60 Years Young

Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor start school on September 2nd, so we are enjoying the remaining days of summer vacation. Here is an update...

Wednesday, August 19th: We went to the Teddy Bear Picnic at the library.

The kids listened to the books, except for Noah who wandered around.


The snack was given out to be brought home this year, instead of eating in the library, so we went down to the waterfront to eat our crackers. Eleanor wanted to walk to the fountain, so she could make a wish, so I grabbed some pennies and we walked to the fountain. It was way too hot for the walk, but there was little complaining, the wishes were made at the fountain, the crackers were eaten, and then we walked back to the car and cranked up the A/C.

Noah wanted to eat his crackers the minute he was given the box, so he was happy when I finally opened the crackers!

We came over to my parents' house, so I could update my blog...which took me about 3 hours with all of the interruptions! I visited with my family for about an hour before heading home. Zoe stayed at my parents' house to watch Harry Potter with Aly and Harleigh. My rule with Harry Potter has been that when the kids are old enough to read the books then they can watch the movies, so Zoe finished the first book and was very excited to see the movie. Emily was happy that Zoe finished the book, so she could start reading it.

I took Eleanor school shopping. Matt surprised the girls with gift cards to Old Navy, so that is where we went to first.

We ate dinner at Burger King and then headed over to GoodWill.

Our awesome GoodWill find was a navy blue fleece UMaine jacket for $1.99!

We picked up Zoe and then went home. I watched an episode of "Dirty Jobs" before going to bed.

Random Notes:
Noah blows bubbles with his spit.

Whenever Noah says Mama and I reply with Noah, he says Mama again and we repeat this over and over again, but when Noah says Mama and I say what, then he tells me something...which is so cute, but I have no clue what he is saying.

Whenever I change a diaper now I say "dirty job"! Kate replied today, "It's not a dirgy jog!" Oh, yes it is!

Thursday, August 20th: Emily, Eleanor, and Zach had swim lessons. Then we went home to clean up and eat lunch. I started to help the kids clean up, but I noticed that they were fooling around and I was doing the cleaning, so I told them that they were on their own and they couldn't leave their room until it was clean. They played, Emily's bathing suit that she was wearing got ripped (I bought the suit 2 years ago for Zoe, so we got our money's worth out of it), and they played some more. Eleanor and Zach finally got motivated to clean their room, but Zoe and Emily were still in play mode, so Eleanor and Zach cleaned up and Zoe and Emily moved on to dishes duty.

Zoe picked our 1st two cherry tomatoes. She ate one and saved the other tomato for Matt.

We picked up Aly and went to the pool. I woke Kate and Noah up when we got to the pool and then I found out the pool was closing because once again someone pooped in the pool. I wished I had found out before I woke the kids up. We went swimming at Craig's pond instead. Kate and I played a game in the water where I would dive into the water and then she would dive into the water. My kids have improved a lot this summer with their swimming. The kids always love looking for and catching frogs at Craig's pond. Kate chased a frog down the beach and loved every minute of it.

We came over to my parents' house for dinner. Mom and I played a game of Phase 10. Matt worked late, so I got the kids in bed when we got home and then I watched a few episodes of "Dirty Jobs".

Friday, August 21st: We went to swim lessons. One of the life guards (Emily) told me that I have very cute kids and she wants to take all of them home with her. Emily is fun and we hear that she'll be back at the pool next summer. :-)

My mom watched the younger kids in the afternoon while I took Zoe and Emily to Activity Days. I was able to work on my Sunday School lesson for a few hours while the girls updated their binders and wrote poems.

I picked up the younger kids and brought all the kids home for Matt to watch. They cleand up, ate dinner, and then watched, "Quest for Camelot". I got ready for a GIRLS' NIGHT OUT! My mom, Donna, Victoria, Harleigh, Barbara (Donna's friend from High School), and I went to Oriental Jade for dinner. When us girls get together, we laugh a lot and we just have so much fun together. Barbara left after dinner and the rest of us went to Walmart to kill time before going to a late movie. We got laughing and talking and found ourselves in the automotive department...which had us laughing even more! Somehow we managed to spend a lot of time in Walmart without spending a lot of money. We went to see "Julie & Julia", which we all liked.

Saturday, August 22nd: I dropped Zoe off at Hailey's house at 8am, so she could keep Hailey company while she got her hair colored. When I got home, Matt and I finished watching the remaining "Dirty Jobs" episodes. Emily, Eleanor, and I came over to my parents' house around 11:30am to decorate for my mom's surprise 60th birthday party. I thought for sure my kids would tell my mom about her party, but they did very well keeping it a secret. The balloons outside gave the party away, but my mom had no clue about the party until she saw them.

It was a small party, but it was perfect. A few of my mom's friends came over...Patti Riggs, Dodie Sullivan, and Mary Moore, and my mom's Uncle Terry and Aunt Gloria came over. We talked, ate munchies with hot dogs and hamburgers, sang Happy Birthday and ate cake, and mom opened her gifts. Look at this beautiful cake we got from Frank's bakery!




Sitting on the kids' table is Noah's new favorite spot. He fell off once, but was back up again awhile later.

The older girls had fun waitressing during the party. They were a huge help getting drinks and food and they had tons of fun doing it.

Everyone had left around 4pm, so we were relaxing and visiting when Tiffany, Ariel, Brittyn, Morgan, and Nathan Dauk stopped by around 4:30pm. Zoe and Eleanor were excited to see Morgan and Nathan! Donna, Doug, Victoria, Phil, Harleigh, and my dad had left to go bowling.

Matt left with the kids around 6pm to get them bathed and ready for bed. I stayed behind to clean up and watch "He's just not that into you" with Donna, my mom, Victoria, and Harleigh. We had to get one more girls only activity in. :-)

We said goodbye after the party. :-(

Sunday, August 23rd: Donna, Doug, Harleigh, Phil, and Aly flew home. Victoria is now living with my parents and starting her Freshman year at UMaine.

Our family went to church in Ellsworth. Kate stayed in the chapel all through Sacrament meeting! JoDee gave a great talk about staying in the present...I'm not so good at that, but I try. Sunday School went well. We went over D&C 136 verse by verse and only got to verse 8, but we had a great discussion on service, which is a great lead in to next week's lesson.

We went home after church to eat lunch and have Family council. Matt left for Priesthood meetings, so the kids and I hung out at home. I overheard Eleanor telling Kate "Pinky promise that you won't play with us" Eleanor wanted to play alone with Zach, but it didn't last long. Kate didn't stay away like she promised, if she ever promised. Zoe and Emily tried to have alone time by shutting their siblings out of the bedroom, but that didn't last long either. They all finally found an activity that they could all do together. They made telephones out of styrofoam cups and yarn.

Matt's parents called to tell us that Janae and Doug are having a boy! We are so excited for you Janae and Doug!

Matt told me about the accident at Thunder Hole. My reply was "been there done that". Donna and I were swept away into the ocean near Thunder hole when we were on a family vacation in Bar Harbor. We have pictures of Donna's scraped up legs, but I was sitting down on a rock when the wave came in and the scratches I had were on my behind, so no pictures of my injuries. I keep meaning to ask my parents for more details of what happened because all I remember is being carried out of the ocean and seeing an ambulance nearby. It happened quick and I believe we had a quick rescue, so we didn't go to the hospital and everything turned out to be fine...minor compared to Sunday's incident. I'm sorry we put my mother through our incident, though. I can imagine what my mother was thinking and feeling at the time, and yes mom, you were right, we WERE too close to the water.

When I told Matt about this experience, he wondered what his life would be like now if I had died that day. Who would he be married to...would he still be single? I joked that he would be married with no children...life is good. Well, he is stuck with me and our 6 kids...just the way I like it. :-)

Random Note: I need to write down the kids' primary teachers so I won't forget. Zoe's teacher is Anne Dalton. Emily and Eleanor are in the same class with Kristen Speranza. Zach's teacher is Liza Butler (Julia and Doug Axtell are teaching this summer when Liza is gone), and Kate's teacher is Martha Talbot. All great teachers!

Monday, August 24th: We went swimming at the pool in the afternoon. Noah tried to drown about 100 times, but he also learned how to blow bubbles in the water.

We went over to the Dauk's home in the evening for FHE/Home Teaching. I gave a lesson on prayer and then we ate dinner. We brought leftovers from my mom's party and Tiffany made blueberry and peach milkshakes. Eleanor and Nathan walked by us at one point holding hands. It was cute, but they separated when President Dauk made a comment to them. We went to the street dance at the Blue Hill park with Flash in the Pans playing (steel drums). Fun, fun, fun! As we were walking to the park after we had parked, Tiffany told us about the video she took in the car of Eleanor and Nathan planning their wedding. They are going to get married in the Boston temple because it is beautiful there and close. Eleanor wanted to have 3 or 4 kids, but Nathan said that would be too many to keep track of, so he suggested having 2. They settled on 3. I have got to see this video. How funny is that?! Eleanor was so much fun to watch as she danced. I held Kate and danced. She wouldn't crack a smile, but she didn't want me to stop dancing, so I knew she enjoyed the music. The whole scene was scary to her, though. Matt kept track of Noah who insisted on wandering and sitting on the wet pavement. We saw the Keatings there, which was fun.

Tuesday, August 25th: My mom's birthday...#60! The kids and I drove to my mom's work at lunch time to have a picnic with her.


I put a candle in a cupcake, but I couldn't get my lighter to work, so we sang Happy Birthday anyway and my mom pretended to blow out her candle. We ate cupcakes and cookies and then we went to see her new office before leaving.

We drove to the Alamoosook lake where we met up with Sunshine and her kids. Noah was unsure about the water at first because the water sounded and acted like the ocean water at Sand beach, but he warmed up to it.

It never takes the older kids long to get into the water.

The kids found a big rock to sit on and play on...a perfect spot for a group photo.


We got home in time to rinse off, get dressed, get something quick to eat, and head next door to meet the Daigle's new neighbors. Mary has 4 kids, so we now have 14 kids between our 3 houses. Crazy! Mary's 2 oldest daughters are the same age as Zoe and Emily, so they got to know each other a bit this evening and they look forward to getting together again soon. Eleanor found a salamander and wanted to keep it, but I told her she could put it in a box for the evening and then we would let it go. The salamader escaped before the evening was over. Mary's cat was around, so the kids had fun finding the cat and petting her. We are blessed to have such great neighbors!

Random Notes: Noah had his first fruit snack this morning. Matt brought in our 1st Zucchini from our garden.

I haven't been good about rotating artwork lately. Here is Emily's boot that she made out of cardboard.

The next one is a piece that Zoe made this summer.