April Foolishness

King for a day. Cole got this birthday crown at school.
His party started with the kids coming to our house on the school bus. Wes was home early and had a treasure hunt all lined up.

They're searching for clues.

Joanie helps keep things under control. I have to say here that these birthday parties would not be possible without Joanie's help. She helped keep the kids in line, serve cake and dinner, and clean up. It was a wild scene, so it was great to have her here.

The treasure hunt ended with this wooden treasure box filled with party favor bags. Inside each party favor bag was a little April Fool's gag gift such as stinky perfume, fake spilled nail polish, a plastic "ice cube" with a bug inside it, or soap that makes you more dirty instead of clean. The kids could go home and prank their families.

Then they used their bags to fill with pinata candy.

You gotta hand it to Spongebob. He just keeps smiling through the whole thing.

Then it was time to wash up for dinner, at which point the kids discovered this (fake) poop on the toilet seat. Yes, I have sunk to new lows of 6-year-old humor, but what can I say? Screams of delighted disgust rang through the house.

Since it was April Fool's Day, we decided to have cake before dinner. Or is this really cake? On April Fool's Day you never know....

Cole blows out his candle.

The kids are disgusted to find that the cake is really meatloaf with mashed potato frosting, Cole's favorite meal.

Heather started crying and was inconsolable for the rest of the night.

Fintan didn't like the mashed potato cake either, but at least he was good humored about it.

This was the real cake, chocolate with buttercream frosting. The real thing. But there's something hidden under the cake pedistal...

...a remote control fart machine. When Cole blew out the candles, the cake mysteriously started farting. Yup, all time new lows for me.

But it was fun and Cole loved it so it was all worth it.

Playtime.

We were so happy to have Grammie here for Cole's birthday and for Grandparent's Day at school the other day.

Wayne made Cole this Monster House pillow all by himself. Stuffed and sewed.

Whew. No birthdays around here for a while. Thank goodness.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLE!!!

It's hard to believe that my middle baby is turning 6 today, but it's true.

It's time for another April Fool's Birthday - what a fun day to have a party. We've have all kinds of "foolishness" planned for his party of kindergartners this afternoon, including the Spongebob pinata above (seeing Spongebob beaten with a bat will be very satisfying for me) and a lot of pranks. It's going to be wild, but it's going to be fun. I'm going to try to capture the festivities with my camera to share with you tomorrow.

P.S. I take back my comment about Spongebob - I should be more appreciative. He's really helped me out a lot over the years. RIP, Spongebob.

First Words

When Cole was a baby and toddler, this was his favorite book. It would always be the first one he'd pick when it was reading time. I have fond memories of the way he fit perfectly in my lap, the top of his head under my chin. Little did I know, that a few short years later, it would be the first book he would read to me.
Hello again, Nicholas. We've missed you.

The sweetest book, the cutest pictures. A great start, again.
Then he read me a book about Titanic survivors.

Monster House

If you want to stay healthy, you better not come to our house anytime soon.

This house has been invaded by an invisible monster that attacked Cole for 24 hours and so far has knocked Wes down two times in 3 days.

Stay away.

Beautiful Day

For Wayne, Cole, and Heather the beginning of sap season brings an excitement big enough to rival Christmas morning. The anticipation of tapping the trees and hanging the buckets begins in February. Once the trees are finally tapped, all three kids begin and end each day with "checking the buckets" to see how much sap has collected and to get a fresh sip straight from the tree. Next door, Marvin's lines and vacuum pump gather hundreds of gallons, but these simple, old fashioned buckets are full of drop after drop of magic for the kids.

Saturday was a beautiful, warm, sunny day. Perfect for a walk out to the woods to see how the sap was coming along.
This was pretty early in the day, so not much had collected. We knew it was going to be warmer later in the afternoon which would cause the sap to run faster.

It doesn't get much fresher than this.

Several times during our walk, Cole assumed his favorite posture.

Wayne and Heather would not wait for him.

Cole, clearly the middle child.

Wayne helps Heather get a taste.

Wes is building some new Dr. Seuss style contraption for boiling sap. I don't quite understand how it's going to work, but I'll show it to you soon.

Changes

Can you believe that is cuddly little guy...

somehow transformed into this? He still loves a soccer ball though.

Snowstorm

This snowstorm created lots of winter recreation for us around here. Wayne, Joanie, and I went for a snowshoe. I forgot to bring my camera, so no pictures of the winter wonderland the woods have become, but this afternoon the kids had a great time playing in the over size snowbanks, making snow forts, and snowmen. Below, Wayne looks like he's standing on his knees in this picture, but he's actually in mid air, jumping from a snowbank. I'll just let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves.

FACEOFF!

There's a lot of catching up to do here, but let's start off with Wayne's end of the season (Thank GOD!!!) hockey "jamboree" yesterday in Lyndonville. The coaches broke the kids up into teams and they had a game against each other.
Wayne is # 10. These pictures are not great. The kids were moving too fast, the lighting was bad, and I was shooting through plexiglass.

Below, Wayne is on the far right.

The game ended in a tie, 7-7.

After the kids game, there was another game - kids against parents. There's Wes in the blue jacket and Wayne behind him. I was really glad that Wes did not bowl over all the little kids.

Father and son portrait. This game also ened in a tie, 3-3.

Later in the afternoon, Cedric came over and helped clear off the pond for some more skating. Wes gives Heather a ride in the snow shovel thingy.

Cole's skating has greatly improved since the video I posted a couple of months ago, but this is still his specialty - laying around on the ice or in the snowbanks.

Julie has lots of pictures to post on her own blog, so I'll leave most of that to her, but here's just a couple of shots to show that she and Estelle were present on the ice.

A couple of days ago, Wes took Wayne and Heather out to the woods while he did some work. Wayne made a snowman.

Her Highness found her throne in her woodland kingdom.

Cole's kindergarten class took another field trip to the Catamount Arts series for children. This installment was African Dance.

I wans't sure kindergarten students would really appreciate this performance, but these guys were talented and funny, so they did a good job keeping their attention.

So that pretty much brings us up to date.

The kids are on vacation this week, so we'll see what that brings to the blog.