Eating my words...

A few years ago, I tried to convince my older sister to put together a blog. "It's simple!" I assured her. "It really doesn't take that much time, and even someone with few computer skills can manage it." Then I had a third child and have been reminded a few times of my empty blog. These days, I'm lucky if I manage to upload pictures to Facebook never mind adding captions or notes about our activities.

Here's a quick rundown of what we've been up to since June (very much aware we're almost to the end of October).

In July we went to Oregon and Washington to see members of the Zafft clan at a reunion/anniversary celebration for Ian's aunt and uncle. Here are pictures from the time we spent in Portland. I'm trying to find the album from Leavenworth...


After returning from the West coast, we celebrated Aiden's SEVENTH birthday:


I also participated in a town theater production of Cinderella! No, I wasn't Cinderella or even in the cast, but I did brush the dust off my flute and challenge my fingers for some fun in the orchestra.

Then I took some cast photos for the company. They turned out really nicely despite the high ceilings and difficult lighting.


Aiden started 2nd Grade on August 27th and it seems almost impossible that just three years ago we went from this:

To this:


Since the start of school, we have been just trying to keep up with the normal day-to-day "stuff" including packing lunches, doing homework, and trying to figure out why Devin doesn't sleep. I've been keeping busy with joining our school's School Site Council and trying to become more engaged with the School Committee. Ian is busy with work and putting up with the craziness of the house.

We recently went to the circus and to our town's fire station open house. But I'll add those pictures on a separate post. (I know, I know... pie-crust promises!)

Last Day of School

The last 3 1/2 months have been a whirlwind of classes (mine), school (the kids), meetings (school and church), and more construction projects (our bathroom, the tenant bathroom, and the tenant kitchen, the roof, gutters, and a little follow-up tile work). We've taken lots of pictures, and I've had the best intentions of getting them uploaded and posted, but I never quite seem to make it there. BUT, school's out! So I have had a few extra minutes usually taken up by packing lunches and rushing kids around.

Because of several snow days (you may remember our blizzard and then several snows in March), our last day of school was pushed from June 18th to June 25th! It's hard to believe the kids have only been out of school ONE day and July 4th is already on next week's calendar!

We managed to make it to school a few minutes early yesterday, and I took some pictures of the kids with their teachers. But first, you may remember how our crew looked at the beginning of the year (Aug 29, 2012):


And here they are on Tuesday, 9 months wiser:


Johanna is still taller than Aiden, but they've all grown and learned a lot! Aiden started First Grade as a beginning reader just putting words and sounds together. As of today, he's finishing up a 120-page "chapter book" he picked at the library. He has loved First Grade with his teacher, Mrs. Gureckis, and his favorite subject is definitely Math (or Science, or Gym, or Music depending on the day).


Devin has made a lot of progress in Preschool, too. He can write several letters and is getting better at sitting in his chair and following along with a group. He still struggles with attention and expressing himself, but we're making progress. He loves his teachers, and Mondays are the saddest day of the week (Aiden goes to school but Devin doesn't). Here he is with Mr. "Z," Mrs. Henderson, and Mrs. Hipsman.


We've only had one full day of summer vacation, and we've already been swimming, pulled out the Slip N' Slide and had friends over to play. We'll be celebrating July 4th with fireworks, and then we'll be headed out to Oregon and Washington for our annual Northwest trip.

Happy Summer, all!

Valentine's Cards 2013

Last year, Aiden's class list for the Valentine exchange came with a request for no candy. Very few parents complied with the request, but I anticipated a similar one this year for both Aiden's and Devin's classes. Of course, this year, treats were allowed as long as they were peanut-free. But, I had already been formulating plans for treat-free Valentines, so we moved ahead with what we had! I think both types came out really nice, and the kids had a good time putting them together!

For Aiden's class, pink Valentines for the girls and blue Valentines for the boys with two mechanical pencils attached to each

"Valentine, You get WRITE to my heart!"

For Devin's class, Valentines with heart stickers attached to boxes of sparkly crayons

"Valentine, You COLOR my world!"

Happy Hearts-and-Candy Day!

100 Days of School!

Last Monday, Aiden came home with TWO project assignments. The first (due the following Monday) was the 100-Days-of-School project. They ask the kids to collect 100 "somethings" that you might have laying around the house and present the collection in a "creative" way.

[Why they couldn't give us
a little more than a single week
to come up with this creative project,
I don't know. But I digress.]

Thankfully, I'd seen some ideas for 100-day projects on Pinterest and showed them to Aiden. He loved this idea of collecting crayons (and I loved it because I knew we had at least 100 crayons on hand). We saw them presented in a variety of creative ways, but we both really liked this idea at Kitchen Advenures: http://www.52kitchenadventures.com/2011/09/12/melted-crayon-art-tutorial/.

We decided to switch it up a bit, though, so our project looks a little different (and "different is good").

After counting out 100 crayons, we sorted them into two piles and organized them by shade. Then we attached 50 to two edges of a 20x16 canvas. I attached ribbon to avoid having small fingers remove any of the crayons once they arrive at school.

We covered one side of the canvas with foil and a piece of painter's tape to protect one set of crayons from being melted on while melting the first set.

One side melted and ready to melt side two!

While the crayons melted in a more liquid fashion than expected, Aiden loved the outcome (and I think it's pretty neat, too!). He couldn't keep his fingers off the melted trails of crayon while we took pictures!

How is your school celebrating 100 days?

Blizzard 2013

"Nemo" was forecast for several days in advance, so we had plenty of time to prepare for the "Blizzard of 2013." We always store water, extra food, batteries, flashlights, and a little extra gasoline for the snow blower and lawn mower. But I did add a back-up power pack for my phone (or anything with a mini-USB or regular USB charger) and got an extra gallon of milk on Thursday.

Nemo moved in on Friday afternoon as predicted and started to grace us with big, fluffy flakes. Every school in the state closed in anticipation of the event. So the kids and I were home to enjoy the lack of snow and watch endless weather reports. Ian went into work early and came home on the 2:10 train (the MBTA closed down at 3:30 to prepare for the weather).

By 4:30 we had a few inches of snow, so Ian and the kids headed out even though it was starting to get a little dark.





Snow baseball. If you look closely, you can see that Aiden has gotten a piece of this one!








Malcolm and I mostly stayed inside, but, in an effort to be "in the picture" and to bend to the demands of peeps on Facebook, I took Mr. M outside for just a few minutes. I don't think he was impressed.


On Saturday morning, we woke up to the power on (YAY!) and a just a little more snow.






Everyone was fascinated by the continuous weather updates!


Ian took the kids outside, but Devin was overwhelmed by the snow (of course, if you were shorter than the average snowdrift, you'd probably be a bit nervous, too). So he came inside to enjoy some fun in his "fort."






Ian and Aiden lived it up outside for close to TWO hours!




Love this picture! I might have to have it framed.


And, who needs a hill when you have stairs?


The following day, Ian got down to the business of clearing the driveway. Thank goodness we bought a snow blower when we moved in to this house!




You can see all the pictures of our fun here:
 

For the Four Eyes

I got glasses when I was in the 3rd grade. Ian got glasses when he was in 8th grade. We feed our kids carrots like they're going out of style. And, yet, there's not much you can do about genetics.

We had noticed that Aiden was moving closer and closer to the TV, and he hadn't done very well on his eye exam at the pediatrician's office in September. So we got him an appointment at our Optometrist's office. Sure enough, he is near-sighted just like his parents. For all the other four-eyed peeps out there (who know their prescription), he is wearing a -1.25 in both eyes. Compared to mine, his eyes are practically perfect (I'm currently wearing a -10 and -7.50 and the -7.50 is actually an improvement!).

We picked out two pairs of frames because I have heard gory tales of broken glasses from my sister who also has some four-eyed offspring.

Pair One - Mostly blue with a little teal thrown in on the sides




Pair Two - Still a blue theme but some yellow, green, and red, too




He LOVES his glasses! We hope he'll continue to love (and wear) them as his prescription increases!

And, in an effort to be in the picture, here's a shot of the two of us with our glasses on.

Wild Times

With a gaggle of little boys running around, you're bound to open the door and find all kinds of wild behaviors being displayed inside our walls. But the favorite state of wildness is definitely the state of undress! Everything seems to be more fun when unconstrained by clothing. It makes taking pictures challenging, but, every once in a while, we seem to catch a few smiles while keeping our dignity in tact.