Happy Thanksgiving

Wayne made a pie.

The meat-and-potato group. Not a lot of veggie action happening for these boys.

Girl power.

 Quite a spread.

Wayne tells his hunting story.

(He's got a little bit of a black eye from basketball practice.)

 Some sledding.

Thank you for a great day, Joanie. Happy Thanksgiving.

Piano Recital

Heather and Cole had a piano recital yesterday afternoon.  Their teacher let Wayne bow out of this one because he's been concentrating on playing  piano for the school's jazz band, and trumpet for the regular concert band. Not to mention basketball, homework every night...  And he was away at deer camp.  He's got a full plate.

It was a special treat for Cole and Heather to have Grammie and Lisa come to their recital!

Mary got this dress for Heather at her church tag sale. It was the perfect thing for her to wear.  Cole just wants to go have the cookies and refreshments that are always available after their recitals.

Blog Comments

A couple of people have mentioned having trouble leaving comments on my blog lately. I went into my settings and found that nothing has changed, so I think it must just be a blogger bug. Hopefully they will fix it soon.

Blogger tends to have a lot of bugs and I often find that refreshing the page can help clear things up once in a while.

In the meantime, keep trying. The kids love to read your comments!

Wayne's First Deer - Updated with Wayne's story in his own words

We have Jeanne to thank for these photos. 

It was youth weekend. Sunday afternoon Peter invited Wayne to come sit in his stand. It turned out to be a lucky invitation. 

Scroll all the way down. Wayne has updated this post with his story in his own words.

 Jeanne even cooked a spaghetti dinner.

Thank you Peter and Jeanne!

Here is the story:

     There were only 25 minutes left of daylight, and I was getting kind of worried. I had hunted with my parents all weekend and not seen anything on our land, so me and my dad decided to go to sit the last night in Peter's stand.

     At around 4:20 ( it gets completely dark by 5:00 ), we heard a twig snap to our left. I had been hearing noises the whole time, but this one sounded different, like it was from a bigger animal. After that, we heard a few quieter noises in the same area. I was sitting on the right side of the stand, and my dad on the left. Since the noise had come from the left, we switched. So now I was standing, with my gun resting on side of the stand. Several minutes passed and we heard nothing, so I was starting to feel kind disappointed. After a few more minutes of silence, we switched back. Now I was back on the right side. 

     Suddenly, we heard a deer blow and run off. Now that I new we had just missed a chance at a deer, I was disappointed. But I knew that there was a pretty good chance that it might come back to investigate what had spooked it. So we switched once again, with me on the left. Again, several minutes went by without a sound. But then, I thought I heard something. I was pretty sure it was a deer, but I have learned not to judge an animal by just the sound of its footsteps. It sounded like something was jogging through the woods. The sound grew louder and louder, until finally I saw a flicker of movement behind the brush. By this time I was quite sure that it was a deer. Finally, it stepped out into the clearing, to my left and somewhat behind. It was looking around, like it wasn't quite sure if she was safe here. I looked at my dad. Then I put the crosshairs right on the animal's chest. It was facing me, and it looked like it might run away soon so I didn't think I would have time to wait for a broadside shot. I pulled the trigger, and the deer fell almost instantly. It lay there for a second, flailing it's legs, then blew one last time. After no more than ten seconds, it was still.

     After celebrating, we went down to investigate the deer. I wasn't sure if it was a fawn or a doe. When I saw it, it was a fawn. That is alright, though. We dragged it to Peter's backyard where we gutted it and cleaned it. We snapped a few photos, then loaded it into our truck. We went in and had a great spaghetti dinner, and then headed home. I think it's funny cause I hunted more the twelve hours that weekend, and the only time that it really came down to was the last half-hour. I still had fun, of course, the rest of the time.

     Thank You, Peter and Jeanne! 

-Wayne

Variety show

The other night grades 4 thru 8 had a variety show, formerly known as Fine Arts Night.  The hallways were lined with artwork and there were musical performances, comedy skits, and gymnastics.

Cole composed this saxophone duet. His teacher said he composed it in a matter of minutes one day when she asked him to. Here he is with his friend Grant.Wayne, Dante, Fintan (on slide trombone) and Asom, below.

Zombies and Vampires

Hope you had a creepy Halloween.

The cutest vampire I've ever seen.

 Wayne thinks he's too old for trick or treating, now that he's a teenager.

zombies are all the rage with 5th graders these days.

school party.

Wes has enjoyed all the birthday emails and phone calls. Thanks everyone. Have a Happy Halloween.

A Visit to the Montshire

On Saturday, Wes and Wayne went to camp to spend the night. Cole has been having a rough time lately, so I thought it would be a good time to do something special for him. A couple of years ago, we went to the Montshire Museum in Norwich, and he's been asking to go again. I thought this would be a good time.

Heather experiments with pulleys and belts.

An underwater tornado, which Cole tells me is NOT the same as a whirlpool.

Heather tents herself with a giant bubble.

Cole discovers how frogs see. 

Viscosity of different liquids.

A live bee hive. There's a tube so they can go outside.

live carpenter ants

Cole participated in a Science Lab about red blood cells and was able to get a look at his own cells from the inside of his cheek.

Meanwhile, Heather compared her height to that of a dinosaur bone.

We ran into Kim Adams and her two children (apparently, the Montshire is the place to be when the hubbies are at camp) who texted a photo of this moose to Barry. It must have brought him luck because the next time we passed by her she said he had gotten one.

View from 3rd floor.

Cole defies gravity.

There are lots of things to do outside, including nature trails, but the weather was not great, so we didn't explore of the outdoors.

We did go on the planet walk

The planets are to scale, so the sun was a huge ball and Venus was a little bead.

It was a fun trip.

Just so you know, it is now Sunday afternoon and Heather just came in from outside and announced that it is snowing.

Heather Hunting

Heather just said that I should start a whole new blog that's just about her. I don't know about that, but here's a post that is all about her.

 Every year at this time, she jumps onto the hunting bandwagon along with her brother, father, and uncles.  She wanted to take the hunter safety course this fall but we said wait another year or so.

 In the meantime, she's taken over Wayne's BB gun and headed out to the forest in search of squirrels.

We had no school today because of Columbus Day. I don't think we've ever had it off before. 

 She did a lot of sitting, watching and listening, but never saw a good shot. 

 After a while she headed home.

 Squirrels are safe until next time.