Rest In Peace....

It is with a heavy heart that I write that Felix's mother died yesterday morning.  While it is nice to know that she is no longer suffering, it is sad to realize that we will never see her again.  One of the things I was so happy about was that she was able to live to see the twins and enjoy almost five wonderful years seeing them grow from babies into little children.  They seemed to bring her such  happiness and it is a blessing that both she and the kids had these special years together.  

So thank you Mima.  Thank you for raising a little boy into an amazing man that we are lucky enough to call husband and father.  Thank you for bringing such laughter and light into our children's lives.  You will be forever missed and never forgotten.  

Hello Mr. Officer!

Look who was on duty at the local library!

Team Work...

Liliana's teacher seems real fond of sending us pics and updates.  We got these the other day.  This is Liliana and a classmate working on tracks of some sort.  She and this boy wanted to do this during "choice time" when they can choose what they want to do.  The teacher said they spent almost 30 minutes building the track all around the classroom.

I'm Never Getting Married!

This was an email that I received from Liliana's teacher today.....

Hi,

 During lunch today, Liliana announced "I am never getting married!  I'm going to stay at home forever with my mom so I can cook with her!"  Someone asked her if Lucas was getting married.  Her answer was "No way!  If I'm not getting married, he isn't getting married!"  She is too much.  I am really enjoying her in the classroom.  She is settling in nicely and keeps telling me she loves coming to school.

Oh baby girl, as much as I would love to have you stay with me forever, one day, if I have done my job right,  you will leave (and I will probably-no certainly-bawl my eyes out).  But until then, please continue to be my little sidekick in the kitchen!

First week photos

One nice thing about the kids school is that they occasionally send us photos.  We got some this week to show us how they were settling in.  It's still weird to think of them in separate classes. Today at dinner, I asked Liliana what was the highlight of her day.  She said "Seeing Lucas on the playground." Too cute!

First day of school!

Here we are!  Back to school!  The kids were very excited last night.  They are in separate classes this year.  Cecilia brought them to school, but I had a free period so I was able to sneak down to walk them into class.  They each walked right into school, found their respective class groups in the cafeteria and never looked back.  Don't even think they noticed me leaning in to kiss them goodbye.  That's what one wants right?  Kids nice and independent and ready to head out by themselves.  Still brought a tear to my eye as I drove back to school.  

They came home full of stories, too many to count.  Here's to another great year!

Other highlights from our trip....

Walker pond...always a favorite.

Lobster dinner!  (We did it twice!!!)

Liliana and Marika playing along.

All the adults went out one night to celebrate Josh and Marika's 10th anniversary (and 10 years to the day that Felix and I met)

Hiking....

We had such a great time with this clan...we always do.  Our time in Deer Isle is becoming quite the tradition.

Sailing

The first day there, Marika's parents took all of us out on a sail on Mr. Holland's boat. It was a gorgeous day and we all had a blast.

The kids hanging out below deck.

Great day and great fun!

Leaving Canada...

On the morning we left, we were up super early.  Breakfast and van packed before 7:30.  The problem was we were leaving so early, our tent was still wet from the morning dew.  So we couldn't really pack it up.  We covered our belongings with towels on top and just put the wet tent unrolled in the back of the van.

When we got to Maine, we laid everything out to dry.

Eight hours in the car.....it was so nice to finally get there and let the kids run free.