Winter is the Warmest Season

 These two beauties are loving all of the snow we have had.

 Wow am I grateful for Reagan.  She takes Kate outside and plays and plays and plays until Kate is cold.  I should back up a bit, because before they even go out, Reagan gets Kate all bundled up with snow pants, warm socks, boots, a coat, hat, and mittens.  I don't have to do any of it.  I've said this before, but Reagan is an awesome big sister.

 The girls decided to use their beach toys in the snow.

 Boo and Kelly hung out with them.

It was the perfect day for reading Winter is the Warmest Season, a great book that celebrates all of the warmth that winter brings, such as hot chocolate, grilled cheese, mittens, blankets, and a warm house.

Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

I love Charlie Brown and the Peanuts.  I remember looking forward to the seasonal specials as a kid.  I think it's kind of sad how accessible movies and television shows are today.  They are always available, so there is no great excitement in catching anything on television once a year.  Charlie Brown, The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz, all of the holiday specials - I remember the excitement of knowing they were going to be on tv each year.  On the other hand, today we don't have to worry about missing anything on television; everything is so accessible.  I guess I'm just a bit nostalgic.

Anyway, I can't believe we have never had our own Charlie Brown style Thanksgiving before now!  It was fun, and I hope it becomes a tradition.

Reagan, Kate and I watched the show together.

We also watched This Is America Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyagers, and Reagan dazzled me with all of her knowledge; she really does know a lot about this part of history.

I had planned on preparing the Charlie Brown feast for the kids, but the girls both wanted to help, and I am SO GLAD they did; their help made the whole thing so much more fun!

 Collin showed up for the food!!!

Toast, popcorn, pretzels, jelly beans, and ice cream sundaes (pictured below) just like Charlie Brown's feast.

"What blockhead cooked all this?"

 Snoopy?????  

The girls both said this was tons of fun and they hope to do it again next year.  Consider it done!

Escobar Farm Corn Maze

Yesterday morning we went to Escobar Farm to try their corn maze.  We had very warm weather for the end of September (low 80s), so luckily this corn maze was just the right size for our family to explore in the heat.  The maze had two sections, and this was perfect because Reagan led the way through the first section and Collin led the way through the second section.  They both did very well navigating through the corn, and even though we had a map, we never used it.  Another nice thing about Escobar Farm is that they allow dogs in the corn maze!  We brought Boo; it was way too hot for Kelly, and she is a little too big for corn mazes anyway.

 There were a few of these silly cornundrum signs throughout the maze; they were fun little puzzles for us to solve.

 Kate and Reagan rode the cow train after we completed the maze.  It was cute!

The maze had a Wizard of Oz theme.  There were only a few references to The Wizard of Oz, but we thought these legs were funny!!!  I had to assure Kate that the legs were fake before she would let me put her down!

Every time we go to a corn maze, I realize that I have the worst sense of direction.  I don't think I would ever get out on my own!!!

Boo is One!

We celebrated Boo's first birthday last week (August 28th) with a special (store bought) treat.

I think he liked it!

Around Here

June is always a crazy month, but we have so many fun things to do this month that who cares if it's crazy!  Here's a look at what we had going on recently:

Reagan and I recently read Charlotte's Web.  I have read it with all three of my big kids, and it never gets easier, always brings tears to my eyes.  Reagan and I went to see a stage production of Charlotte's Web at the Zeiterion.  The show was cute, but definitely a little too goofy and not heartwarming enough.  I assume they did that to ease the pain of Charlotte's death for this young audience.

After the show, we went to Not Your Average Joe's and Reagan ordered this gigantic pulled pork sandwich.

Reagan and Collin had field day last week.  The weather was beautiful for a day of outdoor fun.

 Play dough has been the before school activity for these four lately.

Who can resist these play dough treats?

I chaperoned Collin's field trip to the Whaling Museum.  Here he is standing in front of a sperm whale skeleton.  The trip was very educational.  I grew up in New Bedford and always had lessons about the whaling industry and whales, and yet I still learned a lot on this trip.  The thing that I don't remember ever learning before is that the whaling industry is the reason why there are so many Portuguese and Cape Verdean people in the area; often, Quaker men would quit when the ships arrived in the Azores or in Cape Verde, and the captains of the ships would hire young men (kids really) from the Azores or Cape Verde to replace the men that quit.  I'm actually a little embarrassed that I didn't know that; how could I have not learned that?

We went to Lou's 40th birthday party on Saturday.  Tom enjoyed being with a bunch of his college friends.  I enjoyed seeing everyone; they are really a great group of people.  Reagan and Collin had a great time with some of the kids their age, and they really enjoyed the pool and hot tub.  Kate liked the pool too.  The member of our family that had the most fun is definitely Boo.  There were three other dogs there and the yard was surrounded by woods.  Boo LOVED every minute.  He played hard, ate lots of dropped food and one stolen hot dog, and just had a blast.

On Sunday, Reagan competed in a gymnastics meet.  She recently moved up from Rookie to Bronze, and this was her first meet as a member of the Bronze team.

Today, Collin had a 4th grade strings field trip.  They went to two elementary schools to play for the students, and they also went to McDonald's for lunch.

So much more to do and enjoy this month!  Two more weeks of school, a few parties, Father's Day, another field trip, a gymnastics show, and I'm sure there is more!

Random Photos

Collin learned about the phases of the moon recently, and the students created the ever popular Oreo cookie moons.  We did this at home a year or so ago.

Speaking of Collin, he is doing so well with the violin now.  I have noticed a lot of progress in the last two weeks.  Here is a video of him playing Bile 'em Cabbage Down.  

Kate still enjoys giving check ups.  Look at the "bandage" on Boo's leg.  Boo must have been tired, or extra patient at that moment.

Kelly was groomed by a mobile groomer this week.  It was so nice to have the groomer come to us, and she did a beautiful job.

Kate and I had fun with chalk recently.

I drew roads for Kate to drive her matchbox cars along.

We also used the chalk to turn Kate into butterflies.

Tom ran in a 5k last weekend.  We cheered him on as he ran!  It's so nice that the town races all go by Grandma's house; we have a great spot to cheer on all of the runners.

This is what Collin did while waiting to see Dad run.

The school year is winding down.  Five weeks to go.  Right now five weeks sounds like a lot, but we have a lot of busy weekends and end of school events coming up, so I'm sure it will fly by.

Mother's Day Hike

We had gorgeous weather on Mother's Day, and so we decided to head to the Blue Hills for a family hike.  It was so nice; I really enjoy hiking, especially when the mosquitoes haven't really come out yet.  I could never hike alone though because I have the absolute worst sense of direction EVER, and I often miss the obvious markers on the trails!

Driving to the Blue Hills was interesting.  It is rare for us to all pile into the car with the two dogs; it was a very full minivan!  Kate added to the experience by asking over and over and over and over again, "Where are we going?", "What are we going to do there?", etc.

You can see that Reagan finally has two front teeth!  She lost a front primary tooth when she was only three years old due to injury, and the new tooth is finally growing in; it's weird (but very NICE) to see her with two front teeth after all these years!  Also, doesn't Reagan look so happy in that picture?  It almost looks like she had a great time!!!  Ha ha ha.  Reagan is strong and athletic, but she doesn't like hiking.  She lets everyone know that she is not enjoying it.

This was Kate's very first "hike".  She was carried most of the time, but she did walk a little and I was happy to have her there with us.

 The view from the top; that's Boston in the distance.

I saved this picture for the end so that I could write a little about Kelly.  We weren't going to bring her, even though she LOVES hiking.  Kelly has been limping lately and the vet actually thought she might have had a torn ACL and need surgery.  She was on an anti-inflammatory and the limping went away, but she still appears to have some stiffness in her leg.  As we were packing up to go, Kelly was very excited; she knows what the packs and other hiking items mean, and she was ready to go.  The rest of us piled into the car, ready to leave, but we could hear her crying in the house and we just could not leave without her.  So she came, and she was fine out there, and fortunately, she didn't seem to overdo it because she still seems fine.  She's so funny; I wish I had thought to take a video of her as we approached the exit for the Blue Hills.  She knew exactly where we were and started "screaming" with excitement.  I'm so happy we brought her; it wouldn't be the same without Kelly.

*I was there, really, just the one taking the pictures.  I should have thought to get a picture of myself with the kids since it was Mother's Day.  I never think to make sure I get in pictures.

Here are a few short videos I took during our hike:

This was a great way for us to all spend time together.  I loved it.