Wedding party

This past weekend, we had the great joy of celebrating Ben and Jen's wedding.  It is always fun to go to Aunt Mary and Uncle George's for a family party (or for sledding) and this was no exception.  Without planning it, the kids are color coordinated, so we tried to get a photo of them all together.  This is take 500 or so, and the closest to all smiles I could find on my camera.

 There are a great many hills for rolling down or running around here.  The kids ran around a lot and played really well together (and with other cousins) - they were exhausted by the time we headed home!

 This is also where my dad grew up. Here he is with his siblings, walking around the fields.

 I took the kids twirling in circles.

 Lizzie, Martin and Maevey owned the dance floor.  They love dancing and are all great ages for a wedding dance floor.

 The happy couple.

 Do you see Marty holding hands with Grammy and Aunt Irene?  He would dance around some on his own or get picked up, but he always went back to hold the hands of these two!  So cute!

What a great night!

Folk Festival

After our camping trip, we stopped at the folk festival on the way home.  We were just in time to see the zydeco group at the dance tent.  We were hot and tired, but were glad to be there!

camping!

In our last weekend of summer, we took the kids swimming with our good friends Bob, Laura and Rosa.  We went to Mattawampkeag and had a nice site not far from this river.  The kids loved fishing - Marty really mastered casting!  He swings it like a baseball bat with great success.

 Our site also had a nice lean to - perfect!

 Ryan loves camping. Loves cooking on an open fire, pretty much all things camping.  This was the first time we had taken the kids and it was a great success!  We were a little tired the next day, but the kids both had naps on the way home.  First of many trips together!

Back to school fashion show!

In keeping with tradition, we did a small back-to-school fashion show.  I only got her to try on two outfits for the camera, but here they are!  We went school shopping with Mimi again this year - great fun!

 This also shows more of her pretty hair - this is a veil style.

First day of school!

I am posting a little out of order today, I need to share the pictures from our camping trip and the Folk Festival, but I couldn't miss out on posting the first day of kindergarten pictures!  She was very excited with only a pinch of nervous. I think it helped to meet her teacher and see her classroom at the open house earlier in the week. Here she is, ready for her first day.

 Pretending to walk to the bus.  She would have to walk almost 2 miles to get to her bus stop (the bus doesn't come down our street - I think Lizzie is the only school aged kid down here) so we plan to drive her and pick her up at the school - only a few miles away from home.

 Marty didn't want to leave the school - he was prepared for Lizzie to go, but didn't want to miss out on the playground!  He is ok now - playing drum set while I type this (I can hear him clapping the sticks together saying "1 ... 2 .... a 1, 2, 3 and then hitting the drums - so cute!).

 Excited to see her friends from pre-k and ready for the day!

Blueberry raking!

This past weekend, we had our annual blueberry raking.  We had a beautiful day for it and the blueberries raking was pretty easy!  It was great to have the day with Mimi, Timber and Auntie Angi.

 Look at all of those berries!  We realized that last year we got rained out, so Martin didn't have much memory of it.  He caught on quickly!  Lizzie really had the hang of it this year.

Story land!

We found ourselves looking at the calendar for the fall, trying to make plans for a camping trip or a trip to NH for Storyland and we realized the next available weekend was in October.  With school starting up soon, our time for summer fun is quickly dwindling!  So, I took a vacation day and we headed to Storyland!  This year, we went in the opposite direction from the year before - starting near the singing veggies and ending by the humpty dumpty.  We decided to take the train through the park first thing to get the lay of the land.  The kids could have stayed by the singing vegetables for some time!

 We also decided to do the face paint early on this time, hoping to avoid the lines.  Lizzie wanted spider man again and this year, Marty picked a tiger!  He was too little last year, so this was especially fun.  They do such a nice job!  I didn't get many pictures during the rides as all four of us were able to go on them all - Marty was just tall enough to ride with an adult (and what a relief that he could go - he loved the rides!)

 We did get some photos of the merry-go-round - here I think spider man and tiger are making plans for an epic battle (it was a tie).

 I think it is fair to say I have as much fun at Storyland as the kids do.

 I like taking these photos every year - they match up with the pictures of me from nearly 30 years ago.

 We left the park for lunch not long after taking this photo.  The park had lost power but it had returned when we came back.  It was a little unreal to be there without all of the background park music!

What a great time!