October 25

I am just getting back from a girls weekend away and realized I needed to update the blog. I don't have many new pics - Lizzie has been sick, so not as many photo opportunities. Here is our first egg from our chickens! Very exciting! We once again took Lizzie to the UM Homecoming - she had a great time!

We had such nice weather and great friends to see!

scowling

It turns out that Lizzie is a champion scowler. She has been doing it on her own for a few weeks and it turns out she will scowl almost anytime we ask her. Here are a few practice shots:

We think this is how she learned it:

Jammin'

Lizzie and I joined Kate today for a big jam making session. We made 3 batches of raspberry (picked at the farm this summer and then frozen until now - when we could make the jam) and 4 batches of cider jelly (from Maine-ly Apples cider). Lizzie was a big helper - sleepy as she was. She got to wear an apron and helped to pour the sugar. She moved the jar lids from here to there and did her best to stay out of the way of all the hot jars and jams. We had a great time and will have fun putting the jars on the shelf with the others - tucking them away for winter. Here is Lizzie helping ti-ti measure sugar:

I don't think you can see it in the picture, but Lizzie has been moving sugar around on the counter with her hands and has sugar all over her nose and mouth - yummy!Here is Lizzie helping to clean out some bottles - I think you can see the concentration in the way she is holding her head and shoulders.Unrelated to jam, but I wanted to post the only picture I took at a baby shower yesterday - of the beautiful cake! Nice job Jenn! Joanne was properly surprised and received many lovely things to help her get ready for the new addition.

Bar Harbor

Ryan and I packed up the car and headed to Bar Harbor today for a much needed family day.
We went and walked through the shops, stopped at thunder hole, went to the Asticou Garden, had Thai for lunch and stopped at the Atlantic Brewing Company on the way home. Few! What a day! Here are some pics from the day. The first is at the Asticou Garden:
Here we are in the area near the shops. There were several cruise ships and many bus tours today - the place was packed! We thought it would be relatively quiet at the end of September on a Tuesday - I can't imagine how it must be in July!

This is thunder hole - Lizzie loved to yell "boom" whenever the waves crashed into the hole.

Now back to reality - but what a nice day to skip off to the ocean!

Frost

We had our first frost last night, so Ryan worked like crazy to get things picked and covered. Here are some of the results:

Because it was meant to be chilly today and we were headed to the Common Ground Fair, we looked through Lizzie's hats to see what still fits here. She liked wearing the pumpkin hat and asked to put it back on when I took it off of her. Plus she wants to sing wheels on the bus (based on the book she is holding):

September 23

It is hard to believe that Lizzie is 17 months old! She is very much the young lady these days. She has really increased her vocabulary and is able to communicate in sentence fragments. Through sign language she uses "please" and "thank you" regularly. She spreads her arms out wide to tell us that she loves us "this much". She loves to bring us books to read together (she is quick to say "lap" when she wants us to hold her and knows when her favorite parts of the book are coming up). She knows how to say and ask for bananas, pasta, cereal, apples, pudding, vitamins, etc. We continue to be amazed by how much she is changing and growing! She is quite the ticket these days. One of the other big changes in our family is Brinkley's new cousin - meet Griffin (or Ken Griffy or Griffindor - I can't help myself)! See Kate's blog for more details, but as you can see from the pictures below, we are having fun with him. He is only 8 weeks old in these pictures, but weighs about as much as Lizzie. See below - he wants to use as little effort as possible to get his drink - maybe that is the cleanest way?
Grammy, Ti-Ti and Lizzie give him a bath - he needed it! Now he smells like roses.

He was very good in the bath - don't let this expression fool you.

Also, we went to pick pumpkins in the garden - we didn't actually cut any yet (Ryan has a bunch cut for the stands - we will probably use whatever is left at Halloween), but enjoyed the hay ride.

Few! Busy weekend ahead - the last CSA share delivery is Friday, we have some commitments at the Common Ground Fair and then Lizzie and I will go see Mimi on Sunday for a jewelry party.

September 12

What a busy few weeks it has been! Last weekend Ryan and I were able to sneak away by ourselves to a wedding on Peaks Island. We had a wonderful time together and got to visit with some of Ryan's old friends from high school (and met some very nice new people too!). Here we are after the ceremony but before the reception:
Also, Kate had a birthday this week. I won't tell you her age - I think she is keeping it a secret (ok, this finger holding up thing is something we have done since we were kids). We were able to surprise Kate and John with a visit from Char and Buster - they brought some delicious ice cream from Tubby's (I think that is what the place is called - either way, very yummy! I have never had such good maple walnut ice cream or hot fudge - though the grape nut ice cream was my favorite - perfect with the cake!). We had a wonderful time visiting with everyone, though Lizzie was asleep for most of the party.

Today we took Lizzie for her second annual apple picking adventure. We filled our bucket quickly and I am sure will come back for a few other varieties later on in the season. I am headed straight to the kitchen after posting this blog to make a fresh apple pie (and then I will help Ryan unload some firewood - I think the baking pie will be good incentive to unload the wood quickly).

Since I keep the camera in my purse, we don't have as many pictures of me with Lizzie, so we are making more of an effort. She is less willing to smile for the camera at the drop of a hat these days, but we still caught a few good ones today. She loves apples!

Here she is sticking her tongue out a little - I think to grab some apple pieces that she might have missed with her last bite. You can tell we were having fun!