The fair

Just a few fair pictures. We had a good time. There really is, I think, no better way to end the summer!

Playing in the corn at Old McDonald's farm. (weird that it was sponsored by McDonald's.... you don't suppose they took the cows with them afterward, do you?) Oh heavens....

We grow big gourds here in Vermont.

Beware though, those gourds will turn your children into zombies.

I always knew Connor was a clown!

There are, I am certain, other pictures of our children on rides. I, however, was not good about bringing my camera to the fair this year. Well, actually, I was great about bringing my camera, but I was an utter failure at bringing the memory card.

First day of school 2011! (already behaving badly)

This year we have a crew of four headed to school! Granted, Siobhan is only headed to pre-school, and it's located in the same exact building where she's been going to day care forever, and she already started pre-school last spring.... but it's the first day of school dammit! Let me have my moment! (I just need to point out here, that spell check did not like the word "pre-school" and instead suggested "pee-school". Seriously?)

The first day of school is such a momentous occasion. Our babies walk out the door; ready for another year of learning; ready to go be educated; ready to re-unite with their friends; and ready to stop driving their parents nuts and fighting with their siblings because they've had no structure for so long. Yahoo I say, Yah-Hoo.

On our first day of school here in the Frugoli house hold it's tradition to take the kids out to eat on the first day of school. Al has historically done this because, well, in the past the first day of school for them has also been my first day with students. My new job, however, allowed a little bit of flexibility, so I had the honors this year.

Breakfast at the Apollo Diner:

Ready for Preschool!
Siobhan has the same pre-school teacher that Connor and Aisling both had.
We LOVE Miss Erica and all the other teachers at Little Feats Too!!

Ready for second grade!!
Gasp!
And ready for fourth grade.
Well; he is. I'm not.

Those of you wondering where Wyatt is in these pictures have obviously never been around the boy first thing in the morning. Let's just say; he is not a morning person! Not his favorite time of day, but a long shot! In addition, his bus picks him up at 7:15, so there would not have been time for him to join us out to eat.

Now, on to the behaving badly....
As any good parents who are invested in a quality education would do; we took our children to the fair on the first day of school. I took Connor and Aisling to see Bruno Mars at the fair. That was a phenomenal concert. We really had a blast ,and I was impressed at his talent. Great music.

We went to the concert with some of our best friends. It may have been a bit of a late night for these two:


Since my children also seem to have the memories of elephants; and since we did promise them back in June that the could do the bungee jumping ride at the fair; and since we didn't do it the first day we were there.... well, you know where this is going.


Of course, if you're going to keep the kids up late on a school night with a concert and fair rides; why not go for the trifecta and give them crap food at 10:00 PM?

Welcome back to school kids.
Welcome back to my kids, school.

Baseball and birthdays and brothers, oh my!

We returned from 10 days of camping on Monday afternoon. That was awesome fun! I have about 8.000 pictures to share from that, so it will take a while! (Meaning, you'll be lucky to see any of them before next year's trip...!)

We returned on Monday afternoon, and then I took off with the kids on Tuesday evening to head to my dad's house. He won Red Sox tickets in a raffle, so we decided to take Connor to his first game. These were not just any Red Sox tickets, however, they were Green Monster seats! These, for those of you who don't know, are the seats on top of the Green Monster, and have the best view of the game. Amazing.




This same week we also took Aisling to the American Girl store to celebrate her (belated) 7th birthday. One of the gifts that Uncle Kevin gave to her was a CD full of songs with Aisling in the title. It was such a special and meaningful gift. (Fitting for a Godfather to give his Goddaughter!)



While staying overnight at dad's house, we had an afternoon free. During this time, Kevin and I noticed that the kids were going bonkers, and that they didn't have anything to play with outside. We took off to the store to buy them a few things to keep at Poppy's house. When we returned, this is what we saw:

Poppy had a few tricks up his sleeve, and was letting the kids slide down the "big hill" on sleds and rugs! Very cute.

We headed for home the next day. Knowing that we had the whole day, I decided to make an adventure out of it. We stopped at the Quechee Gorge on the way home. I had big plans to hike with them. We did a short (5 minutes?) walk, and then the kids were starving. I noticed that there were storm clouds above us, and we could hear thunder. So, I made them take a look at the gorge before eating (worried we wouldn't have a chance to see it at all.) It's a good thing too, because moments after they saw the gorge, it started pouring! Our lovely picnic outside became a free for all in the car! We still had fun, and we managed to see the gorge a little after lunch.

One interesting thing that happened during lunch, was this: a car pulled up next to us, and 2 parents got out with their 2 kids. They knocked on my window and asked if they could trade us some peaches for a cell phone call. I handed over my cell phone, and we ate some lovely home grown Maine peaches from our friendly neighbors. (from Maine)

It was a great week, but I am so glad to be home. I head back to work on Monday. I will miss the extra time home with the kids, that's obvious. However, I look forward to some added structure to our lives.

Just a few fun pictures!

I took Ailsing, Siobhan, and Wyatt out for ice cream the other day. (Al and Connor were away at camp). I had a little fun with the Hipstamatic app on my phone.

The girls pushed their baby in a stroller the way there.