Lincoln, New Hampshire

So we took a family foliage trip up north a couple of weeks ago and I am slow to blog about it but I will say that it was very nice. I was just so nice to be together, the four of us. We only went one night but family trips for us are very rare, so I will take one night with my family. Ian and I have work schedules that are like ink and water. Literally.

On a Thursday afternoon we took off to Lincoln, New Hampshire. Our first stop was a to Loon Mountain. We rode the Gondola up, which gave us a great view of the mountains and leaves. They were so beautiful! At the top of the mountain there are these “glacial caves” which for me was the high light of the trip. Basically it is a loop hike with 10 side trails that take you off the easy boardwalk path to explore these huge boulders and their crevices. Some tight squeezes but I was impressed because it was something that the whole family could enjoy. I thought for sure I would have to stay on the main boardwalk with Kael while the big boys explored but that wasn’t the case. It was easy enough for our 2 ½ year old (with lots of assistance). Ian and I had to pass him from hole to hole and kind of guide him and remind him to stay low (we did forget one time and he ended up with a big bump on his head). The hike was very easy but with the side trails it made it lots of fun for the kids.

The next morning we took the Hobo trail ride. This was an 80 minute trail ride that the kids enjoyed. They had a great play ground outside too. We got lunch on the train and the kids sat patiently and ate while we all enjoyed the scenery. Very nice.

We then took a drive up through Franconia Notch just to enjoy the views. Ahh… the beauty! It is amazing that this place is just an hour north of us and we don’t spend more time up there. The White Mountains are just breath taking, especially in October! If Kael wasn’t snoozing and Ian didn’t have to be back for work, we would have spent more time up there hiking or just stopping to take it all in. But I was very thankful for the quick drive through.

Innocence

Another moment I just have to write down....

Kael: “Mumma, see that kitty? I saw a kitty! He wasn’t walkin’. He was dead."
Me: “He was dead? What does that mean, Kael?”
Kael: “His legs no movin’. He no have batteries.”
Me: “oh”


And for the record, I think the cat was just lying in the grass, sleeping. I think.

Halloween Party 2008

For the past four years we have had a Halloween party at the house for the kids and their friends. It was a lot of fun this year, as it is every year. Each year there are new faces. I wonder if the kids are getting tired of the same old things… arts and crafts, pumpkin decorating, cupcake decorating, story time, etc. Maybe next year I will add in a candy hunt, where you hunt for clues and it eventually leads you to candy. ... hummmm....

I did add a song this time… the kids enjoyed it. You all sit close together and you sing very softly…

Ghost so scary, ghost so white.
Don’t scare [LEAH!] on Halloween night!

And when you say the kids name you shout and reach out towards them to jump them. They loved that. Leah, Emily, and Geetika especially jumped!

I didn’t give prizes for best costume but there were some good ones there. Leah was an absolutely adorable flamingo and Kaiden’s friend from school was a cute zebra… it makes me so envious of those who can sew! Jacob and Brendon were Legos. We had to keep them separated so they didn't stick together. :-) I also thought it was cute that my son was a firefighter and his best friend showed up as a cat. To the rescue! Although, I did see the cat chasing my son with his fire ax; so I guess times have fully changed.

Honorable mentions: Hanna Montana, Tinkerbelle, Barbie, Venom, cow, giraffe, and a not so honerable mention: my youngest went as a boy who did not want to wear his cow outfit.
The kids ended the afternoon with a Halloween cup (that’s tradition!), some stickers, a book, and a few pieces of candy. Not too much candy, because after all they got to frost their own cupcakes and add sprinkles. I make several colors of frosting in which some kids insist on adding some of each to their small cupcake! It is fun to see the difference this year from two years ago. Two years ago the kids were not patient enough to add frosting. The cupcake was gone before they got around to that. All around, this year the kids were much more patient and there were no melt downs (other than my 2 yr old being, when I said he couldn't have a fifth candy pretzel!).

So if anyone is reading this that made it to the party, thanks so much. I enjoy so much seeing the kids have fun and get ready for next year because I think we will have a scavenger hunt outside and there's already talk from the hubby of a haunted house in the basement. And of course thanks to my parents who help me out so much!

I'm a rock star

A memory I need to write down....

my husband picked Kaiden up from school the other day and like every other day all the girls said bye to him in their very sweet voices. But this day, as Kaiden walked with Ian to the car, Kaiden turned to him and said... "yeah, I'm a rock star".

This just tickles me. I have no idea where he even heard this saying. I didn't even know he knew what a rock star was!

Baby quilt... some progress

On Wednesday I stayed home with Kaiden because he was sick. He was pretty low key all day but later in the afternoon I decided to cut up my material and start on my quilt project (ya know, the one I blogged about many many weeks ago) and Kaiden showed some interest in joining me, so it was nice to see him feeling better.

Before I could work on my project though, Kaiden wanted me to make him a blanket for his resting buddies. He and his grammie made a resting buddy blanket last time we were in Maine but he has two nest of resting buddies. The cats sleep in one nest with the duck and the dogs sleep in another nest.

So he picked out the material from my large stash and his only stipulation was that it had to be exactly the same size as the one grammie and he made. He was very adamant about that which I find funny because I think he was worrying about being fair to his resting buddies. Very cute.

So here he is sewing his blanket:


Phew… it is the exactly the same size of the other one:


And here is my material cut up, ready to be sewn together.

…. wonder how long it will be before I blog about its completion!

oh... and thanks mom, I love my hand me down machine!!!!

Obama!

On Friday, September 12, I attend another Obama rally and it was so much fun. Earlier this summer I went to the Unity rally to see Obama and Hillary. That was a blast. It was especially exciting because some coworkers and I got selected to be seated behind Obama! Not only did we get to see both Obama and Hillary up close but we also got to skip the what seemed like an endless line at the check in and I got to shake Obama’s hand… twice!!! You could even see me on CNN, among the hundreds of people around me. Such a great time.

So Friday's rally was awesome too. It started with an email Wednesday night announcing that Obama would be in town and that tickets would be available the next day at the Obama office downtown. So Thursday I went down to the Obama office and picked up tickets. It is always so cool to see lines and lines of people excited about getting tickets for Obama.

What made this trip special is I asked Kaiden if he wanted to attend and he said yes. So in order to make sure Kaiden could see, we needed to get good seats so we didnt' end up on the floor. Doors opened at 4:30pm, so Kaiden and I got there at 3:45pm. We found our way in to the lobby and waited. It was great because we were among the first 30 people to arrive, everyone had Obama stickers, hats, and shirts on and we just sat and waited. At around 4:15pm I was a bit puzzled as to why more people weren’t arriving. Then shortly thereafter, someone announced for all the volunteers to meet in the adjacent room. A few seconds later we were the only ones left in the lobby! We were hanging out with the volunteers and not in line!!! So we walked, in the rain, around the building to where the public entrance was and there we were greeted by hundreds of people in line. Crap.

It worked out just fine though. Many people wanted the floor spots to be up closer to Obama and I wanted the back bleacher spot so Kaiden could spread out and we could stand on our seats without blocking someone’s view. This way Kaiden could actually see Obama speak.

Obama was 1.5 hours late which I look back on and am amazed at how wonderful Kaiden behaved. Of course I had a coworker, her daughter, a friend, and two young girls to entertain him. I also brought lots of snacks and water. By 8pm Obama showed up and gave a fantastic speech. And by 9 pm we were out of there.



Kaiden picked out an Obama button on our way out. I must note that he asked for a pin and I simply agreed to buy it for him, because I am not a big fan of putting paraphernalia on kids as they are too young to make their own decisions. As I type, I can spy Kael's Patriots shirts on the couch. :-) Speaking of Kael, my wonderful friend Celeste watched Kael for me and I am so glad that I decided not to bring him with me. That would have been too long for him.

So Kaiden and I also made it on the radio. Listen.

Kaiden was definitely the most articulate of the three of us!


I also must say that my blog started out ranting about McCain and Palin, expecially Palin, but I deleted it all and decided to just post the top 10 reasons I like Obama:

1. His willingness to end this war
2. His ability to motivate young people to serve their country, military and non-military service
3. He’s pro-choice, something that women fought to have that be their decision, not the governments. Also knowing that Palin, who could be one heart beat from the presidency, doesn’t even support abortions if a girl was raped by her father… yikes! And doesn’t think birth control should be taught to teens… her conservative Christian values terrify me as a Christian! Ok… I’m ranting….
4. He supports the reform of immigration while realizing people are people… i.e., he would not tear apart breastfeeding mothers from their American children unlike the recent raids in Massachusetts and elsewhere that were then praised by the republicans
5. He is for universal health care .
6. He wants to STOP the tax breaks Bush gives to the wealthy (income from 250k and up) and will CUT taxes for working families a $1000 per family ($500 per working person) and ELIMINATE income tax for seniors making less than $50,000.
7. His ability to deal with economic issues and his focus on not outsourcing America jobs… that’s where the tax cuts need to be
8. He is focused on HAVING an energy plan! Wow what a concept!
9. His grass roots campaigning, which means he doesn’t owe anybody anything once in office! Small donations from just average people. Amazing what he has done.
10. This administration had 8 years and totally messed us up, it is time for CHANGE!

Someone put it this way… even if you don’t like Obama, if you were trying to fix something with a wrench and that wrench just wasn’t working, wouldn’t you reach into your tool box and grab something else, or would you still keep using that wrench?


And if you missed it, here is the Saturday Night Live skit with Palin and Hillary. People are still talking about how funny this is!!! Watch.


AND most importantly... don't forget to VOTE on November 4th!!!

If you haven't registered get info on your state's registration process here: click.

Maine & New Hampshire: You can register on election day at the polling place!

It is soooooooooooooo important this year to vote and know the issues. A lot is a stake.

Ice Cream Social at Mem's

Oh, there seems so much to blog about lately but I have been way too busy

Where to start!....

On grandparent's day, September 7th, I took the kids up to Maine to visit my grandmother (mem). She lives in an assisted living place and they had an ice cream social to celebrate. I actually didn’t want to go but my mem doesn’t ask for much and at my cousins wedding the week before she said to me, “oh, I would love it for you to come”. I didn’t go out of guilt and I didn’t hunt for excuses. My grandmother never puts guilt on me; she’s not that kind of grandmother. I did it because I knew she would love it but I think mostly I did it because it felt like one of those moments that I thought I should seize, more so than usual. I wonder if it was the time and place that she asked me. It is always good to remind ourselves that not one of us will be here forever. She is a very special person to me and I treasure seeing her with my kids. I want them to know her and remember her. I remember my mem’s mom. Not much but I do remember her. It really gets back to how I feel about my Aunt Sarah; I want them to know her. They didn’t have that opportunity to have their own memories but they do with my grandmother. So we made another memory and it was a really nice time. The kids loved the ice cream, mem loved seeing them, and I must say my mem just looked so pretty that day. All smiles too.

She also called Kaiden today because he sent her a picture of a butterfly. The other day we were painting and he was making was about to make her a picture and he chirped up., “can I call mem-mem to see what she wants in her picture?” “Sure” I said. So he gets on the phone with her and says, “mem-mem, I am making you a thank you picture for sending me presents on my birthday, what would you like… a volcano, a tornado, a fire…… oh, a rainbow…. (he thinks a little)… yeah, I can make a rainbow for you mem-mem… oh, a butterfly too….. well, do you want a monarch butterfly or a blue one?.... ok, I can do that. Love you mem-mem, bye.”

It was a very cute conversation. So he went to work making a beautiful blue butterfly with a purple and blue rainbow in the background, one that I wish I took a picture of. Well, she got it today and wanted to call to say thanks. I think he said you’re welcome.

We got some great grandparents photos. Here is me with my grandmother, mem and my Walter.

And here are the boys with their grandparents, grampie and grammie.

Also, we came across these pirates eating ice cream too. Scarry place!