Favorite Fruits

We have our first harvest of plums, peaches, and pears this season. One of the four plum trees finally decided to give back, and made a bunch of fruit. Elliott loves eating the fruit straight from the tree

Both peach trees had so much fruit that the branches almost broke. Next year we will need to thin the fruit back.

Only three pears this year... but that is better than nothing.

Half Birthday

Alden's friend Evelyn had a half birthday this week. Her real birthday is just over a month past Alden's and she was tired of the snow.

Instead of snow there was running around and water balloons.

Cady was there, who Alden is especially sweet on, and they hang out for most of the party together.

Kindergarten

Kindergarten for Alden, Back to daycare for Elliott.

Wednesday was the first day of Kindergarten for Alden. Elliott was supposed to start daycare Monday, but had a fever that lasted to Wednesday.

Alden was most excited about riding the bus by himself. He is also very excited about a new school, but the bus thing is the primary conversation.

We waited for the bus on the lawn, on the big front rock, on the porch sofa and finally on the front steps. The bus came at 7:45 and away he went. I then took Elliott to daycare at the Boys and Girls Club, which was the next stop on Alden's bus ride... so I got to wave good-bye to him again.

Picnic Portland

We all went to Portland to the 'Picnic Portland' Festival (and to the Children's Museum) this weekend. The festival was mostly discovery bands and hipster clothes/ food. Very fun.  

Alden got to run through a dirty fountain (when Ilana was not looking). Elliott mostly relaxed in his stroller.

Elliott Birthday

Elliott had a great birthday. I took some pictures after his party to document the day.

Alden Super Hero 'Trashcan'

This is Alden as a superhero. He says his superhero name is "Trashcan"... due to the proximity of a trashcan when he was coming up with his super hero name. He has a net on his head that "shoots metal parts from the handle", goggles, a flashlight, and as of last week a cape he made at school.

Alden is grappling with good-guy/ bad-guy dynamics.When playing with toys Alden usually tries to steer the narrative to have the bad guys and good guys be in conflict. I created a new group of middle-guys to try and mellow things out, but the bad guys and good guys just teamed up against the middle guys. You just can't win.

Swim Lessons End

Alden has been taking swimming lessons at the YMCA this summer. The classes were only for a couple of months, but in that time he has gone from being a little nervous in the water to being over confident. The lessons were at 6:00pm, but we realized his friend from school (Cadence) was in the class before him so we shifted him to 5:30. I think seeing Cady being fearless and good at swimming motivated Alden.

Cady had lessons before this session so after the course she graduated to 'Eel'. Alden is still a 'Pike' but lessons start up again in September and we think we will sign him up again. He's made great progress.

Bee Swarm 2 Collected

Last year we were very proud of ourselves for capturing a swarm of bees that were high in a pine tree. 

The other evening I was walking around the backyard when I noticed this cluster of insects in our apple tree.

 Here is Alden standing directly under it to give a sense of scale.

 We took one of our extra hives and shook the bees into it.

Most were contained (including the queen) the remainder of the bees made their way into the hive over the night.

In the Water

Elliott is finally big enough to safely use the regular tub. 

He and Alden have  a great time, but it usually escalates to wild splashing, which Elliott loves but Alden not so much.

Ground Hogs again

We have captured two ground hogs so far this year

Alden is very excited about checking the traps every morning and it is part of our ritual to walk through the backyard before breakfast to make sure everything is in order. It feels very New England.

Elliott does not care much for animals and prefers to pull clumps of grass up and eat what he can.