The boys

Timmy and Aaron have been very much wanting to join a karate studio.  We tried one out for a month, and the boys loved it, but I was hesitant, because it was really expensive, a pretty far drive, and needed a year contract or the price was even higher.  

So, we tried another free trial for a dojo much closer to our house that is a little less on price, gave free uniforms and had no contract, and we really like it!  So, we signed up for a 6 week membership, and the boys were really excited to have real karate uniforms!

 Scott got a hammock and the boys have been enjoying it very much.  Timmy will read books out there in 90 degree heat, and says it's not too hot for him.

 Aaron turned 8 and became a scout.  Boy we are glad Grandma Parker sewed all those patches on!

The boys also got to attend a fun birthday party at at Altitude trampoline park

Oh!  And the most exciting thing for the boys?   LAST DAY OF SCHOOL WAS TODAY!

Let the summer begin!

Little Swaddler

 This little swaddle-bear melts my heart

Ollie's first Ergo ride

I love my brother!

 A long awaited get together with a Northwood friend and her darling boy!

Father's Day

Great day today: weather was a bit hot and humid, but not too bad.  A nice wind blew, so the mosquito's weren't out in numbers.  Cora, Timmy, and I went on a bit of a hike.  I had to get something in the house so the kids started without me.  When I caught up to them, they were chattin away on the bench I made earlier this week, which was really cute:

On the hike, some of the trail outside of our property is really overgrown, which meant that we had a bunch of hitchhikers.  I had 3 ticks on me, and I pulled about that many off of Cora.  Luckily only one was on her skin and chowin down: the others were just crawling around her clothes.

After we got back, the kids wanted to have a fire and roast bratwurst, which was fine with me:)

We revolutionized our Firepit-Dinner concept by using bricks to put our sticks over the fire without us having to hold them.  This cut down drastically on the burned or dropped food, eating of uncooked food, and general impatience caused by hungry little ones waiting for the laws of heat transfer to make their food edible.  We even played frisbee in between "turnings".  Wish we had thought of this a few months ago!

We bought some breadstick dough at the store, and it made for a fun "Stockbrot"!

We have to hide the marshmallows from Cora until everything else is eaten.  If we are not paying attention, she'll have eaten 3 or 4 marshmallows before we have even given her real food!
In this picture, you can also sort of see my lawn, which is in a really sad state.  It is about 10% grass, 10% moss and mold, 20% mint, 10% rocks, and the rest is various other plants who's exact name remains unknown to me (but they flower quite nicely if you don't mow often, and I don't mow often).  Not sure if the previous owners were going au natural, but it is a real jungle out there.

Anyways, it was a really nice Father's day and I couldn't have asked for much else (except less ticks would be nice, I still keep feeling "phantom ticks" crawling in my leg hair;) )

This week in pictures

Tonight we had a farewell dinner for Elder Samways! (from Brazil)  

Our good friend and full-time missionary is heading to CT this week.  

We (especially the kids) will miss seeing him. He was a "greeny" in January last year in our Massachusetts ward, still learning English, and we were lucky enough to have him serve in our new ward too!  Happy to have Elder Tingey here, and to get to keep Elder Fochtman.  These are some good boys here. 

(They were helping with a move all day before coming to our house)

 Cora was super excited to unearth this personalized bag from our friend Svenja.  She was like "This is MINE???  With a C???"  So happy. 

 I decided on a"No TV day!" on Friday.  Cora came up with all kinds of creative ways to use her time . She was coloring, and reading, and coloring some more, and she made this creative "Anna's blanket" exhibit and I was so proud she did something creative instead of frying her brain with TV.....until I gave in at 2:00.  At least I made it that long finally!  It's been a rough go the last 4 months.

 Ollie lovin' his new bib

 Timmy did a Poetry Share with his class on Thursday.  

His poem was entitled "He the Land" and was about Germany.

So proud of this kid!

 Group Poetry Read

 We were gifted this darling book on Wednesday.  

Wonderful Father's Day gift for Dads with small children!  Check it out!

 Took a trip down memory lane at the Acton Discovery Museum Wednesday.  So fun!

 The treehouse here is simply amazing. 

 Cora and her friend had such a great time together.

  

And the end of the day she was so sad to go that there was lots of screaming and sadness, and then suddenly, a nice quiet nap/car on the way home.  Ah....3 years old.

June - wrapping up school!

 I think we need some more PINK on this girl.  This doesn't quite cut it. :)

 We celebrated Cora's last day of preschool for the year.  

She was the littlest one, and was cute as a button. 

 Her teachers were really wonderful.  We were happy she could attend.

 The town of Windham has a Strawberry Festival every year at the high school.  We went by for a bit and enjoyed a few games & some Strawberry Shortcake.

 I mentioned to the boys that Cora's friends were coming to play.  Not 30 Minutes later they had these signs posted to their bedroom door and on the nursery (which houses their legos)

 I finally visited Great Brook Farm, which has been on my list for over a year.  Beautiful area!  We enjoyed seeing our good friends J and B from Acton, and talking pregnancy and kids.

 Cora, Ollie and I took a rare visit to Scott's office, since he's in a new part of the building, and we wanted to see his setup.  He's in a much smaller office, but happily situated for now.  When the buildings are renovated in another year, he'll move one more time.

 Cora had the cute idea to give seashells to all "the ladies," and then she included a few men too, because they were so nice. :)

 I decided to take a few minutes to read a book the other day.  I only had about 15 minutes when I was greeted by this little face!   This is lipstick!

This cutey has been smiling up a storm.  It's been difficult to catch his sweet smile in a photo, because the moment he sees the camera, he makes his serious interested face. 

I snuck a blurry one here. :)

 I was not paying attention one day to Cora and all of a sudden, she says 

"Look mom!  It's Princess Oliver!"  I had this surprise in my arms!

Oh, and why is my baby naked?

We have had a heat wave the last two days with temperatures at 90- 95 degrees.

We've been hugging the air conditioner window units, eating Popsicles and trying to keep cool.