Ben Learns to Ride a Bike!

This doesn't relate to the post title, but I have to include this pic of Abbey before church today!

Yesterday, Logan took the boys and Abbey off to ride bikes and teach Ben to ride without his training wheels.  Ben was VERY reluctant and openly resistant to this idea, but Logan insisted and it turned out well in the end!  They left me home to work in peace and came back to share the good news that Ben was riding on two wheels!

We had to go biking together the next day to practice more, and it was such a fun afternoon!  We went to the school parking lot for a couple hours of circles and more circles. :)

Celebrating Boothbay's 250th Anniversary

Since Daddy had been away all weekend, I took the kids to McDonalds after church to hang out for the last couple hours.  Low-stress parenting!  Everyone was happy!

The Perry kids rallied the other children into a fun game of hiding from Abbey, who ran around the playground, sneaking up on the huddled masses, who would then scream and run away when she caught up to them!  So cute.  The other parents thought Abbey was adorable. :)

Then Sunday evening, after Daddy got home and wanted to go straight to bed :), we headed over to the school to catch a bus over to East Boothbay to see the 250th Anniversary of Boothbay celebration and fireworks.

Actually, we drove straight past the school to drive ourselves, and Josiah burst into tears saying he'd hoped we would take the bus because he had never been on a school bus before and he always wanted to know what it was like.  So we turned around and climbed aboard.

Ben lost his first tooth Sunday morning! (And then really lost it when he took it to church to show everyone and couldn't find it that night to put under his pillow).

 

The Navy Band played some jazzy tunes for us while the kids darted around the dock, scaring us to death that we would have to dive in at some point and pull one out of the freezing cold water.  Crystal was there with her four wild ones and they had a blast wrestling together.

The fireworks were the best I've ever seen in a small town, but Abbey didn't like them and soon fell asleep.  They were very delayed because the fire marshal at the last minute told them to move the barge a little further away from Washburn and Doughty, so it ended up being a very late night for us.

Happy birthday, Boothbay!

Men's Hike/Retreat

Logan took these pictures on the men's hike/retreat with our church.  I will need to find out where they were hiking/staying and come back to this post to fill in those details later!

Union Fair with Desiree, Nina and Maggie

We picked the best day to go to the Union Fair: Maine Blueberry Day!
We were each served a free blueberry pie from Miss Maine?  Blueberry?  I can't remember. :)

The kids were very impressed by the chainsaw sculptor and watched him as he made this bear:

The barns of animals were a big hit:

Josiah had to get on each tractor again this year!

The kids got a kick out of this sheep's loud baa. :)

The 4-H Club had a fun activity for the kids:  Each little barn had a different farm product to learn about and collect, then they sold their products at the Farmer's Market and exchanged their dollar for a blueberry soda.  Yum!

 

These new piggies were three days old!

 Desiree and me sitting for a few minutes before the Midway opened.

Yay!  Rides!!!

The ferris wheel operator had to let Josiah off.  Desiree and I hadn't bought ride bracelets, so it was too scary for him up there "without a mommy or a daddy."  Ben and Nina enjoyed it though.