Super Sevins

Finally! Sledding...

2012-01-29T21:21:00.002-05:00

Last weekend while Brendan was off on his annual guys' trip to Foxwoods, the kids and I entertained ourselves with lots of fun things. One of them was going sledding at Mac's with the Chau's. We had just received a couple inches of snow the days before. It was cold but still there wasn't a ton of snow. It was the first time we could go to Mac's given this crazy mild winter. I love sledding there and although I am ok with not having 5 ft drifts of snow, I do miss going sledding a lot! The kids had a blast.

You can't really tell from this picture but Sam was definitely the daredevil of the day. It was nice since Mac's folks had cut down a lot of the brush that in years past you would plow into after going down the big hill. And the grass poking through helped slow down the sleds a bit, just enough for me not to stop them from going into the woods but fast enough for them to love it!

Abby dubbed this one the Lands End commercial.

And after an hour of sledding they had enough of climbing and walking in general. :)

Pretty sure my kids expect that at every get together with friends that there will be a group picture. haha.

I'm hoping for one more time at least to go sledding at Mac's!

Pinewood Derby

2012-01-26T21:26:00.001-05:00

Cole has enjoyed Tiger Scouts (Boy Scouts- 1st grade level) for many reasons this year. One of them is the Pinewood Derby races. This is of course a long standing Boy Scout tradition and one that has been going on for many many years! In fact I remember lots of years when my brother used to do it.

Brendan and Cole had a great time together designing and building the car. Everyone starts out with a block of wood and they get to design it the way they way. Cole wanted a race car inspired car- with a wing on the back and everything. I was very proud of Brendan for working on this project- since he doesn't do wood work at all!

Brendan reminded Cole that they were doing this for fun and it would be great to win but not to count on it. I think Brendan wasn't sure about how the car would turn out and didn't want to get Cole's hopes up too high!

Once they had the car, they planned out the colors and the design.

Cole loves green and so he painted the car green. He also wanted flames on the front which he asked Brendan to point for him. Also the number five which we are not sure why he chose it but whatever!

One tip that Brendan found was that it was allowed to "load" the car with lead weights. The car can weigh up to 5 ounces and no more. Cole's ended up being just shy of the perfect weight which I think helped a lot in the races. Besides the weight requirement, the car also has to be a certain length and width. There were so many different designs among the 35 cars- the Black Pearl, an Angry Bird, the Yellow Submarine and lots more. Very creative!

Before races started, Cole had to sign his name to a form that said that he made his car himself (with a parents help of course) and that he would have good sportsmanship no matter what happened with the races.

Pre race photo and then the car was "impounded". Once it weighed in, we had to relinquish it so we couldn't make any other changes to it. Very serious business.

The track! This thing is very cool. It has sensors on the finish line so the computer system knows the exact time and who placed first, second, and third. The computer system also randomized all 30+ cars so that everyone raced 9 times with different cars. The time of each car was averaged and that is how they knew who would win overall. Very good system I think. I assume over the years at different locations they have had cheaters and poor sports who have made all of this technology necessary. Oh well, it's more accurate any way!

Cole and Caden had front row seats right by the top of the track.

So excited!

There goes Cole's down the middle!

Excited he won.

Here we go again!

Cole's car ended up doing really well and he was beyond thrilled. He was excited but didn't gloat. I was really proud of him. At one point when a friend lost a rac we saw Cole, unprompted, put his hand on the friend's shoulder and say, "It's ok."

Every time a race started all the boys shouted, "3..2..1...Go!!!"

Getting the participation trophy was really cool.

What a good team! Cole ended up winning for his den and coming in tied for 4th overall! We couldn't believe it. It's incredibly cheesy to say, but I loved watching Cole and Brendan work together and strengthening their bond together. These are things Cole will remember!

Only Four Short Years

2012-01-21T21:22:00.002-05:00

Time goes by so quickly when one is an adult. Making every moment count seems so important because I know just how quickly it goes by. It does and yet at the same time it doesn't seem so long ago that we brought Charlotte home. I am thankful every single minute for this beautiful girl.

1 year old! Walking around and giving off that little half smile.

By her two year birthday her crazy silly personality had fully emerged.

By the third birthday that goofy sense of humor was in full swing.

I hope she always keeps it!

Having a sense of humor about life is entirely necessary!

And here she is on the morning of her fourth birthday. What a little girl she has grown to be. No more the baby or even toddler. Four seems so much more grown up!

We started the day with presents in bed. It has become a really wonderful tradition that the kids love. Hugs and kisses and "happy birthdays". It also gets the whole anticipating of the gifts out of the way and we can just focus on the day.

Sparkle shoes for her and Emily were the highlight of the morning.

Birthday girl gets to pick whatever she wants to do and eat on her day. It was donuts for breakfast, McDonald's for lunch (for the kids at least. Brendan and I had Chipotle! Yummers.), and junk cereal for dinner. All those things are extremely rare in our house (in fact junk cereal is only birthdays and getaways like camping), so each one was extra special!

Even though Charlotte had a really fun birthday party, we wanted to do something special as just a family so we went to Chuck E Cheese. Charlotte was so excited. She got 2 free tokens just because it was her birthday.

Meeting Chuck E Cheese was the highlight. She made me stop and watch Chuck E at another party and wait for him to come by for a "hi" and a picture. Charlotte loved the roller coaster ride as well. This girl will be a daredevil like her brother!

Tickets redeemed and a blue taffy as a reward.

More sugar! Charlotte chose cupcakes for her birthday celebration.

She wanted purple and yellow frosting but I just ended up making purple and then adding some of the decorating frosting in the end. She decorated and was happy with them.

As far as junk cereal my favorite is Lucky Charms and Brendan likes that as well so we were trying to steer her in that direction but Cole had his own agenda and craftily suggested Cookie Crisp instead. Charlotte listened to Cole. :) I loved this cereal when I was a kid so I understand! She gobbled up cantaloupe as well so I felt slightly better about her dinner choice.

This is so Charlotte.

Happy Birthday my darling girl!

Birthday Party!

2012-01-17T20:09:00.002-05:00

Charlotte has been looking forward to her birthday party weekend for some time now. She would get this little happy voice and say "I'm so excited for my party. How many more days?" The day it was here was busy. We still had basketball and dance and even baseball sign ups (Cole is so excited for that- Brendan is going to be a coach this year!). I had to frost the cake after Charlotte and I went to get the balloons. I was frosting right up until we had to leave and I am mad at myself because I ran out and you can see spots in the front where it wasn't covered. Plus I totally meant to have a circle of flowers around the hill. Oh well! Charlotte loved it. I did find a delicious buttercream recipe for the frosting that I will be using for years to come. So good!

Charlotte knew she wanted a Tangled party for a long time. Brendan and I tossed the idea of having a party at home but with the amount of kids we invited there was no way we could. Still, as I found Rapunzel ideas for the party I was a little bummed that I couldn't have had the party at home. Next year maybe! We had the party at Bounce U instead. This place was fantastic. The kids had 1.5 hours of bouncing in two different rooms and you get the rooms all to yourself- no sharing with other parties. So nice! The party hosts do absolutely everything for you. I felt a little out of place because I am so used to being the hostess during our birthday parties! They not only served as safety folks during the bouncing, but also decorated the party room with the stuff we brought, served the drinks, pizza, and cake and then wrote down all who each gift was from! It was really nice and Charlotte had a blast.

Even the adults had fun. :)

With 25 kids there was no way I was going to get a perfect picture but these two crack me up!

Cole remembered from last time he was there that there was an air hockey table. He couldn't wait to play.

Waiting for cake!

See? They serve the cake and everything. Very strange feeling for me not to be doing any of this!

Birthday girl gets to sit in the throne and open presents. One of the birthday hosts opens the card with each present and announces who it is from and the other host writes down what it is. I got the nice organized list afterwards. No excuse not to send thank you's! :)

Pretty amazing that all of the kids sat in a semi-circle and didn't crowd Charlotte. They were all very interested!

This picture makes me laugh. One of her friends gave Charlotte a singing card and when she opened it the friend came up and did a little dance.

The boys congregated together.

After the party we had family back to play and watch football. Charlotte got even more presents from Grammy and PawPaw, Katrina and Ethan, and Mimi and Grandpa. This girl is all set!

She had a fabulous day. Even with all of that bouncing the kids didn't crash until 10pm! We were off on Monday so the kids had plenty of time to make up that sleep.

Christmas with the Andersons

2012-01-08T22:03:00.000-05:00

Lucky children. They got showered in gifts from Mimi and Grandpa as well! Dakota helped them to open their presents.

What's Christmas without giving Jay a Bears item?

Cole sure loves his aunts and uncles!

Charlotte became the proud owner of slippers. And wearing a 6x pajama set! How is this girl growing so fast?!

Making necklaces with Uncle Jay. Arts and crafts keep this girl entertained for hours!

I look forward to seeing this under my parents tree every year. This is only a third of the village and I just love looking at it. My grandmother made it in the 80s and each piece is so special.

Who needs toys? This is Charlotte's favorite part Christmas!

You'll notice Kerry has her phone glued to her hand still. haha!

Christmas with the Sevins

2012-01-04T22:51:00.001-05:00

Later on Christmas we visited Ethan and Katrina in their beautiful new house and had Christmas dinner with them and Brendan's parents. They actually had snow up in the north so it was a nice Christmas touch. Nice for Christmas and then I was done with it Although, some sledding around here would be nice! But I digress...
Of course Charlotte got right back into her Rapunzel dress. Doesn't it look like Addy wants to grab it and put it on?

But then she found Aidyn's costume stash and this adorable Spiderman came out with her sidekick, Batman!

We had a very nice dinner, the kids went to bed, and we started watching Love Actually. I think I made it through the opening song and then was out like a light.

The next day we went over to Brendan's parents and had a fun together with almost everyone. Unfortunately Ethan had to work. Charlotte, Cole, Cameron, and Aidyn couldn't wait to open presents. Poor Olivia was still feeling under the weather so she was resting in bed.

These kids are just goofs.

These two are SUCH good buddies. Always have been. I don't think I have ever seen them get into a fight, they have never told on one another for something the other did, they are always ecstatic to see one another. They are great friends. I am so thankful they have that relationship.

There was an order to the gift unwrapping of course! PawPaw looks on to see how the stocking presents are going.

Addy looks on from the sidelines. She'll be in that mix soon enough!

Oh don't you just love presents?!

Beautiful girl.

Thank you cousin Jessica for these fabulous scarves!

Charlotte adores her fancy new shoes.

Giving Grammy and PawPaw their gift.

We got them a new family photo! Charlotte and Addy were not in the last photo so we had to have it redone. It came out great and no one was blinking this time!

Poor Olivia. PawPaw helped her to open her gifts.

Later on Olivia called Charlotte into her room and they sat and talked just the two of them for quite awhile. I wish I could have taped their conversation.

Both boys got a new DS game so we gave them a little bit of time to try them out. Look at Cole's concentration! Tongue out and everything.

Aidyn looks so much older in this picture! I think its the longer hair. I love it!

He laughed and laughed when Uncle Damien tied him in a pretzel.

But his sister cried when Damien got a little excited in her face! haha!

Olivia was feeling better for some play time on the bed.

Cutie!

And the post will end the way it began... with a pic of these two lovely ladies!

Christmas Morning

2012-01-02T09:26:00.000-05:00

Oh Christmas morning. Is there anything more exciting? We nicely asked the kids to stay in bed until 7am. Cole woke up at 6:15 of course, which he never does. We stayed in bed awhile longer (I know we are so mean) and then Brendan did is regular walk through the downstairs with the camera while the kids and I waited eagerly upstairs. So excited!!

And then the gate was removed and they raced downstairs. We ran to the TV room to gather the stockings.

We take turns opening gifts so it is not just made craziness. It actually works really well and I'm always surprised to see that the kids are thrilled for one another and wait patiently. Charlotte got to open the first gift this year.

In it was her beloved Rapunzel dress. There were four things on Charlotte's list this year: Rapunzel dress, Rapunzel hair, Rapunzel shoes, and a plastic bird. Yeah, the last one perplexed me too. I don't know where she got that one and I didn't know what to do with that information. Anyway. she was ecstatic when she opened this up and has worn it pretty consistently since that morning.

Cole was harder to shop for this year but there are some things that are pretty standard for a six year old boy. He was very happy with his gifts. :)

Emily has been Charlotte's side often since she got her. This was the present *I* was excited for.

My favorite part of the morning was when we exchanged gifts that we had bought for one another. Cole's school had put on a winter winter wonderland and santa shop earlier in the year where kids can go through and pick out gifts for their family with the assistance of a volunteer. We gave Cole $10 and he was so proud of the gifts that he picked out for us. It was adorable to see.

This picture makes me so happy. Cole had picked out a necklace that said "princess" and was asking Charlotte, "Do you love it Charlotte?"

And a #1 Mom clip/magnet for me. Best present ever. :)

Charlotte picked out a little spongy Stitch thing for Cole.

And the gift from us to the family... the Kinect for the Xbox. Charlotte was less than impressed at the time. Oh well. We all love it now!

Already putting on new clothes on her doll.

Brendan put together Cole's race car track with his new fedora on. :)

Got this super duper easy recipe from Pinterest (love!). Basically monkey bread without rolling up the dough into balls. So incredibly yummy.

And mimosas for the adults of course!

We really want to encourage a learning (and love of!) music. This has been what Cole is interested in so in a couple months or so we may also get him lessons.

And this breakfast topped off our super great morning. Presents may not be what Christmas is truly about but there really is nothing like this morning- magic, excitement, happiness, and love.

Christmas Eve 2011

2011-12-30T19:17:00.004-05:00

Well, all the pre Christmas activities are going to have to wait a bit. Maybe I'll do a rewind post after the Christmas posts. Who knows? I'll leave all of you in suspense. Ha-ha!

As is tradition for the past several years, Brendan's parents and my family came over for Christmas Eve. The night reads pretty much the same every year with lots of beloved traditions that the kids are now looking forward to: candle light church service, lots of food, sprinkling of "reindeer food", tracking Santa on NORAD (a huge favorite), and the ceremonious cookies and drink for Santa. But first we have pictures in front of the tree while everyone still has their finest on. Well, let's be honest, Brendan is the only one that changes after church!

So let the parade of portraits begin! Just how many different combinations of people can there be?

But first the goofs. Twirling, sock off, and the look of "what is going on?"

LOVE this one!

You can see the smiles are starting to be a little forced here. And look at those pink cheeks! That means they are tired.

Oh that smile is back! Because she has chocolate of course!

Really Kelly? Three pics and you had to have your hand on your waist in each one?

The look of desperation. "No more pictures please!"

Getting ready to go outside but one more check on Santa to see where he has been.

The conversations are always spirited when this group gets together!

Spreading reindeer food. The next morning without even looking outside Cole told Charlotte that the reindeer ate it all up and Charlotte was so excited.

Each year they pick eggnog to give to Santa. Jay showed us a video on his phone of last year when Charlotte was drinking from the cup the whole way to delivering it under the tree.

They gave Santa a choice of cookies this year.

It's hilarious. All of the adults sit on the couches and clap when Cole and Charlotte walk over.

The PawPaw read "The Night Before Christmas."

And Grandpa read "What Does Christmas Mean?"

Cole and Grandpa continue to "argue" about football. Who is better? The Patriots or the Bears?

On the way up to bed Cole pretends to act like it's Christmas morning. They were both so excited. Charlotte was doing a little dance, insisting she had to go to bed as she didn't want to see Santa. I had to laugh.

All set! After finally going to bed at 1am Brendan and I were exhausted!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-14T22:00:00.002-05:00

For the first time in six years I did not cook Thanksgiving dinner. I was really bummed! Aside from photography, cooking and baking is probably one of my favorite things to invest some personal time in. But my Mom enjoys having the family over and asked that we go over their house this year so we obliged. However.... I never got to eat any turkey! Long story short, my parents planned to grill the turkey but it didn't work out in our favor very well. :) Next year I am cooking again! Oh well, Mom the mashed potatoes and homemade applesauce was wonderful. :)

Football is a big part of Anderson Thanksgiving. Watching it is one thing but there is also lots of football out in the yard. We used to pair up and have a game in the front yard when I was younger. I remember one Thanksgiving... Kerry must have been about 9 months old or so and we were playing football, Kerry was in the stroller. We look over and somehow she had tumbled out of the front of the stroller headfirst! I laugh about it now because she is fine (well, I guess that is debatable! haha!) but at the time I felt bad for her. :) The girl just wanted to join in the football game!

Cole always makes this face when he is concentrating. Someday that football is going to smack that tongue!

My Dad and Brendan playing tackle football. Hilarious.

The wooden swing set that we got when I was eight is looking a bit worse over the years but the monkey bars, swings, and trapeze are still useable. Charlotte loves the monkey bars!

Oh Dakota. I love you so but you are getting older and it makes me sad. I do love this pic of her and my Dad though.

The many faces of Kerry. How was she blessed with both curly blonde hair and blue eyes?!

My parents front yard has been an ongoing project. Awhile ago they ripped out about 20 trees in the front and side yards. They have since smoothed out the small hill and now its ready for grass in the spring. I wish it was the way it was when I was little. :( Can you tell I'm not good with change?!

The kids loved the tractor though!

So two blog posts in one day. I have finally taken a break from some other hobbies I've taken up lately. One of them is that I finally returned to knitting which I started two years ago. I made an easy hat for Charlotte and I am bursting with pride. Once I sat down to do it and stopped twisting the yarn it wasn't so bad! I'll post pics soon. I'm making one for Cole now!

Mountain House 2011

2011-12-14T20:32:00.003-05:00

Last year we started a new tradition of renting a house in upstate New Hampshire with several other families. We had so much fun last year year that it was guaranteed that we would do it again this year. We started searching early for houses and Dianna found the perfect one... 10 bedrooms, just as many bathrooms, several living rooms, a huge kitchen and dining room and oh yeah, a game room. It was fantastic with so much space since all 9 kids could have their pick of bedrooms to sleep in (although the boys and Meisee started out sleeping on the floor of the downstairs living room) and places to play. There was a hot tub which was just perfect for having a beer and relaxing! I still laugh looking at these pictures because after the kids went to bed the adults had an absolute blast! So much laughing! Hilarious!

Part of the kitchen/dining room. You can see Darlene had her coat on because the heat was broken for the first couple hours we were there!

The boys and their tv room.

The girls and theirs. This place was perfect.

Brendan and my bedroom. A king size bed! Heaven!! Although Charlotte climbed into bed with us both nights and since she always snuggles up close I didn't really feel like I had a lot of room to work with but it was still super comfortable.

A get together with us is never without a dance party.

How have I never tried monkey bread before this? Abby made breakfast (we all took a meal to make) and this was one of the things she served. So yummy!

It was chilly but not cold enough to keep us completely indoors. We made the small hike (really a walk through the woods as it didn't seem like there was an incline) to Diana's Bath. It was beautiful and I wish I could have stayed longer!

A rare pic of me. I really do need to hand the camera over more often.

I really like this area. There were a good amount of people there but it was so wide open that it didn't feel crowded at all. It would be a really great place to go on a hot summer day.

Oh this picture. The kids had stayed up until at least 10pm the night before and they were not in the mood for smiles at that moment.

Cole and I hung back a bit and ended up walking back to the car by ourselves. I really cherish the times where I can spend some time with just Cole or just Charlotte. Cole and I usually have such interesting conversations.

We were crossing over a waterfall and my lens cap snapped off of my lens and floated away down the waterfall. There was no going after it although Cole really wanted to try. :)

Movie night again that night. The kids were definitely more ready to fall asleep the second night.

Next year we stay for three nights! I love mountain house weekend!

Trick or Treating

2011-11-27T20:15:00.001-05:00

November has been a big fat bust when it has come to blogging or even photography in general. Not sure if I've lost interest for a little bit, have been too tired, or too busy or a little of each of those things. Regardless, we can chalk my 365 photo project to being a dud for November. And obviously I am WAY behind on blogging. The good thing is that I think I just have this post and then the Mountain House post (and of course Thanksgiving) and then I shall be caught up here. So not to worry, you are not too far behind in being caught up on my super exciting life. :)

We were lucky to have all of the cousins and Grammy and PawPaw again over for Trick or Treating this year. Since it was postponed from Oct 31st to November 5 because of Snowtober, Aidyn and Olivia and Cameron had already gone several times before we went in Londonderry.

There was a lot of playtime of course. PawPaw and Grammy were sitting on the patio by the firepit and since Cole has had his share of both scary stories around a fire this past summer and good stories told by PawPaw, he begged for a scary story from PawPaw. They got a good one complete with green fingers that detached from a hand and spooky noises. They all alternated between laughing hysterically, being completely intense and engrossed. I wish I had room and time to post all of their facial expressions. It is quite hilarious.

One of my favorite blogs, kevinandamanda.com had recently posted about chocolate dipped cookie dough pops. I decided to try them out with the kids. 'Cause we all needed more sugar. They were so good!

Then it was time for the main event! They were all so excited to go!

With the Rogers!

Red solo cups made their way on the walk around the neighborhood this year. I wish I had taken this photo 2 seconds earlier and it would have looked as if Ethan was in the cup. :)

I just LOVE this little girl!!

What a blast! We traveled longer than usual this year and the kids made out with a lot of candy. Olivia got tired of it (I guess if you go three times then it gets to be enough after awhile) and I needed to leave early to get dinner ready for the gang so she and I left with a couple houses to spare. She was my helper in the kitchen making salad and bread. I just adore all of my nieces and nephews and am so glad I can spend so much time with them!

Cole and Charlotte's candy disappeared after a week. :) They never even noticed that Brendan brought it to work and it was no longer available to them.

Halloween Prep

2011-11-15T19:44:00.001-05:00

Not having power did not stop us from taking the time to carve our pumpkin for Halloween. (Although I will say the no power gave me an excuse to let the kitchen get messy as evidenced in the background. What? It was dark in there!)

The kids did a little scooping. Neither one put their hands in there this year! Instead, Rob let Brendan borrow his amazing power tool that whips out all of the gunk for you! Awesome!

I promise you no kids were tortured in the making of these pictures. It may appear that way though.

Note to self: get out of the reflection.

Awww, we love our pumpkin.

Have six-year-old boy, comedy will ensue.

Have four-year-old girl, cuteness will abound.

Sunday Fun

2011-11-11T21:55:00.001-05:00

I realized that with my last post that I skipped a day so we are rewinding for a moment to take a look at some happy kids! Leaf piles will do this to anyone. :)

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After we were done with scattering more leaves around the yard we set off to find our perfect pumpkin. Along the way we saw that the Londonderry fire station closest to us was having their open house. It was complete with a demo of a chimney fire, using the water hose to take down some "fires" and trying on all of the fireman gear. We spent a good hour and half there. The kids loved it!

We didn't find our pumpkin in the fields this year. Too many were harvested or rotted from so much rain! I just love this picture of Cole with his hands in his pockets. He tends to do that sometimes when he is telling us a story or something. It's cute.

Easy...Easy like Saturday afternoon.

2011-11-07T22:57:00.002-05:00

On the 22nd Brendan went down to Gillette for the annual UNH vs UMass football game. I opted to stay home this year and I'm glad I did because the kids and I had a really really nice day. We had soccer, then dance, then a Halloween kids concert with some friends. The kids LOVE Steve Blunt. His songs are nothing to write home about but they are catchy and they've listened to his cd a gazillion times. The concert was over at 1 and we went back home for a little while to have lunch and relax. Charlotte decided to pick up all of the red and yellow flowers in the backyard. It kept her entertained for quite awhile!

After some debate between going to the Windham rail trail with bikes or going to Mack's walking trails, we convinced Charlotte to go to the walking trails. I am so glad we did!! I had never been on these trails and it was perfect. It was a little over a 1 mile walk to a pond and then 1 mile back. Perfect for these kids. Cole was designated as the leader since he had been back there before and off we went. He took us around all of the mud. If I tried to veer around the mud a different way I was told to get back in line. haha.

Who needs school pictures?!

I swear I only asked Cole to smile in front of this area and he just knelt down and gave me this! Love it!

I am trying to remember what Cole was doing in the pic on the left. It looks like the pledge of allegiance but it wasn't. I have to start blogging right after I take photos so I can record this!

Charlotte complained a little. I gave her a big stick and told her it was a giraffe from the Disney Epcot parade. She thought this was a hoot and carried it the whole way after that. I really had to convince her at the end to leave it in the woods and not bring it home.

This is what you come to after the 1 mile mark. I think we'll come back fishing maybe in the spring! Cole thought you could go swimming but no thank you- looks like it would be a little grimy! There is also a big waterfall and a little bridge. We walked a little further and came to some extremely muddy parts with no way around so we had to turn back. We spent some time throwing rocks into the pond. This will always entertain kids! We hadn't seen anyone else as we were walking to the pond but saw a number of folks as we were at the pond and then walking back. We even saw a former co-worker of mine! Small world.

We harvested pussy willows. They pretended they were toasted marshmallows on a stick.

Proof we did it!

We took another break on the way back at this low hanging tree and the kids pretended here for a little bit.

But, oh, the fun really began when we got out of the trail and were walking back across the field. Cole kept trying to carry Charlotte and hilarity ensued. They wanted to walk to the hill and roll down and this is how they wanted to get there.

Oh, they DO love each other!

They made it!

We went back to the house, ordered pizza, and crashed on the couch to watch a movie. Such a super fun day.

Columbus Day on the Kanc

2011-11-03T22:00:00.001-04:00

Yes, I realize I am WAY behind on blogging. Oh well!

On Columbus Day we drove up to the Kanc. We visited a couple places and the kids had a great time. They always do when they are together.

We drove up all together in our car. I sat between Olivia and Charlotte. An hour and half is a long time. :) We entertained ourselves with I Spy, playing with my phone, and letting them take turns with Cole's camera.

Damien had the good idea to build a dam with the rocks and to see happens with the water when it is blocked and then unblocked. So scientific! I love it!

The girls took turns throwing big rocks in a making ginormous splashes.

Charlotte thought this leaf was pretty funny.

On the way up.

And on the way down. Those girls are so lucky!

We had a great time. I love it up there.

Pre Halloween Festivities

2011-10-26T22:57:00.002-04:00

Brendan and I lived in an apartment in downtown Salem when we were about 24 to 26 years old. We had big Halloween parties and loved it there. It was fabulous. Ah, I miss those days of living in the "city" sometimes. Even when it is not Halloween Salem is an awesome place to live.... right on the water, fantastic restaurants, history, it's by Boston, it has grand parks... I could go on and on. When we decided to buy a townhouse we knew we wanted to be in Salem still but knew that was even temporary because while Salem is a great place for young folks, it was not a place to raise children. Hence, we are where we are. And I LOVE it here too for the time in our lives that we are now in. Anyway! I digress. Salem is after all a very Halloween-esque town and they do it up. I am not a fan of the witch stuff, or of the scary, bloody stuff. I hate it. I do like the history, and the fun of Halloween and of Salem. And so, we go back to Salem every Halloween with the kids where they dress up and we have some fun. This year we invited some friends to come along with us. This year it was the Hynds (minus Robin :( ), the Lindholms, and the Batts. And we brought Sam and Miesee with us too. The kids all dressed up. We did some Halloween things. Dianna, Darlene, and I got a beer at Salem Beer Works while the Dads took the kids through the Pirate museum (as Sam reported to Abby later, "They were off drinking."). We ate at the best hot dog place EVER. It gave the kids another excuse to dress up. They loved it. Although it was really hot, so Cole's costume came off in the first 6 minutes we were there.

There are definite things I miss about that place, about that time in our lives together, but of course I wouldn't trade anything for the place, the home, the family we have now. Sigh. Sniff.

This cracked me up. Mason could not stop touching this mask. He was very intrigued.

There was a lot of posing in front of scary costumes or statues.

Buddies. Aren't they cute?! Ahem.

There was a street performer/magician that I was sure was going to have a heart attack from the heat and the yelling he was doing. It was a little intense. The kids loved it and Mason could be heard giggling.

Jake's face pretty much sums up what the adults were feeling.

"What is up with this guy?"

There is the obligatory posing in front of Samantha.

Our last stop of the evening was at a frozen custard place which was phenomenal. I'm going back just for that!

Canobie

2011-10-22T21:28:00.001-04:00

Every year for the past 3 years the Sevins have either "free" Canobie tickets via an auction or have actually received free tickets from the owners. We look forward to going every year. This year because of schedules etc we wound up going in September instead of July. I much perferred this! Even though this particular day was much hotter than a normal September it was so much more tolerable than a hot July. All of the kids (well, except Addison) are old enough to go on all of the rides they want to (well, ok, Cameron and Cole were not old enough for the roller coasters or the swinging pirate ship or, okay, let's face it- these kids are daredevils!). We stayed from noon to closing and had a great time!

The first ride we went on was the ferris wheel. All of the girls when on together (Cole took the picture). I don't care how sturdy that ferris wheel is, I was so nervous every time Charlotte or Olivia moved around. I was happy every time we swung down to the bottom!

Canobie has a lot to do for all ages. The kiddie area is pretty big. Charlotte was also happy to go on the log ride this year which she loved!

This one make me laugh every time.

The girls and I opted NOT to go on the haunted mine ride. I try to avoid anything haunted in general. Just not my idea of fun no matter how cheesy it may be. The canoe rides were more their style and they must have ridden this thing continuously seven times before every one got out.

Yay for six grandchildren (and Katrina! :) )

Pretty sure the next three were taken by Charlotte or Olivia.

Cole's attempt at taking a pic of Brendan and Damien on the roller coaster.

It was warm but by no means warm enough to go on this water ride. Aidyn and Cameron tested fate and waited until the last second to run away. Aidyn did get soaked. It was funny.

I never could stomach these spinny rides. This thing goes up and down and spins continuously. Ug. Just make me sick just thinking about it. Cole, Cameron, and even Aidyn loved it though.

Brendan and Damien dragged me on this thing. I'm glad I went but oh my goodness. You got up the hill at a 90 degree angle and it propels you over into an inverted decline. Crazy and so fun!

Apple Picking

2011-10-16T19:56:00.002-04:00

Amazingly, we have only gone apple picking once this fall. I guess we are spoiled with having several farms in our town and we can just go to the farm stands and pick out fresh apples whenever we want. We only need the experience of picking ourselves one time really! At the end of last month the Rogers' had their annual Apple Party. Lisa makes all of these heavenly apple treats and then we go apple picking. She made these apple grilled cheese sandwiches with cinnamon butter that were to die for. Amazing! Lisa definitely inspires me with her cooking! After eating we went to Ellwood Orchards. It's more hidden than Mac's which tends to attract a lot of out of towners so we avoid it more often. Ellwood is beautiful. They also have a corn maze which we haven't done yet but usually do closer to Halloween. I'll bring my phone in case we need to call 911 or something. haha.

Charlotte LOVES fresh apples! I think she ate two that afternoon.

The experience of reaching up and climbing the trees to pick up apples so great. We went right for the tall trees and filled up half a bag before realizing they weren't Cortlands. Cortlands are my personal fav.

We stuffed the bag to the very top and then went on a hayride around the farm.

The corn stalks on the right are the corn maze. I think it is 8 square acres this year.

Happy and Silly face pictures!

What can I say? I have cute kids.

2011-10-05T22:03:00.003-04:00

A couple weeks ago my Mom turned 60 (sorry Mom, the secret is out). We all went out to dinner at Surf in Nashua which was super delicious. The kids were so well behaved- it is times like that that I am so proud of them. There are only a small amount of times (out of all of the times we are in public) that I want to hide in hole due to their behavior. :) Not this time. They are awesome kids.

Sometimes Charlotte gives a little too much love.

I hope that strawberry red hair stays around for a long time. I do love it so!

The next day Dakota and Mimi visited. My mom wanted a picture of Dakota to frame. I hope this one fits what she wanted! (She's sans computer right now so I'll have to show this to her in person!)

I think they are ready for a dog of their own!

First day of dance class! The five girls (middle two and bottom three) from last year's class are back with the addition of now four new girls. The two new ones signed up after the first class and one of them is one of Charlotte's besties, Kendall. Charlotte is SO excited to have Kendall in class.

Miss Laura is on maternity leave right now so it is Miss Cookie and Miss Kendall teaching the class. It involves a lot more technique this year with of course lots of fun. Charlotte is so enjoying it and greatly looks forward to every Saturday morning!

There's always a lollipop at the end of class!

A new season of soccer

2011-09-21T20:46:00.000-04:00

Classic Cole pose.

Cole's in U8 soccer this year on the black and gold team aka the Bruins (so called by Brendan and Cole). The team is comprised of six and seven year olds and what a difference from U6 soccer! The skills, the speed, the coordination, the intensity. It is still a ton of fun for Cole but it is definitely more work. The field is twice the size of what it was last year and the nets are three times bigger. The 7 year olds tend to dominate the game but Cole holds his own that's for sure. Brendan is an assistant coach this year and having fun with it too. Cole loves having Brendan as a coach. Unfortunately some of the games clash with Brendan's football schedule so he had to miss the first game.

Cole was thrilled to play goalie for a portion of the game. Of course when the ball was at the other end of the field he could be found eating his shirt (haha!), doing somersaults, or something else. Gotta keep warmed up I guess! He was always ready when the ball game toward him though and as the season progresses he is learning how to stop the ball more and more from going in the net.

Cole kicked it in from the sidelines and then proceeded to get a goal. I didn't get a picture of him cheering because I was too busy clapping and cheering for him!

But here's a pretty happy face afterwards.

They still all tend to bunch up after the ball. :)

Still a little boy. :)

They had a great game and everyone had a lot of fun! Cole loves soccer season!

Hopkinton Faire 2011

2011-09-18T20:04:00.001-04:00

We went to the Hopkinton Faire over Labor Day weekend. I went often as a kid and we have taken Cole and Charlotte for the past four years. We usually try to get there when it opens at 8am for several reasons: to avoid long lines, large crowds, and not get too hot. We were off to a slow start that morning so we didn't actually get there until 10. No lines and manageable crowds but it was so hot! Like not fun hot. It was ok by the animals but by the games and rides it was uncomfortable. We all still had a good time though but were thankful for air conditioning when we got back to the car!

We took time to pet the new calf. It was SO sweet! I always love how gentle Cole is with the little animals. Whatever rough and tumble boy he is elsewhere, with little kids and animals he is the sweetest!

When Cole was on the tractor I told him about the first time we took him to a fair (Topsfield) when he was just 14 months old. He sat on one of the tractors there and would not get off! He cried and cried when we said we had to go. Not so much anymore but Cole did laugh at the story when I told him.

Cole really wanted to play one of the games at the midway. Everything is so expensive that we told them they could do two rides or in Cole's case a game and a ride. But picking which one was even harder. It all hinged on the prize he would get at the end of it. He spied the shooting one where he thought he would get an Angry Bird if he won, but the guy manning the booth told him he had to win twice and two people had to play of course. No one else was lined up to play and that meant he had to play two times (hence no ride). We started to walk on. The guy yelled to Brendan and Brendan made a deal. One game, Brendan would play against Cole and of course Cole would win. Hence the Angry Bird. Cole was ecstatic!

Charlotte picked the spinning strawberry for her first ride. This little three year old cracks me up. She loves spinning and fast rides!

And they both choose the crazy roller coaster as their second ride.

As luck would have it, some guy gave us his extra tickets so both of them got to do a third thing. Life is great that way. :) I actually could have gotten onto the carousal with Charlotte for free but she waved me off, wanting to go by herself. Sniff, sniff! Miss Independent!

The food is one of the best parts of the fair. I won't tell you how much we indulged ourselves but suffice it to say we were all very happy at the end. Hey, the fair is only once a year!

Best Beach Day

2011-09-13T21:07:00.002-04:00

On the Saturday of Labor Day weekend we went to the beach. It was awesome. We did errands and putted around the house in the morning and then we went to the beach in the afternoon. There was no rush, no hurry to make it there before the beach filled up or before traffic began. We just went. It took us 40 minutes and we pulled into Hampton Beach state park (south of the strip) and the parking lot was actually less than half full at 3pm! It was great. Beautiful weather. Cole had been complaining beforehand that no friends were coming us and I realized that this summer we have been so used to being with other people (which has been a great thing, don't get me wrong) that we have had little time to just be a family. I cherished this day. And we had friends over the next day so all was good. :)

When we got there it was high tide. Cole took it upon himself to build a sand castle that would stand the test of the waves. We all chipped in and it ended up being strong enough and Cole was just so pleased.

Brendan and the kids got Slushies for a treat. I didn't get one but remembered how much I loved them as a kid!

The water was freezing! Maybe because of the hurricane the week before or just because it was now September. In any case, none of us ventured past our knees. Charlotte loved jumping over the little waves. That's all our feet could stand. :)

We walked over to the jetty on the south side of the beach. It doesn't have that much for tidal pools but enough that the kids enjoy it. And of course climbing on the rocks is always fun. The waves were HUGE though and were slamming down on the rocks like crazy. There was no going out on the jetty while the tide was still going out. It was so beautiful with the sun setting and the waves crashing.

I set up Cole to look surprised when the wave came up. Charlotte wouldn't go near it. :)

And a wave got Brendan unexpectedly.

I don't know why she is touching her bum. Silly girl.

We brought a picnic dinner and really I couldn't have been happier. Every one was a in a good mood and it was such a great time. After dinner the kids wandered and found that someone had marked an "X" in the sand. They got all excited, but after several minutes of intense digging they realized there wasn't a treasure. They didn't mind though and Cole just filled it back up and reapplied the "X" for the next treasure seeker.

Faces covered in jelly and fluff. Love these kids!!

The first day of the next 12 years

2011-09-03T21:35:00.000-04:00

And so it begins....

Cole was off to 1st grade this week. Boo, hoo, hooo.

When I asked for a smile on the front steps, this is the pose I got. Hummm....

Kerry stopped by on the way to her internship so say hi and good luck to Cole!

Cole refused to wear a collared shirt for the first day of school. Oh well. There are worse things in life! :) He was very excited with his new Spiderman backpack and Transformer folder. He didn't need to bring anything else to school that day. Oh, and his lunch. He didn't want to get milk/lunch the first day but he has since got milk the subsequent days....strawberry one day and chocolate the next! :) He's looking forward to grilled cheese hot lunch next week!

These two are such good friends and were off and walking to the bus step at least 20 feet in front of the parents. As long as these two have each other I think they'll do just fine! I hear already they are both being chased by the girls on the playground. (Apparently Caden has been put in jail but as Cole tells us he "is too fast for the girls so they stopped chasing me". I've now heard the ole' jingle, "Missed me, missed me, now you have to kiss me!" from Cole which he certainly didn't know before this week!) Oh, PLEASE, do not kiss my son yet! :)

It all happened so fast! We got to the bus stop around 8 and the bus came at about 8:15 or so. The boys both got on the bus and forgot to say good bye to us! The bus driver had to tell them to turnaround and smile for the photos. We ran to give them hugs and they were on their way. The 1st graders (and maybe the older kids?) have assigned seats up in front so Cole sits with someone else in the morning, who apparently also lives in the neighborhood. I'm trying to get him to find out where.

I was fine and smiling and then the bus turned the corner and I found myself tearing up out of nowhere. And then Brendan looked at me and laughed and I cried more! Lisa laughed at me too but she was welling up!

When the cat's away....

We took the younger kids to the playground for a picnic lunch and some fun. Poor Cora lost her shoe going down this time.

It was hot! So the kids cooled off in the sprinklers. The pools were too cold!

Then it was time to pick up Cole. I was so excited! He got off the bus and was very tired but still talked about his day a great deal. Oh, how I wish I could be there for him every day as he gets off the bus. Being a stay at home mom would rock!

Special day, special treat. Ice cream before dinner!

I asked Cole and Charlotte to pose in front of the sign but then they all ran around with a "take a picture of us here."

(Charlotte was doing ballet poses.)

Cole likes 1st grade. He is so proud of the work he is bringing home to show us. So far the work is easy for him as it is all a recap of kindergarten. He likes music and gym class the best and is very much looking forward to library day. Crafts and art has never been a favorite of his and he likes that class ok. He loves Mrs Goyette (in fact while at the dentist yesterday, the dentist told Cole that his now 18 year old daughter had Mrs Goyette and was her favorite all through elementary). He's a quiet boy around new people (hmmm, wonder where he gets that from?!) but is loving recess with Caden. Soccer starts next week and we are going to look into Cub Scouts as well. This is going to be a very good year!

On Golden Pond

2011-08-29T21:14:00.000-04:00

My grandfather has been visiting my parents in this area for the past 30+ years so when he's visits it is always challenging to find new and entertaining things to do. He has done it all! But one thing that we all love is relaxing on the lake, preferably in a boat. :) When my grandparents owned the lake house in Wisconsin they had a boat and the whole shebang. We would spend hours in that boat and on the lake.

In order for my Dad to rent a boat big enough for all of us, he had to get a temporary boating license that morning, and had to take a test and everything. Our entire day's fun was resting on the fact that he had to pass this test! Luckily he passed with 10 seconds left to spare on the clock! Phew! My parents are partial to Squam Lake over any other in NH- they spent a lot of time hiking around there before kids were born. And they spent hours and hours in the 80s looking for a summer home there. I know, because they used to drag Jay and I to ever house showing! They never bought one but oh how I wish they did!!

Jay eating? Shocker! :)

Gorgeous day with practically no one on the lake.

Ah, this is the life!

My Dad was looking for Rattlesnake Moutain and the boulder where you can jump off of into the lake. They usually hike to the boulder and bring along their dog Dakota. I'm glad we were boating that day instead! My Dad was a little stressed trying to find the location. :)

And we're here!

My Grandpa amazes me. He's 80+ years old. He has cancer. But he is so young! And happy. :)

We brought Charlotte's fishing pole. Jay dove underwater and just followed the sunfish until he caught one. So fun!

Here's the boulder. It seems so far down when you are jumping off of it! Cole loved it.

We took a break from swimming and did lots of fishing! The sunfish were plentiful and we caught about 10 fish (but threw them all back).

The kids lost interest and Kerry and I fished instead. Good bonding over gross worms and prickly fish.

Back in the water! Charlotte was happy to be in the water but not happy to be in her life jacket!

Such a fun day.

Ended a perfect day with ice cream of course!

My Idea of Stress Relief

2011-08-24T21:16:00.000-04:00

These are just a small smattering of pictures that I took of our camping trip three weeks ago. I think I actually took about 750 pictures over four days. There was a lot to take photos of!

In January Abby emailed the group (7 families!) and asked who would be interested in famping....that's fake camping....which technically means we slept in cabins instead of tents. Crawford Notch Campground which is in between North Conway and Mount Washington is the campground to end all campgrounds. This place was beyond perfect. The cabins were clean with bunk beds for the kids (they loved it!). Each campsite had a fire pit and we designated the Lindholms for the kitchen/eating area and the Reidel's became the firepit/s'more/drinking after the kids went to bed place to be (hello- maple syrup shots!! I tried one and it is strong!! maple syrup and vodka- yikes). The Saco River was a five minute walk through the campground and we spent a lot of time there. The river was cold but extremely refreshing. I can't say enough about this place and the good times we had there. It was perfect!

Climbing over the rocks on the first day we were there I landed in the water with my clothes on....so I just went in. Ah, if you can't laugh at yourself....

Saturday was Cole's birthday! I can't believe this kid is six. Good-bye baby years. Good-bye toddler years. Good-bye preschool and even kindergarten. Here you are schoolager. Life goes by too quickly. When did I come to the point where I went from wanting my life to speed up to wanting it to slow down? I'm pretty sure it was when Cole was born. I really feel like I just experienced fall and Cole going to kindergarten and now here we are with the weather turning cool already and Cole days away from 1st grade. It doesn't seem right or fair! Can I stop my feet and cry and make time stop? Hummm....

Some of the gang at the swimming hold. You can see how clear the water is. Just beautiful! I was banned from posting close up bathing suit shots and early morning shots. :) Hahaha.

Ah, this is the life. There was a stream with small rapids that the kids so enjoyed riding down again and again.

View from our cabin to the Lindholm's. They brought their pop up tent and are truly experienced campers! On one lazy afternoon San wanted to tour the campground and see how big it was. He took Meisee and Charlotte with him and driving about 5 miles per hour they were allowed to be in the car without seat belts and wave out the windows like royalty. The boys having been playing previously with some kind of tag/ninja/shooting/treasure game then realized how cool it was and made San take all of them again!

Going to the White Mountains is not complete without a hike! Ripley Falls was only 10 minutes away from the campground. I had hiked it as a kid but didn't really remember it. Lori and Rick had hiked it tons and knew it would be great for all of the kids- ages 3 to 6! It took us about 30 minutes to get there and every kid loved it! The falls were amazing and probably would have been more so if it hadn't been such a dry summer!

With this many kids there is no way we were going to get a perfect photo op. There were half naked girls, boys goofing off, and just general silliness!

It was so nice and cool under the falls. It's a small area but really great. There were some people there when we arrived but they evacuated when our clan arrived. We bombarded the place a bit!

Ever since Jake took Charlotte out on the lake in a boat a couple months ago, Charlotte has grown fond of him. She is always ready to give him a hug or a high five!

Only Zach had the forethought to wear his bathing suit. All of the other kids stripped down to shorts and went for a slide into the bottom of the falls.

We were the slowest family to make the way back. Now we have two people in our family who need to stop every five minutes to take a photo. Luckily Brendan and Charlotte tolerate us. :)

Time for cake!

This location was just completely ideal. The kids freely ran around to every cabin or to the Lindholm's pop-up. They played games. They had a fabulous time.

We made our way to Attitash on Sunday but it was closed because of rain. Brendan was extremely disappointed. They also have this gravity roller coaster thing that was open in the drizzle. It was so fun! I went up with Charlotte twice and you have the choice to make the "sled" go faster or slower depending on the use of the break (it's a lot like the slide I guess but more structural and more twists and turns and it seems safer!). I wish I could have bottled Charlotte's glee and laughter and her "Make it go faster!"

There is no clean way to eat this size cone. Of course she just wanted the ice cream and threw away the cone.

And there was Euro-bungy. Both kids had a blast and Cole loved the flips. I love Charlotte's belly sticking out!

On Sunday it was just the Hynds, the Lindholm's, the Chau's, and us left. We had a dinner with leftovers from the previous night...steak tips, grilled potatoes, salad...it was awesome camp food!

The remaining kids on Monday morning. Such good kids, all of them!

In case you are wondering, those are pretzels that they are eating!

Awww, I love these people! So glad to have them in my life and call them all good friends!

Here's to an amazing famping adventure and to looking forward to next year!

July leftovers

2011-08-16T22:18:00.000-04:00

Here are a couple photos from the very last days of July that I am just now posting. Clark's trading post, pics of MawMaw, as well as one of a very tired little boy who has had a lot of fun!

On the Beach

2011-08-10T21:53:00.000-04:00

Two weeks ago already seems like eons ago. We spent the day with MawMaw and clan at Ogunquit Beach. It was such a fun day. I could have spent dawn to dusk (and later) at the beach. When the tide is out it is quite possibly the best beach....ok, I won't say in the world because I've experienced so few, but definitely in a 50 mile radius! :)

The tide was out and we set up camp early. The kids entertained themselves playing in the tide pools, the waves, and in the sand. You can't ask for 5 (ok, 6!) more perfect cousins!

Addy is under that blanket somewhere!

Oh, goodness does he look six here.

The new (and tired) parents! They were such troopers for coming and spending the day at the beach!

We walked along the Marginal Way and the boys had fun climbing on the rocks.

We got before-dinner treats at Perkins Cover Candy shop, where I've been going to since I was little. Olivia shared some of her candy necklace with Charlotte.

Watching the bridge go up.

We went to dinner at Cafe Prego.... Brendan and I love this little Italian place. Usually we will have dinner and then some of their amazing gelato but it was a big group of us and we made our way to another ice cream stand instead. After all, a day at the beach isn't complete without ice cream!

Trip Into Boston

2011-08-04T23:17:00.000-04:00

While waiting for Brendan to go park the car we watched trains come in and out of the station. The kids were excited and to be honest, I don't go into the city much anymore either and I think it's pretty exciting too. Such a change of pace and it brings on such wonderful people watching opportunities!

Love the Common in the middle of the weekday. There is no one there!

The last time we went on the swan boats Cole was only 20 months old and I was not even pregnant with Charlotte yet! Back then Cole called these the "ca-ca boats", for "quack quack" which he couldn't quite say back then! Ah, how times change and life moves on!

Lots of ducks looking for food. They swam very close to the swan boats just like in the story.

This section was fenced off. See the swan eggs in the large nest. Very neat!

Cole entertained himself on the walk back through the Common by balancing the whole way on the sidewalk edge.

MawMaw took the kids on the carousal which is now on the park between the water and Fanuel Hall. Hard to believe 10 years ago a highway existed there! We ate outside at Tia's one of my favs. One the way out I saw a woman smile at Charlotte and say "What a beautiful little girl." Why yes, I think so too!

We perused Fanuel Hall and the kids were so entranced with the Christmas Dove and the thousands of ornaments they had. Charlotte "oohed" and "aahed" over everything.

We walked to Mike's to get some pastries. Charlotte choose a whoopie pie (She only was allowed to ate half and thankfully forgot about the rest after we got home.), Cole inhaled a cannoli, and MawMaw got a eclair. This place is packed 2pm on a Monday for a reason!

I just adore this "twin" picture.

Charlotte says "Look at my mustache." Funny girl!

Vaca!!

2011-07-27T21:58:00.000-04:00

We have had a very busy vacation so far. It's 9:30 on Wednesday as I'm writing this and I could just fall over and go to sleep! Nothing relaxing about this one! But I am with my kids and my husband and that is all that matters to me, because I'd rather be with them than anywhere else!

On Saturday we held a BBQ for the Sevin side of the family...MawMaw's in town for two weeks! We are all so excited for that and thankful she is visiting with us again! Cole and Charlotte have taken to her easily and love her fiercely as if they see her often and not every two years! I'm very glad for that.

It was VERY hot both Friday and Saturday of last week and I'm pretty certain between those two days Cole, Charlotte, Olivia, and Cameron spent about 8-9 hours in the pool. They were all rather wrinkly after awhile but very cooled off!

Of course they took a break to say their hellos to Addy. Both were in awe of her and so very gentle. Charlotte loved holding her and even Cole wanted multiple turns. (They would be SO ready for another brother or sister! But, alas! That isn't going to happen...I'm still working on Brendan to get a dog!) Anyway, Charlotte just stared at Addy while holding her and then when asked if she liked holding Addy, she gave the biggest grin (see below). Love it.

At one point I was doing something in the kitchen and it was completely quiet in the house. Most were occupied in the pool, Cole and Cameron took a break and played the DS (we gave them 15 minutes each!), PawPaw was holding his newest delight, and Aidyn was roaming the yard and house in the pirate costume, perfectly happy. It was one of those cool moments, where I know everything is good within my own little world. :)

Ethan and Damien threw Cole up many, many, many times that day. Cole loved it- no matter if he landed in a belly flop or not!

Uncle Damien was definitely his buddy for those 2 days he was here. Cole wouldn't leave him alone in the pool. :)

I told PawPaw to have the boys jump in at the same time. I'm loving my continuous shooting mode on my camera with all of this pool play! (I took out some of the shots in the sequence to avoid complete picture overload!)

It cracks me up that you can only see his feet.

A friend once commented to me that it makes her laugh that Brendan has two picture poses and both of them involve a beer. LOL!

Olivia was my little shadow that day. I loved it. She is such a sweet little girl.

Then there was more visiting with Addy.

Dinner and then more pool time. Ethan and Damien were commissioned to make a whirlpool. It was great fun! Cole and Cameron would jump into the current and let it bring them to the ladder so they could move fast without even swimming; Charlotte and Olivia thought it was funny to be part of the train, and the rest of us enjoyed the relaxation!

This pic makes me laugh too. Cole isn't crying; I just caught him as he came up out of the water.

More jumps!

Time to close up the pool. Cole and Charlotte love this ritual. Not that they love getting out of the pool; they just love helping with pulling on the cover.

Then it was dessert time. Aidyn got right back into character. I told him to give me an "arg" but he just looked at me. Cole leaned over and gave me one instead. :)

Buddies

Great MawMaw has the touch!

We love that she is here and spending so much time with us!

(Excuse the fact that Cole doesn't have any pants on!)

Beach bums!

2011-07-20T22:20:00.001-04:00

Saturday we went off to Crane Beach in MA for some summer fun with the Schwinns. Now this is only the second time that I have been to this beach. Everyone who has lived in the Northshore has always raved about it. The funny thing is that for the 5 years that Brendan and I lived in the Northshore, we actually explored the northern beaches of MA only once when we moved in. Whenever we wanted to go to the beach we shot straight up to the NH or ME beaches. From Salem it wasn't a far drive at all. In fact I remember often going early in the morning when we had Cole and coming back before lunch. Ah, those were the days. I still do very much miss living on the Northshore. The road that leads to Crane also passes by the apple orchard that we went to many years in a row. It became too overcrowded the last year we ventured there and with several orchards in our town, it seemed silly to drive over an hour to get to one. But, still, I miss that area. We have been lucky to live in some pretty great places.

But, alas! Saturday was a visit. Erich brought some Coronas (and even the limes) and some great pasta salad, the kids played so well, and we had a great time. Only bummer was that the tide was coming in and took most of the beach away. But I rate a beach on several things, finding shells being one of them. I grew up going to either New Castle or Ogunquit and that was one of my measures for a great beach. Charlotte and I found some clams that were still alive and some clams who had been eaten but their two shells remained attached. After I told her what was in there, she was a little wary of it. haha!

It was SO hot once we walked away from the water but I still enticed Charlotte to walk along the stairs for some photos.

We have made going to Hampton an annual event with the Rogers and we had planned going to the beach on this particular day months in advance (we have to with the schedules both of our families have!) This was a view from our towel. High tide again and crowded. I prefer low tide and not so many people!

Cole loved to push the sand through his fingers and was perfectly content staying there the whole day.

I love Charlotte and Cora's friendship. They are so cute together. Charlotte really tries to take care of Cora and vice versa. So adorable.

We played on the rocks for a few minutes but again it was high tide and there were so many people and not really any tide pools to play and it was HOT. AND we were promised amazing ice cream by Lisa. :)

So we left soon after that.

Lisa delivered. Hodgies was amazing. I'd put it in my top 3 spots for amazing ice cream. In case you are wondering Ice House (Rye NH) and Cold Stone Creamery round out the other two. :)

Charlotte agreed.

Don't ask me why I said chocolate was okay on a hot day. Amazingly it all got on her face and not on her clothes!

Baby news yet?? Brendan called Ethan (and left a message) because we were all wondering if the baby was born yet!! Funny enough, Ethan would tell us later that Brendan was calling as Addison was being delivered. :) He texted back 10 minutes later with "It's a Girl!"

We were all very happy of course!

Four out of five kids in the picture isn't bad! :)

And another picture of Addy because I just love her so. And now the Sevin Six is complete. :)

Our Nature Day

2011-07-14T23:17:00.000-04:00

I like strawberry picking but I LOVE blueberry picking. It's just so much more enjoyable. You can stand instead of crouch. The berries are more plentiful and more delicious.

I was so excited that the season began last week and we all went berry picking last Saturday morning. Such began our day with nature!

Cole was quite the picker and filled his bucket almost to the top!

Charlotte picked for a little bit, wandered and let Brendan fill up her bucket, and of course when we were ready to leave she as concentrating hard on picking!

Cole has always been a huge blueberry fan and eats them by the handful!

After we picked our blueberries I was ready to move onto raspberries. In years past I have gone when the are already overpicked and I have had very scare pickings. This year was wonderful! I have already made a raspberry white chocolate cake that was so good. The rest I have just been eating and eating! Cole is the only other one who eats them.

Once the kids realized they would have to reach through thorny bushes to get to the raspberries they quickly lost interest. They and Brendan went back to the front of the farm while I picked in peace! It was so nice. :)

Yum!

We'll be back again soon!

For lunch we (when I say "we", I mean "I") decided to head to the Robert Frost farm only minutes away and explore all of the trails back there. We were promised a pond but we lost our way through the many trails and never found it! I've since been told where it is so we'll go back again soon.

I really enjoyed being at the farm. I had read some history of it and the Frost family on the website prior to going and it really intrigued me! As I walked the trails I imagined the family years and years ago walking the same trails and exploring the same woods. I pointed out every different kind of mushroom to Charlotte and we looked for bugs. It was short but fun!

There is something so darling about a father holding hands with his child.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I can imagine him in the woods writing this poem! I was born in the wrong era, I tell you. Put me in the Victorian Age (or just a little later) and I would have been very happy!

We stopped for lunch on the little bridge and then explored the stream for a little bit. It was so relaxing!

And then it was time for the ultimate nature test....camping!! Luckily it was just camping at the Chau Family Campground (aka their awesome backyard) but it was an adventure nevertheless! Our tent was once Brendan's parents. It was the biggest of the tents but also the oldest! We can see why they got away from the aluminum poles (not sturdy!) and the canvas (so cold!). But it was fun to try it out and I survived (with an air mattress and the comfort of knowing I could use the bathroom in the house!). The kids had an absolutely blast.

Our tent was a hit because it was the biggest. But because it couldn't withstand too much jumping and bouncing it collapsed on the kids and we had to call it quits on playing in there! Thankfully it stayed up during the night for sleeping!

Have dress up box and princess doll, and Charlotte WILL find it. She knows exactly where Meisee's dress up clothes are now!

Princess and Prince Lindholms. :)

The firepit that San made was the best! So perfect for s'mores, conversation, and lounging.

Jedi challenges were the hit of the night. Sam, Zach, and Cole had just attended Jedi camp and to say they had fun is a complete understatement. It was so well organized that their "battles" were choreographed by the instructor! One battle to lose and another to win. Hence, battles to practice with and show Zach C. and Olivia too! They did this all night and again the next morning.

Maddie is one of the sweetest dogs you'll ever meet. Charlotte adored her.

Obligatory s'more shot.

Buddies

And that was our nature day/night. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. This weekend is our beach weekend...we'll be off to different beaches both Saturday and Sunday!

Recap

2011-07-07T23:11:00.000-04:00

I am trying to blog once a week. I don't think it is working so well. I have way too many photos to edit and post and it sucked up my entire night! I think I'll go back to every other night. But for now I am throwing all of the photos I wanted to post onto this post. And now I'm officially caught up with this blog. :)

Above: Charlotte runs in the rain during Cole's baseball end of the year pizza party.

Below: Some photos from Charlotte's preschool party we had at our house.

Allie yelled to Charlotte, "Come on Charlotte! I'll help you!"

Some photos from the millions I took at Charlotte's recital. I posted a ton already on FB but here's a couple more. She loved every minute of it!

After the recital Grammy, PawPaw, Mimi, Damien, Olivia and Cameron came over for some fun and dinner time. We also did lots of swimming!

I am absolutely framing this photo of Cameron and Cole. They are such awesome buddies.

Cole recently received a DS as a gift. He does excellent with our rules for it (can only play on days when he is home- not Applewood days. And he is limited to only 30 minutes.) Cameron and Cole were so intrigued when one another played. It was cute.

And of course there was a huge dance party!

Charlotte was so tuckered out after that fun day. What a sweet girl. The doll was given to her (and all of the girls in her class by her dance teacher.) It was a prop in the dance number ("Oh You Beautiful Doll) and has the same yellow and pink tulle as the girls' costumes. It's so darling.

Last weekend we had the Sevin clan over. Every else was outside. This is what I found when I went to see what Cole and Cameron were doing.

Cousins! Love it!

Oh the games these 5 play!

Somehow the girls "got" the boys.

Fourth of July. Mason looks on as Charlotte has her marshmallow treat. We spent hours and hours at the Hynds. It was a great party and the kids did not want to leave when we packed up at 7. Unfortunately we had work the next day and couldn't stay for the fireworks later on. :( But we did thoroughly enjoy ourselves that's for sure!

That's it for now! Phew!

Father's Day

2011-06-30T21:26:00.000-04:00

Ah, Ribfest. You make for a perfect Father's Day! We have missed you these past two years!

We were so glad to have a gloriously (yes, I did just use that word, thank you!) beautiful day on Father's Day. Not too hot, just a hint of wind, sunny skies. We spent a long time playing, eating, and walking around.

We hung around with the Rogers, Chaus, Hynds (minus Robin- :( ) and Lindholms and the kids had so much fun!

This was hilarious. I should have posted a video. The kids are always knocking each other around (playfully) but these giant sticks were so heavy they could hardly lift them and them were lightly tapping each other instead. I don't Cole could even lift it to bonk Caden once! It was so funny.

Some of the dads. :)

I took some of the kids to watch the whoopie pie eating contest. This gentleman (firefighter, actually!) in front came in second. It was so gross to watch. First of all they had to eat a ginormous double decker whoopie pie and then to get it down they covered it in water. Just the consistency of that is enough to make me gag. The kids thought it was funny though.

Dancing? Wrestling? Who knows? They had a good time.

Happy girls. Meisee was kind enough to let Charlotte borrow her hat!

Love this sweet one of Cora.

The closest thing we got to a Father's Day picture that day. Oh well!

Hello movie star! (You too Lisa! haha!)

Watching the airshow.

The boys all waited to go on a giant inflatable that housed a huge (blow up) wrecking ball so they could toss it into one another. They loved it.

Afterwards Brendan had some alone time and went for a run and the kids and I went over my parents for dinner. My dad set up a golf hole in the backyard and he and Cole practiced their chip shots!

Catch Up

2011-06-28T21:35:00.001-04:00

SO far behind on blogging. I finally cleaned off some photos off of my computer and now I have a little more time on my hands. Unfortunately my computer compressed these photos as I was downloading them and they are not the greatest quality, but I the important part is that I do have the pictures. :)

Two weeks ago Cole had his kindergarten celebration at Moose Hill. They sang songs that they had been practicing for weeks and weeks. Cole's favorite from them was "Down by the Sea" and he's since taught the words to Charlotte who likes to make up her own words to the song (ie "Down by the bay, where the watermelons grow, the tree eats the rabbit." Don't ask. She cracks herself up though). The classes also sang "You're a Grand Ole' Flag" and a couple others that made me tear up. They were all so cute and so proud of themselves!

Mrs Stith has obviously been a teacher for many years. When the parents came into the classroom she had everyone all set up for photo time. :)

He's officially a first grader now!

I had Cole take photos at some spots around the classroom: where he hung his backpack, where his first spot was on the reading rug, his cubby, and where he signed in for the day every day.

In two short years we'll be back again for Charlotte. Can't believe it. Mrs Stith said she'll miss Cole. She said he was the only child that, never fail, would say a big "good morning Mrs Stith" as he came into the classroom and a big "bye Mrs Stith" as he was leaving. He really is such a sweet boy.

On the last day of school we celebrated Cole and all of his kindergarten accomplishments with a cake and a visit from Grammy and PawPaw. He felt very special indeed!

That night Charlotte showed us her drawing skills on the driveway. She lately has loved to make these big masterpieces, connecting lines, and extending her artwork.

The next day we had the Applewood kindergarten celebration (where Cole goes for after school care). They also sang some songs accompanied by Matt on guitar.

Do you love Cole's outfit? After a day of playing he had gotten his shorts completely filthy and these were the pants in his extra clothes box. Clothes are not so cute but luckily he still is! :)

Afterwards there was fun on the playground. The kids thought it was hilarious to tap San on the shoulder as they slid down. He happily obliged in making them giggle.

I love these photos of the kids and wish I could make them larger. They are such happy children! (most of the time!)

Running home....