Summa Time!

Time for blogging has been pretty non existent since the kids have been out of school. I accidentally took a little cat nap after dinner tonight so now I'm wired and ready to blog! So far summer vacation has been a juggling act. Running errands with three kiddos in tow, keeping the tv off, and getting ouside the second the weather looks good. The only scheduled item is swim lessons daily at 4:30 which is pretty hard to get to when you want to go with the flow all day. Josh and I decided this is the year Noah and Presley will become swimmers. Our deadline for learning to swim is our trip to Utah this summer. 

We have hit the outdoor pool, some parks, the library, and the backyard so far. One thrilling outing we recently went on was a gem of Massachustts in my mind. We went to deCordova, a sculture garden and museum that blew me away!

The outing was also a farewell hang out with some good buddies who are moving to western Mass. This little guy has been Charlie's comrade all year. Their birthdays are a day apart. His mom and I swapped babysitting on Thursdays and Fridays.

I also mentioned on facebook that I finished my photo book. This has been a project on my mind for a while. With everything else I was busy doing it kept getting put on the back burner. I am so so glad I got it finished. It is over 100 pages covering our time in Boston and a few shots from Maryland. It turned out beautifully. I used Blurb and it was so easy and quick.

front cover

back

Other than that, I already managed to get poison ivy somehow and I have been back on the running wagon, listening to a lot of old Offspring, who knew!

Dad's Day, Classroom b-days, and a Charlie modeling gig

One of the best parts of Father's Day was our big crepe breakfast. Josh ate crepes while serving his mission in Norway so I thought I'd make some for him. We had just gone berry picking so I made lots of homemade jam (seriously one of my favorite foods!). We also had butter, homemade whipped cream, powdered sugar, nutella and Norwegian Goat cheese. Everyone in thae family eats theirs differently. 

 Josh has the goat cheese and jam

 On Monday we celebrated Noah and Presley's birthdays in their classrooms. Summer birthday kids get to pick which day they want to celebrate. I brought ice cream sandwiches to Presley's class and chocolate peppermint cupcakes to Noah's. It's been a busy week!

I have to learn to quit filming sideways!

Charlie and I took a stroll to the library. I heard from friends that there is a giant photo of Charlie in the parking garage and so I wanted to check it out. Sure enough, there is little (big!) Charlie at 9 months old. Charlie liked it. He was laughing at how his teethe looked ! 

Today is the first day out of school. We have big plans for the summer. First up is Charlie's b-day on the 5th. Still trying to figure out how the heck to celebrate. 

Video Fun

Charlie sings, "I got a Dream" from the Tangled soundtrack (sorry, no idea how to flip it!)

Bumper Boats at Kimball Farms when family was in town for graduation. Justin & Charlie were together (blue shirt), Noah was alone (turquoise shirt), Al was alone (brown shirt), TK and Presley were together (white shirt)

Presley doing "Just Dance"

Happy Friday!

Soccer Wrap up

Saturday was the last game of spring soccer. Noah's team was undefeated with a tie for the last game. It was pouring rain and they played on. Here are some shots before I ran away from the water with my nice camera:

Noah's coach said Noah told him that "it's important to hustle." He noted Noah as a good listener! We got the same feedback from his swimming instructor. Noah got to be the 2nd team captain this year. Meaning he was captain if #1 was gone.

I can't believe how much he has grown up. Check him out in 2006 when he is 3 years old on his first soccer team (I keep reading my old beloved xanga blog lately. I used to be so detailed about my everyday life over there!):

Team Turquoise standing out in the pouring rain! I love that Noah's buddy has his arm around him!

our bedrooms

Since we had some company stay with us last month when Josh graduated, I did a major cleaning and organizing with the help of Justin. I thought I'd take some pictures to remember our house for the future when we move away. The four years in Harvard student housing have been the longest we have lived anywhere as a family. Here is Josh and my bedroom with the floor model, Charlie.

 This is the kids' room. Noah refers to it as the museum of kids' artwork! Presley and I made a giant chalkboard with an ugly framed painting from Goodwill, some acrylic paint, and some chalkboard paint.

 I have stacks of canvases that I painted over white and let Presley creat some of her own beautiful paintings. Her current specialty is butterflies. Charlie is making a Noah face in this one! 

Boston Tourists

 

We were Boston Tourist on Saturday. We decided to take the T and hit the Freedom Trail.  It was our first time doing it.  We inherited a tour book from friends who just moved away so we put it to use. It's hard not to love Boston when you go exploring in the city. It is such a cool place. We saw things that were over 300 years old. You can't find structures like that just anywhere.

We went to the harbor and rode the T boat for the first time. The city seemed so different from this angle.

We had Josh Clement with us from church. He's an awesome guy.

Action shot on the stroller! Presley looks like she's on a roller coaster.

 Fanueil Hall

 

Graduation Day

WE DID IT!!

I need to take you on a little walk down memory lane to appreciate this...

Back in 2007 when we came to Boston to look for housing, this is what I blogged:

then this:

We only had two teeny kids at the time!

 Experiencing Josh's graduation was amazing! We had a super full day. Breakfast in the early morning, then Josh marched with the other phd grads down Oxford St. so cars could honk and congratulate. Then we fought the crowds and walked for miles (yards) around the gate of Harvard Yard, looking for our entrance. We opted not to fight the early crowd for seats to the first event so this was our set up:

 GO PhDs!!!

 We listened to a fabulous student speech (we didn't get Amy Poehler- boo! that was undergrads the previous day) 

Later in the evening was the ceremony at the med school It was much smaller and really special.

My very favorite part was the middle ceremony where the kids walk on stage and got diplomas with Josh. I'll have to post about that later when I get the photos from everyone else. 

We've had quite a journey! Glad it has come to an end, but very grateful for it all. So proud of Josh and US.