This week

We had another jam packed week. In addition to regular practices, we had some special events:

Science club this month was building a bridge from recycled materials. Here's Katie's bridge:



Chris helped the little girls:



It was a strong bridge!






We had Authors in April in our schools this week, which is a huge event. I worked a full day on Thursday to help out with computers, mics, etc. It was fun to meet the famous authors!

Chris Grabenstein:



Lynne Jonell:



And I forgot to take a pic with Daniel Kirk at my school. Katie had Nora Raleigh Baskin visit her school.

I am helping to organize the science fair this year. One of our new ideas to drum up participation was to let students make posters to advertise for us. Here's Jessi's poster: (no pic of Meg's)



Katie is loving being on the track team. There are 220 kids on the Hart team!! 7th and 8th graders only. Katie is running distance events, and is already hovering close to the 10 min mile mark, which was her fastest time in cross country last fall. Her first meet is Wednesday, and we can't wait! It's so fun to watch the kids hang out at practice, timing each other, trying hurdles and field events:






We have been watching our fox family in our back yard several times a day. There are six babies, so playful! We got to see them from the yard one night!



Today after church, we went to the Earth Day festival in downtown Rochester. We took the scenic route by the river to get there...and scouting out good crayfishing spots on our way!



No pics from the festival, but the solar electricity exhibit by Oakland University caught the girls' attention. They got to play with a solar panel, test things on it, etc. They really want solar panels on our roof! I do, too!

Then we walked to Hibachi House for Megan's birthday lunch!! Yes, it's two days early, but Chris left for Brazil this afternoon, so we wanted to celebrate together. Onion volcano:



Tempura cheesecake for the birthday girl:



Then we walked to the library. Along the river some more, of course!



Meg opened up her presents from us this afternoon. The rest will wait til Tuesday!







We had two soccer games in the late afternoon, and split them. Then Chris was off to the airport. 😞. We had dinner, showers, reading time, and of course new Lego time!!


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Busy week

We didn't waste any time having fun when we got back from Boston last weekend. We went on a family hike on Sunday. The frogs were sooo loud in the woods! We had to take a closer look several times on our hike.



Meg tried to grab them:






Later on Sunday we had our first walk to DQ:



This week was crazy busy. In addition to choir, dance, religious Ed, and many clubs, all three girls started soccer this week. And Katie is running track for her school, which means daily practices.

One afternoon, Jess and I had a playdate while Meg and Katie were busy after school. She asked to go to the library and DQ! Our first banana split of the year!



I got to help out in Megan's class this week. Their final project for circuits was to make a game board with an LED light if you make a match:



On Friday we went on our first longish bike ride, a 6 mile round trip to 7-11. Amazingly, no one got a slurpee!


We had a bonfire that night, too!

On Saturday, Katie played her first soccer game of the season. She did great, and her team won 1-0 despite only having one sub. They play 11v11 now, on a full sized field. After the game, her coach asked her to stay and play in the next game, on the 8th grade team to help have enough subs. Katie did great again! Here she is after 3 hrs of soccer!



Meg played Sat night:



Our big excitement this morning was finding out that a fox family moved into our back yard!!! Foxy mama has four foxy babies, and they have a den in the old groundhog holes in the very back of the yard. The foxy babies are soooo cute, and jump and hop and play with each other all the time! Foxy mama is gorgeous. Here she is with a baby walking in front of her:



After church, we went to the Bordines spring expo...one of my happiest days of the year! So many amazing displays, so many raffles, so many sales!!






Then we went to Jessi's first game of the year:



We celebrated the soccer weekend with lunch at Sumo:



This afternoon I started working on the gardens...cleaning up, planting pansies, and a few veggies:









Lettuce and kale:



Girls starting some flowers from seed:



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Friday in Concord

We got to squeeze in one more meetup on our last day! Chris' cousin Bill was in town starting a day earlier, so we were so lucky to get to have breakfast with him Friday morning at a great local bakery. It was fun to hear his cooking and fishing stories! And of the trouble Chris got into as a boy!



Then we went to Minute Man National Park in Concord . The exhibits and movie were incredible, but the walk to Old North Bridge was even better.

Minute Man statue:






On the bridge:



Memorial:









The girls completed their Junior Ranger booklets and earned another badge. The ranger there was so nice!



After that, we were all fading fast. We went to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, and drove by Louisa May Alcott's house:



We drove the Battle drive from Concord to Lexington, but didn't stop much. We did see the battle green in Lexington, and the house where Paul Revere rode to to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that the Regulars were coming:






After a yummy Thai lunch in downtown Lexington, we hit the road for home. We drove over half way, and made it almost to Buffalo.

Today, Saturday, we finished our drive and made it home!! It's sunny and 60 today, a far cry from the cloudy, misting, blustery 30-40 degree days we had all week! It was a great trip, but we're glad to be home!

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Thursday in Maine

Thursday morning we woke up to a winter weather advisory and a dusting of snow! But we headed north to Maine anyways! The snow depths increased as we went north. The drive was gorgeous! It looks a lot like northern MI, but with huge granite boulders thrown in. And with the snow on the trees, it was sooo pretty!

We drove up to visit Father Dave Schlaver, who retired to Maine. He's been in the hospital a little while, but was being transferred to a rehab facility that same day. He looked good, and had his great sense of humor, but we could tell he was ready to get out of there! I think the only thing he'll miss from the hospital is the lobster roll on the lunch menu!!

It being our first trip to Maine, Fr Dave's brother Paul offered to show us around. First, we went to the Suger store, run by his son and daughter in law, in downtown Biddeford. It carries the whole line of AngelRox clothes, designed by Roxy (daughter in law). The girls and I did some shopping!



Then we enjoyed lunch with Paul at Biscuit, next door, with incredible biscuit sandwiches. Then he took us to the super cool warehouse/office/manufacturing facility for AngelRox. Everything is 100% American made and assembled. The girls got to see cut out pieces of fabric, people seeing them together, the packing and shipping, the photography area, etc. And we got to meet Roxy and Julian! We felt like celebrities!

Then Paul took us to see the Maine coast, to Biddeford Pool. It was as raw, rocky, and as incredible as you could imagine:



Admire our neck warmers, by AngelRox! They can be a dress, skirt, tube top, or neck scarf!






Maine was awesome! We hated to leave! But back we drove to Boston, to have dinner with another friend!!

Kids table:




Grown ups, with some photobombing girls:



It was a fun night, and the kids got along great!



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