Summer Preview

Four days ago, we were wearing winter jackets, boots, and snowpants. We were making a snowman in 14 inches of snow. 

Today we wore shorts, sunscreen, and bug spray in the 80 degree muginess.

Cole has learned how to pump, and spent most of the day on the swing.  Yes, I know, he's in his stocking feet and wearing mismatched socks.  If you know Cole, then you know how he is about clothes. His shoes fell off as he was swinging, because he doesn't like to tie them.

I the afternoon, it was a cemetary work day, straightening up some old stones. In this picture you can see Wes kneeling down, Danny and Mary. Paul was there too, but I think you can't see him kneeling down behind the stone and people.

Jacob looks like a giant next to Wayne and Cole.  These guys played a great game of hide and seek among the stones.

Future heart breaker.

It's pretty strange when you're thinking about breaking out the bathing suits but haven't packed up the snow pants yet. What will tomorrow bring?

Believe It or Not

We're having lovely weather here in Vermont today.

There are never many pictures of me on my blog, but I look so nice here, I thought I'd put it up. Here I am getting ready to go work in the garden on this beautiful spring day.

Heather and Spencer were ready to help me.

We were armed with all the necessities.

Are these apple trees in bloom? Or something?

I wonder if the bluebirds are home?

Too bad this beautiful weather can't last longer.

Ha,ha,ha. I kill me.

Destination: Shadow Lake Camp

I took a little trip to Maine this vacation.  Let's just say it wasn't my most successful trip - it was pouring rain the whole time, Heather and Cole didn't sleep well, the car broke down in the middle of NH. Other than simply being able to see my parents, it was not a great time. So let's forget about that and talk about a bike ride/hike/walk Wayne and I took this afternoon.

We decided to go "the back way" to Shadow Lake camp. Wayne had walked here with Joanie the other day and they saw some loons on the lake, so now he's all, "I want to go to Shadow Lake Camp," all the time. It was a great day, so while Wes wrestled with the van to get the power steering belt back on, Wayne and I headed out.

It was a quick hello,

and good-bye. We had to get back  for baseball practice.

Reality will hit hard in the morning - back to school for these guys.

Wayne's Loon

Since I didn't get a picture of Wayne's loon during the performance, he wanted me to take one at home so you could see it anyway.

He also wants to make sure you see inside the mouth, for some reason.  No detail overlooked!

Better than Bread and Puppet

You may remember that last year a wonderfully talented two-person marionette company called "No Strings" came to the school and performed "The Hobbit."  The previous year, they came and performed "The Snow Maiden" and "A Christmas Carol."  The two people create everything from scratch - they build and paint the sets; they adapt and write the script; they make all the puppets and sew the costumes; they develop and record the voice over and soundtrack. Depending on the show they're working on, it can take a few months to a few of years to complete. They worked on the Hobbit for three years.

This year, the students at GCS were lucky enough to have No Strings take up residency for  8 days to work on a full blown 35 minute puppet and marionette performance. Every student in every grade, k-8, was able to participate. Several months ago, when this idea was still in development, the marionette company requested that the school come up with a theme. Joanie, aka the Glover Historical Society, had already been talking to the school about somehow involving students in the 200th anniversary of Runaway Pond, and thus, a theme was born.

So, the puppeteers came to school, and day by day under their guidance, the kids brainstormed, researched,  wrote, sewed, glued, painted, recorded, and practiced. Wayne was very, very excited about his loon hand puppet. He wanted to learn all about loons.  He checked bird books out of the library and printed pages from the internet. He is now a loon expert. I'm sorry to say, that I did not get a photo of his loon during the play because my camera was having trouble with the low light.  He also thought it was really cool and fun that the puppeteers, Dan and Barbara, recorded everyone's lines. His line was "{loon sound} Another perfect day on the pond! {loon sound}" He was very interested in the electronic process.

While Wayne was very excited, Cole was extremely nervous about his frog puppet. He was afraid he would forget his lines (he didn't have any) or forget what to do (all he had to do was make his frog look around).

The Runaway Pond Puppet Show has been the talk of our household for many days.  The show was held Thursday afternoon and I took Heather and Spencer to see it. Earlier in the day I read them the Dan Cummings children's version of the story so they would have a little background and be better able to understand the puppet show.  Spencer liked sharing his name with Spencer Chamberlain and is pretty sure that he can run even faster than Chamberlain. We also took a little field trip to the Runaway Pond monument.

They had a little snack.  Spencer thought these stone tables were really cool.

It's a fun place to run around and climb on the rocks.

We went home, had lunch and then on to the show.  The parking lot was packed. We had to park far away.  I was surprised to see that WCAX was covering the story.

The first graders did a warm-up act. That's Spencer's brother, Jaden, in the red and black. His puppet is a snake. The guy in the back is Dan, one of the two members of No Strings.

The story of Runaway pond begins long ago with some glacial history.

Then, later in time, the grist mill is having trouble - not enough water to turn the wheel.

There's Cole's frog, lower left, doing a great job of looking around. 

Workers dig a trench from "Long Pond" to meet up with the Barton River to help power the mill.

Oh no! The pond breaks free! Run! Chamberlain, Run! Save the miller's wife!

The most amazing part for me was actually at the end when all the students came out to take a bow.  Seeing all these puppets together was astounding, and to think that every student in the whole school had a role in the show. The organizational process is mind-boggling.  Not to mention the sheer pride and elation on the kids' faces.

WCAX did a very brief story which highly featured Joanie as the local expert and several of the students, including 3 from Wayne's 2nd grade class.  Unfortunately, they did not mention the marionette company or the teachers that helped make it all happen.

When the teachers, Mrs. Townsend and Mrs. Tester were introducing the show, they said laughingly, "If these students didn't know enough about Runaway Pond before, they do now!"

It was a great send-off to vacation.

Bragging Writes

Report cards came out today, so I reserve the right to use my blog to brag a little about the fact that I have the greatest kids in the world. Wayne and Cole got perfect scores across the board, so I'll just show the teachers' personal comments:

I remember last year, Wayne's first grade teacher also described him as "the top of his class."

And Mrs. Dudley has this to say about Cole:

I love how she describes his "wonderfully creative and imaginative mind" I think maybe he's going to be some sort of creative genius.

Runaway Pond Tour

Hi this is Wayne. I'm writing about when I went on the Runaway Pond tour. I saw where Runaway Pond use to be. A Geologist was with us to study the area. This is our group. Daddy and Joanie are there.

This rock is very big.  I climbed onto it.

I found this cave with ice in it. It is too small for me to go inside.

We dug up this very fine sand. It's very soft. This kind of sand is why Runaway Pond ran away.

This rock is weird. It has a tree growing over it.

I had a lot of fun on this tour.  I can't say much about it because I'm not good at typing.

Perfect Days Part 2

Easter morning at our house started at 7:00 a.m. when the kids got up and hunted down their Easter eggs and baskets. Heather shows off her bubbles. She's wearing Christmas pj's on Easter.
Then it was actually nice enough to have breakfast on the porch.

Their Easter baskets were these frog catching nets, so of course we had to go to the pond after church to try them out.

There are already thousands of eggs in the pond.

Then it was over to Joanie's house for Easter dinner and playing outside. Elijah got bubbles for Easter too.

I didn't get a picture of the dinner, but of course I wouldn't miss the desserts. Blackberry pies by Cedric, apple crisp by Tyler, and cookies by Joanie.

Relaxation...

An egg hunt for the little ones.

And Cole gets more birthday gifts.

It was great to see everyone and to enjoy such a lovely meal and beautiful weather.