Day 227 -- First Day of School

Maddie was so excited for school! Our street is really fun the first day. All of the kids gather under the street sign to take a picture. (I posted the one blocked out on purpose) The dads stay home from work to send them all off and everyone just celebrates the big event. It creates such a wonderful happy feeling -- I just want to hug them all!

Day 226 -- Mrs. Zito

Today we met Maddie's first grade teacher -- Mrs. Zito. She is great! There is a chrysalis in Maddie's class that is about to burst and produce a butterfly. Maddie is so excited for school she can barely stand it!

Day 225 -- Brown Day

Maddie had fun celebrating "Brown Day" today -- she had everything brown, including her chocolate milk. She thought it was so funny! She requested that it be the picture of the day -- here you go darlin'!

Day 224-- Dinner Party

We celebrated our newly painted room by having friends over for dinner. I just love sitting in the bright beautiful room!

Day 223 -- Celebrate!

We finished all the touch up painting tonight -- all 4 hours worth -- and decided it was worth celebrating. Now on to fining a dining room table......

Day 222 -- Painting

We've been working on the dining room all week-- we took the tape off tonight. Yahoo -- it looks so good! Here's what it looked like before:

Day 221 -- Sturbridge Village

We went up to Sturbridge Village with a few friends today. It was a really fun place. It's an old colonial villiage with costume, homes, farm animals, and demonstrations. It's much more relaxed than Plymouth Plantation. There are big open spaces, barns, playgrounds and a Children's Museum type-room with tons of fun stuff to do.

It was a really hot day, so the kids were looking for shade and water often, but we really enjoyed it. Their favorite demonstration was the Blacksmith. He was a great teacher -- showing how the iron was hot, showing how to tell when it was cool and on and on. My favorite part was when he explained that if there is ever a fire you should test the door with the back of your hand. If the door is electrified and you touch it with your palm, the muscles in your arm will be electrically charged to keep your hand in contact with the door. If you use the back of your hand and it's electrically charged, the charge will contract your muscles and pull your arm away from the door and break the contact with the electrical charge. Sorry for the long explanation, but I thought it was pretty cool!

Here's some cute pictures with the kids:

Day 220 -- Going Bananas

Little John loves bananas. I hate bananas. I don't really choose to buy bananas.

Where does the innate knowledge of like and dislike come from? How can John see bananas in the store without ever having one and know that it's something he likes? He saw them and started shouting, "A ME!" Which in John-speak means, "Give that to me right now!" We bought them and he's eating them two-a-day now.

Day 218 -- My boy

Do you ever look at your kids and think that the suddenly look like a different person than they did the day before? That's how I felt about John all day today. He just looked like a different kid to me. It was unnerving.

Day 215 -- Cookie Dough

Today John enjoyed eating the cookie dough I made for a PTO meeting. It's so cute. When I start the mixer, he runs over shouting, "Yum, Yum!" and needs to see inside, all the while saying "Yum."  Apparently all things mixed are tasty.

Day 214 -- Cape Cod

We had a great day driving out to Cape Cod. We toured the Potato Chip factory which was yummy, but a bit anti-climatic since it was so short.

We ate lunch at Uno's pizza and then headed out to the Chatham Lighthouse. It was freezing! The beach patrol was decked out in full rain gear with hoods! The waves were surprisingly big, and the kids got nailed by a couple. John was wallowing in the sand as usual -- happy as could be.

Day 212 -- Mailing Packages

I love finishing things on the to-do list! I mailed off a vinyl order and a big box of hand-me-downs that went to Anna. Two things checked off the list, only 43 known tasks left!

Day 210 -- Vinyl

I finally got to cut the vinyl for our toy storage bins. I'm really excited with how they turned out!

Day 209 -- Yellow Jackets

Jared, being a wonderful and dutiful husband, went out to mow the lawn today. After about 30 minutes of work, he came running in the house, stomping and swatting. Apparently, he ran over a nest of yellow jackets in the front lawn. They started to attack him -- we learned through some research that they consider the lawn mower to be a threatening insect.

Jared only got stung twice, but they were miserable. The bugs were able to sting him through his clothes!

We waited a bit and then went outside to see where the nest was -- it was like that scene in Winnie-the-Pooh where the bees go shooting out of the hive. The yellow jackets were shooting out of their nest in anger. Jared didn't go back to that part of the yard until after sunset when the bugs calm down.

We went and got some spray to shoot down into the nest that night. Jared dug the nest up a couple of days later -- look how big it was!

Day 208 - Colchester Park

We had a great time playing at the park today. The kids tried the splash park for a bit, but it was just too cold! They all got dressed and played on the playground for quite a long time. Then we went to McDonald's and turned out they had an indoor playground! The kids ended up playing for almost three hours in total.

John-John is really improving in his physical skills. He's not afraid of any of the slides or park obstacles. Quite the feat for a 20-month-old. I just have to keep an eye on him because he thinks he can do everything that he sees the big kids do. Physically he could probably handle it, but his body just isn't big enough to stretch over spaces that the longer legs can reach.

I can't stop thinking about how to fix the dining room. I just can't justify the expensive table, as you know since I keep talking about tables. We went to Costco to see the table there one more time. It really is a good table. I'm concerned that we might be able to scratch the top though. I need to think some more. Also, it's a counter height. Would that bug me? I'm not sure. We sat at the table for a bit, trying to imagine what it would be like.

Then we went to Texas Roadhouse for a late dinner. Where we live, there really aren't that many restaurants. You have to drive about an hour to find all the major places. So, we took advantage of being in New Haven and enjoyed the evening out with the kids. I have to say -- they were great. John kept hugging Jared in a state of bliss. It was really cute. The little man did wet through his diaper and needed to be changed after we left. Seriously! He can't go two hours without a diaper change. He's always soaking through his clothes.

Day 207 -- Goodbye Dresser

I sold my great-grandmother's dresser today. It was bitter-sweet. It's a beautiful piece of furniture, but it just doesn't fit in our house. It's been taking up space in our garage ever since we moved. It makes it very difficult for Jared to park in the garage in the winter.

The great part -- I used the money to pay for our new dishes -- yippee! Thanks dresser.

Day 206 -- Amoxicillin

Man -- the smell of this stuff really takes me back! John seems to be doing well, and getting better. I love antibiotics! Don't get me wrong, not all of the time, but when they're required, they really are a blessing!

Day 205 -- Gilette Castle

We had fun going to Gilette Castle today. It was Gina and Josh's final Connecticut adventure. I didn't appreciate it as much on my first visit as I did today. I think it's having Gina along -- she really loves decor and architecture. The views are spectacular and the drive is enjoyable as well. It's definitely a place worth visiting.

It was sad to take Gina and Josh to the airport. We've had such a great time having them here. I will say that we are just exhausted though! I need a week's worth of sleep to catch up!

Day 204 -- Nautilus & Mystic Pizza

We spent the morning at the Nautilus museum -- our third time in three weeks. Even though it was the third time, it was actually our best visit. They were having all kinds of learning experiences for the kids all free of charge. The kids built periscopes, played with Lego's and did a scavenger hunt throughout the museum. It was really fun for everyone.

After seeing the submarine, we decided to go over to Mystic Pizza for lunch. It was my first visit -- I was really surprised at how good it was and for such a reasonable price too. The only sad part was poor little John. He was fading fast. He just laid with his head in my hand and tried to rest while we ate.

The entire day he kept getting more and more dots on his head. At one point I counted 27 of them. I couldn't think of any explanation other than the dreaded chicken pox. With the dots in combination with the fever, I decided to take him to the doctor. Our wonderful pediatrician looked at him and said(I'll paraphrase here), the dots are feliculitis from the sunscreen and the fever is something else. Let's swab his throat. Sure enough -- strep. Good ol' strep. They swabbed Maddie just in case, but she's fine.

Day 203 -- Old Lyme & Niantic Tour

We had planned on driving to Manhattan today, but it just didn't work out. There were thunderstorms in the afternoon that would have ruined our picnic in Central Park. Also, John started getting a fever on Saturday afternoon and it was getting worse. We only went to Sacrament Meeting because it just wasn't going well.

We did go on our traditional visitors tour of Old Lyme and the Niantic Boardwalk. It was nice to be outside and get some fresh air after our naps.

Day 202 -- Family Day

We got to go to Jared's office party, known as "Family Day." We get to ride a private ferry out to the private island. Then there is a bus ride to take you to the big field and private beach. It definately feels luxurious.

They have great activities set up, lots of tents for shade and food and drink for everyone. It's such a big hit! We love going and every year seems to get better and better! This year was extra fun because we got to have Gina, Doug and Josh join with us in the fun.

They have a giant slip & slide for the kids to get wet.There was a giant moon bounce too.

Choose your own flavor snow cones.

Horseshoes, volleyball, tours of the island, fire truck rides and more.

Then there's the beach:

This beach is actually on the ocean so there were real waves. On our beaches, because they are on long island sound, there are not many waves at all.

Here's the Old Saybrook lighthouse -- one of our two local lighthouses. Jared passes it going to and from work every day.