Summer Adventure

Thursday was rainy and gross so we headed to Middletown to use tickets I won a while ago to Kid City. It was a zoo in there. Well it's a children's "museum" aka indoor playground and it was packed. Ethan had a great time and we were surprised to find his friend Henry with his brother, mom and grandparents all there to celebrate his 5th birthday. When it was finally time to go, we stopped by Lyman Orchards to have lunch and feed the ducks.

Making Cookies

Ethan helped Aunt Linda and Amber make some of Granny's recipe molasses cookies. He had a great time with a piece of dough that was designated just for him. When he was done, he did some wrestling with Jonathan.

Berry Picking & Frog Hunting

We spent part of the day Sunday at Uncle Bill and Aunt Jean's picking berries. Ethan ate his fill of strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. The raspberries came from bushes my Great Grandmother had. They were delicious. We picked about 12 quarts and then we played with some frogs. If you think those are cat tails, you're wrong. They are "frog poles."

Elise is 6!

Our friend Elise had an awesome Hawaiian Luau for her birthday. We had cake, searched for pirate treasure,and played games with a giant parachute. We went out to dinner with Elise and Jeannie and Kurt afterwards and had a great time.

Pez Tour

We had been hearing great things about the Pez factory in Orange, CT so we decided to check it out. It was fun to see all the retired dispensers. I really want to get the Presidents series! Unfortunately the factor wasn't operating the day we were there. We'll just have to go back again. We got to make a video, you can watch it here- http://www.yourpezvideo.com/video/display/view_key/1342107429.

Concert and Picnic

 
Ethan and I went to Oxford a few weeks ago to take in their summer concert series in the park. The park happens to be right on the beach. We didn't bring our swim gear, but we may go back and check it out another time. We did have fun on the playground though and we had a picnic dinner while listening to music.

Heading Home

 
We decided to do a few things on our way home. The first was a visit to a submarine in Portsmouth NH. It was in dry dock. Ethan tried a cot, looked through the parascope and steered. 

After that we went to a science center in Rye NH. It was in a state park, and it was a beautiful location. There was a touch tank as well as a few tanks with other sea creatures like a small octopus, a blue lobster, and sea horses. Ethan had a great time and also got to play lobsterman. There was even a playground outside we made a quick stop at before driving along the coast, getting lunch and heading home.

Boats, Parks and Mini Golf

 
We started off Saturday with a boat ride. We got to see a lobster boat and a "pirate ship." Ethan was excited to see the lobster boats pull up the traps. We picked up a copy of Lobsterman at  L.L. Bean so he knew just what was going on.
 
After the boat ride, we picked up some slab pizza and other goodies in Portland and went to Two Lights park for a picnic. We had lunch, played on the playground, and took a long walk around the park.

After dinner we decided to try some mini golf. It was at a place with homemade ice cream. We played 18 and then tried some ice cream. Ethan was introduced to juke boxes on this trip. We saw one at a diner and played it, then the ice cream place had an original that played 45s for a dime. It was so cool, you can see Ethan got his groove on.

All Beach, All Day

On Friday, we headed to Crescent Beach state park in Cape Elizabeth. It was a beautiful place. I didn't even mind being at the beach, though I still haven't gotten rid of all the sand. We spent most of the day there, picking up shells, building castles, digging holes. We even got lunch at their snack bar. Then we took one for the team and took James to the lobster shack for dinner. At least they have a nice view and it's outdoors so the smell isn't quite as vile.

Happy Anniversary to Ethan

 
We went back to the beach for the morning, but the weather was overcast and windy and Ethan was clearly freezing so we decided to head out to find lunch. We ended up going to Portland for lunch, Ethan fell asleep in the car and we wanted to keep him that way a little longer.
 
Then we headed to Freeport where L.L. Bean was having their 4th of July festival. We saw a giant boot that was a car, found some delicious whoopie pies, and checked out L.L. Bean.


 
Since it was rainy on the fourth, we saw fireworks on the 5th. We also got eaten alive by bugs and saw an amazing moon rise. Ethan declared that it was his anniversary. We can't really dispute that he's taken it over. He also decided at the end of the fireworks "that was a long time to love America."

Anniversary Trip

 
Our first stop in Maine was a trolley museum in Kennebunkport. We also had lunch there. It was kind of a touristy nightmare. But the museum was fun and we even got to ride on the "Connecticut" trolley from New Haven.
 
Once we arrived in Old Orchard Beach and checked into our cabin, we had to go exploring. We found the beach and got our feet wet just before the skies opened up. We walked to the first restaurant we found and got inside just in time. It was good, and the view was phenomenal. 

Picnic and Concert at the Park

Play Time

Despite all our errands, Ethan and I found a few minutes to play today. We got home from our errands and had a picnic in the yard. Ethan was happy to play with the new toys he got to add to his Toy Story collection- RC and Hamm- courtesy of Grandma and Pa. We also spent a few minutes looking at the clouds after we had our lunch. In the afternoon, after running a few more errands, we stopped at the park. We got busy filling two big dump trucks with sand and then dumping it out again. Yuck. We also took a few minutes to play on the swings.