Social Isolation Mohawks

Since we aren't going to church or school right now, KT offered the boys a chance to have a crazy haircut for a week, and she urged them to let that crazy haircut be a mohawk.  So we are sporting social isolation mohawks.  The long mohawks proved to be to much maintenance, so they are right now sporting the shorter variant, more like Ollie's.  We're proud of our little deviants!

At-home adventures

 So there are a series of beaver ponds and a huge swamp-type area right down the road from us (which is where most of our mosquitoes come from).  We have posted a lot hiking to the beaver dam, and in the winter we started ice skating up and down the beaver ponds.  The only thing left to do is to canoe them!

Here's a map showing where we put in (lower left) and the path we have taken.  My goal is to get to the upper right x, but we haven't been able to get that far yet.  It gets very narrow and there are a lot of logs and such, so we end up having to bounce in the canoe while pushing off (basically scooting) and doing all sorts of things to get past some of these narrow sections. All of the grass area is essentially flooded bog, and there are little "paths" of water through it.

The main reason I haven't done this before is that I feel a little silly carrying my canoe down the road.  There are a lot of joggers and cars, and it feels like I am a very confused person walking my canoe in the morning.

Here's kind of a feel of the path: lot of these floating bush/grass things floating around.  It's pretty cool to be weaving in and out of it all.

Here is where we have gotten stuck.  This is a fallen log laying across the path.  I might come back with a chainsaw someday, but for now we have tried more natural means.  I jumped up on one of the floating islands, and precariously tried to push the log out of the way.  I got the log moved over a bit and it made the log a foot or too higher, because one end was sitting on some bushes.  It was enough for us to lay down in the canoe and pass under.

I'm so "oafy" that as I passed under, I pushed on the log too hard and it fell down on my back.  I thought we were going to sink the canoe, but luckily it got caught on some branches and didn't fall down any further.  You can see the damage on my hairy, pasty, old-man back!

Aaron is the only kid I've taken out there, but he really loved it: he said it was way cooler than canoeing on a boring lake!

The last bit of Spring and Aaron's 11th birthday!

Spring is moving into summer quickly

Though Scott has had some big deadlines, 

we've had lots of quality family time with Scott working from home

Last Saturday, Scott decided he wanted to do a big all day activity with the kids. 

They decided to make their own star wars fan movie.

Perhaps we'll share it with you sometime. :)

Oliver and I had no patience for filmmaking, so after Ollie shot his scenes, he and I went walking and biking respectively at Mine Falls Park in Nashua.

We liked it so well, we decided to bring the family back in 2 days time for Memorial day canoeing.

Sunday, we did a little family history by visiting Marlborough, NH where William and Lydia White are buried in the East Cemetary, my relatives through the Norven Storrs line.  William White was a greatgrandson of Pereguin White, the first child born in NE, from the Mayflower.

I need to do a little more research if there are any direct grandparents buried in NH. There were some more Whites in the Graniteville Cemetary, this one, Rebecca White was a 6th generation relative of Peregrine White as well.

Memorial Day, Oliver and I took the rest of the family back to 

Mine Falls Park for some beautiful canoeing

 

The boys took periodic walks on the trail to stretch their legs, and at the very end, I decided it was my turn to stretch my legs, and the boys navigated the canoe all by themselves back to the beach

Here you can see the canoe way out there, but I could still here they bickering and getting mad at each other.  Hahaha.  It wasn't easy to steer the boat, but they made it!!  I was so proud!

Timmy's been working on his social isolation hair

We think he should cut it into a wild-style before getting a summer buzz

Aaron's 11th birthday was an exciting day for everyone!

He enjoyed so much all the well wishes, cards and gifts

The biggest excitement was the birthday parade that we invited friends, the fire and police dept and the ice cream truck (Miss Dotty) to attend.  It was a great celebration of Aaron's big day and we appreciated all those who came out.

The family also left Aaron some Marco Polo messages so they could virtually "attend" and he loved that too!

Aaron is a very capable, responsible and caring person.  

He surprises us with his ability to learn new skills very quickly.

He's a great friend to everyone and likes to have fun!

He's always willing to go on a new adventure and try new things.

He's been exploring (as has Timmy) the neighborhood lately on an e-bike and has been fearless in venturing out into the "unknown" areas of town.   He's now biked to all his best friend's houses in town, and they don't live very close to us. :)

He loves skiing and playing Magic the Gathering.  

Lately, he's been learning how to 3D print, and has been running the printer himself.

He's an avid reader and loves graphic novels, fantasy and action packed books. 

He was on the math olympiads team at school this year, which is very prestigious.  He ranked in the top 30% on the team.  His team ranked in the top 10% of over 1000 teams around the world.

He is such a great brother and friend to all of his siblings.

We look forward to seeing him move into the 6th grade and young men's this coming year 

and to see where he takes his 12th year of life.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AARON!