Mystic Aquarium, Once is Never Enough!

Snapshots of Summer

Magnificent Maine

Splish Splash

Splish Splash... Marina learns to swim and Gavin is trying his darndest!

Acadia National Park, Maine 2009

Zoe singing "The Climb"

Summer is sweet but all too short!

Where is global warming when you need it? This has been one of the coldest spring/ early summers in my memory. Things have been incredibly busy here with the kids activities, DJ's work, summer sports and his recent involvement in a local volunteer group and a few projects that I have been working on. I don't have much time to keep the blog up to date but I still am having fun with my photography and will be able to document the children's year when things slow down. The journal books will have to wait until winter to be put together though. I am so far behind as it is! We are looking forward to spending some time with the extended family on vacation on Mount Desert Island and the older kids are signed up for a week of ocean camp. I am going to try and hold onto summer for as long as I can this year or at least until I am begging for school to start up again. What I should be posting pictures of is the piles of laundry to be folded and put away along with the dust bunnies to be vacuumed, the many trips to the grocery store with kids in tow, the tank with salt creep toppling over the side with it's windows that are growing huge colonies of coralline algae needing to be scraped. That would make a more realistic view of our daily life with four kids, two cats, and a tank full of fish and not enough time in the day. Did I mention the laundry?

Docent days

Horseshoe crabs rule the beach.

CRABBY CONCLUSION:
The census is almost over for this year and we tagged close to 600 crabs. I am ready to get caught up on my sleep! The hardest night was when I did a sweep of the local beaches for scouting purposes and didn't get home until close to 5am and Gavin was up and ready to go by 7am. I was quite the crab that day.
Gavin joined me in the backpack a few times to help when the other kids were in school. Both Zoe and Violet came out with me on occasion during the daytime surveys and Zoe got her picture in the paper from one of those days. Violet was dissapointed that only her leg was in the picture but was in a publication earlier for a bird walk so she made peace with it. We had a film maker scheduled to come out to make an episode for Expedition New England but they had to cancel for this year due to the heavy rains during the peak of the season. Unfortunately though we were still out there in the cold rain. :-) I am looking forward to next year and to see how many recaptures we find.
I added a few more pictures below.

The Limulus census is underway and I am excited about all the local interest in the project. I have been contacted by both the middle school and girl scouts and have heard that the High School is interested in getting involved too. They are very interesting organisms with such great economic and ecological importance. Our group has had a slow start with the first full moon but the new moon promises to be full of action. Here are some pics from the first three nights/mornings. So far the toughest survey time was at 1:39am but we had a group of 5 people and we all managed to save the crabbiness for the crabs.

Happy 1st Birthday Annie!

I can't believe Annie is already a one year old but Kim and Will had her party so it must be true! The kids were lucky because several chicks had hatched on mothers day so the kids got a chance to see and hold them. Violet managed not to drop one this year but I can't say that the poor chick Marina held had the same fortune. They asked us if we wanted to bring one home but I really didn't think there was enough meat on it yet to bother. Plus it is just more fun to go and visit them and let Uncle Will and Aunt Kim keep up with their daily care. I did enough chicken coop care as a child and I have enough (more then enough) to care for with the two cats. I have been negligent and have not brought them to Kim yet for their annual check-up and shots. It is on my to-do list though, right after the laundry.

Happy Birthday Harrison!

These are just some recent pictures that I had uploaded to my album.

Zoe earned student of the month for April so we are very proud of her. I told her now if she could only bring the attitude and work ethic home with her...

Happy Mother's Day Heather!(DJ)

I feel very blessed to have such a wonderful wife and to have such a great mother to our children. I really am amazed at how you are able to do so many things for us. I love you very much!

Happy Mother's Day Mommy!(Zoe)

Dear Mommy,
I love you soooo much! I want you to have the best mother's day ever! I want all your wishes to come truel You are the best mom EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!But I think you know that!!! Have the "perfect day, nothings standin' in my wayyyy, it's the perfect day, nothing can go wro-ong!" LOL!!! XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXXXOOOXXXOOOXXXOOOXXOOXXOOXOXOXOXOXOOXOXOXOOXOXOX><3<3<3<3<3<3<3
Luv,
ZOE!

Happy Mother's Day Mommy!I LOVE YOU!!!

My pathetic flower garden

Need I say more?

Widget issues

grrr... I have been trying to add the HTML code for the i-like music widget to my blog for the last hour. I keep getting an error message when I try and open it with Internet Explorer. I guess that is one of the things you have to deal with when they are still it beta but hopefully they will figure it out soon!!! We each took time to create our own playlists and now they have vanished. Back to the drawing board!

April

April has proved to be a busy month so far both good and bad. It seems like we were running from one thing to the next all the while things were breaking all around us at the most inopportune times. First it was the furnace (no heat and cold water for two days while they worked on it) then both the washer and dryer and to top it off the hoover floor scrubber AND the carpet cleaner broke down right before we expected company. I did gain a new appreciation for my mother who never had a dryer until a few years ago. I found it hard to keep up with line drying the laundry on the rainy/cold days. Luckily, we were able to find a new huge washer and dryer to replace them and I can now do almost two loads at once. Too bad they don't have anything to automate the folding and putting away process.

Easter came and went quickly this year. The bunny hardly had time to get the loot from the warehouse in time for delivery. On Good Friday we had friends over for dinner and the girls were able to visit with their buddies (watching a movie below) Easter morning was spent at home, in the afternoon we visited the Polish side of the family before heading over to my mothers house at dinner time. Marina got a pretend Blackberry from the Easter bunny. (pictured below)




We had my uncles funeral in town and the reception was here at our house. It was nice to see the extended relatives but it was a hard day on everyone. The following morning we all went to his house to clean and to find any sentimental family items that we wanted to keep. It was very bittersweet to go through my grandparents household items that my uncle had kept boxed away. We took my grandparents potato ricer home (something they used to use often) and Violet who has always "said" she hated mashed potatoes has become a huge riced potato fan. She refuses to believe that all she has to do is mix them a little with a spoon and *poof* they become mashed potatoes.

APRIL 15TH!!! Was a day to celebrate!!! DJ has been busy doing taxes on the side this year and was also working long hours with his regular job so we all missed him a lot. I was getting sick of eating dinner by myself (well actually never by myself... that would have been a treat!) It has been a long winter and a slow start to spring but we have a lot of fun activities planned. I am looking forward to a long weekend white water rafting with my girlfriends next month and DJ and I are even getting away on a couples only trip to Block Island with a group of friends in June. Maine is not too far off and it will be great for the cousins (and the grown-ups) to spend some time together in the pine tree state. Oh course between all that is soccer, dance, girl scouts etc... and tons of laundry! I am going to be working on a horseshoe crab study starting in early May and hope to take Zoe out one of the nights at high tide to help tag, measure, sex and count the crabs that come up on shore to breed.
(can you spot the sleeping daddy in there?)


Zoe came home with her report card which was great as usual and she earned honors but the best part was that she earned an A+ from the one teacher that never or hardly ever gives out A's to anyone so she is very proud of herself and rightly so. She has spent the last two days trying to convince me of the worth of this particular grade in terms of what she can get out of it. I think I will concede and bring her by herself to the movie Earth that she has been wanting to see.

School Vacation- we just got through with a week off and were fortunate to have nice weather for most of it. We went to the Zoo one day but spent most of the week visiting with friends that we normally don't get the opportunity to see. It was an enjoyable week but I am glad to get back to my routine.

Natures Classroom (mom's version)

I was very fortunate to be able to spend two days with Zoe and her classmates at Natures classroom. Luckily DJ was able to take off a day and my mother tended the kids on the second day. I would have loved to stay up there much longer if possible. The facilities and the staff were wonderful and the girls in my group were a lot of fun and always respectful. We had a little snow the first day and everyone was a bit frozen and tired after doing the underground railroad simulation in the woods after dark. It was a blast though and certainly the highlight of my visit there. The food, contrary to what Zoe said... left a lot to be desired but the coffee was excellent and available at the mess hall 24hrs a day. They also had wi-fi so at least I could check my e-mail on my phone from time to time. I had the opportunity to get away on my own while the girls were busy with the goodbye activities so I took a little hike around some of the lake. I have forgotten what a beautiful part of the state it is and it has gotten me in the mood for some "real" camping. The Giant slide was broken until the last half an hour before we left. Of course I offered to test it out before we sent the kids down... something that Zoe won't forgive me for because as it turned out we ran out of time before all the kids could give it a try. Unfortunately she didn't get there in time. Overall it was a great experience for both of us and I think we will sleep well tonight. I suspect Zoe didn't get much sleep before I got there and I know that I went to sleep around 11 and was up at 4 worried that we would oversleep our roundup time without an alarm clock. I can't wait until my Nature's Classroom experience with Violet and Marina.
Oh, and if I never hear that silly song again... it will be too soon!

Nature's Classroom!!!(Zoe)

Ahhh! I loved Nature's Classroom! I was in the boathouse cabin. The only bad part of my stay was the WEATHER!!! It poured the FIRST day I got there!My mom came on the third day and slept there one night. She threatened to dance if we didn't behave. A lot of the kids in my cabin liked her alot. While there, I made up a song called Magical Pixie Whales. Inside joke!And eventually my whole cabin was singing it and passing it on to others!Lyrics are at the bottoms! Anyway, I enjoyed making candles. That was one of the many fun classes I took. I also took a class called Feed Yo Face. We used everyday food to give ourselves a facial. It was sticky and fun! One of the other classes I took was Arch Bridges. I built a bridge out of styrophoam with teammates.We couldn't talk to eachother while building the bridge so it was a bit of a challenge. We made the bridge sucessfully and actually got to walk on it! My other class was Boomwhackers. We learned lots about music, beat, and notes. Field Group was lots of fun. My Field Group leader was Jessie along with some of my other friends Jackie, Corrine, Allison, and Maya. We shared about ourselves the first day and came up with a "sentence off". It goes like this: I want a(mine) son that moe poe my rock extravaganza field Connecticut. It was sooooo silly. The second day of Field Group we took a 2 hr. hike up Sunrise Mtn. and played the game of camoflauge on the way. On the third day of field group, we took a 5 hr. hike and toasted marshmallows(YUM)!!!!!!!!! On the last day of Field Group, we took on a challenge course which was surprisingly challenging! The meals there were very good and I loved the entertainment(HUZZAH!!!!!) Inside joke!(Again) I loved transition time in the cabins. I bunked with my best friend Jackie and across from us were our good friends Alexa and Haley, which didn't exactly make it easy to sleep! During my stay, I recieved an IALAC bead which I am very proud of. IALAC can mean anything from I Am Loving and Caring to I Am Learning at Colebrook.It means you did something good. I took a picture of my friend Hailey with her IALAC bead for her, so she gave me the bead. Inside the cabins we enjoyed playing Zoo, lacrosse, and just hanging around and chatting(don't forget naps)! Our cabin was right on the water and we had a beautiful view!!! Underground Railroad(UGRR) was a blast.My mom was an abolitionist in thsi activity and she said she enjoyed it too! We all were treated as slaves and had to take this activity very seriously. For slavery is not a laughing concept. It was one of my favorite activities though very sad. At the begininng, they would tell us things such as, " You are seperated from your mother, father, sister and brother" and,"You are not a person, you are property" all while we had to keep our heads down as not to disrespect our "masters". I was almost going to cry! But, overall, I had the greatest exprience of my life at Nature's Classroom this week and I will NEVER EVER forget it!!!

Magical Pixie Whales Song
Chorus:
Magical Pixie Whales
Rockin' the seas
Wha-ho-hooooo

They're like Pegasus' in the water
With their unicorn horns
Lalala lalala hoo hoo

Chorus

They're not pixies
The're not whales
Nor are they unicorns
Wha-ho

Chorus

They're like Pegasus' in the water
With their unicorn horns
Lalala lalala hoo hoo

LAST TIME

Chorus

Zoe's Play

Today is opening night and I will try to snap a couple of pictures but here is a picture of the whole cast. The arrow is pointing at Zoe.

Gavin having a sip of water.

Mom, this is what Violet picked out yesterday after she broke the flower. Is this something from Grandma and Grandpa's house?