Halloween 2012 pictures

Nathan as an army man, Thomas, the pilgrim and Sammy-the-pooh at Old Sturbridge Village, Saturday

Joined by the Kenyon children...Nathan, Owen, Ross, Sam, Thomas, Jessica and Wyatt

Grandpa and Sam

Rider men

Crazy hair day

Thomas was too short to do anything much but we tried!

Daddy decorating the pirate

Trick or treating in Berlin

These pumpkins were entirely done by Thomas and Nathan except for the cutting of the lid.  A first!

Apple Picking at Berlin Orchards

All the children:  Jessica, Owen, Nathan, Thomas, Ross Wyatt and Sam in the front

The view down the row....prettier in person!

Thomas and Ross chatting

Sam, holding his own...in more ways than one.

What a cute lot

This was a spur of the moment apple picking outing.  Glad it worked out because now it's a nice memory!  We tried a new orchard and were very happy with the apples.  There were still plenty of Macouns, Cortlands, Macs and Mutsu. 

Sam is doing excellent with words.  We have stink bugs galore so he's learned bug....he pointed to one in our bathroom and said bug.  It's great that he remembers the word and uses it on his own.  He is at such a fun stage. He has started kissing.  He was sitting my lap and Daisy (the cat) jumped up.  He was petting her and then he leaned down and gave her a big kiss on the head.  Besides kissing his teddy I hadn't seen it before.  Last night in meeting he was kissing me...on the lips...I kept turning my head and so he used both hands on my cheeks to guide me to his mouth.  Okay, his mouth was wide open...it was interesting and meeting isn't maybe the best time to be kissing but at 14 months you can't always get all those details!

Here is an excellent recipe (even my non-oatmeal eater liked it):
Chewy Granola bars

• 1¾ cups (175g) quick-cooking oats
• 1 cup (120g) oat flour
• ¾ cup (164g) packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ⅔ cup (80g) pecans, roughly chopped
• ⅔ cup (80g) almonds, roughly chopped
• 1 cup (about 80g) coconut chips
• 4 ounces mini chocolate chips
• 4 ounces dried Craisons
• 1/2 C canola oil
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch square pan and line it with one sheet of unbleached parchment paper that overhangs 2 opposite sides of the pan. Grease the paper, and then place another crisscrossed sheet of unbleached parchment paper overhanging the other 2 sides of the pan on top of the first sheet of paper. Set the pan aside.
2. In a large bowl, place the oats, oat flour, brown sugar, ground cinnamon and salt and whisk to combine. Add the pecans, almonds, coconut, chocolate chips and dried fruit, and mix to combine. Set the bowl aside.
3. In a separate, medium-size bowl, place the melted butter, honey, maple syrup, molasses, egg and vanilla, and mix to combine well. Create a well in the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients in the well. Mix to combine. Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan and press firmly into an even layer.
4. Place the pan in the center of the preheated oven and bake, rotating once during baking, until golden brown all over, about 25 minutes.
5. Allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then transfer the pan to the freezer until very firm, about 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the freezer and lift the bars out of the pan by the overhung parchment paper. Peel back the paper, and slice into 24 bars with a sharp knife.
6. Store in an airtight container on the counter for about 3 days, and then freeze any leftovers.

Uncle Tim's visit

A very tolerant uncle!

At Battleship Cove, Fall River, MA

Tim and Nathan

Battleship anchors

I just noticed that I had this saved in draft...not sure why it didn't get posted. My brother, Tim and his wife, Kelly came to visit us in July. We met them at Battleship Cove on our way back from Newport RI. Very interesting though kind of like glaciers....to the untrained eye, once you see one, they all look alike. So we managed to tour, of the five ships there, one battleship and the submarine....that was enough. Part of the problem was that we were all hungry and also we carried Sammy as strollers are basically out of the question.

Yum!

Ribs!

Nathan as catcher

Watching the birdfeeder

The Many Faces of....

Pirate Sam....he loves this hat.

Pirate Sam, throwing his hat on the ground because he can't have the camera.

Sam eating green tomatoes while I pull the garden up.

Quiet Saturday mornings....

Thomas, enduring another picture.

Thomas and Nathan did exactly the same thing....climbing the dishwasher.

Quite happy, I would say.

When Sam drinks from a cup, he throws his head back and gets it all!  We do a teaspoon at a time.

And then it dribbles!

Rainy days

We start them young!  Thomas will truly have his partner in a few years.

Snugglers!

Some Favorite Pictures

Sam, early August, in the tomato patch with Mommy.  He loves raspberries (notice the purple hue on his cheeks) and tomatoes.  Apparently, all my little dresses were stained down the front with tomato drippings, so Sam comes by this quite naturally.

Entertaining himself while his brothers are off at school.  This is the end of August and the first time I noticed him up balancing on the little step.

Sam on one of his birthday presents.  He gets pushed around the house by his brothers.  He hasn't figured out yet how to move himself.

What a grub!  And yes, he finally had a haircut.

Dressed to hunt....currently, it's squirrels.

Fall Baseball, Nathan with a smirk.

Under all that catchers gear is Thomas.  He needs to put that right hand behind his back!

Thomas, taking off for first.

Nathan had his adenoids removed again yesterday and tubes put back in his ears.  He is a little old for new tubes but we felt it was the best course for keeping the ear infections at bay.  He was a trooper!  Everything went well.  They did find scarring on the adenoids which had grown back 80% since their last removal in 7/2010 so they had to remove them the old way of cutting.  Gross...I'll say no more.  He has a sore throat and was very pale all day yesterday but he acted himself and so was off to school today.

Thomas and Nathan are really enjoying the fall baseball league.  We are noticing a marked improvement over the spring.  Just practice and of course they are just a bit older.  We enjoyed the open house at their school, meeting both teachers.  I think they are both happy in their classrooms which makes me happy! 

One of Sam's favorite words is Get!  We tell that to the chickens when they come up on the back porch.  He was out there the other day rattling the compost bin which brings them running and then stood there yelling at them to get.  Finally he picked up the bin, put it right up against the door jam and stood between it and the chickens yelling at them.  It was so funny.  He tells Annie too.  He cracks us all up but I have to say that boy is getting a temper!  He has this little mad cry he does.  He seems so young to really get mad but he does.