Quiet Day at Home

For the past 2 days, I've been away at the Science Teachers' Convention in Hartford, CT. We battled some serious traffic to get out of CT last night and arrived home just before 10PM...EXHAUSTED! I was sorry to miss Sarah Haven's baby shower today, but I was just TOO exhausted for another trip out this morning. Instead, I helped Elijah make a "Welcome Home" card for Baby Caroline and carve two of our pumpkins.

Catching Up

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity around here. Ed is finally fully recovered from his mysterioso illness, so we have been able to enjoy some fall activities as a family. In between apple picking and pie making, Elijah's been riding his bike and Ed's been getting the house and wood stove ready for winter. We're expecting some snow for the end of the week- yikes! Fall is just too short!

This past weekend was the annual Tilton shopping trip. Biggest crowd since I started participating! Lisa, Dan and Martha are so gracious to open their home to a gaggle of shopping ladies. Excellent company, delicious food and lots of good bargains made this a perfect weekend! We even got to get in some skyping with Julie and the girls and Caitrin and her little ladies.

While I was gone, Ed and Elijah had some big plans for the weekend. Unfortunately, Elijah spiked a fever Saturday morning that stuck with him for the weekend, so they ended up being pretty low key. I stayed home with Elijah yesterday, which was fine by me- I got the floors mopped for the first time in...too long! Over the weekend, I visited a lot with Joanie about her cleaning jobs, and I learned that she spend 7.5 hours cleaning ONE house every other week. I thought about how lovely it would be for someone (not me, but someone) to spend 7.5 hours cleaning my house. How truly amazing that would be, in fact. So I mopped the floors, which just had to be good enough for now.

Tomorrow I am out on a field trip with the Student Council and Foreign Exchange students and Thursday a bunch of us from the Science Department are headed off to Hartford, CT for a science convention for 2 days. Saturday is Sarah Haven's baby shower, Saturday night we have a Halloween party to attend, and Sunday (finally) I can come up for air! Juggle juggle! Today was my only "real" workday of the week, but somehow my workload doesn't feel any lighter. Thank goodness I have such a great student teacher this year!

Fingers crossed that Baby Caroline might be able to come home sometime within the next week or so. After all she's been through, I can't believe the time has finally come for doctors to start thinking seriously about her discharge. There's ONE little family who will surely appreciate the comforts of home (once they get there once and for all).

Love to all!
Sorry, no pictures to share

New Additon!

Haha, I just thought that would be a funny title for this blog post. Sorry if you were thinking, "Yahoo!" or (more likely) "Oh no!" Anyway, we DO have a new addition. Last Friday Elijah got a pet hamster named Pumpkin Cereal-Bowl (don't ask). See, this is what happens when Ed decides to wait in the car while Elijah and I "run into PetSmart for a new aquarium plant." I always had one rodent pet or another as a kid...and I guess it's genetic. Anyway, she's very cute and sweet. If she survives the extra-special attention (read: mad desire to kill) from Zoe, we'll all be lucky!

Last Hurrah in Maine!

It was the opening weekend of bird hunting season, so Elijah and I decided to head to Maine one last time, while Ed went to Wheelock. Someday my little buddy will be going to Wheelock WITH Ed, and I'll lose my traveling partner!

The weather turned out to be much more appealing than predicted, and in fact my only complaint was the mosquitoes. They actually made it difficult to hang outside for very long without a good, thick covering of DEET.

Saturday morning, waiting for Nana to arrive...

Finally! Someone to play CandyLand with!

Nana even lets Elijah win!

Drawing pictures before heading off to the zoo for the afternoon.

We had a wonderful weekend- I even

got another lobster fix (okay, TWO lobsters).

This week, our friend and colleague Mickey passed along a childrens' workbench that he made for his own children, who are now 19 and 16. It even has a real working vice. Pretty much, if it's not nailed down, it's been in the vice. This afternoon, Elijah spent some time pulverizing rotten potatoes.

Just some cute pictures from bathtime. Tonight's bath was pink and soapy :-)

Happy Autumn, everyone!

Beautiful Pre-Fall Hikes in Vermont

Two gorgeous, sunny, cool weekends here in Vermont-- perfect for hiking. Last Sunday we climbed Mount Philo.






View from the top.




















Today we checked out Five Tree Hill.






Another pretty view!
I LOVE that Elijah is learning to enjoy hiking- it's been one of my favorite pasttimes for years, and I'm so thrilled to be sharing it with him!

Hurricane, Labor Day and First Day of Preschool!!

We were spared any real damage from Hurricane Irene, and in fact didn't even lose electricity. To pass time, we decided to make sock puppets for a puppet show. It actually LOOKS more fun than it was, although it kept Elijah engaged for over 2 hours on a rainy, windy day.

Labor Day weekend, Elijah and I headed for Maine while Ed laid a new floor in our bathroom.

We got to spend some quality time with my Mom, Aunt Nancy, Uncle George, Aunt Denise and cousin Jen.

We went apple AND blueberry picking, and spent many hours just hanging out on the beach- we were blessed with 2 gorgeous, sunny and warm days!

Today was a major milestone for our family- Elijah's first day at Poker Hill School. Back in July, he did a 1-week summer camp there, and every morning was horrible. He would cry and cling and beg me not to leave him. As you can imagine, I was expecting the worst today. In fact, I wasn't going to be a part of the drop-off at all, Ed and I decided it might be easier for Elijah if I wasn't even there (he's much stronger around Ed, and much clingier to me).

But Ed developed a terrible stomach bug and ended up staying home, and I faced the task of bringing Elijah to Poker Hill myself. And aside from the fact that he wouldn't let me take any pictures of him this morning, Elijah did GREAT his first day! I (on the other hand) was a mess after leaving him!

The following pictures are all from after school (hence the dirty clothes):

















Showing off his nap space-

Cubbies-

The famous "purple door"

Happy Kiddo, Happy Mommy!

Now, if Elijah and I can only avoid contracting whatever sickness Ed is suffering through, we'll be lucky!