William Tell Overture for Moms

This is great. I know it's been around but in case you missed it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_oc1j5NakY

My favorite time of year

Fall is my favorite time of year. I'm ready to bake apple crisp, to cook up a nice hearty batch of stew and sip a cup of warm apple cider. I'm ready to pull on a warm, fuzzy sweater and my favorite pair of jeans and take a hike in the mountains. I'm ready for the scent of rotting leaves and the way the house smells when you bake an apple pie. I'm ready to take pics of the foliage and play with the kids in the leaves. I'm ready but there's just one little problem....

It was near 90 today and humid!!!!

I'm ready to be all warm and cozy and instead I'm just hot and sweaty. Oh well... It is New England. Next week I'll probably be complaining about the snow!!

Just for Fun

Okay everyone this was fun. I actually kinda like my Rock Star name, the rest are pretty silly. I challenge everyone to post yours!

~Rock Star Name (first pet & current car) -Nicky Expedition
~Gangsta Name (fav ice cream flavor & favorite cookie) - Phish Food Oreo
~“Fly Girl” Name (first initial of first name & first three letters of your last name) - Ccio
~Detective Name (favorite color & favorite animal) - Green Otter
~Soap Opera Name (middle name & city where you were born) - Sue Peterborough
~Star Wars Name (the first 3 letters of your last name & first 2 letters of your first) - Cioci
~Superhero Name (2nd favorite color & favorite drink put “The”) -The Purple Toasted Almond
~NASCAR Name (the first names of your grandfathers) - Earl John
~Stripper Name (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne & favorite candy)-Amber Kisses
~Witness Protection Name (mother’s & father’s middle names) - Lovejoy Wesley

Apple Picking!

We got to celebrate the first day of fall by going apple picking. Picking apples has become a fun family tradition. Though the location has changed throughout the years it is still something we all look forward to. This year we were lucky enough to get to go apple picking right in my parents backyard! Dad had a bumper crop of fruit on most all of his fruit trees this year, especially the apple trees. In fact his macintosh tree had so many apples that the branches were actually weighed down almost to the point of breaking. He actually had to prop up several branches with boards. The girls thought it was pretty neat to pick apples right at Grammy and Grampy's house. The dogs even got in on the fun playing with the dropped apples and chasing each other around the yard.

This was also a great opportunity for me to play around with my new camera!

I 've still got a lot to learn about the camera and I still need to play around on the computer to touch up photos but it sure was fun playing around!

My husband in Awesome!!!

I just need to tell everyone what a great guy I married. Not only is he kind, loving and a great dad, but he spoils me! As most of you know I enjoy scrapbooking which means of course I take lots of pictures. We have an okay digital camera but we've had it for several years and as with most electrical gadgets, technology is moving so quickly that within a few years what was just brand new is no longer the latest and greatest thing. So I have had my eye on a new digital camera for about a year now hoping that the price would come down and dropping hints to my husband that we really need to upgrade our camera since I do use it so often. Soooo....earlier this week he agreed and said that could be my Christmas gift, and did I want it early or to wait for Christmas. I of course said I wanted it now! I mean I live in New England and we are headed into the most beautiful season of the year with the turning of the foliage. So today he worked at home so he could watch Kenzie while I went to the dentist and just before I left he told me to swing by Circuit City on my way home to pick up my new camera. Woo Hooo!!


It is a Canon digital Rebel xti, exactly what I had my eye on. I am so excited though I really haven't had a chance to play around with it too much yet. Hopefully tomorrow!!

Here's a picture of my new toy! Now I have to start hinting around for some new lenses!

Fairies and Fast Cars

Sunday Dom and I were off to the Nascar race at NHIS. It was a pretty good race though the pole sitter pretty much ran away with the race. We didn't feel so bad leaving a little early when it became very obvious that he was going to win the whole thing. Four seconds might not seem like a long time in everyday life but at a race four seconds is big, and when the lead car can maintain a four second lead over the second place car he's got him beat.

While Dom and I were enjoying the race Becca and Kenzie were with their best friend Annie. Annie's mom, Audrey, took the girls to Strawberry Banke to build Fairy Houses. The girls even got to meet the author of the book Fairy Houses, Tracy Kane and get their book signed! I think I did a post about this book. I definitely recommend it. After the girls built their houses they left food and water for the fairies and while the girls ran off to play the fairies visited the houses and ate the food and water. This was very exciting. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to share yet, but hope to get some soon!

Bunnies!

So for about two years now the girls have been asking for bunnies and well we finally gave in.


The newest additions to the family are two ten week old little bunnies. They are sisters (at least they better be!). Kenzie named hers Thumper and Becca's is named Brownie. Thumper has one ear that stays up and one that stays down. She can't seem to decide if she wants to be a lop or not. They are very cute and very friendly and the girls adore them so far.














The bunnies are just my first step to having a farm. We do have fourteen acres and I have this very elaborate lay out in my head. I am sure you are wondering why bunnies are the first step.
Well bunny poo is very good for gardens and composting and easier to take care of than cows. So step two is garden, fruit trees and compost. I already have blueberry and raspberries and tons of wild blackberries. Step three is clearing more land. Step four is the barn. And finally step five is a few horses. That is my ten year plan!

Merrymeeting Lake 2007

Last week we spent at Merrymeeting Lake thanks to Nonna and Nonno. Because the lake is only about 15 mins. from our house we are able to go the week of Labor day and still easily get Becca to school and back everyday. It also means that we have the lake mostly to ourselves. As ususal we had lots of fun and good food. The weather was nice mostly 70s and 80s. The only down side was that we didn't catch any fish! Actually let me clarify by saying that Dom and I didn't catch any fish. We trolled all over the whole lake hoping to catch a salmon or even a lake trout. We couldn't even find them with the fish finder and when we did come across a few they weren't biting. It was still nice to cruise around the lake but this is the first year we didn't catch anything at all. Now Kenzie on the other hand became the mad fisherwoman. She was catching sunfish like crazy. We found her a great spot on the other side of the lake where they were biting at soon as her bobber hit the water. She had lots of fun. Becca has no interest in fishing at all but at least Dom's got one little fishing buddy!

We made a trip to York's Animal Kingdom on Labor day. It was okay, but having visited the Toronto Zoo earlier this year it was pretty pale in comparison. York's really could use some updating and when we went to grab something to eat they were sold out of just about everything! We won't be in any rush to visit again anytime soon. The rest of the week was spent hanging around camp. On Friday Dom and I celebrated out 11 year anniversary by going out to dinner.

Saturday we had to pack up and head home but not before enjoying the lake one more time. Thunderstorms rolled in way earlier than we expected and of course right when we were trying to get the boat out of the water. Dom got the trailer while I drove the boat over to the ramp and I was getting pretty nervous sitting out on the boat while lightening and thunder crashed overhead. Luckily we got the boat loaded quickly and without incident and the storm was over just as quickly. Now everyone is back to work and school and settling into our normal routine.

Becca and the Giant Peach

Just had to share this picture of the giant peach that Becca picked at Grampy's house earlier today. It is about the size of a grapefruit. We came home with lots of fresh peaches and plums today. Yum! Thanks Grampy!

Unofficial end of summer

Ahh.. the temps have cooled off a bit and the air is much drier. Thank goodness! The forecast for the upcoming week is beautiful, too bad Becca has to head back to school tomorrow. She is excited and I am excited for her. Kenzie is excited that she gets mom all to herself again (though this was stated when she was mad at her sister.) I know she is going to miss her. Kenzie has one more year home with me before she can start Kindergarten. I considered sending her to preschool, but since I have a degree in early childhood it didn't really make sense to send her just for the social aspect. She gets plenty of socialization from dance, story hour at the library as well as programs at the rec department and of course her big sis! I was a little hesitant to sign her up for dance again after the hard time she gave me at the end of last year but she insisted she wanted to do it again so we'll give it a try. Becca has signed up again to, but after four years of doing a ballet/tap/jazz combo class she decide she wants to do Irish soft shoe.
She had a chance to try it for a few classes over the summer and loved it.

We've packed lots of fun stuff into the past few weeks including lots of playdates, sleepovers and trips to the lake. We also had another geocaching adventure. We found a trail near the lake that made a loop and had three caches hidden along the way. The first one was right at the beginning of the trail and was full of lots of neat treasures. Kenzie found the second cache and was so excited she did a happy dance. On the way to the third cache Becca and Boomer accidently disturbed a log with a nest of yellow jackets in it. The poor kids got stung about 10 times and Boomer got stung too. She isn't allergic, thankfully, but she didn't want anything to do with hiking or geocaching for the rest of the day. She was very brave, no tears but she was upset and having been stung several times on the ankle refused to walk. So it was a bit of a long hike back to the car.. but we made it. We didn't stop to try to find the last cache, Becca was in no mood and there were lots of muggles around. ( Muggles are non-geocachers).

So with the start of school the unofficial end of summer is here but we do still have some fun stuff planned in the next few weeks. Thanks to my in-laws we will get to spend a week on Merrymeeting lake the week of Labor day. It is only about 15 mins from here and from Becca's school so it is an easy commute. The Hopkinton State Fair is soon and Dom and I will hit another Nascar race too!

Typical New England weather

The actual temp today is 92. Heat index is 105 and the dewpoint is 75. Earlier this week the temps didn't get out of the 60's and there were frost warnings in the northern part of the state!
Is there any other place in the country where the temps fluctuate so much in 24 hours??

Will post about our summer highlights later, when it cools down. I finally have my own little craft nook complete with computer but it is the hottest part of the house right now! Summer is winding down here, Becca heads back to school Tuesday to start second grade. Boy time flies. We're off to the beach right now to cool off!

Toy Recall

Like most parents the recent recall of toys has me concerned for my children's health and well being and while you may think that this is a rant about safety and cheap labor practices, it is not. After reading the articles and finding out more details about the recalls I felt relieved that the main danger was for children who still put toys in their mouths and could potentially get lead poisoning or swallow magnets that have fallen out of toys. Since both the girls are older and no longer put things in their mouths I could relax a little. Heck I can hardly get Becca to put food in her mouth never mind a toy!
So I set about perusing the list of toys, thinking that with the amount of toys we have crammed into every conceivable nook and cranny of the house that this could be a very time consuming process. Then I got excited. I 'd been looking for any excuse to get rid of the excess of toys and here it was! I quickly made a list of toys I knew we had, fueled by the thought I was saving my children from harm. I was giddy with the anticipation of throwing out toy after toy all in the name of safety!
I finished my list and then checked it again. This couldn't be right. Only three toys! Only three measly, stinkin little toys out of all the things scattered all over the house??
Yes, it was true. I was actually disappointed that my children's toys weren't recalled. Am I crazy or can some of you parents out there actually relate? And before anyone points the finger about me being the one buying all the toys, there are many family members responsible...(you know who you are....) I appreciate your generosity but am seriously dreading the upcoming birthday/Christmas season.

Though, I guess the girls don't actually have to know which toys really have been recalled......

Geocaching in the White Mountains

On Sunday we went to the White mountains to try our luck at Geocaching. Dom downloaded a few caches in the Waterville Valley area which is one of our favorite hiking spots.

For those of you unfamiliar with geocaching basically you use a GPS to find the location of a cache that someone has left previously. The cache is usually a rubbermaid container or ammo box that someone has hidden off of a hiking trail. Very often they include hints written in code to help you. (For more info visit http://www.geocaching.com/). We decided to bring along Boomer for his first official hike in the mountains and to tire him out. Thanks to the clever hints we found the first cache quickly and the girls were so excited. Often a cache will have a log book for you to sign and some little trinkets to that you can take as long as you leave something else. This particular cache had an animal theme and the girls each chose a treasure to take. Kenzie chose a dinosaur and Becca chose a tiger. They left a squirty fish and a grasshopper finger puppet. We hit the trail again to find another cache when the girls decided they would rather just sit by the river and put their feet in. It was a rather humid day so we found a cozy spot by a huge boulder to hang out. Boomer played fetch endlessly in the water and the girls stuck their feet in the water and just played and snacked on trail mix. Since we had gotten a late start to the day we didn't really have time to try and find another cache but we'll definitly do it again on another day!

Fisher Cats Fun!

The girls got a chance to experience their first minor league baseball game recently. We headed to Manchester and got tickets to a Fisher Cats game. The Fisher Cats are the minor league team for the Toronto Blue Jays and they were playing against the Rock Cats, the affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. The games are very kid friendly with lots of interactive games and contests between innings. We even rented a suite at the hotel that overlooks the field. The girls were actually more impressed with the hotel room than the actually game. In fact by the second inning both girls wanted to head back to the room. I admit it was an extremely humid day, and the temps were still in the 80's even after the sun went down. We convinved them to stay until the 5th inning with promises to visit the gift shop and then retired to the room where Dom and I watched the rest of the game from our hotel window. Once back in the air-conditioned room Becca took a little more interest and kept an eye on the scoreboard to see if we were winning or not. I am happy to report that the Fisher Cats had a come from behind victory!

Despite a lack of enthusiasm from the girls we are headed back to another game tomorrow night. Dom got some free box seat tickets and there is a fireworks display scheduled after the game.

From Stink to Stuck

Sooo Boomers run in with a skunk didn't quell his canine curiousity. It wasn't another skunk but a porcupine last night. There were only about six quills total stuck in his nose and muzzle. I consulted the internet again for some info on removing the quills ourselves, rather than taking a trip to the animal hospital. Armed with a pair of pliers, Dom and I successfully removed all the quills. Has Boomer learned his lesson about late night frolicking with the local wildlife? I'm not convinvced. No more unsupervised night time jaunts for Boomer.
We have had Copper for 12 years and never dealt with either of these things. After having Boomer for 10 months he manages to get into both within a matter of days. Just goes to show how dog personalities differ as much as people.

A Very "Harry" Weekend

Yes I was one of the millions eagerly awaiting the release of the new Harry Potter book this weekend. I ordered online from Amazon and spent most of Saturday afternoon reading.

Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day, breezy and in the 70's and as much as I wanted to curl up and finish reading the book it was just too nice out! We packed up the kids and headed up to Holderness to the Squam Lakes Science Center to visit some "hairy" critters. The center is one of our favorite places to visit. Such a favorite place in fact, that we have become members. There are a variety of animals native to NH all along a winding hiking trail. It is neat to see the animals up close and there are a variety of interactive things for the kids to touch and explore.

One of our favorite animals to visit has a been the bobcat. There is a young bobcat at the exhibit that I can usually coax into chasing my camera strap(Through the glass!). He acts just like a big house cat. My other favorite are the otters, especially when they are frolicking in the water.

After visiting the Science Center we took another quick hike along the shore of Squam Lake and found some cool campsites we'd like to try in the future.

On our return home I did bury my nose back in the book and finished it Sunday night. It was a great book, one of the best of the series and that is all I'll say in case some of you are still reading it!

Stinky McStinkface

This is Boomer's new nickname. The reason for this new nickname is that late last night he had an unfortunate encounter with.......yeah you guessed it...............A Skunk!!
Sooooo at 10:00pm last evening I was outside giving him a bath. Boomer in fact seemed much more upset with his bath than being sprayed by a skunk, it seemed to be only the top of his head that was sprayed. I found a recipe online consisting of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and dish soap. This concoction seemed to work well enough. I doused him again this morning and there is only a slight lingering smell. I hope that he learned his lesson but only time will tell...

Wild about Webkinz!

We have fallen victim to the latest children's craze: Webkinz. If you haven't heard of Webkinz they are cute little stuffed animals. Each animal comes with a special code and if you go to the webkinz website you can adopt your animal and take care of it online. You can then earn kinzcash to take care of your pet. You earn cash by playing games at the arcade or doing jobs at the employment office. You can buy food, clothes, furniture, additional rooms, etc. And if you have friends that have webkinz you can visit each other and even send them gifts and mail. The girls are having a blast taking care of their pets and it has been a great rainy day activity. We are also in the process of making a house for the stuffed animals as the girls enjoy playing with the actual stuffed animals also. I will post a picture when we finish 'decorating' it. There are also trading cards to collect. In each set of trading cards you get codes to get stuff for your webkinz. The only downside has been convincing the girls that they don't need to own every webkin ever made!

Here are the cute little critters themselves.

Becca has a lion, a tiger and a bunny. Kenzie has a white terrier, an alley cat and a chihuahua.

And.... well....the panda is mine. Yeah I'm hooked too but I only have one.....so far.....Hey moms gotta play too!

Hillsborough Ballon Festival

Every year we try to make it to the Hillsborough Ballon Festival to see the balloons take off. Last year they didn't go up while we were there but this year we got to see them all take off.

The balloons are so bright and colorful and fun to take pictures of. I probably took about 50 pics but here are just a few for you to enjoy!

St. Peter, Nascar and The Horribles Parade

What do these three things have in common? Absolutely nothing except that that they happened all within a matter of days keeping us very busy.

Viva San Pedro!





St. Peter's Fiesta is a celebration in Gloucester, Ma. ( and I believe several other places) in which St. Peter is celebrated as the saint who watches over the fisherman. There are many days of celebration that begin with a parade where St. Peter is paraded through town and is brought to St. Peter's square where he is set on a altar. At the square there is also a big carnival set up with games and rides for the kids and of course food and traditional Italian music can be heard all day long.
Other festivities include the blessing of the fleet, seine boat races, a parade and the greasy pole.




I will try to explain the greasy pole but you really have to see it to get the full effect. The greasy pole is a long pole set out across the harbor that is greased up with some sort of environmentally safe grease. (It usually thick and black but this year it was white and looked suspiciously like Crisco.) At the end of the pole is a flag. The object is to walk across the pole and grab the flag before tumbling into the freezing water below. Depending on wether it is high tide or not you may have an incredible long and potentially painful fall depending on if you hit the pole on your way down. Many of these guys risk ever becoming fathers as they do the old splitsville on the pole. The walkers are dressed in crazy costumes and are usually pretty well liquored up by the time they start walking.



I included a picture hours before the greasy pole. We didn't actually watch the greasy pole this year. In the middle of the picture is a large structure which is where the walkers wait for their turn. Coming off the structure on the right is a long pole parallel to the water and at the end you can see the flag. As you can see it is a long walk and a long drop into the water!






NASCAR

As many of you you know Dom and I are Nascar fans and really enjoy going to the races at NHIS. Last year for the July race it was about 98 degrees and humid and it felt like you were melting sitting in the sun up in the bleachers. We ended up leaving 1/2 way through because it was just too hot. This year the weather was a perfect 70 degrees, breezy and overcast.

The girls were in Gloucester still with Dom's parents and we were lucky enough to have a reserved parking spot waiting for us so we took our time getting there. Normally we head to the race from my parents house and we end up spending a lot of time sitting in traffic getting to the track. We had no idea how close we were to the track coming from our house. We used the trusty GPS to guide us and after cruisin down some back roads came out a mile from where we were going to park. It only took us 35 mins. and barely any traffic! It was only 35 mins getting home too, thanks to the back roads! We still left the race a little early to beat the mad crush of the crowds back to the car. Unfortunately our driver, Carl Edwards had a bad pit stop that cost him the race but it was still a fun day!

For some reason blogger won't let me post any of my pictures from the race!

The Horribles Parade

On July 3rd we were back in Gloucester for the Fishtown Horribles Parade. No one has ever been able to tell me exactly what a horrible is, but it seems to refer to the people who dress up to be in the parade. Anyone can participate and as well as many different characters, there are bands,(the steele drum band is my favorite.) floats and lots of other fun stuff. Prizes are given out in different catergories. This picture is a fine example of a "horrible" and she/he even jiggled as she/he walked!

Becca, Dom and I ended the evening watching fireworks over the harbor. Kenzie doesn't like loud noises and stayed home with Nonna and Nonno.

Our adventures ended at Ma and Pa Sizemores where we were treated to Steak on the grill!