Halloween

The costumes -
Avery helped with his robot decorations. He drew, colored and cut out pictures of the sun, saturn, the moon and other celestial objects.


Paige was a fairy. The wings on the back were my favorite. Also note, Grammah's tree costume.
... and we couldn't forget Buggie - the rooster!!
We had some friends over for lunch - we made orange gingham treat bags filled with loot and creepy cupcakes. We didn't take pictures of our other creepy concoctions... like hotdog mummies and mozzarella monster fingers!

Pants

This was too funny not to share... I had just returned home from grocery shopping when I noticed that Pants had taken an apple from one of the bags. We turned around to see her squatting and seriously eating her chosen snack. (...she had been wearing a cute purple skirt with her tights and boots... really!)

Pumpkins

We all enjoyed our trip to the pumpkin patch. We fed the goats, had a wagon ride, sipped fresh apple cider and enjoyed ice cream cones on a sun drenched October afternoon.

Soccer

Avery had his second soccer game today. He is really enjoying soccer, and we are having a fun time with it too.

Time Flies

August 2009

August 2007

Argh Matey's

The Pirate Festival at Fort Knox today!

New Dress for Pants

I've had this maternal need to make my daughter a dress... I can't explain it... but I've had an ache to do this. Apparently, this need is shared by own mother who made this beautiful dress for Pants. It fit perfectly.

Summer Fun

Just a photo and video.

Free Range Organic Turkey

Today, we cooked the turkey that I harvested in May. Since it was my first turkey, we decided to de-feather, clean and freeze the turkey whole. Despite the expert guidance and assistance from my Mom, it was a lot of work, and I am not sure if I would do that again, and might just take the breast next time.

Today, Jen baked the bird in a roasting bag with some chicken broth added to keep it moist. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it came out. It was moist and very tasty. It tasted nearly identical to the thanksgiving turkeys that we are all used to. Except, as I reminded Jen, this was a genuine free range organic bird.

Staycation

We have been enjoying our staycation this week. We scored some serious loot at a couple of yard sales, including a playhouse for the kids and a bike for Avery. Not to mention that Avery picked up Woody AND Buzz Lightyear for 50 cents. We also finally got to building that little patio and made our first trip to Chuck E. Cheese's.

Renegade

Welcome Renegade, the newest member of our family.

Signs

When Avery was small, I loved signing with him. I did not know any sign language before learning with and teaching him. It was amazing to have him start signing at just 10months old, be signing like crazy by 12 months and then to be verbally saying the words he had been signing by 15months.

Paige has been on a different course. For those of you who know Paigey Pants well - you'll understand. I started signing with Paige earlier than Avery, since he took to it so quickly. She signed 'milk' at just 8 months old. She quickly played the imp and decided it was fun to tease mama and made up her own fake sign for milk. She has been signing 'all done' after meals for some time now. Other than that, she's been fairly content to just grunt. The three of us can differentiate the grunts and know precisely what she is requesting. Over the past few days, however, she's become a signing maniac!!!! She signs 'thank you' when buckled into her booster seat at the table or when Avery kisses her; she signs 'airplane' everyday as we leave daycare and she sees the plane at the air museum or when she spots one in the sky (this sign is accompanied by a machine like noise as well!); she signs 'hat', 'baby', 'hot', 'bath'; tonight she learned 'dog'. Its simply amazing!!! Its so much fun to have our babies communicating before they gain their verbal skills.

Paige and her baby

Paige has really started being interested in her "babies," which include an assortment of stuffed animals as well as an actual baby doll. She likes to cradle them, feed them and give them bottles. She has recently perfected the sign for baby too.

Monster Jam!

t's amazing how well television commercials work on a four-year-old. After seeing a couple of commercials for Monster Jam on TV, Avery convinced us to take him to see the monster truck show. It was a good time and he really enjoyed himself. We even stood in line after the show to get autographs from the drivers. We thought we we would share a couple of movies of the high-flying action.

Camping at Lamoine State Park

Over the Memorial Day long weekend we headed down to what is becoming one of our regular camping spots, Lamoine State Park. It's another nice state campground and close to Acadia.

Tee Ball

Avery started tee ball on Monday. We'll keep you updated as the season progresses.

First Turkey

I decided to take up Turkey hunting this year. Though my family was skeptical that my turkey calls sounded like a turkey and that my turkey decoy looked like a turkey, it looks like I was on the right track. Monday was the first day of the season, and at 9:00 a.m. I bagged a decent gobbler. It weighed in at 19 lbs, 3 oz, had an 8.75-inch beard and 0.5/0.25-inch spurs. It was called in from about 200 yards using a diaphragm call.

The only hunting sport that I have ever been serious about is deer hunting, and I have to say that turkey hunting could easily become my new favorite sport.

Acadia Camping Trip

With the 70-degree weather, we couldn't resist dragging out the camper and heading out for the weekend. We drove to Acadia National Park on Saturday morning and found a nice site at Blackwoods campground. We wouldn't really consider camping in Acadia during the summer so it was nice to take advantage of the early summer-like days and spend some time in the park.

After getting camp set up and having lunch, we hiked Day Mountain. We spent a long time hanging around at the summit, laying on the rocks, having water and snacks and enjoying the bright sunshine.

Avery enjoyed riding his bike on a closed portion of the campground road and Paige spent a lot of time walking around the campsite exploring.

On Sunday, we drove to Bass Harbor Head Light and in the afternoon, Jason and Avery did some "scaling" on the cliffs along the ocean near the campground.

We posted some more pictures of our trip here. It was definitely nice to get out and do some camping so early in the year, and we're already looking forward to our next trip.

Superhero / Princess Day

It is a crazy "week of the young child" at school for Avery this week. Today was Superhero/Princess day. Avery was decked out as Batman in his favorite Batman t-shirt and a cape that Jen sewed for him out of some scrap fabric last night. Tomorrow is sports team day and Avery is planning to get dressed up in his Jacksonville Jaguars attire.