Kindergarten

Cole went off to kindergarten this morning without batting an eyelash. As much as he's been claiming to not want to go to school, in reality he seemed to be ok with it.

Here he is by his cubby. That's his red sleeping bag for the afternoon "rest" period. He was a little alarmed when I accidentally called it "naptime" this morning.

Here he is with some classmates (and Heather, wearing sunglasses) playing in the water table. Heather keeps saying that she is ready to go to school. She says, "I'm big, Mommy. I'm big to go to school." I didn't think I was going to get her away from this table when it was time for us to leave. I thought I might have to leave her there to start kindergarten. Cole, also, was so engrossed in this activity, that he barely acknowledged me when I said good-bye. (Incidentally, that picture on the wall behind Cole's head is a picture of Wayne's kindergarten class that Mrs. Dudley still has up - they sent it to her when she broke her leg and lost her husband)

And on a completely different topic, here is a recent picture of Spike who has literally doubled in size in the not-quite three weeks that we've had him. I'm not kidding...

See?

Singing video of Wayne coming soon, when I have a chance to go to the library to use high speed.

The Basement Singers Act II

Here is Cole who starts kindergarten tomorrow.

The Basement Singers Act I

Sorry for the sideways video. Soon to come, videos of Wayne and Cole. I only had time at the library to upload this one today. Stay tuned!

2nd Grade

Wayne began 2nd grade today. He was eager to get back to school and see his friends.
Compare these pictures with the first day of kindergarten picture to the right in the side-bar.

Cole doesn't start kindergarten until Wednesday, but his teacher, Mrs. Dudley made home visits today. As you can see, Cole is not as eager to start school as Wayne is.

She read him a book about the first day of kindergarten, had him draw a picture and write his name, talked about snack time, recess, the library, phys. ed, etc. Over the summer the kindergarten class has doubled in size, from 3 to 6 students.

I'm a little sad about Cole starting school. He's still just a baby.

The Barton Fair

The Barton Fair has arrived. Something Wayne and Cole look forward too all year. Now Heather has been introduced to it too.

We started off in the animal section. First some alpacas. Very weird animals, but they have very big, beautiful brown eyes. And some funny hair-dos.

Then into the barn where we fed a horse...and looked at some sheep. There were also some bunnies, ducks, ponies, lots of cows, and some dogs and kittens. As we were making our way to the midway, we were pleasantly surprised to find that Sandy, Edwin, and Elijah had made their way to the NEK for the Barton Fair. A little later we ran into Aimee and Tyler doing a little birthday fair celebrating. I didn't get any pics of them, sorry. Some rides for the kids. A little train... Heather was so cute. This is the first fair ride she's ever been on. She looked so nervous, but also excited. Wayne really wanted to ride some bumper cars, but there weren't any. These little cars would have to do. Wayne is already getting too big for these rides. He had a hard time getting his long legs into some of these kiddie rides. This is more Wayne's style. It was some sort of obstacle course that ended with a huge slide. I didn't get a good picture of this, but what they are in is a dinosaur that spins. I had gone on one spinning ride with them, similar to this, but I thought I was going to throw up so that was the end of rides for me. The old grey mare ain't what she used to be. Heather dragged me into the stands to watch the tractor pulls, but what I really spent the time watching was this guy on this spinning contraption. I think everyone who was supposedly watching the tractors was really watching him because a couple of times he almost lost his balance and the whole crowed would gasp. Heather ate some maple cotton candy in the stands. The fair is always fun, but you know it's the end of summer, so it's a little bitter sweet.

Spike

Remember a few weeks ago we had to return Sparkle to the animal shelter because her nose kept making her run away, and she turned out to be not so house broken, and I said that we really just needed the perfect dog, one that I wouldn't have to train to do anything at all?

Well, somehow this happened:
We named him Spike. That was Wayne's idea.
He's 8 weeks old, and at 8 lbs he is the runt of the litter. He looks bigger in these pictures than he actually is. Trust me, he's quite small. His brothers and sisters all weigh in at around 12 lbs right now. I always think the runt ends up making the best pet. Even though we didn't know Hogan as a puppy and he weighed 98 lbs. as an adult, I always suspected that he may have started out as the runt. Anyway, Spike is part German Shepherd (so smart) and part Lab (so sweet) so I'm not expecting him to stay too small for too long.

He was exhausted from all the attention he received today. He's used to sleeping in a pile of puppies so whenever someone sits on the floor he snuggles into their legs and starts to fall asleep.

I always have a new baby when the previous child is around 2 and 1/2. So I guess he's it this time.

Maine

If you ever have the chance to take a little trip without you're 2 1/2 year old daughter, I highly recommend it.

This past weekend I took Wayne and Cole to Maine to visit Grampa and Gramma and left Heather at home with Wes. You know, I love Heather to pieces, but not having her along this trip made a world of difference in our experience - so much easier to pack and drive, so much more relaxing at our pit-stops to not chase her around, no bedtime trauma-dramas about sleeping in a different place, and much more freedom to come and go and do fun things throughout the weekend.

We headed out on Friday and made our usual pit stop in Gorham, New Hampshire to visit the playground. You may remember from a post last summer that across the road from the playground is a train museum run by the Gorham Historical Society that is sometimes open when we are passing through. Luckily, it was open this time so that Cole had a chance to see it. Some of the train cars are set up with railroad exhibits, but this time we went into the Depot to see what was on hand.

They were allowed to ring this bell. they tried to ring it quietly, but it was still very loud.
Look at this typewriter. Can you imagine?
On Saturday morning we went to Belfast for our usual visit to a rocky little beach in the harbor. Wayne was busy looking for creatures, but Cole was frustrated with how difficult in can be to maneuver over the rocks, so I decided we should drive a little further along the coastline and go to the sandier Lincolnville Beach.

Cole took a dip bit didn't like the taste of the salt water that got in his mouth.

Wayne was still more interested in the creatures he could find on the rocky side of the beach...

...such as this tiny crab.

Cole enjoyed the warm sand.

In the afternoon, after having lunch with Gramma and Grampa, we went to pick blueberries at this place called "Sweet Season Farm" in Washington, a little town 8 miles from my parents' house.

These are not the wild blue berries that Maine is famous for, but organic high-bush blueberries. Doesn't matter. They loved picking and eating.

We picked 4 quarts. Wayne wants to make a pie, so Grammie may be getting a blueberry pie along with the raspberry pie for her birthday.

Sweet Season Farm is also a little cafe, and organic market. They also have an ice cream window offering homemade ice cream. Yum!

After being in the sun picking berries, we went to my favorite childhood place, Steven's Pond - an outlet for Lake St. George, for a dip to cool off. It's a short walk from my parents' house. I practically lived here during the summers as a kid.

My Mom had made a cake for my birthday. I forgot to take a picture before we cut into it, but I tried to sort of piece it back together to get this picture.

Thank you Gramma and Grampa for a great weekend.

Heather is already saying, "I want to go to Grampa and Gramma's house!" By the way, I thought she would be so happy to see me come home, but I don't even think she noticed I was gone.

A Major Milestone

Today at the age of 2 years, 7 months, and 17 days, Heather peed on the potty for the very first time.

After months of coaxing, potty sitting, watching Estelle, and false hopes, she finally sat on the potty and got it right! We had a big celebration with ice cream for lunch and now all she wants to do is pee on the potty.

Glover Day

Honestly, the last thing I want to think about right now is Glover Day, so I'm just going to slap these pictures up in no particular order. You all can fill in your own comments. Sorry I didn't get everyone.

Tyler was so fast, my camera could not even focus on him.

Hmmm, somehow I uploaded two pics of Lauren.

Joanie's display for the historical society.

Martha won the 50/50 raffle.

Start of the bike race. Is it my imagination or do I see a couple of road bikes in that pack?

The kids are off!