Vacation: Part 1 - NH

We began our vacation this year with a trip to New Hampshire to celebrate Great Grandma Irene's 90th birthday! We headed out of RI on Saturday and spent the afternoon and evening in Portsmouth, NH. Alex traveled in the car with us and Merrill and Steve met up with us when we got there.

It was a little cloudy and rainy when we left but the afternoon turned out to be beautiful and we all got in a swim at the municipal pool in Portsmouth before heading to the Blue Mermaid for dinner. Benjamin and Julia had had a long day so we turned in early and were awake at dawn - the perfect time to get in a little snuggling!

We headed out for a walk to get breakfast (at the Friendly Toast - delicious) and to see a little more of the town. We could only do window shopping as it was 7am on Sunday but it was a nice start to the day. Julia's friend, Blizzard (an acquisition from our recent aquarium trip) joined us for the tour!

 From there, it was over to my Uncle Rob and Aunt Susan's house for the party. There were lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins to catch up and play with. Benj got in a little knock hockey and Julia did a little beanbag tossing and some baseball.

And, of course, there was the main event - celebrating with my Grandmother!

We were thrilled to be able to be there to sing Happy Birthday and spend time with everyone. A great start to our vacation!

Bye-Bye Benjamin

Benjamin's favorite music is a cd by a band called Rock-A-Baby. They are the ones who led the music classes that he and I went to this year which he loved. They start each class and cd with a hello song and not surprisingly, end with a goodbye song. And the goodbye song has become a family staple. Benjamin and Julia both love it and we often use it to coax Benj into his carseat or to cheer him up.

Lately, when he wants to hear his music in the car he will start clapping his hands and saying "bye, bye, bye" over and over until we get the hint and pop in the cd. Then when the goodbye song comes on, he goes into dance mode, waving, clapping and singing along! It's very cute to watch and I finally captured it on video.

Adventures with Grandma

On the Thursday before vacation we spent a day with Grandma Laurie and Alex. We were originally going to hit the beach but the day started out very rainy so we changed up the plan and headed to the aquarium instead.

But before we could leave the kids had to dress the part of pirate adventurers (a new theme in our house thanks to our current favorite show, Jake and the Neverland Pirates!).

At the aquarium, we saw lots of fish and animals including the beluga whales, sea lions, penguins, rays, sharks, jelly fish, and lots more. Julia was very proud of herself (and I was too) for touching a ray which she said felt "soft and jelly-like." Benjamin tried imitating the sounds of a hungry sea lion and was pretty successful as he's quite the pro at loud bellowing! 

One of the best parts of the day though was taking Alex and Julia into the aviary. We were given sticks with food to feed the birds and sent into a large enclosure with lots of different kinds of cockatiels and parakeets. Both girls loved it and spent lots of time feeding the birds. Alex took to them right away and showed no nervousness at all coaxing a bird onto her stick to eat. He was a hungry one and stayed with her for quite a while.

Julia had a bit harder time getting a bird to land on her stick (being quite a bit shorter was a disadvantage) but Alex eventually ran out of food on her one stick and her bird was still hungry so we were able to transfer him over to Julia's. She was a little apprehensive at first but ended up being delighted by the whole experience which is shown pretty well in this series of photos.

Alex had several more birds feeding from her and was loving every second of it!

As we walked to the car after leaving the aquarium Julia turned to me and asked, "Mom, is it still raining?" Nope, it wasn't. So of course, the next request was "can we still go to the beach?" 

It was a little gray but ended up being a great time. I swam with all three kids, Benjamin and Grandma were entertained watching seagulls try to eat Skittles (they can't apparently), and we all slept well that night!

The Climber

Some of Benjamin's adventurous spirit seems to be rubbing off on Julia. Over the past few weeks she has started climbing things -- like the ladders and climbing walls at the playground. It's been great to see her open up to exploring a little more and get comfortable trying new things!

Benjamin's Gallery

Benjamin has become quite the artist and we have a few installations around our house to show for it!

A crayon drawing on the family room wall

A marker design to embellish the floor!

and 

Sharpie on the kitchen table - we obviously need something to look at while we eat!

We are keeping the art supplies under a closer watch these days to say the least!

Funny Faces

Benjamin is quite the ham. He loves having his picture taken and as soon as you get out the camera he immediately gives you a smile and says "cheese." This is great except for those times when you want a shot of him doing something else. Because as soon as he spots you he stops whatever he is doing and puts on his camera face!

But at breakfast this weekend I was able to capture him making his newest silly face. He knows it makes us all laugh so he uses it often!

Swimming Progress

We've been on vacation for the past week and I've stayed pretty far away from my computer. But I have a backlog of pictures, videos, and tales to share so I'll do my best to get everyone up-to-date over the next few days!

First up, Julia's swimming! She took lessons at the Greenwich Club this year and they were a huge success! I was so impressed with how much progress she made over just two weeks. By the end of the session, she was swimming the width of pool by herself holding onto a kickboard, she jumped into the deep end and swam to the instructor, she was comfortable going down the slide without anyone catching her at the bottom, and to my great surprise she got on the diving board! The video below is her first time up on the board and while it may seem a little anti-climatic it was a big accomplishment for her!!

Julia got a chance to put her lessons to work almost immediately as we left for vacation right after her last one. She spent all of last week swimming with the fish at Lake Cobbessee in Maine. The highlight for me was on the day before we left when she and I swam from the dock to the float (she was wearing arm floats) and as we rounded the float and headed back to the dock she said to me, "Mom! I'm a swimmer! Those lessons worked!!" Yes, they did!

The Fourth

We spent the Fourth of July at home this year. There was a plan to begin the playhouse roof so we decided to take advantage (and make sure the builders were squarely in the spotlight) and have a holiday picnic as well. So in addition to Grandma Les and Grandpa Rick we celebrated with Grandma Su-Su and Granpa Herb who were here visiting on their way up to Maine, Grandma Bid and Grandpa Carl, and Aunt Katherine and Uncle Jon. The pictures in this post are courtesy of Grandma Les - thanks!!

The group and the clubhouse in the background -- we have the beginning of a roof!!

90+ degree heat means lots of water fights which were actually welcomed by everyone

My flag pie

Happy Fourth!

 My adorable girl!

 Great-grandparents and the newlyweds!

Ice cream face! It was melting fast!

 Hamming it up! He loves the camera and as soon as he sees one says "cheese", "cheese, "cheese" until you take his picture!

Heard (and seen) Around the House

On our walk the other day Julia and I ended up running and at one point she turned to me and said "Mom, I'm going as fast as a turtle in his shell!"

and yes, that's probably about how fast we were actually going! ;-)

So the blur in the foreground of this picture is Benjamin jumping from the footstool to the couch. He used to (like a couple of days ago) only do this when Andrew or I were sitting on the couch and he could jump to us. But he's getting more and more daring and now will try to jump off pretty much anything.... like the top of a 6 foot climbing wall at the playground. Heaven help us!

Julia's Gallery: The Snail and the Seed

Title: The Snail and the Seed
Materials: Markers and paper
Details: The picture shows a snail (face on the right) with a blue shell, the large blue oval on top of the shell is a seed (or maybe a coconut!). This was the first time that Julia drew a picture and then told me a whole story about what was going on - she actually wrote it down on another piece of paper and then "read" it to me, going back multiple times to look at what she had written to see what the next part of the story was.

The Story
A seed fell on the snail and he got mad and kicked and then a coconut fell on a turtle and the turtle made a huge wave at the beach and we were there. All the people got out of the water and their blankets got wet. But we stayed in and the wave went over our shoulders and heads. Then Captain Hook and Smee were there among the rocks. And the wave went over the crocodile.

Benjamin Milestone: First Haircut

So I wasn't completely ready for it but Benjamin's hair was looking quite mop-ish so it was time for a haircut. I have trimmed his hair a couple of times to straighten it out and keep it out of eyes. So technically this wasn't his first haircut but it was the first time anyone else has cut it and definitely the most extensive. I will admit that I know absolutely nothing about boys' hair so figuring out what to do with it as he grows up will be a learning experience for me. This time the girl said she could give him a "surfer boy" look and that sounded fine to me. So here we go.

Before:

During: 

He was amazingly good for the whole thing. He sat still, looked where he was supposed to, and was very good-natured about the whole thing.

After:

I'm pretty happy with the cut. He does look a lot older which is what I was afraid of but it's great to be able to see his twinkling brown eyes!