Sandy Point Beach

The first offical group picture of The Three Amigos and The Little Amigos:

This man came to take samples of the water and of course the kids flocked to him and asked lots of questions:

Manny, McKayla and Roman:

Kristian and Makenzie (do you like her hair? It was in pig tails, but they fell out and she wouldn't let me fix them)

Manny and McKayla:

Playdate with Kristian

One day Kristian came over to play (super fun day) and we found a huge worm. Of course I picked it up to show the kids.

Makenzie really wanted to touch it, but every time she tried the worm moved. That was the end of touching the worm:

Manny loved the worm:

Kristian didn't even want to come near the worm:

In the pool:

Jenkins Beach

Kristian and Makenzie trying to break into the soda machine. They weren't having much luck, so....

...call in the older kids:

Shhhhh....it's a secret

I searched all over the house....

...and found Manny and Makenzie laying in Manny's bed reading. Too cute.

The Ramos and Kendall kids take over Little City

Kristian and Makenzie:

Manny and McKayla:

Makenzie and Kristian just hanging out. Christine and I came around the corner and there they sat:

Wonder what they are thinking?

I didn't even have to pose this picture.

Happy Birthday GG!

We had the great fortune to spend GG's 86th Birthday with her:

Kenzie's Funny Faces

Swimming Lessons!

Manny took swimming lessons at the Brewer Pool this summer...and LOVED IT! He loved his teachers Jenn and especially Sherrie. He was in a group with 6 year-olds, so he had a slight disadvantage height-wise, but by the middle of he lessons was swimming under water more than swimming on top of the water.

Manny and Makenzie waiting for his lessons:



Manny and his teacher Jenn and the rest of his class:

At the Farm

We made a morning visit to the Whitter Farm in Orono . Of course they wanted to wear their cowboy hats:

This cow seemed to want to escape and we stayed away from her:

Makenzie wasn't too interested in getting a closer look and did her Little Rascals wave:

Manny LOVED the cows:

Preschool Ice Cream Social Crashing

Manny decided that it would be fun to crash the ice cream social at The Neighborhood ("my old school when I was 3" as he says...you know like it was so long ago). He had a blast hanging out with some of the kids (and eating an enormous serving of ice cream)!

Kristian, Manny and Tyler at the end of the evening (obviously exhausted from all the running, stick throwing, bug finding and ice cream eating):

Kaitlin, Tyler, Manny and McKayla:

Manny and Tyler:

Lazy days at the beach

We have spent most of the summer at the beach (you can tell by the tans and the bleached-out hair!).

This is Bar Island in Bar Harbor as the tide is coming in. The kids had a great time throwing rocks in the water and wading into the ocean.

Bangor Fair

Manny, Joe and I had a great time at the fair this year (Uncle watched Kenzie....next year she will be old enough to go!).

As we entered the fair I saw the big yellow slide with the burlap sacks and asked Manny if he wanted to go down the slide. He looked at the ride, looked at me and then said, "No Mama, I want to go on the FAST rides!" And away we went.

Joe and Manny:

Manny racing a duck:

The Haunted House ride:

China Trip Part 3

The Great Wall of China. The pictures may look a little fuzzy, but it is just because it is so smoggy and hazy in China.

Time Out

Kenzie takes great pride in informing Manny when he should go to time out.

A typical conversation:
Manny does something naughty...yells, won't listen (really anything)
Kenzie (right up next to him): "Manny time-out naughty". She then continues until he either stops what he is doing or says, "Sorry hit (or whatever his infraction happened to be)".

However, on this particular occasion, she pulled her chair right up beside him and sat down in time-out with him, what a funny girl.

China Trip Part 2

We arrived in Beijing, China at about 10:30pm and were totally exhausted. Before we could exit the plane members of the Chinese government boarded the plane and took our temperatures. If you had a fever you would be detained and put in quarantine. A little scary.

We took a taxi from the Beijing airport to the Qianmen Hotel. It was beautiful! The next morning we met with the other members of our group, the Bus C family as we all affectionately called ourselves.

The hotel:


Bus C:

Our awesome tour guide, Wu:

We visited the Forbidden City in Beijing. It is the world's largest palace complex with courtyards and beautiful architecture. It is surrounded on all sides by a 20 foot deep moat and a 30 foot high wall.



We were supposed to head to Tienanmen Square, however, it is the rainy season in China:

As soon as it started raining there were several dozen men and women out selling umbrellas and ponchos. This is our tour guide, Wu, who had to buy the green poncho and pink umbrella so that he could run across the courtyard of the Forbidden City to look for some lost sheep :)