Half pipe

The other day we went over to Marlboro so Noah could ride his bike around the park near Grammy and Grammy Sue's house.  For some reason he required both sunglasses and gardening gloves to do this... 

We also played on the playground and also ran up and down the half-pipe.  Grammy took two pictures of this.  One that is a happy family shot: 

And one where I have no idea what is going on

Eh, whatever.  Saturday. :)

Broadmoor

We are Audubon Society members even though we do not have the patience or ability to be quiet required for birdwatching (though we are interested in birds), because they keep great wildlife sanctuaries near us that we like to visit.  One of our favorites is Broadmoor, where we recently saw a ton of turtles, some frogs,  a snake, two swans, and a lot of fun rocks.

(look at how much bigger they are than the first time we visited!)

It was a beautiful day

also we did some good fishing for seaweed.

never a dull moment around here

Apple Picking

Last weekend we went apple picking at Tougas farm.  It was great!  We rode the wagon to the apple trees that were ready and then got to work.

We skipped though the orchards...

encountered a giant sunflower

Road the farm wagon

and a stationary tractor

and, most importantly, finished the afternoon with an apple cider doughnut.

Farm day

We went to the open barn day at Chestnut Farms, where we get our meat CSA.

CHICKS!!!

The kids got to play on some of the farm equipment

We walked into the woods to find the pigs... 

These were the happiest farm pigs I have ever seen.  Just chillin in the shade of the woods, rooting in the dirt, snoozing under trees, no smell, no flies.  Pigs in the woods are a great idea.

Noah and Eva got to meet a baby calf and help feed him lunch

But Eva's favorite part by far was the baby chicks.  There were tons of them milling about under some warming lights, and the kids loved picking them up.

Especially Eva

Who repeated this about a thousand times 

Yay farms!

Tooth!!!

Or more importantly, lack thereof

Noah lost his first tooth today at dinner, eating a carrot.  He was pretty psyched.

He carefully placed the tooth into the pocket of the tooth pillow Nana made him and placed it at the edge of his bed.  At bedtime he told me he doesn't really believe in the tooth fairy, but he will believe if the tooth fairy brings him money.  We'll see what we can do :)

Story!

Today Noah wrote a story all by himself!  I am a little bit beside myself I am so proud of him. :)

Transcript:
A boy was walking in the woods with his family.  He saw a house.  The boy did not know what a haunted house looks like.  So he went in!  The end.

(for those of you reading along, the actual story starts to the right of the crossed out letters and continues below and to the right of those crossed out letters.  The space to the left of the crossed out letters is for the "so he went in, the end") 

Vegetable Psychology

Grammy and the kids have a garden this year that continues to provide us with treats.

Eva carefully arranged today's haul

A splash of red tomatoes and green cucumbers and peppers riding the wave of head-to-tail carrots...

Noah then re-arranged according to his own sensibility

It is so interesting to me to see them react to the same situation in totally different ways. As mom says, it takes all types in this world. :)

Cool Rider

She has her own style, this one.

No training wheels!

Big happenings at our house today



First day without training wheels!  After we took the training wheels off Noah did everything else by himself.  I guess he was ready.  Unfortunately we did not capture the part where he shouted "this is easy!" mid-ride, but you get the idea.

When I put Noah to bed he was talking about how he loves riding a bike and he is going to practice and practice and practice until he can get a bike with gears.

Kings of the rock

Down on the farm

We went to visit Drumlin Farm with our friends Frieda and Rosie and it was very very silly.

And also really cute.

Interpretive Dance

I highly recommend you watch this video through at least the 30 second mark, where Noah changes the mood of the music and Eva adjusts the dance accordingly...

Kindergarten!

Noah had his first day today

He was a little nervous (and very silly)

But overall it was great and he says he loves kindergarten.  Success!!

Shark Party

Before Mema and Oompa's, Noah and Eva spent some time at Grammy and Grammy Sue's house. As I understand things they did all sorts of normal fun stuff, riding bikes, swimming, going to the playground, and so on.  But when I arrived Noah and Eva didn't want to talk about any of those things because they were busy decorating their room for a party. Which apparently they had planned and somehow convinced mom to participate.

So at any rate we got to eat cake in the bedroom and Noah and Eva had shark hats and it was awesome.

yay cake!!