Happy Thanksgiving (one week late)

One week ago, we celebrated Thanksgiving with Ana, Maks, Alejandra, Victoria, Oliver, Grandma Carole and Papa Marty.  (Yes, MLM has once again fallen behind with her posts.)  Alejandra and crew crafted the beautiful desserts!  It was a fun, festive and filling evening for all.

Sharing

Adam and Ashley are starting to share.  Almost...

Playing with Daddy

Daddy has such a good sense of humor.

High Fives and Hugs

Thanks to Ana's brilliance, the A-team has new skills to show off:  high fives and hugs.  Enjoy!

Homeschooling, Lesson #5

Today's lesson is a technology transfer from father to son:

Adam, this is how to launch the app.

Daddy, wouldn't it be quicker to do it this way?

Extreme Closeup

Ashley likes the camera.  Or at least, being near the camera.

Family Vacation, Part 3

For the final installment of the family vacation, we take you to the last stop on our trip:  lunch at Panera.  Apparently Adam and Ashley like spending this much time together.  We'll have to plan another vacation again soon.

Family Vacation, Part 2

After the hike at Fort Williams Park, we headed back to Portland and had lunch at the Olive Cafe.  This is a great place for lunch, especially if you have little ones in tow.  Not only did they have two high chairs available, but they also saved us a trip back to the car.  MLM, excited from the hike, left the straw cups in the car.  Our waitress came to our rescue, producing 2 sippy cups from the arsenal of glassware behind the bar.  It was very impressive.

After lunch, we headed across the street to the Casco Bay Ferry to partake in the 2:45 pm "Mailrun".  No, we didn't deliver any mail, but we did enjoy a 3 hour boat tour of the Casco Bay.  Aboard the Maquoit II MLM and MLD saw the Casco Bay islands while walking the citizens back and forth and back and forth and back and forth across the boat.

This is what happened after their walk on the boat:

Ashley conked out.

Adam couldn't sleep, so he looked at the scenery with MLD.

Family Vacation, Part 1

MLD surprised MLM on her birthday by announcing we were going to take our first ever family vacation.  We packed up the car -- including the citizens and their gear -- and set our sights on Portland, Maine.

We had a fantastic time!  The citizens were clearly on their best behavior.  

In today's post, we're sharing some photos from Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.  This is the oldest commissioned lighthouse in the US, commissioned by none other than George Washington himself (MLM can't resist the opportunity to share more history with Adam and Ashley).  

If you find yourself in the Portland, ME, area, this happens to be a moderate yet wonderful oceanside trail to follow.

Homeschooling, Lesson #4

MLM's lesson plans intended to focus on art appreciation. The citizens each decided to pursue independent studies instead.

Adam turned this into a culinary class:  eating crayons.
Adam turned this into a drama class:  comedienne.

Standing her Ground

Ashley is standing her ground.  You'll see what I mean when Adam comes too close late in the clip.

Read a Book

Ashley and Adam love to read books.  We've taught them some baby sign language despite our initial doubts.  It works!

Halloween Halloween

Since Adam and Ashley were too young to celebrate Halloween last year, we celebrated it twice this year.

Dressed as a family of hikers, off we went to meet some of Daddy's Biogen co-workers and to have some good old fashioned fun.  MLM is proud to say that we were the only family there without a stroller.  Since the babies were in our backpacks (see earlier hiking posts), it was very easy to maneuver through the crowds and the A-team had an eagle-eye view of the events.  What fun!

Then on Halloween, MLM dressed up the citizens in something more age appropriate and took them to the library.  After all, we know how much Ashley and Adam like books.  

As you might have noticed over the past few months, photos with both Adam and Ashley in them are increasingly hard to take unless both are seated in a high chair (which, not coincidentally, is why there are so many posts about eating).  This time MLM got a little more creative and headed off to the bathroom to take the photos.  I know, the bathroom?  But yes!  It worked!

What's a dragon?

Being a dragon is fun!

Silly Mommy.  The F stop is adjusted with this knob.  See?

Yeah!  Ana is in the bathroom with us!

We want to go back to the bathroom!