Fire Station & Laundry Competition

For Cub Scouts this evening, we went to the Ellsworth Fire Station. All 4 of my wolves were there, plus 2 of the webelos came with us. The first thing we saw was a piece of steel from the World Trade Center.

The boys learned that firefighters need to know and practice their knots.

The favorite spot where we spent the most time was with the fire trucks!...and they are red! Our town has yellow trucks.

It was fun to be at a fire station where the living quarters can be seen. In our town, the living quarters are upstairs and are not part of the tour. At least for a school group anyway. Being a small group tonight allowed the boys to see more and to stay longer. They had a great time!

Now on to our laundry. Awhile ago, I had told the older kids that I was done doing their laundry. Well, that didn't last too long. I have decided again this week that the older kids are old enough to do their laundry. We have 2 laundry baskets. One has always been for white clothes and the other for colored clothes. Today, I had the brilliant thought (Matt loves it!) to make one of the baskets belong to Zoe, Emily, Eleanor & Zach. The other basket is for Matt, me, Kate & Noah. This is the basket I am responsible for. Although, Matt says that he will do more laundry now that he won't need to sort through a bunch of kid clothes to get to his clothes and my clothes. Bonus! My idea really IS genius! Plus, Zoe is a super competitive person. It is now her goal to keep their basket emptier than ours. Their basket was just about overflowing when I announced the change this afternoon, but now it is almost empty. Although, some of their clean clothes are on the couch and in the dryer. I am going to resist the urge to put them away! The laundry competition is on!

They're here!

Donna and Doug are in town!

They arrived by plane this morning around 10. My grandmother, Kate, Noah & I met my parents, Doug & Donna at Nikki's for breakfast.

I took Kate to the doctor this afternoon for her 5 year check-up. She is healthy and growing. She received 1 shot, but she was brave as she always is! I was on the ball and I stopped at the school to pick up the medical sheet that will need to be filled out to register Kate for Kindergarten and I brought it to Kate's appointment. That will be one less thing to do in a few months when I am filling out the rest of the paperwork for Kindergarten registration.

Steve & Janet...I thought you might like to see that the Jed Prouty Inn has been bought and is open as an assisted Living Facility. A new porch is being built.


Noah was lucky to spend a lot of time at "Grammie's house" today.


I went to Susan's baby shower at church this evening. Susan had her baby early, so she was there with her cute, tiny baby girl. Baby Faith is so precious!

The Magic Number is

98! Matt & I met with Zoe's teachers this afternoon and she is getting a 98 in each class! All of her teachers say she is an excellent student who works hard and stays on task. Keep up the great work, Zoe!

Zach told us during dinner this evening that he loves eating together as a family and that he loves us so much! So sweet and I agree! Zoe loves my new goal to have a meal planned for each dinner. She loves it when I cook a meal. We had gotten into the habit of everyone just getting what they wanted to eat since Matt & I are limited to what we can eat. Plus, I'm not good at meal planning. I would cook a meal occasionally, but more often than not it was survival of the fittest. Now I am planning meals that we can all eat together, so we can have the family dinner time together, eat healthier, and try new foods. It was fun to hear positive feedback from the kids about this plan. :-)

Nap Time?

I went to Branch Council this morning at 8am. I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting. I spent 2 hours doing Sharing Time in Primary. I am ready for a nap!

My Vacation Day

My Mom, Grandmother, Rachel & I went to Governor's for breakfast and then we went to Women's Conference. I had a fun, uplifting day!
I line danced.
I got motivation to use my time more wisely.
I ate lunch with my Aunt Tonia, Patti, Cheryl, my Grandmother, my Mom, Kristen & Rachel.
Patti, Aunt Tonia, my Mom & I talked about our Florida trip that is coming up in a couple of weeks. We are EXCITED!
I wrote and posted on the Good Works curtain about a service that I did a few weeks ago. I watched Sunshine's kids, so she could attend Branch Council.
I received a compliment on the decluttering class I taught last year. That made my day. :-)
I got motivated to try new food and to get my children to try new food. This was my favorite class. The presenter, JaNeal was fun and she had a lot of great things to say. I wasted no time in applying what she taught. We ate dinner together as a family (something she strongly encourages) and I offered the same food to everyone (eliminating the role of short order cook). Emily discovered that she LOVES pastrami. The other kids prefer pastrami over roast beef. JaNeal suggests trying new treats as well to encourage trying new foods, so I bought nutty peanut butter bars that we have never had before. Eleanor first noticed the new treat and she loved that we are not just trying new healthy foods. All of the kids are happy that treats are still included in our new way of eating! I say new, but we have tried this several times before and we always end up back where we started. JaNeal has a No Thank You rule that I didn't need to try tonight, but I will in the future. Everyone needs to take one bite of the new food. After that, a child can say no thank you if they do not want any more. A variety of foods are put on the table during mealtime to allow the kids to eat what they are comfortable with while trying something new. Honestly, my kids are picky eaters because I am a picky eater. I will broaden my horizons as I encourage them to do the same.
I raised my hand in a vote of thanks as our Stake Relief Society Presidency was released. I raised my hand in favor of Cheryl Beveridge from the Rock land ward as our new Stake Relief Society President. Nancy Raymond is her counselor. I was just saying this morning how I thought our Stake Relief Society Presidency would be released soon. I had no idea it would happen today!

After dinner, Zoe, Emily, Eleanor & I went over to my parents' to watch the Eastern Maine Class C Girls High School championship game. Zoe, Emily & Eleanor were rooting for Central (the team that beat our team) while Mom & I rooted for Stearns. Stearns has an exchange student from Austria on their team. She played on a national team in Austria, so she is good. Stearns wasn't able to beat Central, though. They lost by 1 point!

Pool, Shopping & Basketball

We have had such a fun vacation! We had our last outing today. We started out at the "Dinosaur pool". Then we went to Target. Thanks to my credit union's reward program(that started in 2010 and I just learned about it last month), I earned a $75 gift card to Target. Sweet! We had fun spending it today! We ended the day at my parents' house to watch a few tournament games on the TV. Since the first game didn't start until 7pm, we showed up in our pajamas and had a pajama party. :-)

Matt is camping out at Camp Bravo with Justin and some Boy Scouts. It will be an interesting experience since it is snowing/raining out.

Playland Adventures vs The Maine Jump

The kids & I tried something new today. We went to Playland Adventures in Brewer, which is like The Maine Jump. Only more expensive and not as good. There is a bounce house price and then you can do additional activities for $2 - $3 each. Of course there are more additional activities than the bounce houses. You can pay more and spend 2 hours doing everything, but that was way too expensive for 6 kids! I paid the bounce house price and then I let each child do 1 additional activity. They all picked the wrecking ball.



Emily & Noah didn't know the girl in the blue sweatshirt, but they had fun playing with her at this activity.

Here are the bounce houses.


Here are the additional activities. Much more fun looking!

If I ever go back, I will take 2 kids with me and get the do everything for 2 hours deal. That would still be expensive, though. I can get 2 kids into the Maine Jump on a Tuesday for $8 and they can play on all of the bounce houses (unless they are older than 4 then they are banned from the toddler area) and they can stay as long as they want. It will cost $30 to get into Playland Adventures for an hour of bounce house fun and then an hour of additional fun. That is a big price and time difference!

Overall, the kids had fun today. There was quite a bit of pouting and whining because they couldn't do everything they wanted to, but they did have fun when they were playing. :-)

Proud of our Lady Bucks!

We spent the morning at the auditorium watching our Girls High School Lady Bucks!

Noah was less than thrilled to be there.


Friends found us during the second half of the game. :-) The kids were interviewed and they were on our local news this evening! You can watch it here.
Zoe sat with her friend, Breana.
We stayed for another game after the Lady Bucks lost their game. :-( My kids were barely interested in our game, so there was zero interest in the second game. Game?...What game?

I took the kids to McDonalds after the game. Zoe had gone over to Breana's house, so the kids fit in these fancy seats. Fun!

Zoe & Matt went to Young Women's this evening for a Father,Brother/Daughter,Sister activity. Zoe concluded from this activity that she knows her Dad, but her Dad doesn't know her! Zoe came from behind and won the game (Yay Zoe!) by stating in order the 3 wishes her Dad has for her. 1) Marry in the temple 2) Receive a good education at Utah State 3) Have a lot of kids

Movie Day

Today was busy from morning until evening! Zach went to play with his friend Harry this morning. I brought my grandmother to Bangor for a CT Scan. That was actually a nice break for me since the kids stayed home with Zoe. I had access to the internet, which was fun and I enjoyed the peace and quiet. :-)

The kids & I went to see "Alvin and the Chipmunks Chipwrecked" at the $1 theater. We went for the 2:35pm showing, but it was sold out, so we bought tickets for the 4:25pm show. We went to PETCO to pass the time until the movie. The only thing Emily wants for her birthday now is a gerbil! The movie was good. It scared Noah, though. Hopefully, he won't have nightmares tonight.

Fun at the Museum!

Eleanor, Zach, Kate, Noah & I went to the Children's Museum today. Zoe & Emily chose to stay home. Kate, Zach & Eleanor spent some of their money at the museum. Eleanor bought a gem and a pouch...and then she lost them somewhere in the museum. After we talked with the lady at the front desk about contacting us if the lost items were found, she told me that Eleanor could pick out another pouch and gem. That made Eleanor's day! Kate bought a stuffed animal penguin and a slap bracelet. You can see her slap bracelet in this picture. She wrapped it around her zip line container.

The kids had fun creating containers and then watching them slide down the zip line. Here is Noah getting ready to watch his.

At the beginning of the activity, I wasn't sure if the kids would like it or not. They loved it! They kept making adjustments to their containers and sliding them again and again. They were one of the last to leave the activity.

Matt had fun this evening working on his pinewood derby car.

The Cub Scouts are having their pinewood derby on March 3rd and then the Dads are having theirs the following Saturday!

Heart Shaped Chip

I love this picture of Kate & Zach! Zach loved this heart shaped chip. He would have kept it forever, but someone ate it.

Friends, Basketball & a Movie

We had some friends over today to play. Alea, Anna & Eleanor got along great! I was nervous that someone would get left out at some point, but that never happened. :-) Daisy came over to hang out with Emily, and Zoe hung out with them, too.

My Mom, Zoe, Emily & I went to the Bangor Auditorium to watch a few basketball games this afternoon. The first game was a boys game...MDI against Camden Hills. I was hoping for a close game and I got it! MDI won by 1 point! The girls game...Presque Isle against John Bapst wasn't as exciting. We left at halftime when Presque Isle was ahead 46 to 7! We ate dinner at the Ground Round and stopped at the grocery store before coming home. Zoe & Emily are staying the night with my parents, so they came home long enough to pack up and go.

I got my new bag today that I ordered from my Mom's Thirty One party. I LOVE IT!



I never made it to the movie theater to see "Breaking Dawn" (Matt calls it Breaking Doom...the vampire kissing movie), so I just watched it on our big screen. A fun ending to a fun day. :-)

Fun Friday

Kate, Noah & I went over to Sunshine's to celebrate Kristen's 40th birthday with Sunshine, Kim, Cheryl, Jessica, Anne & Linda. Jessica made yummy omelets, Anne brought a yummy egg casserole (that I didn't eat because it has bread in it) and we had fruit. We all fit around Sunshine's table and we talked and we laughed. It was a fun start to the day!

The fun continued after school. We made chocolate chip cookies to celebrate the start of February vacation! The kids have a week off from school. We will be out and about having more fun! Movie theater, Children's Museum, Maine Jump, Basketball Tournament and "Dinosaur Pool" are on our list of things to do. :-)

Kate & Noah are staying over with my parents this evening. They were super excited about that today!

100th Day

Zach celebrated his 100th day of school on Monday! He brought in 100 playdoh dots for his project...

...if we counted right. :-)

Matt, Emily & I met with Emily's teacher this evening for a parent/teacher conference. Emily showed us some of her recent work. She is doing a great job in school! Both Emily and Mrs. Raymond agreed that Emily could improve her spelling. A lot of the time, it is just a matter of Emily being in a hurry and not checking her work. It also has to do with my children not inheriting my spelling skills!

Leisure Time flies by!

It has been stressing me out that I have a few hours of leisure time at night and A LOT of things I want to do during that time. I am reading "Increase in Learning" by Elder Bednar. This is part of my goal this year to read all of the books on the Time Out For Women Book club list. Plus, I have recently become addicted to buying bargain books at Deseret Book, so I have a few of those to read as well. I didn't look at my Deseret Book email this week, so I wouldn't buy another book! I am also addicted to the email updates from Glenn Beck. I like watching the videos of recent clips from his radio and TV programs. The emails are piling up from Glenn Beck and I really want to get through each one. I signed up to take a free online course...Constitution 101 from Hillsdale College. I want to watch the 5 videos that are from the introductory to the constitution course before my class starts on Monday. Then starting on Monday, I'll be using leisure time for my class. Hmmm...looks like I need more leisure time or I need to use the time I have very wisely!

Our Valentine's Day

The kids woke up to yummy treats this morning. :-)

Kate had her picture taken at Walmart. :-) I'll show you the adorable pictures next week when I get them. She was very cooperative as she happily posed for the photographer. Noah is not liking the fact that he has to wait until July to do all these fun birthday things that Kate is doing now!

Thank you Grandma for picking out such a cute dress!

Kate, Noah & I spent some time with Zach at school. When we got there, his class was passing around a box that held all the Valentine cards that the kids had brought in. The children and Ms. Murauckas took turns pulling out a card, reading the card, and then handing the card to whoever it belonged to. It was a bit more chaotic than that, but that is how it was supposed to go.

Then the kids helped to make a fruit salad. The fruit salad was served first before the cookies and candy. Zach passed on the healthy food and waited for the goodies. I wasn't surprised. Kate & Noah had some healthy food, though.



The kids had a little bit of time to look at their cards before Art.




Eleanor & Zach had sign language class after school and Zoe & Emily stayed for open gym at Miles Lane. Open gym is really an off season basketball practice with their gym teacher who is also the B team coach. The girls will improve their game and it is great exercise for them. :-)

Eleanor shut the car door on her pinkie this afternoon. :-(

My gift today was being able to go watch the High School Lady Bucks win their tournament preliminary game. They are going to the tournament!

A picture of Zoe and the Valentine suit.


I hope you had a fun Valentine's Day!

A new tradition

Kate received her special birthday cereal a week late! This is a new idea for birthdays this year. When I stopped buying sugar cereal for the kids and switched to healthier cereal, I told them that on their birthday they could have 1 box of whatever cereal they wanted. Kate has some very jealous siblings right now! Noah kept saying how his birthday is too far away and will never come! They all want sugar cereal! The birthday girl or boy can share if they want to, but they only get 1 box.

Kate, Noah & I brought Grammie to her doctor's appointment this morning and then we ran a few errands. We went to Dysart's for lunch and it wasYUMMY! I had been craving an omelet from there, so it was delightful to satisfy that craving. :-)

Individual Worth

Zoe is working on the personal progress program. This program will help her draw closer to the Savior, develop feminine attributes, strengthen her testimony, and reach her divine potential. In Sacrament meeting today, she received a ribbon and emblem for completing the Individual worth section of this program. :-) After completing 6 value experiences, she made a photo book about our 2011 Summer on Shutterfly for her 10 hour project. She did a great job and I am so happy that we have this record to help us preserve our memories! We are proud of your hard work and good example, Zoe! She gave a talk in Sacrament meeting today to talk about what she did to earn her ribbon and emblem. Now she is working on Knowledge. She wants to learn how to play the trumpet, so she can play in the jazz band at school. If you know of a trumpet she can use, please let me know. :-)

Casting my vote

Matt, my parents & I went to the Republican Caucus this morning. It was my first time attending one. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I'm glad I was there to put my vote in for Mitt Romney. :-)

It hasn't felt like Spring today! It has been lightly snowing all day. Matt went to Waterville this evening for a stake youth dance. I hope the roads haven't been too bad for him.

Kate is at the age where she loves to wash the dishes. :-)

Unfortunately, the kids always outgrow this stage.

Felt like Spring

Kate & Noah spent some time outside today in the 40+ degree weather! It was so nice out!

Matt & I went to Bugaboo Creek for dinner (no discount this evening:-( and then we went to see "We bought a zoo". I really enjoyed it! Matt said he would take a nap if he got bored watching the movie, but he stayed fully awake. :-)

Thriving in 1st Grade

All of the kids made it to school today. I didn't find out until this evening that Zoe threw up again last night. I never heard her and neither did Matt. I noticed that she didn't eat breakfast and it took her awhile to get up and get moving, but she denied feeling sick again. Everyone else seems to be back to their healthy selves.

Matt & I met with Zach's teacher this evening. Zach is still doing very well in school. His teacher was a bit surprised that he doesn't do a lot of reading and writing at home because he does so well at school. I'm glad Zach is getting along well with his classmates and he has adjusted to 1st grade with no problems. :-)

Valentine's Luau

We had a fun branch activity this evening after scouts! There was Hawaiian food.
Here is evidence of our "Man of action". I was busy helping a little boy with his food while Kate was following me around telling me how hungry she was. Meanwhile, Noah got a plate and started helping himself to the food.

There was hula dancing.
There was singing.
There were stories of how married couples met.
There were friends to hang out with.
Our Hawaiian Elder played the ukelele and gave a beautiful prayer in his native language. :-)
Some of the kids made a lei at the craft table.

Fun, Fun, Fun!

Matt stayed home this evening with Eleanor. She has had an upset stomach off and on since Sunday and she finally threw up last night. I forgot to mention in my post yesterday that Zoe ended her perfect attendance record. :-( She was telling us a few days ago how she had a dream about being kidnapped and the thing that worried her the most was missing school and ruining her perfect attendance! She'll have to try again next school year. Zoe & Emily did make it to school today. I was going to let them stay home, but they both got up this morning on their own and got ready for school. We'll see if I can get all of the school-aged kids to school tomorrow!