October

We chose one of the coldest days in October to go to the pumpkin farm...

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 Poppy's school had a cute little halloween carnival...

our local fire station had an open house.  Sammy was obsessed with the fire trucks this time...

Marc is still working on that playhouse...

pumpkins were cleaned and carved...

cousins dressed as dragons...

our motley crew of cousins...

And that was our October in a nutshell!

September

 We picked a beautiful fall day to go apple picking this year...

 {the three amigos reunite}

Sammy polishing off his first apple pie of the season...

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Whenever it's quiet in our house, it's almost guaranteed that Poppy is hard at work at a project at her desk...

and Sam is setting up some choo-choo tracks somewhere...

August

A few days before school started, I took Poppy and Sam to my new school library so they could see where I would be working...

Poppy said her favorite part was getting to sit at my desk and Sam had a tantrum because I wouldn't let him use the electric pencil sharpener all day...

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Poppy and Sam made these adorable little sailboats at the Elmwood Arts Festival...

 "The Doc is in"....

 {Upa gets a check-up}

 {Poppy shows grandma around in her clinic playhouse}

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Uncle Jeff took Sammy to see all of the construction trucks for the town...

Basically, Sam would prefer to go to the truck garage over going disneyworld any day...

Hangin' in there...

{this pic was just too cute to not post!  tee-hee!}

We're still here!  Life is flying by lately.  I feel like I blinked and almost 2 months have gone by.  I have lots of pictures and thoughts to process here on my little piece of the world wide web.  My brain keeps doing this unfortunate thing of "shutting off" every night at about 9:00, which is when I used to do most of my blogging.  As it turns out, being a full time mom and a full time librarian is a pretty tough act to juggle.  I just wanted to check in and let everyone know that I am still here and as soon as I can get my brain to operate past 9pm, I will be back to do lots of chatting...

1st day of school!

We survived!  Actually, we did more than just survive.  We loved it!!!  I was so nervous about Poppy and how she would be about getting on the bus, or what if she started crying when she got to school.  But as always, Poppy is full of surprises.  She woke up and she was pumped about her first day of kindergarten...

She had her dress picked out the night before, her lunch and bookbag was packed and she was ready!

We all walked down to the bus stop together and everyone was very excited.  Notice Poppy's big yellow hand she is wearing around her neck?  Her school didn't send her a name tag over the summer and I was nervous that when she got off the bus at school, she might get lost or not know where to go.  So the night before school we read The Kissing Hand and then we traced my hand and wrote her name, class room and bus number on it and she proudly wore her "kissing hand" name tag to school...

And when her bus pulled up, she gave us kisses and hopped right on, got a window seat and waved goodbye.  Just like that.  And then I burst into tears.  I totally didn't think I would get all emotional, but there was no stopping it.  Sammy burst into tears too.  His were because he was mad that he didn't get to ride on the bus.

When she got home and I asked her how school went she said, "It was even better then I ever imagined it would be!  I loved it!"  And every day since then her reply is always the same when I ask her how school was - "It was even better than yesterday!"

Sammy is also loving it at Miss Rose's house, which is such a relief.  I knew he would love it, but I thought it would take him a little longer to get used to it.  Nope, he was great on the first day!

And being back to work myself is going even better then I expected!  ( I kinda sound like Poppy!)  The only thing is that I forgot how exhausting it is!  Tonight is the first night that I don't want to crawl into bed at 7pm.  But overall, we are all loving our new schedule and it makes us appreciate every minute that we get to spend together at home!

It's happening!

It's really, really happening!  Tomorrow I officially go back to work and the next day is Poppy's first day of kindergarten!!!  What?!  So many mixed emotions, I don't even think I can describe them.  It's funny that Poppy and I are actually both feeling the same mixed emotions.  Mostly excitement with a little bit of nervousness mixed in there too.  Wish us luck!

Maine

We just got back from an amazing week in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.  We went with my parents and my brother's family and we all stayed at a great house right on the water.  Poppy and Sam loved every minute spent with their cousins.  We packed a lot of fun adventures into this week...

{Poppy loved climbing the rocks and exploring in the tide pools.}

{The swing was a big hit-}

{with both the kids and adults!}

{Have I ever mentioned how much Sam loves dessert?  He devoured this cupcake.}

{There was plenty of cartoon watching and cereal-stealing in the mornings.}

{Higgins Beach was great.  Sam loved waiting for the little waves.}

{The view from our cottage - it was amazing!}

{cousin tubby time!}

{sleepovers with Amelia and Poppy}

{I snapped this pic of Marc, Poppy & Sam exploring while we were waiting for our lobster dinners at a nearby restaurant}

{Sam & Poppy would have nothing to do with eating lobster, but they were entertained by my "talking" lobster.}

{We went out on a lobster charter and although Poppy was pretty terrified at first, she now says that it was her favorite part of the whole week.  We all had a blast.}

{checking out a crab that was found in one of the lobster crates}

{We're all geared up and ready to catch some lobster!}

{this was all serious business for Poppy}

{We had to measure each lobster to determine if we could keep them - I couldn't believe Poppy got this close to a live one!}

{Afterwards, it was time for some serious lobster cooking back at the cottage.  Upa was ready!}

{It was the best lobster I've ever had!}

{After dinner it was time to give the lobster shells back to the sea.  (which was really because we didn't want raccoons to try to get them out of the garbage cans.}

{These two became quite the amigos.  Our first day home and Sam asked "Where Lou?"}

{We had one day of rainy weather so we headed to the Portland children's museum for some fun!  This was the highlight of the day for Sam!}

{Early morning fishing for the guys.  Marc was the only one to catch anything and he's still talking about it.}

{Bon fire on the beach!}

{Letting go of a paper lantern.  I love watching them float so high into the sky.}

{Card games were played.}

{We took the kids on their first geocache.  Everyone had fun with looking for the hidden treasure.}

 {Portland was only 10 minutes away, which was perfect for heading into the city for dinner and ice cream.}

We had an absolutely amazing time.  Maine is gorgeous.  I loved everything about it.  We even survived the 9 hour drive and as soon as we got home, I felt like I wanted to start planning a trip back.