The Union Fair

We had a blast at the Union Fair this year!  The tickets included unlimited rides, so we stayed for hours and hours to let the kids enjoy as many as they could.  Fun!

These horses are the same breed the knights used.

Benjamin liked this cat car. :)

 

We were suprised by how fearless Abbey is with rides!  She loved them!

The boys were VERY BRAVE to take this ride!

Josiah wanted to go on this one, but felt a little sick as it went higher and higher. :)

 

Week in Pictures

These pictures were taken sometime between Day Out with Thomas and the Union Fair:

We've been having Thursday night picnics with friends at Clifford Playground this summer.  Here are a few shots of the boys having fun on the tire swing, a favorite, with two friends.  It's was impossible to capture the glee on their faces!  Sooo many blurry pictures to discard. :)

The boys were thrilled when Papa brought a riding lawn mower over.  "Now I can help Daddy cut the grass!"  Josiah is always looking for chores to do. :)

 

 

There was a "Set for Success" event at the YMCA, organized by our friend Sue.  Children who came received backpacks and all of their school supplies for the coming year.  There were also snacks, hair dressers, and slightly used shoes.  Benji was beside himself when he found a pair of Lighting McQueen sneakers that LIGHT UP!!!  He wore them til the minute he went to bed, and emerged from his room early the next morning dressed from head to foot, with his 'new' sneakers on.  So cute. :)

It was a huge surprise and treat to hear from my Australian friend, Richard!  Jon and I met Richard on the train from Greece to Turkey and spent a few days exploring together.  Later that summer, he visited our family in Maine and visited me at college in MA.  He's living in Canada now and was down visiting friends, so he swung up to have some lobster with us and meet Logan and the kids.

A Day Out with Thomas!

The boys were thrilled about their third-annual Day Out with Thomas, and Abbey and I were happy to tag along for the first time ever.  We went with Mo, Jen and Zaid and enjoyed a fun day.  The weather was overcast, so it wasn't as hot as it usually is.

 

 

Week in Pictures

These are pictures from the second week of August:

Cutie started going potty!  Here she is enjoying her treat for going poopy for the first time.  She looks so proud of herself!  She enjoys having my undivided attention as she sits on her throne, swinging her legs around and flipping through picture books.  :)

 

Mrs. Printy treated us by arranging for a visit to an Alpaca farm!  This was amazing.  All of the Alpacas at this farm were world-class and prize winning, some descending from the most expensive Alpaca in the world, which is worth $1 million.  Mrs. Printy bought me a beautiful white scarf, which granted us a tour of the farm (for patrons only).

 I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get this Alpaca teddy bear away from Abbey!  It was amazingly soft.  I told the kids how, when I was a kid, we had a monkey in Paraguay that loved my Alpaca stuffed puppy.  He adopted it as his mommy. :)

Alpacas are prey creatures, so we had to stay back away from them.  They are treated very well here.  We got there in time for their "pool party."  It must have felt good to them to cool off!

 

 My friend and mentor, Mrs. Printy.

The alpacas were getting hosed down, a daily occurence during the hot summer months.

 After the tour of the farm, we headed over to Moody's Diner where Mrs. Printy treated us to lunch.  Such a fun day!

I let the kids get the paint out one day this month (it usually is only once a month...just long enough for me to forget what a mess this will be to clean up!).  It was the first time that Abigail really got involved in her artwork.  So cute.

 

 Benji was proud of this piece, which he was very careful to do well so that Papa would think he was a "real" artist. :)

 

 Josiah is very proud of this Darth Vader he colored.  I've got a video of a visit we had at the beginning of the month from Darth Vader...I've just got to figure out how to edit it down so it won't be so large for uploading to the blog.  You'll be amazed. :)

The little artist!

 

North Harbor Baptism Service

We've been attending North Harbor Community Church in Topsham for about five months now.  What a great church!  I heard the pastor's wife speaking at a MOPS meeting and was so impressed by her knowledge and her gracious demeanor - and I was excited to hear that their church was Baptist General Conference, as our church in Massachusetts had been - so we decided to check it out.  We've especially appreciated the wonderful children's program that the church runs.  They do such a great job at discipling little ones.  There are tons of young families, and although it's a long drive for us, it's great to "fit in" somewhere.  Plus, we get all our errands done after church while we're near Home Depot. :)

Sunday, August 5th, there was a baptism service and brunch at the pastor's house.  The boys were SO excited to swim with their church friends!  And the food was out-of-this-world-delicious.  The pastor wants us to run a small group this fall, so that will be a great way for us to get to know some of the other families better and to start serving in a small way.  We're looking forward to doing that a lot.