Hanging out with the boys

 Now that camp is open and it's warmer, the boys and I can escape down to Belfast on the weekends.  There are oh so many reasons to go to Belfast: it's beautiful, fun to walk on the beach, Reny's, Chase's Daily.....the list goes on.  Now there is yet another reason that it works for our family - Papa can come home from the night shifts at the hospital and actually sleep in a quiet house.  

Our latest adventure was to go down to the waterfront in downtown Belfast and check out the new shipyard that is being built. Noah appreciates hart hat areas.  Right next door is the footbridge, and we had a ball walking across.  Noah says hello to everyone we see and introduces us all.  He introduces me as "Fayf" 

Got to love the one-boot-one-sandal look.  I'm not quite sure what made Noah think that this would be the best footwear for our adventure, but I didn't challenge it.  I am learning to choose my battles! 

 

Noah finished his year at Montessori yesterday.  Today was his first day at Chapel PreSchool (daycare on campus) and his building is right across the parking lot from where Eli is.  I'll try to take some pictures there in the next couple of days.  It is super easy - Noah can even see Eli when they are both outside on nice days.  I wondered if he would struggle with the transition, but he said, "See ya Momma" and ran off to play with his friends.  It helps that he's got friends who are making the same transition from SMS to campus for the summer - Anna, Alex, Owen and Ben.  Noah also gets the chance to re-connect with his buddy from the Infant-Toddler Program days  - Emmitt.  Gary visited today, too.  (Gary is the Director of the Children's Center on campus and was Noah's teacher for several months when he was a baby.  Noah thinks Gary is super special.)

Eli helping Momma in the garden.  Look how green everything is!  I love it! 

And I know that every parent thinks that their baby is the cutest baby in the world.  But just look at this kid!  Don't you just want to squeeze him and give him kisses?  I sure do.  The women at Infant-Toddler talk about how easy going Eli is.  He hardly cries - and when he does there is always a darned good reason.  I walked into a room of crying babies today and there he was in the middle - all smiles and "goo goo gaa gaa" and I thought, "I'll take THAT one, please."  He's a keeper.

I have been up to my eyeballs in planning for the summer program.  Please send me good vibes....I am not sure how to "do" a summer program with two small children.  Am I ready for 100 teenagers to come and live with us (so to speak) in 10 days?  Got a lot more to do.  

Memorial Day Weekend!

Hello All

The Thursday before Memorial Day, Gene and I joined Mark and Lisa for a quick bite to eat at Geaghan's Roundhouse (yummmm boneless buffalo wings in Reserve sauce and a pint of beer) and then Ray LaMontagne and Brandi Carlile  on the Bangor Waterfront.  It was a cloudy sort of drizzly day but it felt so nice to be out and about and enjoying such great music just 10 miles down the street from Old Mill Road.




As you can see, a good time was had by all.  God bless Auntie Denise and Uncle Ernie who came over to the house to watch the boys.  Memorial Day in Maine....I was wishing I had my mittens.  Glad I had the layers, though.






And of course the photos of these boys!  We have had some warm days and the backyard is greening up.  The garden is still waiting to be planted - we are almost ready, though.  Because it's been sort of a cool, damp spring I think it's best to wait a while before putting the seeds in the ground.

We spent the weekend down at camp with Mark and Lisa.  They arrived later on Saturday - had spent Friday evening down in Boston watching the Bruins.  The Bruins seem to be on their way to win the Stanley Cup!  So exciting that they keep winning but it's making Lisa and Mark a bit road-weary.  They are traveling to Boston sometimes two times a week (and continuing to get to work every day)  Such a cool experience, though.  Lisa has great photos on Facebook of the experience.

Mr. Eli a.k.a. Baby E at 6 months

And Noah had been waiting for THIS moment for months:  geting on the John Deer tractor and mowing the lawn at camp.  Really doesn't get much better than this for my boy.  

 

On Memorial Day, Noah and I got coffee and a cookie (coffee for me, cookie for him) and went to Searsport for the Memorial Day parade.  It was so sweet, so small coastal Maine-ish.  The old fire trucks came out from Stockton Springs, Prospect and Searsport.  The veterans walked together while their families took photos from the side of the road.  The high school marching band played patriotic songs.

And then yes, a train ride.  Noah was so psyched.  We rode on the Old Belfast & Moosehead railway down the rails to Burnham Station (in other words, down the track to the middle of the woods then back to Belfast again) We went over a few little bridges and it was just so lovely to ride with the windows open along the river and through the woods.

The conductor even punched Noah's ticket both ways.  Noah took the ticket to Montessori the next day so he could share the story.  This boy loves anything with an engine.....lawn mowers and trains, chain saws and weed whackers.

Thank you to Lisa for the great photos!