Keeping Cool

It's about 90 degrees out this morning and Connor has managed to keep himself very cool. Although he is spending some time on the net playing Power Rangers games, my children have suddenly become too cool to allow themselves to been seen without sunglasses. I know they are constantly recognized when we travel, so a disguise is truly necessary. This must be how Bruce Wayne surfs the web at home, no?

When we haven't been dressed like batman on Friday, we went to see "Bubble Mania". The guy that hosts this show was with Ringling Brothers and is very well known, but he lives not more than 20 miles from my house and regularly plays at the Ivorytown playhouse. It was alot of fun. He commented on all the screw ups, but had he not, I would have told you the show was flawless. We arrived a bit early and he was on the stage, clowning around as he set up. This was the part that Connor liked best.... Ryan liked the part where he put a boy into a bubble... (a big boy and a very big bubble). After that we got over heated at the local watering hole and spent the rest of the day cooling off at home. Today (sat) we are going to a tag sale with Gigi. She used to love these things, so I hope she has a great time.

Gotta love Kids...

Ok.. this is worth the 3 minutes to watch....

Ryan, don't get any ideas about you or Connor doing this one!


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Another Crazy weekend

Items for the weekend:

1) Band Plays on Clinton green
2) Grandma and Grandpa G coming by to go to the Weston Picnic- They arrive Friday
3) Wesbrook Fair - Friday night
4) Tom's Wedding Saturday (Parents off to the Picnic with regrets)
5) Grandparents pool day....

Ready set.....

Lise has been ansey all week... She has really been looking forward to getting out of the house... as you can see here... she prepped for all the running around she needed to do to get ready for this weekend.


Thursday night after work we went to see Shaded Soul on the town Green in Clinton. They were alot of fun and I grabbed a few pictures of the kids having a grand old time...(see below) By 8:30, everyone was spent and we all went back and went right to bed... Ryan woke up at 7:30am.... I couldn't believe it...


On Friday we went to the fair in Westbrook. We had a great time a rode most of the rides. Ryan loved the bumper cars and asked to go on them at least 100 times. Patience, Mike... After a great time spinning , jumping, twirling and driving, Ryan and I had to call it quits but we thought we'd go on the Pirate boat ride.... the one that swings.... Ryan loved the first 5 minutes and then began asking... "when does this thing end?" Connor meanwhile "hit the wall" and was on a sugar exaggerated, overtired hate high that made him completely schizophrenic. He was so happy, he wanted to kill you. We tucked him into bed and he slept like a truck hit him.. and then took a nap the next day to leave his demon self behind and become a little boy again.:)

On Saturday we had a lovely breakfast together (Connor dressed as robin) and then a trip to the farmer's market. (more pictures below!!) After making lunch for the picnic, Lise and I got dressed and left for Tom's Wedding (you guessed it ... below)... We had a fabulous time and really enjoyed seeing people that had been absent from our lives for the last couple of years. I am happy to see Tom so happy and joining a good family... Good Luck Tommy! We got home totally exhausted and passed out.

On Friday we spent the morning chatting and the afternoon on the pool. It was great spending some time as a family and I think Grandma and Grandpa had as good a time as we all did. :) After they left, we had a dinner at the local beach stand and sent the boys off to bed... when I'm headed this instant! Good night.

Click for more Band at the Green

Westbrook Fair

Tom's Wedding

Grandparents visit

House Grind

So with Staycation over, Lise & I finished up a bunch of projects and began a few more... Our front garden was in need of an overhaul and we had put it off long enough, and our front porch was rotting away, so we got that under control first thing...

Before:


After:

I'm glad we're finally able to focus on the outside of the house... we've been fixing the inside so much, it's a little rough out there. Lise has put in a little bird bath and we have the gazebo up ... so I think we're good for a little while. :) I cant wait to be done, but for right now, I think we're ready to finish up our projects until the housing market has come back a bit more. :)

Staycation!

I was asked to take vacation this week ... I'm not a huge fan of being told when to take my vacation time, but the flip side is that I know I'm a consultant, and that I am overhead... etc etc etc... I'm not really complaining... I needed some recharge time.

So this week I took full advantage; I did a few projects and spent some good quality family time in the pool. It was a full blown family "staycation". I couldn't afford a "vacation" and going to Canada this year, so... "Staycation" works for me. We did all the family things we usually do on the weekends and just enjoyed some additional time together. On Friday there was the farmer's market and fresh strawberries... and then off to that Carousel with Superman and Ryan to ride the flying cat / dolphin things... (don't make eye contact with the ride... eek)

On Saturday night there was a fireworks display in East Haven at Gigi's place and we all went and met with Auntie Nee and Louise and Bob for a night of food and fireworks. We had a wonderful, except Connor hit the wall just as the fireworks started and started to ask to go potty every 3 minutes and then not going... ugh. In the midst of it, I was able to take a few snaps.

Fireworks

We all went home and threw the kids into bed around 10 pm... they remained crunchy all week. :)


On Tuesday Connor Started back to summer school. The bus picks him up two days a week, and he is still loving it. I'm really not looking forward tot he days of "I hate school", or the stories that "the teacher hates me". Oh well... Until then, I'll enjoy the smiles and try to mastermind a plan to keep them excited about learning... or break their backs trying. :)

While Connor was at school, I installed a "whole house" fan that blows air out of the attic to and pull fresh air in through all the windows of the house. I am hoping that after all the fireworks ends I can use it at night to cool the house. There are SO many nights where it is 60 degrees out and it's 80 on the second floor, so I'm hoping that getting the fan going will cut my cooling costs. In the afternoons we went to a few festivals in town and on Wednesday, we went to the "water's edge" for their festival. It was expensive and we decided that after getting cool shark tattoos that we'd blown our wad and were ready for a little dinner at the singing bridge...
I should note that it was crazy hot (it got to 113 degrees -Fahrenheit Meike... 113 C would have been a fire up there - while I was up there one day) working in that attic all week and when the kids wanted to go swimming they didn't get any resistance from me (except to finish the wiring I had to redo - another day I'll tell all about that) Anyway... We got some quality pool time, which I posted separately here, for the fun of it...

Swimming

We got an underwater film camera from the Grandparents which turned out great for taking shots of the kids jumping into the pool. There are is a sequence of Connor jumping in, so you can get an idea of the fun they were having. :)