Grandpa's The Best

When we visit my parents, we usually arrive before Grandpa gets home from the bakery.  When he walks through the door, having just put in many early morning hours, the girls mob him.

Within 30 seconds, this is what is happening:


Grandpa's the best!

Papillon's 3rd Birthday: Friends Edition

Shortly after returning from Maine, it was time to wrap up Papillon's birthday celebrations with her friends' party.   The theme, Ballet, of course! 

We did some ballet crafts.

Played a ballet-twister-musical-chairs game that just turned into free form dancing.

Papillon got some princess stickers - which she shared with all her friends.

How many Little Girls fit on one Little Girl Sofa?

Cake time! Check out the awesome princess cake!

Papillon still talks about that cake. And asks when she can have another one - purple this time, she says.

Maine Vacation: The Way Back

On our way back from Maine, we had the great pleasure of spending a bit of time with some friends of ours how moved last year, and now conveniently live between us an Maine. Brilliant choice of location!

While there, we made a trip to the local beach - Hibou was very excited.

It was a little more crowded than we expected. But what's a beach without a crowd?

Papillon is kind of hit or miss with sand, but this day she decided she loved it.

Papillon wouldn't get near the waves (who can blame her! There were a couple scary rip-tide rescues while we were there!), but Hibou totally loved the big waves!

Sun hats are the best!

Babies in the sand!

More sun hat fun!

These little girls are 3 months apart, and now live many miles apart, but I think they are destined to be good buddies.

In addition to the beach, we had some fun times in the front yard.

This car proved to be the best part of the evening! Videos of the adventures to be posted eventually...

Thanks for letting us visit! We look forward to making your house a traditional stop on our treks to Maine!

Maine Vacation 2013: Adventures

We did have a few domestic adventures as well.  Largely a lot of playground visiting and such. Pretty low key stuff. But it was fun times all around. 

Picnics at a nearby state park lake.

Playground fun!

It was quite sunny most of the time. Thank heavens for cool shades.

Fun times!

We visited the library one day.  It was quite hot that day, and when we almost turned around and walked right out - it wasn't air conditioned!  Not much of anything is air conditioned that far north.  But of course, we would be there the one week that it was in the 90s every day! The non-air conditioned, poorly ventilated library was very warm. But it was also very fun, so we toughed it out. (The library actually closed early that day cause it was so warm...)

There were quite a few play grounds to explore. Hibou managed to get around pretty well, despite the fact that she was still not interested in walking.

Since we were officially there for the Maine Potato Blossom Festival, we decided we should participate in at least one of the Festival activities. We chose the annual "potato digging contest". We kind of envisioned it taking place in a field. But no. They take a large barrel of potatoes, spread them out on a mat in a parking lot. Then you race to put them all back in the barrel. 

Papillon gave it a whirl. She was really excited about it. She quickly put 3 potatoes in her basket...then got totally overwhelmed by the attention, and chickened out.  Oh well, it was a nice try.

Maine Vacation 2013: Foreign Adventures

We didn't stay at the house the whole time though. When Canada is only 2 miles away, you have to visit, right?  It was Papillon's first time out of the country, but Hibou is an old hand at international travel.

We visited the capital of New Brunswick (which is officially more than 2 miles from where we were, but still close). It was delightfully sunny when we arrived. Hence, the sweet shades.

We arrived just in time for a little historical reenactment. Papillon still hasn't forgiven them for not warning her before the shot off their rifles.

There were a bunch of little shops with local artists' wares for sale. We did some browsing, Papillon consulted the map.

After some shopping we watched a little community play in the park. It was hokey, but delightful.  We stopped in for lunch just as it started to rain.  After lunch we walked around a bit in the rain before taking the scenic route home.  Canada has some beautiful scenery (which I didn't get any pictures of...)

On the way back, we stopped at a chip factory. Took a little self guided tour of the factory, then tasted a few freshly made chips. They had twenty flavors that you could test taste.  The girls and I ultimately preferred them just plain salted. Mon Amour was more adventurous.

Maine Vacation 2013: Around the House

We spent a fair amount of time in Maine just hanging out doing very little. Which was delightful! That's what vacation is all about, right? 

It was unseasonably warm (aka, record breaking heat...in the 90s!), but it was sunny and it wasn't humid, so it still felt like vacation.

On vacation Mon Amour somehow always gets roped into making scrambled eggs, but never gets to enjoy the fruits of his labors...since he's allergic. Thanks for making them for the rest of us!

Sitting in the shade, using the baby bath as a pool...yeah, it was warmer than we expected it to be.

For this picture, Papillon and I got a regular old self-portrait which she looked at, then exclaimed - "You can't see my feet!"   Problem solved...

Mon Amour's Grandpa also joined us on vacation.

Making cookies with Aunt N!

Porches are great for dancing and singing.

Maine Vacation 2013: The Trip Up

As I mentioned, Papillon got to drive up to Maine with her grandparents. A few days later, Mon Amour, Hibou and I headed out to make the 800 miles trek. 

We stopped in Lewiston, ME, which was beautiful!

Hibou was a trooper on the trip!  She did lots of sleeping.

Gotta make a phone call!

Breakfast in bed, animal cracker style!

We made a quick stop the second day to look at Mt. Katahdin (not actually pictured in this shot...)

Hibou didn't noticeably miss Papillon, and all reports are that Papillon did a great job without us. But when we were all reunited in Maine, we were all clearly delighted to be back together!