon as a form. Everyone got their hands in on the project - dipping the strips into the paste and then layering them onto the balloon until it was covered. Make sure you notice Heather getting in on the action down there under Wayne's arms. She wasn't about to be left out of this delightfully gooey fun. Actually, she did a pretty good job of pressing the paper strips onto the balloon. She understood what to do just from watching her brothers.

During this whole process I was dreading the clean-up, but it actually was pretty easy, thanks to the newspaper we had spread all over the table. Not as much got on their clothes or the floor as I had feared, (aprons packed and moved) everyone just needed a quick hand wash and they were as good as new. Now the pinata has to dry for 24 hours before we decide whether or not it needs another layer. I'm not sure how strong it should be to challenge a group of blindfolded 7 year olds, whacking at it with a bat.

Stay tuned for a future pinata chapter - painting Batman on it. I know you'll be riveted!

Dishwasher

When I walked into the kitchen at Martha's (our new) house, it was like a choir of angels came down from heaven singing the Hallelujah Chorus. Doesn't it look good? It's like this dishwasher has been waiting all its life to come live with us. It's all hooked up and ready to go. It's quiet too.

I love it. Good job Wes. Thank you.

More Glover Day

Glover Day is such a big event around these parts that it takes two blog entries to do it justice. Here are some more photos, most of which Chris was kind enough to e-mail to me. He got a lot of the people I missed. Thanks Chris.


See Dan? I don't crop you out of the photos. I think Joan told me one that she would kill me if I ever put her on the blog. Hope she was just kidding because here she is. It's kind of a goofy photo of you, Joan, but you have to blame Chris for that. I notice that Dan is wearing the 2001 edition of the Glover Day t-shirt which fondly remembers Wayne H.

Paul finishing the 5.5 mile run.

Katie looking good. Knee seems to be holding up.


Jeanne and Lesley look like they're having a great time.



Lisa power walking down to the finish.

Martha, Rachel, and Alex look so fresh you'd never guess they just ran a race.



Now for more of my own pictures that I didn't have room or time for the other day. The Bread and Puppet play about Runaway Pond.

Mary, Grammie, Danny and Jacob on the edge of their seats watching the play.

How can you blame them?

Back at the camp, Paul and Heather horsing around.

Glover Day

For those of you on my side of the family in Maine who don't know the whole history of Glover and Run Away Pond, this plaque (sorry for the glare) gives a brief but accurate account of what happened one day a long time ago.

One Glover Day tradition is the 5 mile road race to commemorate Spencer Chamberlain's famous run.
Racers start at Run Away Pond Park. This monument and picnic area was created by the Glover Historical Society, with Wayne H. Alexander being their driving force. Runners start here and finish in Glover village.

Today's passengers. Tomorrow's runners.

This will be known as the Race of the Dueling Strollers. Oldest brother against youngest brother. Heather has no intention of sticking around for this.

Tyler and Matt with their friend, Will in the center.

Glover Day has become an Alexander family tradition. It's great to have Grammie here for it. Lauren and Wayne are bibbed up for the kids' race.

Cole finds his friend, Fintan, at Glover Day.


Eliza and Chris enjoy some of the treats on the green.

Cole is delighted that Eliza and Chris share their cotton candy with him.


Tyler flat out wins the whole race.

The Bread and Puppet band played peppy music to give racers that extra boost to cross the finish line.

Matt, not far behind his brother.

Rachel, second woman runner. Can you believe that?

In the race of the dueling strollers, oldest brother comes in ahead of youngest brother. We figure it's because they have a better stroller. That's our story and we're sticking to it.

Great job Alex.

Heather wakes from a restful nap to sounds of the crowd and Bread and Puppet.


Sandy hammers the pavement.


Martha is looking strong.



Wayne and I ran the kids race. Since I was running, Mary took pictures of him finishing with my camera, but it came out kind of far away and blurry. So here's Lizzy finishing with style. No picture availalable, but Lauren was the overall winner of the kid's race.


And Jacob pounding down the homestretch.


After the race we all went back to Shadow Lake where Mary and Danny are renting Stuart and Emile's camp for the week. Lots of food and lots of fun.

This is the way to spend the afternoon after a long run. All three of these girls ran the race. Nice showing ladies!


For dessert there was your choice of ice cream in a cone, or ice cream sandwiches with Martha's homemade m&m chocolate chip cookies.

Alex helps Wayne and Cole build sand castles and hunt for frogs.

Heather plays peek-a-boo through these trees.


Adults relax on the lawn and watch the kids play in the water.

I have to say, I tried to include pictures of as many runners as possible, but missed some of course. I think I only got a picture of Paul's foot, and I missed the mountain bike racers altogether.

What a great Glover Day.

Wayne Makes Raspberry Pie

Wayne has been busy picking raspberries, both here at our house and up at Grammie's. Mostly up at Grammie's. Then he announced that he wanted to make pies with the miniature pie tins Joanie had gotten him a couple of years ago. So I had to dig them out of a box, as they had already been packed and moved up to Grammie's. By the way, Wayne has informed me that we have to stop calling it Grammie's and start calling it our house. That takes some getting used to.


We made four little pies. I say we, but actually Wayne is getting to the point where he can almost do it all by himself with just a little guidance and advice. When I had boys, I was determined to make sure they knew how to cook for themselves. Wayne is on the right track. Cole on the other hand, claims to want to help cook, when what he really wants to do is taste.

Raspberry pie. Summer is well under way.