A Birthday and a Wedding

Aiden's birthday fell on a Saturday this year.  Normally, that would be ideal... we'd plan a party with friends and family and have it on his actual birthday.  But this year we were also invited to Tim & Wiley's wedding on that same day, so we had to find a way to work in both the wedding and a celebration for Aiden.  The best solution was a mid-day party at the camp on Lake Champlain (where, incidentally, Aiden has celebrated 4 of his 6 birthdays), then a 2.5 hour drive to the Kendrite nuptials in Dover, VT.  And what did the birthday boy want for lunch when Grandma asked him during a skype session in which we were planning the weekend?  Lobster, of course!  Well, she did say anything...  Thankfully, lobster is currently at a rock-bottom price and twenty crustaceans did not break Hapa and Grandma's budget.

Christian and Alex sitting down to their lobsters

Lobster lunch is served

On the dock

Sunset at the lake

Haley loves her daddy

Christian with a perch!

Haley and Edward watch the fishing

Lisa Yang and her three boys Alex, Christian and Edward also came to celebrate, along with the Pottmeyers and Gerritt.  The boy/girl ration was slightly skewed at 5/1, but Haley did not seem to mind.  She had a good time watching the outdoor fire with Edward and playing in the kiddie pool on the lawn.  All the kids went swimming in the lake several times (not as easy as usual since the water is VERY low and two feet of razor-sharp zebra mussel shells are exposed on the exterior of the dock), the boys ran around and shot water and "click" guns for hours, everyone enjoyed fishing (and catching!), and bonfire smores were heartily constructed and consumed.  And did I mention the weather was late-summer perfection?  It was.

Aiden trying his luck

Birthday toes anxiously awaiting cake 

Haley birding at Dead Creek

Dead Creek

The only bummer of the weekend was that Andy and I felt a bit lousy leaving Aiden's birthday party in the middle of the day to jet down to the wedding in Dover.  Once we arrived at the Grand Summit hotel and boarded the yellow school bus to take us to the ceremony and reception, though, we were absorbed in a great wedding celebration for Tim and Wiley.  They were married under a quintessentially Vermont covered bridge, with heartfelt original vows and lots of (happy) tears.  The reception was just as fun as you might imagine a groom-groom wedding reception to be!  There was more lobster for dinner, a dance-off between table 4 (ours) and table 11, a bonfire and smores, and even late night pizza to get everyone through the post-midnight hours.

The colgate girls

Tim and Wiley

Best woman!

Grandma's Summer Visit

Grandma Chris's annual summer visit was postponed due to the triplets' arrival, but she made it up to NH before school starts, and we all had a great time.  There were a few glitches, like a summer fever and cold spreading around from Haley to Aiden to Andy... hopefully not to Grandma Chris too... I guess we'll have to wait to see on that account... but colds can't stop a Grandma from enjoying her kiddos.  On Saturday we went to The Fells for a summer festival and the kids got to pet some ultra tame farm animals and make fairy houses in the woods.  We had pizza that night, but have been getting a regular harvest from the garden every few days that necessitates breaking out the recipe books to see what else we can do with kale or string beans or cucumbers.  We've made raw kale salads, kale chips, kale pesto, even Portuguese kale soup, though it's entirely too hot for soup still.  It's all good though.  August and September are a gastronomic paradise.

Aiden's fairy house at the Fells.  These remind me of bower bird nests!  

 The other momentous thing that happened while Grandma was here was that Aiden finally learned how to ride a two-wheeler!  His stumbling blocks at this for the past 6 months have been entirely psychological, so it was just a matter of getting him to stick with it long enough to realize that he wasn't going to crash and that he could actually and completely do it!  The ear-to-ear smile that lasted for a good hour once he realized this was priceless, and we had to stay out in the town parking lot for almost an hour so he could go round and around in circles one way, then the other.  A big thank you to Grandma Sally and HaPa for the glider bike, since that was a big part of getting him over the "speed bump" so to speak.

Haley and Aiden each got to stay home from school one special day and spend it with Grandma, playing playdough, going to the corn maze, or getting ice cream at Arctic Dreams.  They were sad to see her go this morning, but the double-special-treat days can't go on forever!  We are excited to see Grandma again in 2 weeks when we meet the triplets for the first time.  :)

Welcome Daniel, Noah and Carter!

A triple congratulations and enormous welcome to our newest nephews (and cousins!)... Daniel Grey, Noah James, and Carter Paul Deegan!  They are so precious and so tiny and we can't wait to meet them in less than a month!  Paulette did the most amazing job keeping these three little guys in the "oven" until over 33 weeks, which is further than most people expecting triplets get.  Hopefully the boys can come home from the hospital in a few weeks and then the real fun begins :)  Munson totally does not know what is about to hit him!

Proud dad with Carter

Noah (blondy?)

Dan with his namesake, little Daniel

Lake Solitude

Since Haley's birthday, it's been pretty quiet around here.  It's icky sticky mid-summer hot outside, and most of our friends are on their summer vacations.  Grandma Chris and Grandpa Dada have wisely postponed their annual summer visits in anticipation of the arrival of Dan & Paulette's triplets (maybe tomorrow!), so it's been just the four of us most of the time.  Which has been nice, actually... I think we've really enjoyed our family down-time.  We've done lots of watching the Olympics (Aiden is obsessed with "lift-weighting" and fencing and diving, and we've been relaxing the "rules" to allow him to stay up past 9 almost every night to get in an hour of prime-time viewing).  And this past weekend we went on a spectacular hike to Lake Solitude, a high-elevation lake near the top of Mount Sunapee.  Aiden did so well- no complaints at all on the 3 mile round-trip hike, although he did talk absolutely incessantly the entire time (Dad, can I tell you something?....Mom, guess what?!....Hey, what if I could zoom up the mountain with a rocket pack and get up here in like one second and sit on the top of a tree and then splash down into the lake and then....).  Haley tried hiking for oh, about 10 feet, and then "Up, mom.  Peese."  All for the best, since we were able to move along at a good pace with her in the ergo carrier.

Lake Solitude, from White Ledges

We ate lunch at White Ledges, where you can look down on the lake below, and Andy was able to catch a Variable Darner.  Aiden bravely released it himself, after his traumatizing Slaty Skimmer bite on the Windy Hill dragonfly field trip!  After lunch we decided to climb down to the lake to see if there were any other dragonflies down there.  It was absolutely gorgeous on the lake shore, and there were more dragons (mostly more Variables) and lots of MUD for the kids to get covered in.  Aiden was such a trooper all the way back, and we celebrated later with an ice cream at Arctic Dreams.

Such a cool place

Lake Sunapee from Mt. Sunapee

This weekend was also Hospital Days in New London.  This is the first year we've really been around for all of it, since we used to go to Gloucester that weekend when the triathalon was running.  Oh, and last year Haley was actually IN the hospital with salmonella poisoning during Hospital Days.  No fun.  But this year we got to visit the exhibits on the green and see the parade pass through town.  Lots of noisy fire trucks, antique cars, and people throwing candy.  Aiden scored a whole bagful.  On the whole though, I think Hospital Days was a lot more fun when they just had a real carnival on the green with scary carny rides and Def Lepard mirrors, cotton candy and sno cones.  But I guess that's just me.

Little Doo is Two!

It's been two years since Little Doo was born, and it's hard to remember life without her.  Haley is such a bright little light - opinionated and determined, sweet and silly, she's quick to laugh (even through tears) and loves to surprise you with a hug or a big wet kiss on your cheek.  She makes us laugh every day.  What could be better?

Aiden loves ribs...here's the evidence!

To celebrate Haley's big day, we decided to smoke a lot of pork products and invite people over to eat them.  Maybe not your typical 2 year old birthday party, but then Haley has exceptional taste!  Pulled pork sandwiches and smoked cola BBQ ribs were on the menu, along with an amazing array of fresh side salads concocted by our friends, featuring kale, sweet potatoes, beets, summer tomatoes, wax beans and lots of fresh fruit.  It was a definite feast.  Haley also had a big fancy cake to share with her friends, and a pinata full of tooth-rotting sweets, stickers, and small toys.  

Cake and ice cream time!

Ben and Aiden playing with their toy muskets

Finnegan

HaPa and Grandma and Micah, Becky, Phoebe and Fisher also came for the day to join the party, which Haley and Aiden loved.  Fisher, Haley and Phoebe especially enjoyed the kiddie pool - they were in and out of it all day, with and without swimwear.   I'd say everyone was plenty tired when the day was over, especially the birthday girl.

Birthday girl gets her own hummus (everyone else appreciates that too!)

Fisher is a water bug

HaPa and Fisher

Pinata lineup

Dragonhunting with Aiden's class

This week we took the Windy Hill Summer Program kindergarten class out to do some dragonhunting.  Aiden was so excited to be our main helper and show his class how to net dragonflies, hold them, identify them, and let them go.  We gathered everyone on some picnic blankets when we arrived at Low Plain to go over some of the basics about dragonflies (what they are, what they eat, their life stages, etc.) and when we got to the part where Andy demonstrated how to catch one, we called Aiden up to show the class how easy it is to let a dragonfly go.  "You don't have to worry, they're perfectly harmless, and they don't bite" ...that's what I was saying as I placed the dragonfly, a large Slaty Skimmer, on Aiden's outstretched finger to release it.  And then....Aiden promptly jumped up and down waving his finger screaming, "Ow! Ow!  It BIT me!!"... What the?!?

Aiden has let go, oh I don't know, probably 200 dragonflies in the past 4 years, and NOT ONE has ever bitten him.  Until this one.  Of course... murphy's law!  The truth is that dragonflies CAN bite...they just almost never do, preferring to fly right away when given the chance instead of waste any energy on retaliation for their capture.  All the kids in his class were of course totally terrified for a good while after Aiden's "demonstration," and every time anyone caught a dragonfly, the first question asked was "Will he bite me?!?"  Still, the kids had a very good time and we managed to catch some really cool dragonflies to show them.  Some kids even got brave enough to release one or two after our rough start with the Slaty Skimmer.  The highlight of the day was our netting of a Dragonhunter, the largest dragonfly in NH, a clubtail that Andy and I have never caught before.  So it was an excellent day for everyone, even Aiden, who got over his bitten finger in about 10 seconds once the nets started flying in earnest.

The Dragonhunter! (so named b/c it eats other smaller dragonflies)

Independence Days

The 4th of July seemed to go on for several weeks this year.  I guess it's just the result of the 4th falling on a Wednesday, so that no one was quite sure whether festivities should fall on the weekend before, the weekend after, or the 4th itself.  Despite this, we managed to see zero fireworks and attend zero parades.  We did, however, make it to a birthday party, several beaches, a game night, a bog romp, blueberry picking and two outdoor concerts. Not too shabby.  The weather has been blissful summer perfection for the most part, and despite being covered from head to toe in nasty red bug bites, the kids are in heaven.  As are the adults.

Kids at our new picnic table!

At Elkins Beach

 Bog Flora

Picking blueberries

Haley trying out the double-handed technique

Berries  @ Blue Moon Farm in Warner

Haley trying to get Aiden to dance to the Long Tail  Monkeys