Love, Erika

Next Door

I feel like the only pictures I've taken of the kids this summer have been in the pumpkin patch. But really, if you had a pumpkin patch right outside your front door, would you not RUN WITH IT??  I think I pretty much waited my whole life to live next to a pumpkin patch. It's beyond awesome. Not only pumpkins, but summer squash, butternut squash, red potatoes, and cucumbers...... and the 3 varieties of pumpkins this year are the traditional jack-o-lantern carving style, the pie pumpkins, and also some GIGANTIC white blobby ones that are way cool.

And no, the kids did not pick the cucumbers.... they were just playing with all the discards that they throw out probably as decoys to entice the deer and varmits to NOT eat the good stuff.

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

Odiorne

Yesterday we went to Odiorne State Park because there's lots to do there, including a big playground, tidepools and rocks to explore at the water, trails to walk around and the Seacoast Science Center. The kids are getting so big, and so easy to take along to places like this. It took LONG ENOUGH for us to get to this point. It seems Parker and Drew have both arrived at this nice easy place at the same time. Phew.

Drew loves his hat. Wore it all day yesterday. Sadly, the hat is now gone and got lost in our travels. Probably got left behind at the Science Center, that was the last place we saw it. Such a bummer!! 

 
 
 
 

 

On the way home we had lunch in Maine at the Dog House. We quickly had to correct ourselves and tell Drew it was the HOT Dog House, because he started to think there were really going to be dogs there. Haha. Everything will be fine as long as we manage his expectations. :)

This was my super messy smeared up foot-long chili dog. With beans in it, which is typical for a New England chili dog. ;)  But it was good anyway.

 

And hey there's me!!!  I made it onto my own blog.
 
 
It was a fun day! Will update later with some pics of Parker. He was there too. :)

Gym Class

Since I haven't posted anything in a while, here is a snapshot of last night. After supper we went outside to play and it ended up being much like a P.E. class. Bikes, running, jumping, obstacles, etc. A good time was had by all. (and this was after going to the playground before supper and running around the perimeter of the fence several times..... hot and sweaty running!)

More Clough Adventure

Back to the lake we went this weekend...... this time with more toys. Two noodles, a little inflatable raft thing and a little boogie board (that shoots water). Since Target has decided that summer is now OVER and has put all the water things on clearance, it was a great time to pick some up.

These pics were all taken with the little point-n-shoot.
 

One berry, two berry, pick me a blueberry

 

We've been looking forward all summer to when the blueberries would be ready!  We're lucky to have a really huge and gorgeous blueberry farm right here in Goffstown so it's easy to just swing by and pick a couple of pounds. So beautiful. It seems we always manage to get there right around mid-day when the light is HORRIBLE (horrible!!!!) for photos but you get the general idea.

 
 
 
This year's trip was much improved over last year's. Last year when we went it was literally 100 degrees and the kids were sluggish and whiny (also Parker was just over 1 year old). This year it was still hot, but only about 90 this time and both kids understood the idea of only picking the purple ones. Drew doesn't eat blueberries, but if you give him a specific job like just picking the purple ones, he's happy to focus on his task and I think he had a good time blueberry pickin'.  Parker also enjoyed it but the hard part was to keep him from eating them. He's a NUT about blueberries but these really needed to be washed first, no telling how many chemicals he ingested.

A Morning at the Lake

Another quick one from today.  Not much story to tell, just a straightforward trip to Clough State Park which is a quick drive from us. A dip in the lake is a great way to keep the kids occupied for a morning!  Dude. That water is cold.

 

4th of July BBQ

We went to a cookout on the 4th of July this year!  I'm so tickled. I just can't even remember the last time we were invited to a cookout of any sort, let alone for a bbq-ish holiday!  Dave's relatives Laurie & Joe invited us out to their fabulous house and it's been a million years since we saw them, way before Parker was born.

Funny memory about Laurie..... I remember vividly the day I went to the hospital in 2007 for my ECV to try to have Drew manually turned around from his breech position when I was very near the end of my pregnancy with him. We had stopped by Dave's mom's house for some reason that morning on the way to the appointment, and Laurie was there. And I remember the LOOK that both of them gave me as we were leaving--that "oh HELL I'm so sorry about what you're about to go through" look. LOL. They said positive and encouraging things, but that LOOK that they were giving me was not entirely comforting.  I don't know why I remember that. It's weird what things stick with you.

So anyway, we had a beautifully hot and sunny day for the 4th and the kids had fun flying around the huge yard playing croquet, swinging, and taking frequent breaks in the "man room" in the basement where all the toys are.

It was my job to wrangle ALL the cousins together and get some group photos. Don't try this at home!! I'm a professional. (ha ha, I say this only in jest because these kids really didn't want much to do with posing for pics)  Drew, as usual, declined most of the photo opportunities.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

And lastly, my favorite picture I ever took of Dawn and her kids!

Drew's 4th Birthday Party

We had Drew's birthday party on July 3rd, which if you do the math is more than 2 weeks after his actual birthday. One, he didn't know the difference and he didn't notice, and two: we wanted to wait until his cousins and Aunt Dawn and Uncle Doug were all in town for our annual Week of Fun. And fun we had!   It was worth it to wait so long for his party.

 
The theme this year was Thomas the Train. I guess it never gets old. And now Parker is really into it too. So we have 2 kids all about trains at the moment.  Some time in June I took Drew to iParty and let him look around and see what he might want for his party. He had no idea what I was asking him to pick out, so he was all grabbing Minnie Mouse plates, football cups, hawaiian leis, and all kinds of stuff. Finally I just said, "what about Thomas? Isn't that nice?" And of course he said yes (he would have said yes to anything) so I made the executive decision.  He was excited.

Kind of had to compromise on the cake..... I could have gotten him a Thomas sheet cake from the grocery store and had it be nasty, or I could have gotten him a delicious cake with a less-specific theme on it. :) You know what I went for.  She did a nice generic outdoorsy scene on the top so I could have room to plunk a little train in the middle of it. It worked!

We did a pinata this year for the party! It was fun although nobody wanted to take a whack at it except for Drew (and Parker got in a few licks too). Finally it broke open and everybody helped pick up the shower of candy (I don't remember if it was the plastic bat or the golf club that got it open).

Drew secured the loot and ran it back to safety.

I like this shot of him blowing out the candles.

A cool gift from Uncle Doug was this bubble gun.... it makes a HUGE cloud of bubbles!

And lastly, one of Drew's presents was a big boy bike!  I didn't think it would be possible, but as it turns out you CAN make my child's head look even BIGGER with the addition of a helmet. And that would be an Age 14+ size helmet.  He's so sweet on his bike, he's still very cautious about it and is kind of afraid to ride it because he's afraid he'll get going too fast. But he's practicing on it a little at a time and seems to like it. Just needs to get used to it.

Museum of Science, Boston

For one of our day trips while Dawn and her kids were here, we went to Boston to visit the Museum of Science. Parker stayed home with Grammie and we just went with Drew. Dave and I couldn't believe how liberating it was with only one kid. Only ONE!  How easy. Nothing could be easier.   It was nice to just have Drew, although the museum (and the lengthy drive in Boston traffic) was just about too much for him. He didn't really understand anything he was looking at, he just wanted to run amok, overstimulated, excited, and later, just completely exhausted.

But anyway, we had a good time and it was nice to take a trip somewhere..... anywhere, other than my little corner of New Hampshire.

Random photos with no particular order......

 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 

Storyland, Continued...

More from our trip to Storyland..... most of the shots on this post were done with the little point n' shoot because I pretty much gave up and put the big camera away due to the relentless downpours. Bummer.

The motel experience was funny. It was pretty much as you'd expect, a small room, tiny bathroom and 2 very excited little kids just going nuts in there. We stayed at the North Colony Motel in Bartlett only 4 miles away from Storyland and it was perfect for our needs. I always shop around for motels/hotels and restaurants on Trip Advisor, and this motel got perfect ratings for cleanliness and price, which I really liked. I never go wrong with Trip Advisor!  We brought the Pack N Play which hasn't seen the light of day since Parker was a little baby, but it came in handy for our motel stay. We just needed something to keep him contained, and it barely did. I guess we all got a few hours of sleep that night, and it was all we needed.

Here's me the next morning after a Dunkin's run. COFFEE!  Putting back on the wet clothes from the day before (because they didn't dry much at all overnight) was gross and uncomfortable. I had packed as many changes of clothes as I possibly could for all of us, but it just wasn't enough.

I shall not remark about this one.

We got some of the plastic ponchos to help keep us dry and were thinking that Drew wouldn't wear one, but he DID! He thought it was really cool. Poor Parker, we had gotten one for him too but he is way too small for it, so he just had to be open to the elements. Rough day for Parker.

We get back to Storyland that morning and it's POURING. Harder than it did the day before. It was just ridiculous. And miserable. Poor Parker.
 

We made it all the way to lunch time..... kept contemplating leaving as it POURED so hard, but then it would let up, and then downpour again. A really miserable and cold experience. But we were determined to press on.  Lunch was burgers that we took to a big pavilion out of the rain. Wearing our winter coats, giant plastic bags, and pushing around a huge double rental stroller, we found our way to table to eat. Ugh. Did I say misery?

Our only family picture was taken by a high schooler employee pushing around a broom. :)

Finally, it was time to head home. As you can see here, Parker was out like a light before we were even out of the Bartlett city limits. Both of them slept on the way home.

When we got back home, the unpacking was a little daunting. Two days worth of wet, heavy clothing in multiple changes, and soggy shoes. I was doing laundry for days.