Snow

james in snow


The snow started coming down yesterday afternoon right before nap time. By the time the boys woke up and put on ALL that gear, the sun was going down.

We slogged over the Jeff and Izzi's to sled with Sadie and Eva. Here are just a few of the shots.

Today there is a foot of snow outside and we're hoping it may melt off before we have to leave. The driveway is a huge shoveling job. We were glad that there is a school holiday anyway, so there was no pressure to go out in it, except for fun.




it's coming down
kat

willy down, james is helping?
willy

tubing down the street


Mike and James getting Sadie and Eva ready for launch


The snow started coming down yesterday afternoon right before nap time. By the time the boys woke up and put on ALL that gear, the sun was going down.

We slogged over the Jeff and Izzi's to sled with Sadie and Eva. Here are just a few of the shots. Enjoy.

Today there is a foot of snow outside and we're hoping it may melt off before we have to leave. The driveway is a huge shoveling job.

Being creative

Here is a preview of our Christmas card. I was trying to distract James from running around the house making his brother scream and told him to make some designs for our card- this was the best, a close second was the dinosaur with a hook in its back as a christmas tree ornament. BTW this is Santa being pulled by two 'long necks' (brontasaurus) over our house, in high wind.






Also check out the bunk beds I've been making (for a customer)--

Tooheys in the house

My cousin Clare and her husband Brian are awesome and they live just an hour north of us in Northampton MA. We have been trying to hang out since we moved here and were finally able to make it happen this weekend. Clare and Brian also have a James, James Shipley Toohey, born September 10, 2010.
We had nice lunch and visit and then had to make Brian get out of the treehouse so little James could go nap in the car. We are all looking forward to future adventures--

Evolution of Art

James and Willy have been working on their artistic chops- here is a taste of Willy's interpretation of us all skating, James singing a song from school and a James picture of the girl jedi (his favorite) from, as he calls it, 'Star Wars, the Clar Wars'.

Hiking in CT

Right across the river from us is a great park, Hurd State Park. Lots of trails and very quiet. Click on the Picture to see the whole photo album.

maier family reunion 2010

Willy eats cake.


Our photos are still making their way from the camera to the computer, but cousin Bruce Kerr sent these to enjoy!

Kat


Grandma Maier's 80th


Dad and Willy

Can you pick our kid out of this lineup?

Willy had no good explanation for why he was making this face during the fire-truck-photo-shoot...
but apparently he made it in both of the pictures they took today.
He is a funny guy.

2010 Neighborhood Garden Party

Click on the photo and it should take you to a slideshow on the web. There are a few photos of the family.

art is subjective! Or is it?

We've been enjoying in the fruits of James' and Willy's artistic labors. Pre-school and kindergarten classes are art factories!

There is a never-ending stream of work coming in from school, so we thought we'd share some with you.
James impressed his kindergarten teacher by telling her he wanted to be a paleontologist. She said she had to look up the spelling. I like the axe, and the dino-skeleton shape.

It's a theme... as you can see.



Give him a shape... any shape, and he'll turn it into a dinosaur. Am I detecting a little sarcasm in the use of "another" for the second drawing? You be the judge.

Willy on the other hand has created several avant-garde self-portraits.


head shot, and
full body.

If I had to pick (please don't make me), I think I'd go with the potato-like head shot. But they're both pretty awesome.

Everyone in the family is busy and happy with school. Mike is already getting high A's on assignments, the boys love their teachers and friends, and I am really happy with my classes this semester.

Good times all around...

First Day, Fair and Willy's birthday

the boys hamming it up


a very grown up James


Willy is of course watching James for all his cues about how to act in front of the camera.






wait for it...



that's right. everybody has to take a photo!


We have had a whirlwind of activity in the last few weeks. James kindergarten has had several events to help acclimate the students to school. That, coupled with his graduation from his preschool, and Willy's transition from the toddler classroom to the preschool classroom has made things busy.

Add to all of this that I (Katharine) started teaching again, and Mike has begun the architecture program at UHart.

Whew!

We're tired, and ready to fit back into a more relaxed and comfortable schedule, without lots of activities every night of the week.

Everybody had a great first-day sendoff. I teared up a little when I dropped Willy off at the big kid (preschool) playground. He did not hesitate, running off to play with his friends. He just looked so big, and so grown up that it got to me. James had many questions about why I was crying, and then he began to extract promises from me that I would NOT cry when dropping him off.

As if.

We came back home and walked to school. Every Wednesday is walking school bus day, so there were tons of kids and parents walking. All the kids received yellow balloons. We saw several friends including a girl we met at orientation (Kylie) who lives right down the street.

We made it to school and all the classes lined up on the tarmac. James has several friends in his class- new friend Kylie, a boy named Quinn we met over the summer, and Brianna from his old school. That made such a huge difference for me.

I hugged him in line, then stood back as they walked in. He didn't glance back, and I met some friends under the shade of an oak to cry a little.

Next they had what they call the 'boo hoo breakfast' (though I kept it together). We went in for their first Surf's Up Assembly. All the classes (K to 5th grade) came in and sat in rows in the gymnasium. The parents sat in chairs in the back. They had a welcoming ceremony for new teachers and staff, then welcomed the students with a slideshow and video. Macdonough has this amazing theme song called Knowledge is Power. The music for Knowledge is Power cranked up and then all the older and returning kids started clapping to the beat and singing along. I TOTALLY LOST IT. This is just such an amazing school. I feel so lucky that the boys are going there.

James didn't see me during the Assembly and I didn't flag him down-- I didn't want him to think about me again because he was so obviously adjusting perfectly to his new class and teacher. He behaved himself throughout the assembly and I was really proud of him.


In other recent events-- here is a quick shot of Willy's special birthday breakfast.


And some photos from the Chester Fair. We saw our friends Mike, Melissa and Connor there, and managed to get this adorable shot of them walking to ride the pirate ship together.


and this was the first ride we tried, a Chinese dragon mini-roller coaster. This kind of preschooler/child ride is absolutely the limit of my roller coasting abilities. What I love about this shot is Willy's hands. He did that all on his own and it totally cracked me up

Introducing Findus and Birthday Bash

We've been planning to get a cat since we moved back from the Netherlands, but it never seemed the right time. As the boys' birthdays approached we heard from a friend with kittens and things quickly fell into place.

Now the adorable Findus has joined our family. He is such a sweet guy. The dogs love him (they've had cat friends before), and after a few minutes of hissing Findus seems to tolerate the dogs. Findus is so bold he walks up to Keska's bowl to have a nibble WHILE she is eating. That's one brave kitten.

We named him from a Swedish storybook sent by our friend Karin and family, the Findus and Pettson series by Sven Nordquist. I highly recommend these delightful books. We have When Findus was Little and Disappeared and Pancakes for Findus. We use the pancake recipe in the back of the book to make special birthday breakfasts and the boys love it. They are much thinner, lighter pancakes-- more crepe-like than the hearty, Bisquick pancakes I am used to-- but a really nice treat.

Oh, and did I mention this is where he sleeps?


We also held a co-birthday for the boys last weekend.

Many of our friends were able to make it to the party, spending the afternoon climbing in the tree house, throwing water balloons, practicing their t-ball swings and sharing cupcakes.

Carlton starts the tree house club
Happy Willy!

James at his birthday breakfast

Matt eats a bug
Jeff gets bonked!
serious t-ballers

Keska

Have a cupcake

Hot Summertime

We have had a fun couple of weeks dealing with the crazy hot temps. The beginning of this week we returned from (18 hours driving each way) Seabrook Island in Charleston where we shared a house with our friends Keith, Dorthe, and Maya and got to spend time with Katharine's folks, sisters, and all the cousins. It was great and the boys really had a blast but you pretty much had to be immersed in the water to stay cool. James did really well at the 'big wave beach' but most days we went to the river side of the island where the surf was tiny and perfect for the littler kids.

50SPF constantly being reapplied--






Great Egret (Ardea Alba) from off our back porch

Mom and Willy after nap time. One of the coolest things from the week was Willy deciding to potty train himself. Our efforts had been pretty laissez faire of late (i.e. doing pretty much nothing) and he just suddenly made up his mind that he was done with diapers. Two weeks now and 0 accidents.





Invasion of the coffee filter clowns.



Banana spiders are enormous in the area. The developers actually did a great job of keeping lots of marsh and wetlands and dunes (it took a 15 minute hike to get to the oceanside beaches) and we saw a ton of birds and smaller critters, no gators though we were kind of trying to keep the kids away from them anyway. The back of the banana spider is just as cool looking.

We also made a weekend trip to N. Jersey and saw the Maier cousins there. The boys loved the fact that everybody has a pool.

Jack and Willy are cut from the same goofy cloth.

On the way we saw yet another cousin (Stella) in Jersey City. No pool but we had a great picnic with Rick and Laurens in their back garden

A less successful trip was our attempt to go camping a couple of weeks ago. It was very hot, there were lots of semi-inebriated college kids around, there was a Druid wedding (actually kind of fun), a treacherous waterfall and 2 very uncooperative little campers. We came home after about 10 hours (it was only a half hour from home). We will try again in the fall with some other families.


Some CT amphibian wildlife--


Miserable.