365 ~ 2016: Day 244

The traditional First Day of School pictures!  It's only been two days, but both days were "AWESOME" from all three boys so that is a good sign!  I have had the chance to meet with all 3 teachers and I am excited for their year.

What I didn't realize until after I sent them off yesterday was how significant this year was for all 3:

David's LAST year in Elementary school.
Shaun's FIRST year in a new school (his last school was Pre-K to 2nd grade)
Evan's FIRST year in all day school.

It's going to be a great year!

365 ~ 2016: Day 243

Happy First Day of School ~ 5th, 3rd & 1st.  The last year all 3 ride the bus together.

365 ~ 2016: Day 242

Tonight I tucked my last baby into bed and tomorrow he will wake up an official first grader.  He is so ready and was excited to be able to get a sneak peak at his classroom today.  He cannot wait to have gym, art and music and eat lunch in the cafeteria just like his big brothers.  It is bittersweet for sure!

365 ~ 2016: Day 241

Had a great day at Canobie Lake Park with my boys, Auntie Robyn, Auntie Reshea, Grammy, Scottie and his friend!  It was the perfect way to end our summer vacation!  Back to School mode on Tuesday.

365 ~ 2016: Day 240

Celebrating the upcoming nuptials of these two love birds!

365 ~ 2016: Day 239

Sunshine and Happiness, just like the shirt says!  They have grown up so much since they first met in 1st grade!

365 ~ 2016: Day 238

Someone moved up to the big leagues in swimming today!

365 ~ 2016: Day 237

David is excited about adding the clarinet to his musical repertoire this year!  He got some new reeds for it yesterday and has taken it out a dozen times to try and figure it out.

365 ~ 2016: Day 236

This lucky kid, thanks to the birthday money he received and some allowance he saved, got the iPod Touch he's always wanted.  He's just a little bit excited about it.

365 ~ 2016: Day 235

Looking pretty focused at his first soccer practice.  He's going to play for a slightly more competitive league this year and we're excited that he'll learn real skills and how the game should be played!

365 ~ 2016: Day 234

It's rare when it happens but it has happened.  Most of the time though, they are about the same height and then I noticed that Evan must have had a spurt because, today a Wicks kid is taller than a Stack kid and by a couple inches!

365 ~ 2016: Day 233

Lemonade Stand / Yard Sale at Gates Street in Concord! A portion of each lemonade sold will go to the Friendly Kitchen! 

365 ~ 2016: Day 232

The boys were so excited to receive their medals from swim team tonight!  So proud of their hard work this summer. Go Blue Dolphins!

365 ~ 2016: Day 231

Back to school kicks!

365 ~ 2016: Day 230

The Compton Farms Cousins takes over Water Country!

365 ~ 2016: Day 229

My ten year old made me breakfast this morning.  A homemade McMuffin with a perfect runny yolk!

365 ~ 2016: Day 228

With only two weeks of summer left, we're getting in all our last minute summer fun.  Today we spent the day at the beach and we could not have asked for a more perfect day!

365 ~ 2016: Day 227

Back to school hair!  Hard to believe that we only have 2 more weeks of summer.

365 ~ 2016: Day 226

Learning more about location lighting today with SOPHA.  I'm kind of obsessed with the idea of creating an image that uses a light source while also being able to have a shallow depth of field!

365 ~ 2016: Day 225

This is 10!

365 ~ 2016: Day 224

Shaun, Evan and I tried out The Little Creperie today!  What a great addition to our quaint downtown!  The blueberries on my crepe were from Apple Hill Farm, right in town!  I love that they use fresh and local ingredients!

365 ~ 2016: Day 223

Yesterday we did the annual birthday trip to FunSpot & Hart's Turkey Farm with Grammy!  This year the kids hit lots of bonuses, including Evan winning 3000 tickets on the Dizzy Chicken.

David - DOUBLE DIGITS

I don't know how this happened, but I'm the mother of a TEN year old!!  It seems like just yesterday the nurse was handing him to me all bundled up.  It's been a joy watching him grow into his own person.  He's becoming more independent and maybe a little too smart for his own good.  He even spent his first week away from home, 2 1/2 hours away at a the Sonatina Piano Camp in VT.

He has a variety of interests, but has started to hone in on his favorites, like giving up soccer for baseball.  He's really enjoying learning how to play different instruments and excited to delve into some colonial American history this year in school.   I can't wait to see what this year brings, his last year in elementary school.

David was spending the week at my parents camp, but we made plans to meet up for his birthday to do our annual trip with Grammy to FunSpot.  We finished the day with lunch at our tradiational stop, Hart's Turkey Farm and then stopped for a birthday treat at Jordan's Ice Cream (a place I'd been dying to try!).  I would say that we made TEN a very special day for David!

All the loot they won from winning so many bonuses.  They got to split a little over 10,000 tickets!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Ten year well check to get his stats!

HEIGHT: 55 inches (54th percentile)
WEIGHT: 71lbs (51st percentile)

365 ~ 2016: Day 222

In the blink of an eye!  Happy TENTH birthday to this guy (can't call him my baby anymore!).

Vacationland 2016

Like we do every summer, we headed up to Maine for our annual visit with our friends!  This year, because of the weather we skipped Funtown Splashtown and just drove straight up to our friends house.  It was, as always a fun visit and now that the kids are all older we actually had the chance to go out sans kids one night!

August 2nd - Downtown Street Festival

When we arrived, there was a downtown festival that we decided to take the kids to that night.  It was a lot of fun and we ended up staying until the end.  We got them bracelets to do the bounce houses and then gave them a choice at the end of the night to do one extra thing - David tried to ride the bull and the rest of the kids did the trampoline.

Back together for another summer of shenanigans!

David decided to try and ride the bull!

These two kuckleheads!

August 3rd - Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse

On Wednesday we took the kids out to explore at the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse.  Ben had a softball game that night so we needed to be back in time for that.  It was a gorgeous day and the views from the lighthouse were spectacular!

Breakwater selfie!

Lighthosue selfie!

Ben's team was short a player in their game so they asked Charlie to play!  It was fun to watch, they got killed by the other team but they had fun and the kids enjoyed running around and eating pizza at the park.

 August 4th - Wild Acadia Fun Park & Water Slides

On Thursday we headed towards Bar Harbor to try out this place that had a ropes course.  Our boys had such a great time trying it out when we went to the one back in June.  This place also had some water slides and mini-golf so we packed lunches and made a day of it.

Mini-Golf Fun!

Ready to get their ropes course on!

But first, a lesson in safety.

Don't look down David!

Go Kart selfie!

After our fun day we stopped for some Mexican food on the way home!

 August 5th - Lake Day!

Our favorite day of our trip!  The day we get to hang out at Swan Lake and take the boat out.  The water level was so low that we could jump off the docks this year so we had to wait until we got out into the middle of the lake before it was safe to jump.

Shenanigans

Boat ride selfie

 August 6th - Star Trek Beyond and a Double Date!

On Saturday we took the kids to see the new Star Trek movie in the afternoon and then we made up some dinner for the kids and left them with a baby sitter so that we could have some time out just us grown ups!

Much needed grown up time!

I'm the designated driver!

August 7th - Seadogs Game

Our last day we drove down to Portaland to catch the Seadogs game.  It was bright in the sun and hot, but nothing a little ice cream couldn't fix.  David really got into the game and they won so it was even better!

Baseball game selfie

Until our ski trip this winter!