Tuesday with the homeschoolers

Yes, Tuesday is homeschool "park day" for us even here in Maine. But instead of the park, we were at the beach, Kettle Cove (my favorite beach) to be exact. It was great to see so many homeschooling families out all together. We about took over Kettle Cove. The mass of children running, playing, climbing, digging, just being kids on the beach, on the grass and on the rocks was so heart warming.

There is a great little trail to hike also, which Cae, Lumpy and I went on. We will have to do that again soon, and bring the camera, as it is just so lovely back there.

And what a day, warmish, windy and high tide when we got to the beach. Kettle Cove really changes when the tide is in, lots of kelp and crashing waves... but fun. Logan even braved the ocean, but paid dearly with being very cold most of the rest of the afternoon. I need to remember changes of clothing when we go to the beach. And a beach umbrella... wise investment I think. A nice big one with rainbow colors, and a few towels, and a gallon or more water container to have in the van for water bottle refills. Yes, the list keeps growing.

Another trip to the beach...

I had Sunday off of work so we took a trip to Willard Beach. It was a lovely warm day, and lots of people were on the beach. It was really nice to see. The ocean is still a bit too cold for us Arizona types, but there were kids playing in the cold Atlantic that day. Maybe some day we will be those people, just not yet.

We ate a great picnic lunch, played in the sand and made all sort of strange sand creations. It was a great day.

Audrey's eye...

Here are some really wonderful pictures that Audrey has captured on her digital camera. I think she really has a good eye for this stuff.

Earth Day 2009

What a wonderful way to spend a day off. The kids and I went downtown to check out the Earth Day celebration and the farmer's market. We walked around enjoying the weather, and sunshine after a day of rain. Everything smelled so fresh and the breeze off the ocean was so wonderful. We enjoyed free samples of raw vegan chocolate, listened to a fiddle player, then had gelato at "Others!" a fair trade coffee and gelato shop in Monument Square.

Sunday in the sunshine

With the weathering being so lovely, but me being scheduled to work, we decided to spend the morning outside in the yard. We had the blanket, a borrowed basketball hoop and the most lovely bread from the Rosemont Bakery to nibble on. I remembered we had chalk, that I had been "saving" for who knows what, and decided it was for this day. The kids had a great time drawing on the huge driveway. If you notice the kids even have their shoes off, that is how nice it was. When they came in for lunch the level of filth on their feet, hands and faces was amazing... yet that doesn't even matter, because we spent an amazing time together on a lovely spring Sunday.

Popham beach part 3

And here are a few more.

Popham beach part 2

So many great pictures! Just have to share some more!

Trip to Popham beach

Last Thursday we took a trip up north past Brunswick to Popham beach. Apparently it is one of the largest stretches of sandy beach in Maine. Although the sand was wonderful, we really enjoyed the rocky mound that is easy to get to during low tide, but watch out!!! During high tide it is out in the ocean. We fed a few seagulls who then watched over us and kept the other gulls at bay... although they did try and eat the baby wipes when we went for a walk. We had lunch, walked in the ocean, dug in the sand and hid out in a drift wood fort. We are all so loving the warmer weather and spending so much time at the ocean.

Another trip to Kettle Cove

Last week we went with dad to show him Kettle Cove, I had to work that afternoon so we got there early and spent a few lovely hours playing in the sand, tossing rocks into the ocean and collecting sea shells and sea glass. The kids had a great time on the grassy area and rocks making videos so that it looked like they were falling into the ocean. There were moments of meditaion (Sagan calling out... "Mom, tell me when 4 minutes is up, I am going to meditate!"), lots of eating, and looking at tide pools in the rocks full of snails and some other weird sea creatures.

All and all a lovely way to spend the late morning before heading off to work in the afternoon.

Late Ostara celebration

So far today the children have gotten up early, ate loads of chocolate and jellybeans, had hot cross buns and went on an egg hunt with a couple of the neighborhood boys. We gathered 60 eggs! It was wild and crazy and lots of fun. It is always so sweet when they are little and finding hidden treasures.

Tonight for dinner we will have a quiche and salad and probably even more chocolate!

This Evening...

We prepared the eggs for our "welcome spring time" egg hunt. We missed celebrating Ostara due to illness, so we postponed the festivities to Easter Sunday. We had loads of fun coloring eggs and preparing the hot cross bun dough for baking tomorrow.