Labor Day weekend

Busy weekend! We left the house at noon on Saturday to drop linens, blankets, and towels that the thrift store didn't want to sell off at the animal shelter. We've been doing that particular job for months now, but yesterday was the first time that we managed to drop stuff off during the hours that the shelter is open to the public. So we got to walk a dog! Meet Eve:

She and Nina hit it right off.

Isn't she so pretty? She's a bulldog, American we think. Note the cute spots and up tail!

She was so sweet! Very shy, and so easy to walk. Not constantly pulling and tugging like Marley!

After that, it was lunch at Five Guys, back-to-school shopping at Target, and a trip to the zoo. Ok, ok, Petco. We watched the birds and mice for the longest time, it was so much fun.

Then it was over to the bowling alley for Joseph's surprise 30th birthday party! So much fun!! We ate and ate and ate, and bowled and bowled and bowled. In the end, Dad and Erik tied for first, then came mom, Nick, me, and Maggie and Nina (I can't remember the order at the end there). I only did so well because I had the lane guards up. Bowling gutter ball after gutter ball is just no fun.

We left the camera in the car, so here's a photo of us heading home:

Happy, sleepy campers!!

The summer days, they're a-dwindlin'

Oh, the sadness is descending on our house. On Monday and Tuesday I had to work! What is this work? I am not sure I remember?...

Mom had to go to work at 1-ish, so I made sure to leave enough to keep the kids occupied and out of Nick's hair until I got home at 3:30. To that effect, I made them a scavenger hunt and a treasure hunt!

One of the items on the scavenger hunt was to photograph a bird. I figured, that'll keep the girls pretty busy, they'll have to be patient, look for some birds, try to get a picture. Genius, right?

Here's what I got:

What's that on her shirt? Leaves? Attached with tape??

This one has a yellow cup on her face...

 They're birds. Har har children.

That's ok though, Nina made up for it by making pancakes. All by herself! She was all, "I want some pancakes," and I was all, "well I'm too busy to make any, and they're too much work, so no." And she was all, "Fine, I'll make them myself."

And she did!! She googled "fluffy pancake recipe" ("fluffy"!), followed all the instructions, and presented us all with this amazing, golden stack of pancakes!!

Those pancakes had some serious fluff.

Then Maggie got buried in some stuffies...

Where is she? Oh yeah, there she is!

Then she exploded out. The fun!

Note that Nina's still wearing her apron in this photo.

So, overall Monday and Tuesday were a success. Then we were in Brunswick to get 2 of Maggie's cavities filled on Wednesday, bummed around the house and went swimming with our friends on Thursday, and back at school for me today. Thankfully, Nina made dinner (fondue), so I got a chance to relax! She's such an amazing cook! I can't emphasize enough how excited I am that she has such a helpful hobby. Nine is turning out to be the best age yet!!

Nina's Birthday Party

Well, it was a week late, but today we finally celebrated Nina's 9th birthday with an American Girl Doll, spa birthday. What a success!

Nina and I spent all morning getting ready. Here's the Happy Birthday Banner above the presents table (complete with shimmery tablecloth).

No spa is complete without some hand-picked wildflowers...

I picked those myself. They really added that special touch...

Their sitter, Sophia, came by early, and helped us set up the nail polish station.

She did amazing manicures with glitter. Glitter! That's what you get when your sitter is valedictorian!

We also did aloe vera facials and a tea foot soak.

Maggie with cucumbers on her eyes. Aww!

 Actually, all of this was a plan for me to get some spa treatment!

Ahhh! It worked!!

 Look at all those nail polish choices...

One friend, Grace, is staying for a sleepover. She's never done a sleepover before, and her parents are skeptical, but we'll see!

We were eating dinner, and Grace was telling us a story about diarrhea, but trying to avoid saying the word. "Why is it such a gross word," she asked. "There should be a better one."

"How about 'loose stools?'" Maggie said enthusiastically, arms swung out. "That's better!"

Peabody Pond

Heath sent some pics!

First, the trampaloon, which was even better this year thanks to the addition of a waterslide. I, bravely, was the first to try it.

All the grace of a beluga whale...

 It wasn't wet enough to really "slide" down, and the picture above does not do my lack of grace justice. Heath remedied the situation by spraying the slide with non-stick cooking spray, which rubbed off of our bodies all over the rest of the trampaloon, providing us all with hours of slippery hilarity.

We survived and made it back to the dock:

Lovely scenery!

There's now also a lovey pontoon boat, which we played on but didn't take out.

More trampaloon. Even Nick got out there!

Heath and Nick look ridiculous, but Maggie looks adorable!

 Nina, practicing her float. Could her arms and legs get any longer??

Or whiter? Next summer I might have to lay off the sunscreen...

 Me and the girls, back at the trampaloon. Nina is about to go down the slide. The tube/life vest combo is to eliminate any chance that she could go underwater. It worked!

It was a great day. Heath will be back there over Christmas break, and the girls want to check the place out in the winter. So I guess we'll be back this year. And next year, we'll definitely plan to spend two nights. One just wasn't enough!

A garden update!

I know how everyone just LOVES my garden updates!

This one is about my flowers, which were pretty successful. Look!

Above are the cosmos, which have finally bloomed. Lovely!

Morning glory in a wrought iron basket on the exterior of the house

And finally:

I harvested some of my potatoes today! They're small, as usual, but they're mine and I love them!! They're going in the chowder tonight.

Bad news is that Maggie caught the virus. She woke up Saturday night/Sunday morning just burning up and with a sore throat. She felt miserable yesterday, but is turning the corner today. Poor little pumpkin!!

Happy Birthday Nina!!

Yesterday, it looked like Nina was going to have an utterly awful birthday.

This is the saddest almost-birthday girl ever

 She ran a fever of 103 all day and couldn't keep anything down. She mostly slept, which was good, and then finally kept a dose of Tylenol down at 8:45. An hour later she woke up sweaty, fever broken, and HUNGRY. Yay! She's not 100% today, but much, much better.

Interestingly, most of her presents were really for Kit and Marisol. Like, new bunk beds, with coordinating bedding!

See the "K" on Kit's pillow and the "M" on Marisol's?

Yesterday she opened up her Easy Bake oven. During her 3 minutes of feeling halfway decent, we baked a couple of cakes in them. But at least it cheered her up a little!

She also got a gift in the mail from the Hermans: new PJs! Maggie held them up after she opened them and exclaimed, "New pajamas Nina! For when you're huge!"

It was hilarious! They do look huge, but they fit perfectly. She's really growing up!!

Today we had cake and Nina opened up a few more presents--an alarm clock from Grandma and Grandpa and this new outfit for Marisol:

The shoes even have little taps on them!

She's so excited by her Amazon gift certificate from Oma and Opa that I think it's going to take her weeks to decide what to get! Amazon does put the whole world at one's fingertips though, it's a lot to pick from.

I can't believe she's 9. Unreal. Nine!! Where did my little snug-muffin go??

One more project:

Check out what the girls and I have been up to in their room:

Glitter paint for their door!! We did some of the wood in a metallic coffee brown, and then coated everything with gold sparkles. Home Depot had a sale on Martha Stewart glitter paints, and we decided to have some fun with their room. It looks so sparkly and beautiful!! We have a lot left over, so there are more crafts waiting for us I'm sure.

If a door in your home needs some glamming up, just let us know!

August, week 2

I'm just going to have to get used to once-a-week blogging I guess. That's the way it is.

So, here's the roundup from the first week of August: It was probably our most relaxed week so far! Mostly we just kicked it around the house and at mom and dad's pool. On Saturday we went to a party at our friends' the Conlins house, and today we saw Great-Grandma, Uncle Lee, Aunt Maria, and cousin Jessica.

Biggest news of the week is that Nina FINALLY LOST THE TOOTH!!

She was so happy! We were ALL so happy!!

 For the last 4 nights, I'd been wiggling it after she fell asleep. I'd wait until she was in a deep sleep, wiggle furiously and try to extract, kind of wake her up, let her fall back into a deep, deep sleep, and then wiggle again. It was really, really loose yesterday, and then she fell off her bike and it was hanging by a thread, so she just yanked it. Poor kid is pretty bruised up, but she was wearing her helmet, so no serious damage.

In this house, this is considered non-serious damage. Or normal.

Here's Maggie, trying to start a fire with two blocks.

Maggie's teeth are not such good news. Six cavities, probably two of which will require crowns, if we're lucky. If we're not, they'll be extractions. :-(

Remember the Rotary Auction, oh highlight of so many summers? Well, we got a doll bunk bed there, and the girls and their sitter painted it a beautiful white. Look!

Kit and Marisol absolutely love it. Forgive the un-ironed blankets, those wrinkles will be remedied shortly!

And finally, our Moxie wants to show you his wart one last time:

I know, it's gross. I'm sorry...

He's getting it removed tomorrow! He's going to be so handsome again!!

A quick roundup

What  a busy summer! I don't even remember the last time I blogged. We've been going going going nonstop though. Here's some of what's been going on:

We went to our friend Heath's house on Peabody Pond! Here we are underway...

It sure was a packed car!

 No more pictures from the lake, oops! Heath got a bunch though, and I'll steal some of his when he's back in California and they're uploaded to the web.

We've had lots of visits to the Ebb Tide:

Maggie enjoys her visits more than it appears!

I took this photo after Nina's 9 year old well child check (65th percentile for height 25th for weight, which puts her BMI at the low end of normal but perfectly healthy!). Nina didn't need any shots, but it turns out there was one more that Maggie hadn't gotten for kindergarten! She was not worried about it until they pulled out the needle, then she kind of freaked. The nurse ended up putting it in her thigh because I had a hard time keeping her arm still (and she'd shoved them up my shirt to keep them safe). Then, when the needle actually went into her leg, she stopped crying and remarked, "Oh! This doesn't really hurt at all!" I had to chuckle. Most kids start crying when the shot goes in, not stop. Then she said, "Remind me next time I get a shot that they don't actually hurt." So here it is in writing Maggie, it didn't actually hurt!

We've had LOTS of beach and swimming time. Here's Maggie at Hendrick's Head for our dear friends the Mosses' going away party:

Climbing the big rock at Hendrick's.

Here's Nina, same day.

 The going-away party was the same day we got back from Heath's. We left Sebago at about 1:30, got into Boothbay just after 3:30, ordered a pizza at T&D Variety (formerly Dave's AG), and got to Hendrick's at about 5:00. It was a big day!

Today was the Rotary auction. Never a disappointment! This year's haul included 2 mirrors for the girls' bedroom, roller skates, ice skates, an American Girl Doll bunk bed, and some beer glasses for Nick. Well done!

What an adorable roller girl she is!

We're just loving all this summer fun!!