Fall 2012

Fall in Maine is like that huge tomato right out of the garden that you can slice and eat with a fork....just without all the work of growing it.

It's just there.

Serving you up a dish of breathtaking beauty every time you look out the window or step outside.

Like this tree just down the road:

 Or this building I pass every week on my way to church:

Just look at that thing!

But I have to say that the very best gift Fall brings to me each year, is my dad.

He comes and spoils us rotten with m&m hunts for the kids every day and the request of a list of things he can fix for us around the house.  I call it my "daddy do" list with gratitude dripping from my heart.

It's all Hallie has ever known, and without fail, as soon as those leaves start changing, her Grandpa Higgins is all she can talk about.....and I love it.

And this year was extra special because he brought his lovely wife, Bertha with him!

And boy was it fun getting to know her better.

She is one fantastic person who is not only blessing my dad's life, but my little family's as well.

The kids loved her right away.

She helped me so much in the kitchen with the cooking and cleaning and the holding of fussy babies.

One night she made the most delicious chicken enchiladas I've ever had!

We tried to cram in as much fun as we could, and started the week off with our traditional Halloween Family Home Evening, where we ate doughnuts on a string, carved pumpkins, and unwrapped candy using restrictive winter wear.

And for some strange and mysterious reason I don't have oodles of pictures of it all.

Hallie fiercely won the doughnut game.

Then of course we had to take them to the apple farm.

Aren't they cute?

They were such good sports when I asked them to go all Lady-and-the-Tramp with that apple.

And because we picked a bushel and combined it with a bushel that so generously came from my mother in law and sister in law, Bertha and I headed up a day of canning.

And canning....

...and more canning.

I underestimated this kind of undertaking, and found myself feeling so grateful and so sorry at the same time.

Because it became grueling by the end.

Poor Bertha was on her feet the entire time, keeping everything going for the majority of the time as I got nursing breaks and needy-Chandler breaks.

I mean who subjects their vacationing houseguest to a day full of labor?

And she had never even canned applesauce before! Talk about a crash course.

And when we were all done, there were 36 or so quarts sitting on my counter:

Which made two things for sure:
1.)  I am extremely grateful.
2.)  There are some major blessings coming Bertha's way!

Thank you Bertha!  I promise never to do that to you again.

So then, we took them to Belfast, and on the way stopped at this sign:

See, Maine doesn't just offer beautiful foliage.  If you want to travel the world, we have that too.  And this is no joke folks, these are the names of real Maine towns.

Because we're original like that ;)

Anyway, Belfast was beautiful.

We window shopped the "strip".

At some point Elon had possession of the camera and shot some dreamy ones of Chan.

And this house on a hill far away.

There are some interesting little shops in Belfast that offer some pretty nifty works of art.

 And Hallie made bosom friends with this mannequin.

 yeah...not quite sure what was up with that.

But I am sure that as soon as her new plastic friend came crashing off the table on which it was perched, I was the most embarrassed mommy around :/ 

Then we headed to a little restaurant overlooking the water.

Where Bertha and my dad got to try lobster for the first time.

 And I'm not quite sure if it was love at first taste - (on my dad's account) ;)  But it was fun to experience it.

We had so much fun with them, and wished like crazy they could have stayed longer.

But I guess it was good they were safely home before the hurricane.

Dad left his stamp on our house and once again left us better off than when he found us.

Chandler's closet door now opens and closes the way closet doors should.

Our hot water pressure in the downstairs bathroom now flows like the Nile.

The kids' wobbly handleless rocking horse now stands strong and hold-on-able.

The smoke detectors are all up and in working order.

Hallie's princess mirror is on the wall ;)

The little ring that circles the drain in our bathroom has been glued down.

Light bulbs have been replaced.


And he went ahead and added a big ticket item to the list and that was our broken garage door motor.  And boy do we ever appreciate that!  No more getting out of the car each and every time we come and go to manually pick up and pull down that old heavy door.  

I know a lot of these tasks seems so doable and one might think, is it really that hard to replace a few batteries and turn a knob downstairs which connects to the hot water in the bathroom?  And I'm here to say that with schedules and babies and laundry and dinner, sometimes it really is that hard.

And I'm so thankful that my dad is so willing to put all of those little (and big) to-do's on his priority list for us.

Thank you for everything dad and Bertha!  We love you so much.

Birthday Girl

Hallie turned six.

Yup.  She went ahead and did it right smack dab in the middle of the night while we were all asleep in our beds.

3:11am to be exact. 

Which is a bit odd because wasn't I just staring longingly at this picture for days and days on end, knowing full well that I was the mother of the most beautiful baby girl who would ever grace the planet Earth?

And this one too:

I know she isn't graduating from high school or anything, but she's my first born so I think I have license to be a little gushy if I want to. 

She opted to go to the Boston Aquarium instead of having a friends party, so that's what we did the day before. 

And boy was she ever excited to head up this adventure...in case you couldn't tell.

And since we'd be in the same neck of the woods as the Boston Temple, Elon had the great idea to make a pitt stop on our way through.

And it was so fun to be there with our little gems who are always so excited to be so close to it.

A very nice man offered to take our picture.

And Elon managed to take a new favorite of mine.

Just look at my babies.

As we explored the grounds, another very nice person offered to take our family pic. and she took quite a few.

Unfortunately the wind just wouldn't leave well enough alone, but it didn't seem to compromise any of the others. 

I was so grateful to have stopped.

Then it was off to the aquarium!

But before that my very sheltered kids got to experience a little culture...

...in the subway station.  Or should I say "T" station?

Where they saw all different types of ethnicities and got to hear different languages being spoken all around them.  


And I just loved watching these guys take it all in.

They were entranced by the train.

But probably even more entranced by the escalators.

This guy took one look at Hallie and Chan and started playing the Elmo song, which they immediately responded to with smiles then very animated dancing.
                                           
And he wasn't just talented at the guitar, he was a comedian too!  What a treat he was to our trip, so we let Hallie walk over and drop a dollar in his guitar case, which she thought was super cool.

So after much train switching, we took one step out of the station and were in yet another world.

Hallie was so excited to see a Trolly in real life like the ones she's seen on her sing along kid movies.

Everywhere we looked was so picturesque.

Like the old brick roads:

All was just dandy until we got to the Aquarium and found this long monstrous line of people waiting to get in.

But to our pleasant surprise, it moved right along pretty fast.

And I'm not sure what exactly I was picturing when I pictured the Boston Aquarium, but I'm positive it didn't include concrete cubicles: 

Okay, I'll tell you exactly what I was picturing:  One big wall of seamless plexiglass, floor to very high ceiling that goes on and on to the point where you feel like you're actually under the sea with huge sharks and huge jelly fish etc.

I tend to be a bit of a dreamer.

I guess I didn't dream up the support system of such a wall of seamless plexiglass.

Oh well, I still had fun.  And oh yeah.....it wasn't for me.

But actually once I got into that first concrete cubicle, it really was spectacular.

And I wish my photography skills were just as spectacular because I couldn't get a clear shot to save my life.

This little fellow kept swimming up to the glass wherever we were and I thought he was super cute in an old man sort of way.

Here's my "huge" shark ;)

And my "huge" jellyfish (In a little aquarium of their own).

Oh my, I thought this sucker was real for a couple seconds as Hallie threw her hands around it.

These kids had a blast with all the little hands-on creatures.

 Hallie made friends with this little starfish:

At some point we left to watch a movie all about sharks at the I Max - complements of the apologetic aquarium workers for not having the penguin exhibit up and running.  Darn!

But these kids were happy as clams about seeing a movie on the big screen.

And it really was a good movie about sharks.  I'm truly fascinated by them even though they scare the bajeezees out of me.  Their whole goal I'm sure was to build awareness about sharks not being a threat to humans, and that's all fine and dandy, but I think I'll keep my feet firmly planted on soil and my limbs securely intact.

After the movie we headed back in for one last hurrah before they closed.

And we found these smooth movers:

And played some more with critters in these mock tide pools.

This tank had a very long and thick tangled up Anaconda in it that you could only see this part of.

I love Chandler's reflection in this one.

Oh and in case you're ever wondering if a Moby wrap is right for you....it definitely is.  It was so comfy and offered great back support for the oh so long day of walking and train hopping.

We were so excited to see fish like Dory.

And Nemo.

And what is more fun than yet another family pic?

I think Rachel was nearing the end of her rope here ;)

Then we headed back out those doors and into the beautiful city:

Where who knows what kind of things you'll see.

We were almost to the T station again when I looked over and saw one of those ground fountains spouting off water into a mass of elated kids.  So I begged Elon to let us go over so that Hallie and Chandler could join in the fun too.
  
I guess you could say I was feeling a little foot loose and fancy free, and knew that a pair of dry jammies was waiting for each of them in the car.

So much to his chagrin, he consented, and I was so happy he did.

They couldn't believe we were actually letting them run through water with their clothes on!

And I'm not sure if Hallie was more excited or weirded out by the whole thing.

After finally finding our way back to the car via train after train ride, we got these kids changed into their jams and I'll let this picture tell it like it was.

Those chocolatey faces were from some free munchkins that a very nice Dunkin Donuts worker gave them.

Boy did we ever have a fun time.

Then when we got home to a messy house, we tossed them in bed and I proceeded to where my mom hat for a couple more hours so that my princess could wake up to her real birthday.

And she was so surprised to see it all decked out because she saw the state of everything when we got home so late the night before.

They sang to her at church, and when we got home we ate her favorite dinner of pot roast and mashed potatoes.  

Then it was present time!

I couldn't wait for her to open these wings....which she loved:

She then opened a necklace from payless because the last time we were there, she was in awe looking at the wall of jewelry, headbands, and Hello Kitty purses and said, "mom, keep this wall in mind for my birthday."

So how could I possibly not keep that wall in mind for her birthday?

And of course Elon didn't leave her hangin' with star wars figures.

Then the moment arrived that she was so hoping for......

....drum roll...

 And isn't she the prettiest little Princess Leia ever?!

We then proceeded to pin several tails on the donkey.

And Hallie got it spot on.

Chan was a close second.

 Then we had cake and I have to say that this is the most attractive cake I've ever managed to pull off....

...if that sheds any light on my cake decorating abilities.

Boy did we all have fun celebrating our little angel's sixth birthday.  She must have told us 38 times that it was the best birthday ever.  

We love you sweet heart!

Our little Hallie-wallie-mallie-spallie.

What would we ever do without you?