Portraits

 Had a brief spell of lovely weather today and did two fall portrait sessions...these folks got lucky, two other families postponed their sitting until next weekend because they were afraid it would rain, but it was beautiful!

Fallin'

Bookworms

As Fall closes in on us, and the darkness comes earlier, we've upped our reading time, all cozied up on the couch with cocoa and graham crackers.  Eli can read like no body's business now, (I often catch him with a flashlight under the covers when he's supposed to be asleep) but still loves to be read TO.  And Ira would listen for hours on end if you let him.  Trying to think back to what we've enjoyed this summer...We made it through most of the "Little House" series, with "Farmer Boy" being the kids favorite. (They started to become less interested in the main characters as they approached adulthood, so we'll leave those final books for later.)  We did "Stewart Little", "Black Beauty" and "The Indian In The Cupboard" (They LOVED that one).  "Charlotte's Web" they adored although they were understandably upset when the spider died and Ira won't eat ham now. (Which is fine by me, we rarely eat meat anyhow.)  But their all-time TOP book, the one I was begged to keep reading, and the second we finished, they wanted to start it over again, was: "The Trolley Car Family."  I always get a secret thrill when they love something that I loved... that book was one of MY childhood favorites.  We'll crack open "The Secret Garden" tonight at bedtime, or if this rain keeps up, we might start in while we have our after school snack.  I am more than happy to revisit all the stories that were so special to me once upon a time, and it's interesting to see the different things the boys pick out to ponder.  I tend to censor small bits when we read, because Ira especially is so sensitive in certain areas.  Eli has his touchy spots too, of course, and it's trickier now that he follows along with me and breaks in with: "You missed a part, Mom!"  Little Smarty Pants.      

Fort Ticonderoga

What am I not really interested in?  Well, forts and canons and soldiers and all that military stuff.  But I have two boys who tend to find testosterone driven things quite intriguing.  Hence a little field trip to Fort Ticonderoga in New York State.  I believe I went there as a child, but it only left a vague impression on me, apparently, even though it IS a pretty cool place...the same goes for it this time.  I'm not really a girly-girl, Anne Of Green Gables aside, and no way am I clamouring to visit only ultra feminine attractions,  but there's only so many muskets, powder horns and battle scene dioramas I can look at before I tune out.  Silly that I intensely love history, yet military matters tend to bore me or perhaps I am more comfortable ignoring them for one reason or another, despite being a terribly important piece of the past.  I know which war was when, and what they meant, and where they were fought and yadda yadda yadda, but have little interest in breaking down the strategy or dissecting the whole event.  The very idea of war leaves me cold and I'd rather disassociate from the idea, I guess.  But the kids really enjoyed the place, and watching them enjoy something makes me enjoy it too.  Funny how that works.  Next thing you know I'll be obsessed with matchbox cars.

Fair Wedding

 Well, I've photographed somewhere between 70 and 80 weddings, but this was a first.  A local couple decided to tie the knot at the top of the ferris wheel at the Tunbridge World's Fair and I was the lucky photographer hired.  All the surrounding cars on the ride were filled with family and friends who cheered from their own hanging baskets as the newlyweds kissed.  When the bride threw her bouquet overboard, it smacked into an unsuspecting fair-goer far below who had no idea of the happenings up above her.  It was an adorable and unforgettable wedding, Vermont style.  Congratulations to Jim and Kerri, and thanks for letting me be a part of your special day!  

Clark's Trading Post

Oddly, until this summer, I'd never heard about this place.  When we were camping in the White Mountains a while ago, one of the kids picked up a brochure and my dad knew all about it, but it somehow, it slipped under my radar all these years.  Clark's Trading Post.  Been run by the same family since...forever.  A small theme park revolving around trained show bears.  There is, of course, the bear show, but they also offer an antique steam train ride with the very exciting twist of a wild miner attempting to hijack the engine, we nosily went to ask the conductor more about the train and the boys made a new friend as they got a full tour of the engine.  (Not to mention we met Wolfman himself, as he was leaving at the end of the day, since we were, as always, the last stragglers heading to the parking lot.)  There were several wonderful museum buildings with old fire engines and such, a Man In The Mountain climbing wall, a Segway park, a few, old school optical illusion houses, bumper boats...basically a little boy's heaven.

It's strange, we live right next door, but I've never been a huge New Hampshire fan.  I guess just because of that silly, my-state-is-better-than-your-state attitude we Vermonters tend to adopt.    Randomly though, many of the trips we've taken this summer are to NH attractions and as loyal as I am to good ol' VT,  I've found every one of these places to be super clean, safe and all together enjoyable.  This one wasn't fancy, didn't cover acres and acres, was relatively simple and inexpensive, but again, just like the Polar Caves, it HIT THE SPOT.  We had an awesome day and I got the Wolfman's contact info so I can do an article on him at a later time.  One of the most interesting and colorful characters we've come across lately.  It's great, the more you talk to people, the more interesting people you find.  And after a while, you find out that practically EVERYBODY's interesting.  I love that.

We also happened to be in the right place at the right time (as we usually try to be, with curious boys and a curious ME) and got to see what goes on behind the scenes after the show and we asked a lot of questions. I was originally rather uncomfortable with the idea of captive "show bears" when my dad told us about this place and how fascinated he found it as a kid, it just seemed sad and wrong to me.  But after we watched the Clark family working with the animals, and talked the brother and sister who train them, I must say...I felt almost OK with it. In this case anyhow. Some of the bears were rescued by the Fish and Wildlife Department after being left for dead as newborns and were bottle fed and raised in the family's kitchen. They literally sleep in the same bed with them as babies, like a dog or cat. The older brother told a funny story about a cub chewing up his prized GI Joe figurines. I still don't think wild animals should be held in captivity, but I could clearly see how well cared for and happy these particular bears were. Ira laughed until he fell out of his chair at bears playing basketball and riding on scooters. And Eli loved watching the bears eat ice cream with spoons and the trainers snuggling and kissing them and scratching their itchy spots. The kids wished we could bring one home with us, but I think we'll stick with our teddy bears.

First Day!

Off they go!  Super excited and a little nervous.  Just like my sisters and I when we started, many years ago.  Funny that my kids are going to our old school and some of the same teachers are still here, must be interesting to deal with people as students and then parents!

Ira and Av started kindergarten today, and Eli, the second grade.  (WHAT is in his mouth here?  Gum?  Great.  Hope it didn't end up under his chair.)  It was a tough decision to choose to re-do the second grade, but his birthday is the day before school starts, so he went into first grade pretty early.  If I HAD put him in the third grade, he'd have been the youngest by far since it's a combined 3rd/4th/5th grade.  Seemed a bit heavy for a kid coming out of a private school that's academically a year or two behind public curriculum anyway.   Plus he's the same age as the other second graders and has lots of friends in that class already (including some transfers from his old school with the same issues as us and needing to catch up) so I figured, why push it?  We talked it over a lot this summer and he decided he was OK with it.  Eli is one smart cookie, absolutely brilliant in a million ways, but was always the youngest in his class.  Competing with the older kids tended to make him feel intimidated and then he puts on this cool-guy "so what?" attitude and stops trying.  He was afraid to fail.  I can already see him feeling more secure among his own age group.  Not to mention, it'll give me one more year to save for college.  Ha.

 
His friend Parker (who is Eli's twin, personality-wise) immediately took him under his wing and found them some seats together, where they were soon joined by a couple more friends including my sister Jen's little neighbor, Shannon, who idolizes Eli, much to his dismay (and secret pride) and another boy from t-ball.  They were all busily sharpening their brand new pencils when I left.  The second grade teacher was my sister Myra's teacher when we first started public school after being home schooled.  (I've also got a soft spot for her because she takes my dance class!) I've known her for twenty years, and she is very keen on children's emotional well being.  I'm relieved to know that Eli is in her hands this year, and it's a great group of kids in that class.  Only 11 or 12 of them, all sweethearts.

Ira was instantly flanked by Av and his good buddy Ellis upon arriving in kindergarten.  The teacher is the father of high school friends of ours.  A big, bald teddy bear of a guy, constantly clowning and making the kids laugh.  Av is an old hand at school, since she went to preschool last year, and they found they already knew several of their other classmates.  Jen and I hung around for the first 15 or 20 minutes, not because the kids needed us, but because it was awful hard to tear ourselves away from watching.  Our babies in school!?!  How can it be?  I have spent months worrying about silly things like: how do tiny five year olds balance those cafeteria trays?  What if they lock themselves in the bathroom?  Ira and I have had hours worth of hygiene, stranger, and safety talks.  And I've made several calls to the school secretary to ask these same ridiculous questions.  The great thing is, they have a response to all my concerns, and so far, I've been very impressed with how terrific I've felt all their answers.  I love that the school is small, smaller even than the private school Eli attended in the past, and well organized.  And I'm in raptures over the idea of Hot Lunch.  With my meager income, we qualify for free hot lunch, and what a difference that will make in both my budget and our mornings.  I can now spend the time helping the kids get ready rather than just repeating, "Please, please, PLEASE!  Get out of bed!  We'll be late!" in a harassed voice from the kitchen while I make sandwiches and cut up cheese and veggies to pack in lunch boxes that you can never quite wash that stale food smell out of.

Now I'm home alone on a Monday morning for probably the first time in eight years.  This is unheard of!  I'm almost lost!  When I gather my wits, I'm going to take this rare opportunity to clean the apartment from top to bottom without interruption, and then I can't wait to pick up the kids and hear all about it.  By next week, I'll be busy working during many of the school hours, but at the moment I just can't even think of what to do with myself!  I've literally looked at the clock a dozen times with it barely moving.  And I'm thinking myself through the kid's day...OK, Ira's in gym class...now snack time...   Writing this post has gotten me through nearly to lunch, now to clean and then I'll be the first one in the parking lot to retrieve my big, big kids after their first day of school.  Sniff.