Five By Five

Molly makes it clear that Adam is her friend.

Alex, Adam, Thom, Jack, and I headed out to Portland, Maine this past weekend to see what there was to see. It was a looong drive but we had fun! We saw Cranes poking about in marshes. We watched interesting people wandering about in knee braces while we were stuck in traffic.  And we paid a toll booth guy decked out in July 4th gear. It was a good time.

Alex took these wonderful summer shots of our fabulous ladies.

It’s a time-honored tradition– splashing about in giant puddles made by a big summer storm. We couldn’t resist getting outside today to check out Driveway Lake.

School’s out, so silly is In at our house. Here, Aves wants to see what her head would look like if it were as big as this pillow.

We went to the Gilsum, NH Rock Swap, a gem, mineral and fossil show. We had a great time looking at all the many different types of rocks available for trade or purchase. Avery ‘panned’ for minerals at one booth, finding an arrowhead and a tiny little bone, along with a bunch of very cool stones.

The girls are getting to really enjoy traveling with Jack.

We like to head out and about frequently, exploring different parts of our local world (as well as gearing the whole group up for our cross-country excursion later this summer…). Last weekend we went to the Yankee Candle Flagship Store in Deerfield, MA. The store is super-colossal, and sells far more than just candles. We had a great time, and stopped to pose as royalty. The girls are trying to look ‘queenly’ here (although it looks a bit like they’ve just given up hope that the governor will call….)

We had a blast at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture book Art in Amherst, Massachusets. It is an awesome museum. We went to help celebrate Eric’s 80th Birthday, enjoying in the process birthday cake and a performance by Elizabeth Mitchell of You Are My Flower. We loved the displays of Carle’s work as well as Virginia Lee Burton, who wrote some of our favorite books like Mike Mulligan’s Steam Shovel and The Little House. The museum’s displays are focused on the process of storytelling with art, and really help kids and adult kids see that small sketches can turn into great stories. It is a very ‘kid friendly’ museum. Jack loved being able to see pictures up close, as well as seeing his Aunt D and Rohan and Teagan.

Avery is the queen of relaxation. Seriously.  If this kid could stay in jammies all day there’d be no hesitation.  She’s seen here relaxing on our couch reading a book.  Her reading skills are expanding every day and she greatly enjoys the Junie B books.  Jack is a fan of the exersaucer that we were lucky enough to inherit from our dear friend, Moof.  He just loves the butterflies! And finally, Elli chilling with her friends playing pass the balloon.