He's EIGHT!

Remembering:
Seven and a half
SEven
Here's 6 1/2
Six
5 and a HALF
Age five.
Here's 4 1/2
Here's 4.
Here's 3 1/2.

Here's 3.

Here's 2 1/2,  
Here he was at 2.
Here he was at 18 months.
(And before that, I wasn't a blogger).

Adrian, you are now EIGHT.  And you are mighty excited to be 8.  

What I love best about you is you are you. You love farming, tractors, trucks and cows. You have since you were one year old. You play farming daily. Always have, nothing has changed. You also know what you don't like....specifically sports. Although you do enjoy riding your bike and swimming.  You are finally brave enough to swim without your bubble or a life jacket and ride without training wheels.

Much of your play is work. You love stacking wood. So much that we got you your own wheelbarrow for your birthday. Rusty old, just how you like things best.

You are an amazing artist with such intricate farming scenes.  You have such pride in your own individual garden that you grew this year.  You love going to all the activities you are involved in and you will strike up a conversation with anyone.

Your memory is unbeatable.  You know what car every single person you  know drives. You can help me find whatever I need to find. You could tell me what I was wearing last week while I went grocery shopping.  You also take care of yourself, always dressing yourself neatly, matching and thoughtfully. 

You are very loyal and loving to all of your friends and family.  You're the type of kid who will ask about someone if you have't seen them in a bit. 

You are a big time book lover. You are not at the point where you read to yourself for fun, but you will always stop to listen to an audio book or for your mama to read to you.  One thing for sure, you love your whole family but you are a mama's boy, that's for sure.

Adrian, may your 8th year be the best of all!
Love , Mama

Nicknames: Adri

How old are you? 8

What is your favorite color? Green and Yellow  because green and yellow make John Deere

What is your favorite animal? Cows and Horses

What is your favorite book? Tractor Mac series

What is your favorite song?  I don't have one.

What is your favorite food?  I like everything pretty much. Pretty much everything you put in front of me, I eat. I don't complain. But I do like pastas.

What is your favorite drink?  Juice

What is your favorite breakfast food?  Oatmeal

What is your favorite snack?  We don't eat snacks

What is your favorite outfit?  John Deere outfits

What is your favorite game? Tractor games

What is your favorite toy?  John Deere and Tractor toys.

Who is your best friend?  Desmond and Moses

What is your favorite thing to do? Cut tractors out of magazines and go to stores.

What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Haul wood

What is your favorite holiday?  Christmas because I get presents and get to celebrate my favorite person, Jesus.

What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  Lucky the pup and my fox tail.

Where is your favorite place to go? Tractor Supply

What is your favorite restaurant?  Friendly's Toast

Where do you want to go on vacation?  NY or Florida to see my family.

What do you want to be when you grow up? John Deere dealership guy and a chevy dealership man

What did you do on your birthday? Had fun. I had corn and peas and fruit salad, hot dogs and mac n cheese.  I didn't have a cake, I had apple crisp and strawberry rhubarb crisp. My favorite presents were tractor presents and carhart stuff and a wheel barrow. I was surprised I got a how to draw really good cars book and a tractor mac book and a pillow. 

Fleece!

Audra had a chance to spend the day washing, sorting and carding fleece with a dear friend who forwarded me this pic (thank you). Audra feels mighty lucky to have had this chance. 

First corn

What's summer without corn on the cob?

Anna-Kate is a foodie and can polish off a cob, leaving no kernels remaining, in less than a minute.  She'll eat three ears, I kid you not.  My big kids each eat up to five a piece.  I tell you, good thing we grow our own because feeding would be expensive!

Here she is, first corn. She's such a ham.

And for kicks, below is Adrian's first corn on the left and Audra's first corn on the right.  All these pics were taken at camp and I'm pretty sure my dad grew all this corn.  Summer loving.

Flower challenge cont.

This little challenge of trying to share bouquets weekly has really been a big part of our summer!  Another bouquet:

 It's always been Audra's thing to help, but not Adrian or Anna-Kate. But guess what?  Adrian's starting to join in!

  Even picking his own bouquets to share! Now, let's see if Anna-Kate can get on board!

September Summer

It's September and it's definitely still summer in Maine.  Thankful for these late afternoon empty beaches that are near desolate, warm, enjoyable and relaxing, so Audra can make her siblings spend the late afternoon during high tide digging her grave (seriously, where does she come up with these ideas?).

 While I welcome fall temps anytime, when we are instead given beach temps, we'll gladly take another dip in the Atlantic. I'm thankful Audra traded her grave idea for a beach run with our water dog, Holly. So lucky to live in Maine.

"Not in School" 2018-2019

It's about that time that social media will be flooded with back to school pics.  I love seeing everyone prepped for the big day. A few years back, I decided that I would join in the fun and do "not in school" pics of my kids as we don't really have a "back to school" time given we are year round homeschooling. (Part by choice and part to get in the number of school days and still be a part time working mama)

We aren't opposed to public school and aren't committed to homeschooling through graduation.  Each year we decide whether we will continue or not.  I asked the kids to show us what they thought of 2018-2019 being another year of learning at home sweet home.  This was the reaction.

A couple of conversations last week with the kids I want to remember:

Me: "Today is a homeschool day."
Kids (cheering): "YES!!! I love the days you stay home from work and we do school. These are the best days ever!!"

As I was reading to them:
Adrian: "This is so relaxing and peaceful." 
Me: "And this is your school."
Adrian: "I'm so lucky to have this be my school."

This year we will have a 2nd grader and a kindergartner.  And of course pictured below, Trouble, with a capital T. 

 Thankful for this trio and thankful we are able to keep them home another year.

 And we're off...

Farming

Know what lucky ducks we are?  Lucky.  My former math teacher extraordinaire invited us to participate in their farming adventures while we were in town.  Adrian was in heaven with all the machinery (look closely, he's IN all the machinery in the photos below).  Audra had tiny animals to snuggle and name. Then they gave us all the fresh corn we could eat.  Given my kids like to eat 4-5 ears at a time, they were thrilled.  Best day ever, so they said.  These pics were all taken by Mrs. A. (thank you!).  Many thanks to the A. family for a fantastic day on the farm. 

 

And their art on their thank you notes made my heart go pitter pat.