An Extra Long Weekend

This was an extra long weekend for the Deegan Family. Everyone had Veteran's Day off on Tuesday, but since Aiden's school was closed on Monday as well for teacher workshops, Andy and I and Haley decided to take the day off too.  With four long days ahead of us, we considered bugging out for a few of them to Boston or Rhode Island or someplace for a mini-vacation, but reality prevailed.  We just have too many house projects to get done while the weather is still mild.  Project numero uno was our new garden.  We rented a mean-looking rototiller from Home Depot (where the extraordinarily nice man at the tool rental counter showered the kids with Home Depot freebies- aprons and pins and build-it-yourself kits) and Andy beat a 30' x 12' plot of our yard with it until what passes for our lawn (barely) was minced into upturned dirt clods.  Then we spread on about 3 yards of loam mixed with compost, and covered the whole thing with permeable weed control fabric.  Voila!  We're ready for spring, and for the onslaught of seed catalogs that should be arriving now that the catalog-universe seems to have caught up with our new mailing address.  We'll have to deal with the overabundance of deer that frequent our yard by erecting some sort of fencing eventually, but for now we can cross this off the list.

Next up was a trip to Vermont to help Grandma Sally with her fall chores.  We mulched bags and bags of leaves and transported them to the garden in a never-ending caravan of lawn tractor and ATV loads.  Aiden drove the ATV with Grandma for most of the morning, and Haley got a few rides on the lawn tractor.  When the leaves were done we turned our attention to winterizing all the small engines in the barn, siphoning gas and running them dry for the cold months.  We had a full day of work, but also had time for a tea party, football game, potsticker dinner, and a movie later that evening.  In the morning we had breakfast at Papa Nicks, where a neighboring table of crusty (but extremely nice) old Vermonters in their wool plaid jackets made good conversation throughout our meal.  When we left, Mom said, "well, you don't find that in New London..." and she's right- I think we're all going to miss being in Vermont as often as we have been the past decade or so. We'll have to invent some reasons to visit...

Cruising along as fast as Grandma will let him

On Monday we embarked on more chores- laundry, housecleaning, painting the basement playroom, grocery shopping, etc. etc. so there wasn't much time for kiddo fun, but we did make over to tag our Christmas tree for the season.  This is the last year the Stanley's will be selling xmas trees at Elephant Rock Farm, so we'll have to start a new tradition next year.  Bittersweet, for sure, since the kids love climbing the elephant rock and picking out their special tree.  We have such high ceilings in our living room now, so we thought we might get a larger tree than we normally do.  But Aiden fixated on the first tree he saw that wasn't already tagged- the one closest to the parking area- and it HAD to be that one.  No other tree would do.  We walked the entire lot and he shook his head at them all.  Haley didn't seem to care one way or the other, so we relented.  It's not the most comely Christmas tree we've ever seen, but it's bigger than we normally have, and really wide.  Even decorated, our trees never come out Martha Stewart-perfect anyhow (more like an eclectic riot of color and oddity) so probably this is the perfect tree for us.  Can't wait to see what it looks like in our living room, and how many strings of lights it takes to illuminate!

And here it is, folks!

Babydoll wardrobe malfunction at the xmas tree farm

 Tuesday was Veteran's Day.  We started the day by attending the local Veteran's Day ceremony in New London, where the elementary school kids (including Aiden) sang a handful of patriotic songs for the veterans of at least 5 different wars who were assembled in the local baptist church.  They sang all the different service songs- Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard... and it was moving to see the different vets stand up and salute when their service song was sung by the group of about 30 kids. The whole ceremony was really nicely done, and I hope it made at least some of the veterans feel appreciated and loved.  It certainly gives us some perspective to think about the immeasurable sacrifices others have made on our behalf.

Haley chilling out in our amazing kitchen-dining-living room- THE room of our house.  

Kearsarge Elementary kids singing for the Vets on Tuesday

Apple Turkey Time Again

It's a little early for Thanksgiving table dressings, but I went to Haley's class at Windy Hill School to make apple turkeys this week nonetheless.  The kids were up for an edible art project, and Haley was happy to have her mom come in to share something with the class for a little while.  I guess I did a bad job of talking up the ingredients list (I did mentioned that cranberries were pucker-sour) because most of the kids only wanted to create their turkeys using mini marshmallows.  I think they were secretly (or not so secretly) planning to eat their turkeys as soon as they get them home tonight!  Even so, the turkeys always come out pretty amusing looking, and these were no exception.  We'll do it all over again at home for our turkey day table, but it was fun to share this with Windy Hill one more time.  Next year, both kids will be at the elementary school, and it may be uncool to have mom come in for a craft project.  I already threatened Aiden this year and got a wide-eyed stare... "I'll be happy to make them at home though, Mom!"

Halloween and a Karate tournament

The kids had an exciting Halloween this year- they are both at perfect ages for being enchanted by dressing up, getting to run around outside at night, and especially collecting mass amounts of candy.  Both had Halloween parades at school to kick off the holiday... At Windy Hill the kids all made their own capes and masks (Super Haley!) and paraded around campus, while the KRES kids donned their Halloween costumes and walked around the block downtown.  Aiden went as a Minecraft creeper, which really just involved a large cardboard box over his head.  It was fine during the day, but later in the evening it became treacherous since Aiden could barely see out of it to step over stone walls or street curbing.  He ended up with quite a few tumbles and bruised shins before he abandoned the box altogether.

For trick or treating, Haley was "sky" from Paw Patrol (or the closest we could come to it, which was a pink poodle costume). Andy took Haley around and met up with her friend Sam to walk the haunted trail and go door to door, while I took Aiden and his friend Sam to do the same. I think Aiden and Sam saw almost every kid in their 3rd grade class wandering around New London.  We ended up at Arctic Dreams for free ice cream and a photo for their wall, then headed back to the Kennedy's house (aka our second house) for a Halloween party.  It was a fun night for everyone.

On Sunday, Aiden had his first karate tournament in Methuen, MA.  He's been doing karate on and off for 2 years now but we have held back buying all the sparring gear and going to tournaments.  Aiden finally said he wanted to try going to one, so he signed up to compete in katas only (not sparring).  Katas are like a series of moves (punches, kicks, blocks) they have to do in fluid succession (that my non-karateka description,  mind you)...I'm not at all sure how the scoring works but it definitely seems like doing all the movements crisply and making loud hi-ya! noises at appropriate places earn you higher points.  In any case, Aiden did well, competing against just one other boy and winning first place in his small group.  He was pleased to get a medal, and also pleased that he got to go first and get it over with, since he was pretty nervous.  I don't blame him since it seemed like there were hundreds of people competing and spectating.  We celebrated his win with a trip to a huge Asian grocery store and a delicious lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Manchester.  It's important to hit some different cuisines when we're outside of New London- where all you can find are burgers and pizza and beer!