Last of the Maine Summer

The last of the pictures from our visit to Maine.

Hello kiddos!  L-R you see Gavin, Nolan (brothers), Lucy Sue, Ellee, Brennan, Chloe, and Lucy.  Exactly one month separates the last four girls in line.  These were our Maine buddies, major playdate material here.  I put out a facebook call for friends to meet us at the new bounce house in Bangor and all these families came.  It was great to see how all the other kids had grown up too.

 Our Great Pond water-skating adventure.  My triumph and tragedy.  I figured if my (ahem)-year-old father could get up on skis then I could too.  And I did!  Lucy's story goes "last day, Mommy went water-skating and SPLAT!"

My new camera has some effects settings ....

At Amy's house (Grampy York's girlfriend.)  This is right before Jamie pooped all over Aunt Sara.  Check out the intense stare.  We thought it was interest in the pug, but apparently it was total BM concentration.

This is how excited Lucy was about the pool at Amy's.

Lucy playing badminton teamed up with Jacob against Uncle Matt (and I believe Grampy).  She looks like a pro!

We had a nice visit with Grammy York, too, and all the cousins.  Yup, Jacob loves Lucy.

Jamie, Lucy, Jacob, and Lennon.  It's funny to see this picture with Lennon's wide smile.  He's usually super reserved, shy, grumpy.  I could tell he spent a lot of time at Grammy's house because he was immediately comfortable and we saw a side of him I haven't really seen before.

Uncle Ryan and Mr. Cool himself.  We went to the Taste of Waterville for an afternoon and Jamie, believe it or not, just went with the flow.

Lucy got to go in a couple of bounce houses at the Taste, which was fun.  The mouse behind us was part of a bounce obstacle course - and she got stuck.  There was a wall to climb up with a slide on the other side that she refused to come down.  One of the workers had to go and rescue her.

No bounce houses yet for Baby J, but those legs are shaping up to be bouncing machines, just like his big sister's.

Another pool?  This is my friend Tina, from the Whig and Courier, at her house.  Lucy slowly lost her clothes and jumped right into Tina's pool.  So Tina slipped her suit on and gave Lucy her first swim lesson.  Tina lamented the fact that she didn't have a couple of solid days in which to teach Lucy to swim. 

And yes, this is how we feel about spending a big portion of our summer in Maine.  Awesome.

3rd Birthdays (1st & 2nd)

What lucky girl gets TWO 3rd birthday parties?  The one whose parents moved 1500 miles away from Grandma, that's who!  Since our departure date from Maine was so close to Lucy's actual birthday anyway, we decided to stick around and let Grandma throw her a party.

 Ahhh, a pile of presents.  Just what every 3-year-old wants.

  Side note: I chose this shot of the balloons because it shows off our awesome new (to us) van.  We literally bought it two days before leaving to go to Maine and drove it across the country with temporary plates.  Risky, yes.  Worth it, totally.  I was dreading the trip in our sedan, seriously contemplating not going (sorry mom) because I couldn't imagine the hours crammed in the car with two kids a dog and all our stuff.  Having nightmares.  Thankfully we were able to find what a friend dubbed our "sweet ride" and we loved it.  The whole way there and the whole way back.

This is my best friend Crystal, holding Jamie, and me with her neighbor's baby, Maddox, about 3 weeks apart.  Crystal and I did have babies together, but not this time.  

 Aunt Grace with the tiny kitty.  She works in a pet store and someone dropped him off at two days old with no mother.  Grace, the cat whisperer, has nursed Tiger back to health using a medicine dropper and techniques that should not be discussed in polite company.  He's a scrapper and Uncle Ryan and Aunt Grace are going to have a hard time giving him up when the move to Minneapolis this week.  All bets are on them keeping him, despite my brother's allergy.

 All the kids at the party playing in the back yard with Mr. "Fun Dad" Rob.  It looks like a trip wire across the yard .... essentially it was.  Someone tied Shorty's run to the tree for the kids to jump across, which they mainly did.  I think it only took one kid down, amazingly.

 This is one of my favorite favorite pictures.  Can you tell how much these two adore each other?  Jacob did anything Lucy asked including run around and around the house with her in a piggy back.  It was a beautiful night to share with family and friends.

So on to Lucy's second 3rd birthday party!

My spread.  I just wish our friends had come more hungry than they did - we had a lot of food left over.  Did I mention I don't think I ever thanked my mother for any birthday party she threw me?  There were many.  Have I thanked my mother for any of the birthday parties she threw for Lucy?  (or at least did a large share of the work to throw?)  After doing this one solo and for only a few people, I must remember to thank her, perhaps with a surprise anniversary party or something ...

 This is Lucy's posse.  Carson to the left, Gabe to the right.  Three great smiles.  If friend Silas had been here, he probably would have been making some sort of funny face.

 The baby blanket, where naturally Lucy is monopolizing the baby toys.  I think our neighbor baby Flankin (Franklin) had already retired for the afternoon at this point.  He's a bit of a fussy napper, unlike my sleep-a-holic baby J.  And yes, Jamie's hair does look that funny from the back in person as well.  Then Jon playing Hungry Hungry Hippos with the kids.  Apparently Carson came out of the house with the game asking "Do you want to play?"  Jon jumped right in, though we believe Carson was asking Gabe or Lucy.

 Then Ann with Hayden and a super sweet Mariel feeding Jamie.  These two women are also saving my skin on day care as I start work, because preschool and Jamie's sitter don't start for a couple of weeks yet.

Waiting for cake.

 Some homemade goodness here.  Have I thanked my mother yet for all my birthday parties?  And while I'm at it, can I mention Christmas and Thanksgiving dinner as well?  Yellow cake with chocolate frosting, Tinkerbell candles, per Lucy's requests ... ahem ... demands.

 Here's the grumpy princess.  I should have known better than to give in to the elaborate Pinkalicious tiara that made it's way into our cart at the shopping store.  "Mommy, my friends are going to be so surprised when they come to my party and I'm a PRINCESS!"  Nope, couldn't resist that one.  Abandoned, forgotten, and discarded was how the new tiara ended up, exchanged for the old one that we already had at home.  Oh well.

 Finally, Lucy opening presents by herself.  Does it look traumatic?  It should, just a little, post-call to Poison Control.  I had an art project set up for the kids, bubble painting, which I learned about on an infomercial and thought looked pretty cool.  It should have come with a disclaimer that it was for older kids.  Lucy drank a big gulp of the dish soap/tempera paint mixture and proceeded to scream and vomit for half an hour before conking out with her mouth open and tongue out.  It got hectic for a while, but Poison Control told me that there would be irritation and no lasting harm.  Not that I at any point want to see Lucy suffer, but I would have felt even worse if either Gabe or Carson had drank the paint.  After sleeping off most of the effects, Lucy woke up telling me that drinking bubble paint was "very very bad."  Yes, yes it was.

 And really, what's a kids party without sticking a hat on some unsuspecting baby and snapping a photo?  I'm going to caption this one "You call this a party?" 

At Camp

Every summer I know I've posted something about our time at camp and how I hope that Lucy - and now Jamie - will grow up loving it as much as I remember as a kid.  So far, so good.  This summer Lucy has really taken off on my old favorite camp activities: swimming, climbing rocks, running in the woods, sitting at the camp seat to have breakfast, and playing with those eggs.  Jamie is still playing it cool.

These are some of my favorite shots of Lucy climbing on the rocks (not alone, mind you).  I'm not sure when my parents started letting me climb around and explore alone, but three seems too young.  Especially when you know how BIG some of those rocks are and how far of a drop off the edge there is.  I still have a rock scar on my leg, though there is no proof that was parental negligence.  :)

 

 And speaking of camp rocks ... It's just not quite as cool when it's not the rainbow rock.  We'll have to talk about walking to the mountain rock.  Katahdin rock?  Burleigh rock?  Wouldn't it be nice to just knock on their door and ask them to re-paint the rainbow?  By the way, this is another one of my childhood memories that grew larger in my mind.  It isn't nearly as far away as I remember.

And the swimming.  So far I don't think Lucy has been nabbed by one of the toe-biting fish, which would likely ruin all the water progress we've made this summer.

Eric tied a rope to her float and towed her half way out to the rocks before she decided she wanted to turn around.  

 

Lucy also spent a ton of time just splashing around in the shallows.  Jamie even got in on the fun in his Bumbo on the nicest day.  I did see if the foam seat would float, which it did, but it was entirely too unstable for the open water.  So Jamie got a princess boat instead.

 

 

 

But most of Jamie's swimming was in the tub.

We had a campfire to make s'mores.  Eric told Lucy he was going to make her a really yummy sandwich.  "Like peanut butter and jelly?" she asked.  Even better.  "Just jelly?"  We build the fire (surprise surprise) after Jamie went to bed and Lucy was not entirely sure about the whole thing.  She didn't like the marshmallow at all, refused to try a s'more, and didn't get any closer than the photo shows, though Eric tried to show her how to build the fire.  I, however, toasted marshmallows for myself just like I was ten again.

 

We had a great visit from Sara, Tim, and Jacob.  Boy oh boy does Lucy love cousin Jacob.  And he loves her right back.  I've never seen a 12-year-old boy act like that around kids.  Super cute.

Shorty had a good time too, getting to wander around like all the other dogs people bring to the lake.  Every time I bring her somewhere, I think it might be the last time, she's getting so old.  Still kicking, though.  She withstood the ultimate test of old age - meeting the shih tzu down the road and not trying to eat her.

 Grandma and Grandpa came up the last day and really, the only thing that could make camp better is a visit from people who love you more than anything.

Chloe

Right before we moved, I made a new friend in our neighborhood in Maine.  Stacy and I lived so close and had so much in common (not the least of which are our girls born just 3 weeks apart).  I had an entire scenario imagined where Lucy and Chloe grew up together, elementary school, middle school dances, a limo at prom.  And then we moved.

This is our beautiful Chloe or Flow-y or Plo-y, depending on when you asked Lucy.  We had a pronunciation evolution.

Chloe has the sweetest voice, a Minnie Mouse voice that says things like "Wow a motor-bikle!"  She talks about fifty miles an hour.  She's so adorable I could eat her.

Though the perspective is a bit misleading, Lucy is way bigger than Chloe, a full size  This picture is not the most flattering of the girls, note the mouthful of cookie, but they were totally uninterested in posing.





The girls had a great time playing in Lucy's pool at Grandma's house, and have mostly moved beyond the "parallel play" they used to do and actually engaged and (mostly) shared.

This is not an optical illusion.  There are actually two pink potties on the deck.  What's better, is they both got used.  On the deck.  There was some potty persuasion happening in the summer sun.  Teamwork!

And then we got to see Stacy and Chloe again at the bounce house!  Stacy is a friend I know I will keep in touch with, no matter the distance, so in a way Lucy and Chloe will grow up together.  Now all we need is for Stacy and Andrew to have a friend for Jamie ...