The Cellar Door

I have memories of my sisters and I running up and down the bulkhead door at my grandparent's house. I have also seen pictures of my various cousins doing the same thing. It seems to be a kind of a right of passage in this family. So I found it extremely endearing this evening when my own children were playing on it.

The girls were putting on a show. The show included various dance moves called such things as: the cottage cheese, the watermelon, throw the cat (I will point out this involved a stuffed toy cat and not a real cat), and the cat canon- which I caught part of here on the camera...




It also involved singing...




And a wagon ride for the stuffed cats which they called cat daycare.



The girls were having a blast entertaining everyone and wore themselves out. I was even able to get out after putting them to bed with Grammie to babysit and go to an art show on the island. An old friend of the family was turning 80 and celebrated her birthday with a retrospective of her paintings. It is especially meaningful as she is in the later stages of leukemia. It was a wonderful turn out of close to 100 people a very fitting tribute.

Beach Day

The Atlantic Ocean, well to be specific the Northern Atlantic Ocean, is cold. Numbingly cold. I, myself, have not actually swam in it in probably over a decade. I use to, but I can not tolerate it any longer. I'll wade in it, but that is about all I can muster. In fact wading in it can only happen for about 45 seconds and then the cold makes my joints ache. I have not brought a bathing suit to the Island with me in years. I know I wont need it. It is really a bit of a public service to the residents of the island that they don't need to view me in a swim suit. My kids, however, always have theirs.

It isn't so much that they are going to swim either. They are more of the beach combers- finding treasures, and sand diggers. The beach on the island is very rocky, but there are sections of sand that pop up from time to time. We like to wader around to an area that is more pebbly than others. The kids can dig in it and I can sit and watch to boats go by.


Today we were lucky enough to find some small sections of sand mixed in that had been exposed by a recent storm. It may well be closed over the next time we visit. We left with another huge collection of shells to add to out already large pile at home.



Aunt Andrea joined us and actually swam in the water. I took the photo just so she had evidence that she did it. She is the crazy woman waving her arms in celebration out in the water- either that or she was asking for help. It was bit breezy and hard to hear well.



I will explain that she had to sit in the sun after and warm her legs up as after a short period her knees had become difficult to bend! She is braver than I however because I went in only as far as my ankles.

Ladies Aid Fair

One of my favorite childhood memories of Cranberry Island is the Ladies Aid Fair. The fair involves the selling of a lot of crafts, food, and quilts. It is a fundraiser for the Ladies Aid which has been a part of this island for over 100 years. My memories are of the kids games. I remember them being awesome and my sister's and I winning all kinds of prizes. As an adult I can see that that isn't really the case. I still love to allow my children to experience the fair. They look forward to it each summer. It is one of their top favorite things to do on the island: a ride on Uncle Louis's boat, the beach, blueberry picking, and the fair. Yesterday was the boat ride,


and today was the fair. My sister Cherie brought my niece Annabel and all three girls headed to the fair.

They hit the fish pond first. This game I remember from my own childhood. The child pays one dollar and writes their name and age on a slip of paper. The paper is clipped to a mesh bag on the end of a wooden "fishing pole". The bag is then thrown over a curtain (I think they are still using the same curtain they did when I was a kid). A person behind the curtain fills it with toys. It is an obvious big hit with all the kids. Chloe went through twice. Stocking up on such things as rubber ducks, colored pencils, jump ropes, and play dough.

They also have craft projects. This year the girls made wind spinners. They both worked so hard coloring theirs and were so proud!


Another big hit is the fire truck rides. The island is really small and thus operates on a volunteer fireman system. They have one truck and each year they bring it out and give the kids rides up and down the island on it. Keeping in mind this is a very small island and the truck is moving very slowly. This year Chloe opted not to ride the fire truck to pick blueberries with Aunt Cherie instead. She wanted to make sure Grammie could make muffins for breakfast. Alexa, however, was very excited about riding the fire truck! She waved to people and giggled. She looked like she was riding in a parade.

Road Trip

The girls, my sister, and I headed out today to visit my mother on Cranberry Island in Maine. This will be our last road trip of the summer. As shocking as it seems to me after I return home I need to start attending meetings and getting my room ready for the coming school year. Our drive today was long (as usual) and we hit several places of construction and tourism traffic. The last boat onto the Island left Manset as 5:20. We missed it by a couple of minutes. It is rather frustrating to leave your house at 9 AM and drive that long to miss a boat by a couple of minutes.

It became obvious to me as we worked our way through the congested traffic on Mount desert Island that we would not be able to make that boat. I called my mother to see about a later one only to find that there wasn't. Luckily she placed a call to my Uncle Lewis and he readily agreed to give us a lift. It was a really nice thing for him to do as he was about to put steaks on the grill to cook for dinner, but came over to get us instead. Chloe literally cheered when I told them in the car. She loves to ride on that boat. Uncle Louis said he was glad to do it as he had been rather bored and wanting an excuse to get out.

The drive itself was rather peasant and uneventful. I feel like traveling with another adult is an unbelievable luxury. I am so use to driving on long trips with two kids, a dog, and just me that I forgot what it is like to have an extra set of hands. Someone to pass back snacks and change the video, not to mention handing me things to eat. I am usually fishing around in a tote bag on the floor while the other hand it on the steering wheel. It always feels a little wreckless and irresponsible. Although as we were heading in to Bangor on the interstate I mentioned to my sister that the guy head of us on a motorcycle seemed to only be using on hand. He kept moving his other arm and head all around. It seemed odd to me for a biker. They usually seem to use both hands- especially on the interstate. She agreed that he seemed rather haphazard. We passed him a short while later only to see that he was texting. Texting while riding a motorcycle down the interstate. I couldn't believe it! When he finished he settled into the bike and flew by us going about 85- 90. I was glad that we reached our exit before I had to see how that ended. It didn't seem like any of it was a good idea. So maybe fiddling around to hand back Goldfish crackers isn't as bad as I thought.

A Trip to the Dentist

There are occasions in a parent's life where you just do not know how your kids ended up so different. The girls had a dental appointment this morning. Alexa had never been to the dentist before. This was her first trip. Chloe has been about 5 times now (starting when she was three), but this was her first visit to this dentist. Her dad and I decided to try a new dentist, one that specialized in kids.

Both girls were shy at first but cooperative. We all went to the brushing area where the hygienist's gave the girls new brushes and worked with them on how to brush their teeth properly. We then went into the exam room. At first they were not going to have Alexa do a cleaning because she is so young. They really stress an experience that doesn't stress the child out. We then decided to try it, and she and I went into another room. She was very cooperative; doing everything they asked. She got through a full polishing, flossing, had the fluoride brushed on her teeth, and a check by the dentist. She then got to pick out of the prize box. She choose a green ring (just like Dora in her favorite book about Dora visiting the dentist) and a sticker. She literally skipped her way out of the room and down the hall to her sister's room.

I had already heard Chloe complaining and crying from down the hall. I opted to stay with Alexa as I hoped she might do better dealing with just new people without mom intervening. Chloe has never been easy at the dentist. She resists any of the flavors for the polishing as ,"yucky" and often clamps her mouth shut when asked to open. I entered her room to find her turned around in the chair legs and arms crossed refusing to look at anyone. Needless to say the hygienist had long since called it a day. We had discussed Chloe's issues ahead of time and I told her she is often difficult and unreasonable. She assured me that it was not uncommon (I think they just say that to make you feel better) and that they would keep trying every six months. She said some kids are not ready for their first full cleaning until the age of 8. She did cooperate for the dentist (who must qualify for some kind of medal). Although at that point I was sitting next to her and she got a view of her sister's prizes that may have offered proper motivation. He got a look inside and felt like things were progressing OK and there was no evidence of decay. She got to pick from the prize box at the end and choose a sticker and a lizard.

It never ceases to amaze me how different they are. We left with Alexa skipping along saying how fun she thought the dentist was, and me holding Chloe's hand whispering a lecture of proper behavior and being cooperative. All in all it did go a lot better at this dentist's office. Our previous dentist actually yelled at her (she was four at the time). I left that experience with both of us so stressed I wanted to cry too. Hopefully over time she will get use to people working in her mouth and cooperate. She has never been a kid to take the easy road. Everything is a battle and her sister is almost the complete opposite. Thank God because I don't think I could take two the same.

Dragon Boat Festival

We headed down to Waterfront Park to watch the Dragon Boat Races today. It is a fund raiser for breast cancer research. I had some coworkers that were participating in the races. Unfortunately, even though the day began with sunshine the weather quickly turned on us. We huddled under umbrellas during the worst of the downpours and got to see a few heats of the races.

Chloe and Alexa eating lunch in their wagon shelter.

In a brief moment of no rain we got out to cheer.

The atmosphere was really jovial and upbeat despite the crummy weather. It brought out one of the things I like best about Burlington- people here are always willing to cheer for a cause. Some of the costumes were amazing and a great sense of humor was evident even on the way down to the park.

The sign post was doubling as a traffic director.





Loved all the costumes- where do you even buy this hat?

Chloe took some wonderful pictures of what she called Dragon Boat City.

Boating to Burlington

The big excitement today was the arrival of Aunt Andrea! She flew into New York City a few days ago from Phoenix, took the train up to Port Kent, and the ferry across to Burlington. Yes, she could have flown directly, but decided to go the more scenic route and catch up on some work contacts in the city for a few days. Here she is... (photo by Chloe-note the happy Alexa)

The girls are always excited to see their aunt. After dinner on the deck they decided to show off their "Swing Show". Chloe does this almost every time we have company. The routine changes each time. Tonight she was shouting out various titles and posing them. Things such as "Smashing through the screen door," (where her feet would fly out to the sides), "Breaking Fence Post" (arms wrapped around), "Blooming Flowers," "Flying Birds", "Swiming Fish" I seriously have never heard her say or do these things before. It was a riot what she will pull out to try to entertain people. I tried to capture them on film, but seemed to be just missing the action (I blame the digital delay).

Alexa tries to keep up, but who can really?