Cole and Fintan

The other day you met Wayne's friend Dante. Well, here is one of Dante's younger brothers, Fintan. He's about the same age as Cole. This afternoon, we brought him home with us after swimming lessons (Dante also takes swimming lessons) so that he and Cole could play.


They had a little time to play outside before the rain and thunder started. Then they moved inside and dressed up as pirates and superheroes.

Heather had her 18 month doctor appointment this morning. She's doing great they said. healthy as a horse. At 33 inches and 25 pounds she's in the 95th percentile for height and 15 percentile for weight. Tall and thin, just like her brothers.

A Day at the Beach

Wayne has started taking swimming lessons this week. They are five days a week for two weeks and last about an hour each session. He's in a beginner group of about 18 kids, but there are two instructors and they divide the group into two smaller groups when they get in the water.

Anyway, we dicided to pack up some snacks and beach toys and go to the lake about an hour early for some fun before the busloads of kids took over the beach for lessons.

Wayne was fascinated to discover that if he dug a hole deep enough in the sand, water would come up from underneath.

So there was lots of hole digging.

There was another 18 month old toddler at the beach when we got there. I always think of Heather as dainty little girl, but then I see her next to other kids her age and she looks like a giant next to them. Heather was much bigger than the other toddler, and even taller than a 3 year old we saw there.

Look at Heather's long legs.

Taking a break for snack time.



The Titanic visits new waters.

More last minute digging before swimmig lessons start.


Wayne did a great job at swimming lessons. He's getting a lot more comfortable with putting his head under water and is able to float on his back.

Tomorrow rain, I think. Not such a nice day at the beach.

Meet Wayne's Friends

The summer doldrums are kicking in. The fact that Wes is busy working on the shed, and I've been packing up our things (actually, Julie has been doing most of that) leaves the kids on their own to twiddle their thumbs and wonder, "What can we do, Mommy?" It's a question I don't have much patience for, even on my best days. After all, they live in a place filled with things to do: big front yard for running and riding bikes, play set for swinging, sliding, and sand box digging, lots of grass and trees for bug hunting. But like Evan Perron said to me the other day, they probably won't know how lucky they are for another 30 years.

So in the meantime, to get us through for a while, Wayne had some friends over.

This is Ben. He and Wayne just graduated from kindergarten and will enter first grade together in the fall.


This is Dante, a.k.a. Batman. He's home-schooled, but he and Wayne have practically grown up together, attending library storytimes and playgroups since they were toddlers.


There was lots of splashing in the pool.


And water gun fights.


They didn't mess with Machine Gun Heather, though.


And of course snacks.


Luckily, it was a beautiful day, and they could be outside most of the time.

Next week - Cole's 3 and 4 year old friends.

July 4th Festivities

As mentioned in the previous post, in the morning Julie took Wayne and Cole to the tractor pull. Wayne took lots of pictures. Maybe I'll have him do a blog entry with his pictures tomorrow.

In the afternoon we went to the parade. Wayne and Wes were walking in the parade with the t-ball team and throwing candy. Martha ( Grammie) came, Cecile, Julie, and Ernest. You've met Ernest and Cecile in an earlier post.

Joanie came and helped keep Heather out of trouble.




Cole stands ready and waiting for all the candy people will throw at him. He was very excited to get to the parade, not to see Daddy and Wayne, not to see the fire engines or tractors, but for the candy. And no, he's not listening to music. Those are ear muffs to protect his ears from the loud noises of the sirens and bands. Cole hates loud noises. By the time the parade was over, that bag was full of candy.



There was plenty to see. Horses...




Clowns...


Wes, Wayne and the t-ball teams...

Some crazy Bread and Puppet characters making their usual political statement...



Bread and Puppet cow kissing Cole...

Cole was so cute standing there waving this little flag as everything went by. Let's just put this little American boy on a stamp or something!

After the parade we went to Wes's brother's house for a barbecue. This is one of Wes's other brothers, Paul. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of Peter and Jeanne, our hosts.

Why do I have so many pictures of Cole?



Wayne enjoys their little pool.



And Grammie even gets into the hot tub.


It was a long fun day. On the way home from the barbecue, Cole looked through his bag of candy, taking inventory of everything he'd gotten. He fell asleep after a few minutes. Heather stayed wide awake.

Whe we dorve into the yard, Cole woke up and said sleepily, "I love my candy."

Hope you all had a great 4th.

Happy July 4th

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

Last night Wayne enjoyed some sparklers.



This morning, Julie came to take Wayne and Cole to the tractor pull at the fairgrounds. She got them all decked out in patriotic colors. Later Wes and Wayne will walk in the parade with the the t-ball teams. Then we go to Peter and Jeanne's for a barbecue. Be sure to check in tomorrow for pictures of it all.

Have a fun and safe holiday everyone!

Fun From Some of our Favorite Aunts

Wes and his sister Julie, who is visiting for two weeks from France, went to visit their Aunt Elaine and Uncle Bernard yesterday afternoon. Elaine always sends everyone home with armloads of gifts.

Here are a couple of things Wayne and Cole have been having fun with.

A fort made by Bernard himself. The perfect setting for little action figures.

And a bike that Elaine bought for one dollar at a church sale. It's in perfect working order. We just put on a pair of training wheels and haven't been able to get Cole off of it since.



Cole got some birthday money a while ago from Auntie Di and Uncle Dale and Aunt Ellie and Uncle Jake. I took him shopping the other day and this is what he picked out to buy for himself - a lawn mower that blows bubbles! If you look closely, or enlarge the picture by clicking with your left mouse button, you can see some bubbles.


Not much else going on around here lately, except for a lot of packing. It's going slowly, but we're doing a little every day, and Julie is helping a lot.

Thank you Aunts and Uncles for all the fun things!

A Trip to Gramma and Grampa's House

Cole, Heather, and I took a road trip to Gramma and Grampa's house this weekend. We made our usual pit stop in Gorham. We had a picnic at the playground.

Heather loved this dinosaur slide. She did it over and over.




Cole masters the "excavator."



Across the road from the playground is this train that has become a railroad museum. If you pass through here on a Saturday, as Wayne and I did last year, you may be lucky enough to find the freight cars open with some exhibits inside. The museum is run by the Gorham Historical Society and whether any of the cars are open depends upon the availability of Historical Society volunteers. Cole, Heather and I were here on Friday - no cars open - so we just looked around the outside.


Grampa and Gramma had not seen Cole in a year. They were so happy to see him and thought that he had gotten very tall.

Heather was grumpy from the long ride and not very friendly, but she did eventually warm up. Whan I put her to bed that first night, she cried and cried and climbed out of her "Graco." I had to let her sleep with me. It was a long, rough night. Luckily, the second night was much smoother.

A trip to the shore. Heather hurries over to show me an interesting rock she's found.



Cole was awestruck to be at the Atlantic Ocean and think that the Titanic was out there somewhere.



Tucked away in the woods by the beach is this cool playground. I don't know if you can tell from these pictures, but it's built with a nautical feel to it. I think it's supposed to be kind of like a ship.






On the way back to Grampa and Gramma's house we stop at the cemetary visit my grandparents.



Every summer, my Dad leaves a patch of the backyard unmowed to allow wild strawberries to grow. In the past few years there have been tons of them. Here, Cole and Heather are picking strawberries.


We could have filled three of these cool whip containers, but the mosquitos chased us away.



Heather and I play hide and seek in the yard.







When we got back this afternoon, Joanie drove in right behind us. She asked Cole if he was glad to be home after such a long ride. He answered, "No, I wanted to stay at Gramma and Grampa's house." She asked him how come. He said, "Because they love me. And I love them."

Boys Night Out

Friday evening Wes, Wayne and Cole had a boys night out.


Wayne came home with a lot of glory stories of their go-cart races. He said he went really fast even around the turns and pressed the gas pedal all the way down to the floor.



They also played a round of miniature golf, which I didn't hear much about, I suppose because it doesn't have the speed and excitement of car racing.



After golf they went to Wes's soccer game.



Saturday morning at 7 a.m. sharp Keoneke trundled over in his rattly old excavator and a state employee arrived for the septic soil test.


Wayne and Cole had their breakfast on the deck so they could watch the excavator dig. Later that morning, Wayne had his last t-ball game of the season. Now he'll move on to soccer and swimming lessons.