Deer Isle

Each summer my Aunt Lynn & Uncle Ed rent this beautiful house located on a small island off the coast of Deer Isle, ME for a few weeks. We were lucky enough to be able to spend two nights and a day out there with them as well as my cousins Jennie & Annie and Annie's boyfriend Sam. Unfortunately, I managed to snap very few photos of our time out there---sorry to Annie, Sam, and Uncle Ed for I have none of you guys!!! We had a fantastic time relaxing, eating lobster (yummy!!!), and playing games in the evening. Thank you again from all of us for a wonderful time - upon our return home, we all commented on how we should have stayed an extra day! Maybe next summer and then Jay can come too!!!! We missed you sweetie!!

Here is one view of the house - it is an absolutely beautiful home with ocean views out of almost every room. The island where the home sits is privately owned and only accessible by car at low tide (otherwise you have to use a boat) and even then you literally have to drive across the beach to get out there! Needless to say, the minivan didn't make it out to the island!! :-)

Another view of the house from down at the beach during low tide.

The babies enjoying breakfast in the dining room.

Great Aunt Lynn, Aunt Jennie, & Jack searching the sand at low tide for beach glass. Jack spent virtually every waking moment outside either on the beach or exploring the island. Thanks to Great Aunt Lynn for taking him to the garden to pick vegetables...which he then actually ate!!!! Amazing. :-)

This is a view of the beach just below the house during high tide.

Birthday Party!

On Friday we had a little party for the twins' birthday! We had the pleasure of lots of wonderful guests for the party - Rick, Lindsay & Cate, as well as Mr. & Mrs. Pappas and Laurie & Zach too!! A big thanks to you all for enduring the heat, humidity and passing thunder shower to hang out with us!!!

The Nemo cake I ordered from the little local grocery store turned out pretty well....and tasted pretty good too!!

Here is Jack getting ready to blow out the candle on behalf of the twins. :-)

Again, sorry for the yucky picture....I fought with my camera all evening and obviously lost. Anyway, here is a cute--or rather would be cute if it was focused--shot of Jack and Cate sharing a snack.

New Friends

Jack made a new friend the other day when Mike, Tara and Liam stopped by for a visit on their way home from a trip. Jack and Liam had a great time driving Jack's power wheels jeep, eating dinner on the porch while admiring the birds at the feeders, and rounding out the evening with some Curious George and ice cream. :-)

Jack & Liam enjoying dinner on the porch. They really did carry on a whole conversation about the animals they saw while they were eating...too cute!

This is just a shot of all three kids enjoying the view of the river from the porch. We spend LOTS of time out here (Grandpa & Grandma even put some carpet down to make it more crawler-friendly)!!

One of the twins latest tricks is to bang on the glass in Grandma's china cabinet as hard as they can and see who notices.....not one of Grandma's favorite games. Don't let those innocent faces fool you...these two are ornery!! :-) (sorry for the blurry picture...having trouble with my camera)

More Please

I had started to say "More Please?" to the babies when they'd finished what finger food they had on their trays before offering them more to eat. Nathan quickly caught on and now says "more please?" (or his version of it) almost immediately after getting in the feeding seat! The child eats anything I put in front of him and always wants more...I truly think he'd be happy to just sit and eat all day. :-)

Birthday Cupcakes

The twins turned one on Aug. 12th and their party isn't until the end of this week. But, I thought they deserved a little something yummy on their actual birthday so I bought them teeny weeny cupcakes. Both approached the cupcakes with major apprehension but after some coaxing Nathan decided that they were actually okay. Matthew, on the other hand, just became increasingly anxious over the fact that his fingers were all sticky from the icing. Ultimately, Matthew ate none of his cupcake and started crying hysterically while Nathan ate what he could manage to pick up off his tray. This is an excellent example of their very different personalities!!

Not so sure about the cupcakes.

Nathan: "Hmm...this isn't so bad."

Matthew: "What is this...some form of torture?!?!? Get this stuff off my hands NOW!!"

Fun in the River

The river that runs in front of my parents' house has provided countless hours of entertainment for Jack as he LOVES to climb rocks, swim in the river, and throw rocks into the water for Harry to chase. This afternoon we decided since it was getting WAY too hot inside the house (no AC in Maine!) to take the babies down to the river. They too loved the water and had no hesitation crawling around and exploring....the problem we quickly discovered was that they thought the rocks would make an excellent snack! Yes, that's right, we had to watch both babies like a hawk because at any given moment one or the other of them was trying to stuff river rocks (of all shapes and sizes) into their mouths.

Roasting Marshmallows

Jack's new favorite thing to do is roast marshmallows after dinner. We made S'mores too which are one of my favorites so I'm not complaining!!

Harry is supervising Jack's marshmallow roasting.

In the end, Jack preferred to just eat marshmallows right out of the bag!

We made it to Maine & Surprise!

We made the two-day drive to Maine to stay with my parents where we will be for all of August. They had a nice surprise waiting for Jack - a power wheels!! I'm feeling a little slighted because I never had one of these when I was a kid..... :-)

Here he is on his first ride - he loves the shovel on the front and loading bed in the back.

Jack is actually a really good driver and loves to race down the hills.

Jack & Grandpa getting ready to ride into the woods on one of the trails.

Off they go!!

The Boys - July

Matthew very proud of himself for standing up!

Nathan is also getting very good at standing...and pretty excited about it.

Jack & Matthew