Serious Birthday Fun...Part 1

The excitement began last week, with a birthday card from Lisa and Dan. Followed by another cute card yesterday from Grammie (with money!)- Elijah thought that was pretty special, and says, "TataGaga" (Thank-you, Grammie)

Just as I had 3 baby showers, I think Elijah is destined to always have 3 birthday parties. There are pros and cons to living so far away from my family!

Here are the photos from party #1, at "Miss Tammy's House" (Elijah's daycare). Tammy was actually recognizing 3 of the childrens' birthdays- Elijah (28th), Rhiannon (the girl to his left turns 2 on the 30th) and Olivia (the girl with the dark hair, turned 8 on the 12th). Tammy made cupcakes and we brought some "sun cookies" from the Foothills Bakery. The children made birthday crowns as their craft and enjoyed some delicious eats.

In this picture- Tiller, Elijah and Rhiannon:

Clockwise- Tiller, Elijah, Edie, Olivia, Jeffrey: Yummy!
Tammy is one smart woman to have the birthday party (with all that sugar) in the afternoon....just before the kids leave for the day!

Birthday part #2 will be at my sister Paula's house on Saturday (Elijah's actually birthday), and party #3 will be back at home with Mommy, Daddy and Zoe on Sunday. I can't wait for Elijah to open our gifts!

Record-Breaker

For the first year ever in the "new camp", the Glover Camp Boys have harvested three (3!) Wheelock Bucks. Calvin on opening day, Matt last Monday, and yesterday morning, Paul got his first buck in something like 13 years. I think it was a 4-pointer, but I don't know any details beyond that. Congratulations, Paul!

Congratulations Matt!

Matt got his first "Wheelock Buck" yesterday morning. Whoo hoo! A ten-pointer (I think).

Our phone rang off the hook last night. Ed said it's the equivalent of someone in my family having a baby. I doubt that...but it's still very exciting.

Congratulations, Matt!

When the Cat's Away....

Well, another hunting season is upon us! Ed left after school yesterday for deer camp, and will return on Sunday. His original plan was to stay through until Monday, but then Elijah was sick all week and we alternated taking days off. We both have missed a lot of school lately.

When our new Bunco group formed this past summer, we all chose our month to host. I picked November, knowing how dark and lonely the hunting season weekends could be. Sounded good back then. What I didn't anticipate was how hard it would be to plan, cook and clean for Bunco with Elijah around and Ed gone to camp! I was especially questioning my decision as I stood in line at Costco at 5:30 last night, behind a woman whose debit card would not work, as I watched the clock, realizing that in the next 90 minutes I had to have dinner prepared, Elijah fed and in bed and the house ready to accept a gaggle of women.

Throw in there an exceptionally fussy, feverish and mucousy almost-two-year-old. I still have no idea how I pulled it off. But when the first guests arrived at 7:05, Elijah was sound asleep, the house was sparkly clean (a rarity), and there was rotisserie chicken and stuffing warming in the oven, a crock pot of creamy mashed potatoes, Waldorf salad, cranberry sauce and even an apple pie and a pumpkin pie!

Admittedly, I took half the day off of school, and I made the pies, mashed potatoes and salad the night before (and the pie crusts 2 nights before)...but nobody needs to know that! The food was delicious, the meal was a huge hit, and we even played a record NINE rounds of Bunco. On top of that, I got the lowest score so I won the "loser prize" ($10). Cool. Miraculously, Elijah slept through the entire party...and it wasn't exactly quiet.

I only ever see midnight on Bunco nights. The morning came too quickly, and Elijah woke with a runny faucet nose, a terrible sounding cough and a fever of 103. We had a very low-key day, it poured rain so we hung around the house, watched a lot of Elmo and Bob the Builder, read books and played cars. We both took a 3+ hour nap.

Now Elijah's in bed and I am making a pot of Grammie's corn chowder as well as a pumpkin pie for a Science-teacher brunch I am hosting tomorrow. A much less stressful affair, since the house is already clean and after making a few "heads-up" phone calls, some of the teachers with children opted not to come tomorrow, due to Eli's illness (although before I had the bright idea of calling people, I soaked all of Eli's cars, balls and plastic food items in Clorox. Then I thought, "This is dumb. If I am feeling the need to disinfect all his toys, I probably shouldn't have children coming to the house!")

So it will just be a small crowd of maybe 7 of us or so.

That's my crazy deer camp weekend in a nutshell! Wonder what next weekend will bring?

p.s. I did talk to Ed-- Calvin shot a deer today, on opening day of rifle season. Congrats, Calvin!

Moving Day!

Tyler and Aimee closed on their new house in Derby on Friday afternoon. Saturday was moving day! They had a great crew involved- Peter, Paul, Wes, Matt, Barry and Kim Adams (and Gabe), Ed (and me & Elijah). The people listed in parentheses did nothing to help with the move. We just tried to stay out of the way! I didn't take too many pictures, and sorry that I have none of the new house to show. Although I'm sure once they begin feeling settled, Aimee will post all kinds of pics on her blog! Barry and the birthday boy:

Tyler and Pete:
Wes, Matt, Tyler, Pete:

Walking around, checking out the view. Fred seems to like his new home!

Meanwhile, while others were manually laboring, Elijah was torturing poor Fred by refusing to let go of his leash. Elijah cannot do this with Zoe, she's just too big and she bowls him over. Poor little Fred didn't have a chance at escaping!

This swing set is eventually going with the old homeowners, so we figured we'd enjoy it while we could!

Closing Picture: the absolutely adorable Gabriel Adams.

Not only is he cute, he's also about the best baby you could imagine!

Momsie

Here's to a speedy recovery, Mom! Stay strong...

We NEED you for our Maine 50th Anniversary "Thanksgiving" Bash... ...and to see your newest granddaughter grow up...

...not to mention the other 4 cutie-pies!

We love you, Nana! Hope you feel better soon!

N.H. With Friends!

This past weekend was the Vt-NEA convention, which meant a long weekend for me and Ed! A few weeks ago, we finalized plans to get together with my old friend Sarah from UVM. We felt so lucky to get this same great VRBO in Winchester, N.H. (near Keene), since we had such a lovely time there last Spring. You might recall a blog post I created back in March, titled "Our New Hampshire Getaway". If you're ever looking for a nice lake house that can sleep lots of people, please check this place out. It's great!! We can even bring Zoe, which saves us money in boarding fees. The CT-based owners, Paul and Anne Harris, are so kind and accommodating, and seemed genuinely pleased that we wanted to return to their home. They even left us a complimentary bottle of wine from Stonington (CT) vineyards, which is so neat since Sarah grew up in Stonington! I thought I'd take some photographs of the house while it was still clean. Here's the master bedroom, overlooking Forest Lake:
A second bedroom:

And a third! This is the living room, leading into the sun porch, which can also double as a fourth bedroom:
There's a TV and tons of kid-friendly movies out there.The dining room and Great Room:

The kitchen. It's got everything! Looks like I almost caught Zoe "in the act!"

The Great Room, stocked with tons of books, movies, and cozy nooks to cuddle up.

The dining room, looking out over the lake:It was important that I took pictures, before this started happening:
Or this:The view from the top deck:

The hot tub!

Ed, Elijah, Zoe and I arrived on Friday afternoon to get the place all opened up. Our plan was to meet Sarah and her family at the Magic Wings butterfly conservatory on Saturday morning, which (located in So. Deerfield, MA) was on their way up to the house. This turned out to be a great plan, as Saturday was a rainy, dreary day. Here's Elijah, waiting for his friends to arrive:We killed some time visiting with a scarecrow:

And then they arrived! That's Sarah, Diego (4), Maya (2.5) and Sergio:
The boys checked out some pretty big goldfish:

Only one photograph of butterflies came out clearly. But I think they were mating, and that seemed somewhat tasteless to post on my blog. So here's a pretty flower instead:

Once Sarah's family got settled back at the house, we took the kids into the basement rec room to burn some more energy. Air hockey, table tennis, balls of every type to throw....
Even a kiddie slide:

And a whole dry-erase wall (although the marker fumes could kill you!)

Back upstairs, the kids played so well together. Fast friends!
Elijah was sound asleep by 6:30PM- he was so exhausted.

The next day, the sun was out! Thank goodness, as our children had resorted to this....Don't ask, I really have no idea...A beautiful day to get outdoors.

Later on Sunday, our other good friend Matt arrived with his family. He and his wife Anne have 3 children- Kaitlyn (7), Shannon (5) and Christian (4)- as well as one on the way (a boy due in January). They live in Westbrook, Maine and made the 3.5-hour drive to visit for just a few hours. They brought a delicious lunch to share, and then we set all those kids free outside. It felt like "Jon & Kate Plus 8!"

Here's our whole gang....It's been 14 years since we graduated from UVM...Who would have thought that all these years later, we'd be able to come together with our beautiful children for a fabulous weekend of pure fun?!?

I feel so lucky to have great friends who are willing to make such an effort to stay in touch. And no better place to come together than our favorite house on Forest Lake!