Author: kristennill

So Halloween at ages 5 and 8 happened and here is the skinny.

In the pumpkin department: 
The usual scooping out of the guts and all that. Alex commanded me to do a skull and crossbones and I modeled mine after my favorite emoji.

I didn’t do too bad! Jason and Ashton did pointy teeth AGAIN. That’s all they ever do – have some creativity, sheesh.

In the costume department:
For a long time Alex wanted to be a parrot. Parrot as in the bird and if this choice is a mystery to you, well, same. But then after about a month he was like, “Now I want to be a vending machine. I will walk around and pass out snacks.” Well that was sufficiently funny so I said fine. But it turns out making a vending machine costume is no small feat so on the weekend before Halloween, Jason took both boys to Party City in hopes of inspiration/diversion from the parrot and the vending machine.

Now, this whole time Ashton was easy because he was just going to wear his football uniform and go as, you guessed it, a football player. But he scored himself a funny wig at Party City and Alex, oh Alex. He came home with an zombie hunter outfit that was basically a vest wrapped with faux bullets, camo pants and a bloody ax. He was so happy. Me on the other hand? Well there was no way he could wear that to school – like the principal would have called me (no violent costumes).

And so, on the day of the Halloween parade, Alex had to wear a hand-me-down ninja and he was, shall we say, quite grumpy.

Up close, that’s:

There was a little mayhem afterwards with the sorting, trading, and inventory, but when I told the boys they could not eat more than three pieces they said “Ok Mommy, no problem” and didn’t protest their 8:30 bedtime. Not going to lie, I pinched myself haha.

So yeah ummm that’s pretty much it lol. No severe maniacal behavior or candy craziness in 2019! I wonder if that will carry over into the Christmas season, we shall see… 🙂

Well we decided to switch things up this year for our family photos. Instead of our usual fall theme, when the photographer we use announced she was doing beach sessions, I thought hmmm, that could work!

And it pretty much did! Although the weather was totally dark and stormy, and I felt like the wind was whipping my hair in every direction. It was damp, our feet were freezing because the sand was wet from the rain earlier that day, and it took an hour to get there so the boys were a bit crazed.

But you would never be able to tell 🙂 Here are the best ones! I can’t figure out why they aren’t posting like crystal clear but sometimes the internet is mysterious.

Well, my official first day of school photos are here!

Ashton (and this blog) have just turned 8! Eight. Eiiiiiiight. Yep, it happened on August 3rd and I’m here to tell you all about it.

The past few years, Ashton’s birthday has fallen on our “family vacation” week and I thereby get away with not throwing him a birthday party We usually do something special while we are away and that satisfies as long as he gets presents. This year was no different and we were on the cape (see last post). Actually Saturday, August 3rd was the day we had to pack up and go home, which, sadness. And not wanting to fully exit “vacation mode” we stopped at Duxbury Beach on the way back. It is here that Ashton spent most of his birthday hours, doing what he does best, which I can only describe as “beach busy”.

Ok so I suspect 75% of my readers (6 out of a possible 8, haha) are also on Facebook and have therefore seen most of these pictures already. To that 75% I say: feel free to skip this post and look forward to the next one, which will be a riveting account of second grade football so far.

Let’s dive in! By way of background, I was feeling a tad “been there done that” with Block Island this year. Given where we live, pretty much everyone gets down to the cape and you know, it’s for a good reason. There are zillions of beaches and so many sights and things to do: mini golf, bumper boats, ziplines, trampolines, ice cream, shark stuff, water sports, etc etc. Generally more goings-on than BI and we wanted to explore a new place.

{Pretend I’ve just told you all the criteria and research I did about where we were going to go. Turns out the cape is huge.} We ended up in Chatham and specifically, a house walking distance from Ridgevale Beach. It was so cute and actually perfect for us.

Gosh we had such a great week you guys! The weather was this:

And then we went into town, had lunch, moved into the house and enjoyed some late afternoon beach time. Off to a good start!

The Seafarer, where GG/Erik/Grandma and Grandpa stayed had a pool so we did a quick dip there after the beach:

Followed by lawn games before dinner (you can’t have long grass for those! Ashton generously cut it for us haha):

Monday – White Crest Beach in Wellfleet. It just felt epic, the geography is so dramatic because you hike down the bluff to get there:

Tuesday – We rolled on down to Ridgevale, wagon style:

Look at Alex in his sunglasses chugging his seltzer. Cracks me up.

But ugh when we got there, sooo much seaweed 😦

So we hopped in the car and went to Hardings Beach which was a bit better.

 SO fun. Ashton was obsessed with catching a fly ball and we had to drag him out of there.

 {Pause for a water break. This post is exhausting.}

Friday! Happy birthday Callie! Stay with me…

Friday, ironically, we figured out where the very best part of Ridgevale Beach actually is – all the way down by the inlet. The water is warm, clear and shallow. It was gorgeous.

Erik, GG, Grandma and Grandpa all left Friday morning so we decided to head to Wequassett Resort for our last dinner and Callie’s birthday.

Last stop of the night, Sundae School in Harwich Port.

 I’m not usually an ice cream person, but I had some coffee Oreo thing and it was like, incredible. This place lived up to its reputation.

And Saturday, everyone, we packed up and went home. To our family who always drives FAR distances to be with us, thank you. To Cape Cod, you define what it feels like to be on “summer vacation”. To Mother Nature, you more than made up for last year and the year before. And to all the creatures who spent time in our buckets wondering what the hell happened, send me your therapy bills.

School starts in two weeks y’all. Things are about to get real!

Kids take a rest while parents get tanned.

Pick up the football, throw pass throw

Go check out the pools during tide that is low.

Hermit crabs, fish and creatures galore
So many wonders to find on the shore.

Speaking of tide pools, these are unreal
Waist deep, like grottos, and the water is teal.

 

 

Then snack number one hundred and fifty eleven

For the best videos click here and then here.

One last refreshment, some Italian ice
Nothing on the beach tastes quite so nice

Time to head home and fire up the grill
Today we earned our license to chill.

P.s this was obviously just a post with so-so poetry about how much I love Good Harbor Beach haha. Our Cape Cod summer vacation is up next!!

Guys I’m obviously just skipping right over spring at this point. It was rainy, filled with sports, and general busyness. The boys had their last days of school and while I would love to do “first day/last day” side by sides, some things you just have to let go. Let’s get recent, shall we? Like July 4 weekend! We did something completely original and headed down to HB NY 😉 But it’s really the best place for celebrating America’s birthday (as well as Jason’s). It’s also a weird anniversary thing for us because the first time I ever went there was for Jason’s 30th, and now he’s 42.

Haha.

Anyway, we went to see some fireworks and hung out at the beach and in the pool with the whole fam and it was perfect 🙂

Welllll I guess this is my 7th Mother’s Day! And what I have to say about it would fill maybe a…thimble? Is that a saying? It rained all day. ALLLLL.DAAAAAY. Jason worked, we had plans with friends to meet at the bike path and ride to an ice cream stand and wear sunglasses. But no. Instead, we spent 3 hours at the Discovery Museum in Acton. If it had not been for Kathleen (three cheers for other boy moms that are also solo on Mother’s Day!), I would have walked around that place asleep. It was that dreary of a day But, Ashton and Alex behaved themselves and kept their food demands to a minimum, so that was nice. Oh, and at the museum, Alex made me this:

So it’s only been 3 months since we went to Florida, not bad! (sigh) What the heck, I’m like so busy lately!

The entire place was designed for kids. Big Lego pool in the front while the parents check in and general entertainment, and in the back there is a big castle that kids could play in. And just out of sight in this picture is the bar. For like, the parents. Every night they did a big pajama party at the castle while the parents just watched and drank. GENIUS this place is.

 

You can’t even grasp some of these Lego sculptures! Look behind me in this one:

This one is made of 211,000 bricks and took 640 hours to build.

Lifesize giraffe:

Rainbow and dinosaurs:

City of New York

It went on and on, I just can’t do it justice. Legos everywhere, SO impressive!! I mean, as you’d maybe expect at Legoland, but still. 

Back at the hotel, there were even Legos in the pool.

You guys, it just went on. Kind of like this post. I just can’t say how amazing it was and these are only 20% of my pictures. 

So we were at Legoland 2 nights, 1 day in the park, and then we hopped in the car….DESTINATION PONCE INLET. It was gorgeous when we got there and naturally we took our pasty selves straight to the beach.

For the rest of the time, the weather wasn’t really in our favor 😦 But we still managed to hit the pool (brrr):

And mini-golf:

And everyone got a hole in one except Poppy. Just seems unfair considering he paid 😉

We also went up in a terrifying lighthouse,

It was HIGH. And we puttered around the 9 hole chip and putt at the Links.

Not pictured: lunch at Boondocks, manatee hunting at Blue Springs, and the sea turtle rescue hospital! I guess I don’t have to have photographic evidence of everything we did, but I take pride in my documentation   So, big fail on those components.

Florida, your weather could improve, but we had an action-packed 3.5 days and a total blast anyway! Thank you Poppy and Mema and Lilli for having us 😀 And to Alamo Car Rental who didn’t have a choice but to give us the brand new Expedition to roll around in (a whole other story). Already seems ages ago, which means it should be nearly time to go back!

If you call Qtips “Q-sticks”, making a basket “getting a hole in one” and calculators “calcalaters”, you’re Alex Nill and you’re five! Let’s discuss.

Alex is, before anything else, a little fresh and audacious. He loves to joke around but he’s got this edge to him sometimes and he can be super moody. If anyone triggers the eggshell walking in our family, it’s Alex. Although at his parent-teacher conference a couple weeks ago, Mrs. Bernard told me “Well, we just love Alex. He’s the sweetest, kindest, funniest boy! He’s friends with everyone, he shares, he’s thoughtful, he takes turns being a leader and a follower, and he focuses on whatever we give him for work/projects, etc. We will be sad to see him leave for kindergarten! You know, he’s basically perfect.” So, hmmm. I’m glad he’s great in his school environment and is only temperamental at home haha.

So what else about Alex besides his school review. He graduated from speech – he had been going once a week to Lilja for 2 years to get services for articulation. At his IEP meeting in March, we all determined he had met his goals and that was that!

Another huge development is that he’s up on his bike now – no more training wheels! Video footage -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbC1XMS1z8g&feature=youtu.be (no sound, no idea why)
He’s still too afraid to get on the bigger (more properly sized) bike but hey, one step at a time 🙂

Yet another huge development is that Ashton and Alex now roll around the neighborhood together without me. They take off to see their friends or to the circle where the good climbing trees are…it’s an unbelievable turning point that a lot of the other neighborhood kids their age are getting to as well. The first time I told them they could go out on their scooters by themselves, they nearly bubbled over with the excitement of it all.

Anyway, let’s get to Alex’s stats!

Hair: Blond and wiry. You can mold it pretty much however you want and it stays there.

Eyes: Hazel
Height: 45.5 inches (3′ 9.5″) -> 92nd percentile
Weight: 48.5 pounds -> 89th percentile
Hearing and Vision: Pass and Pass
Shots: DTap/IPV and MMRV
Shoe size: 12
Clothes size: 5, some 6
Bedtime: 8:30 pm
Favorite snack: Larabars

Lovey: Pluto.

Pluto was a Disney World souvenir from the Pirates of the Caribbean gift shop. Two years ago. Who would have thought.

Favorite TV show: Garfield. Alex loves Garfield so much that the other night I made lasagna for dinner (Garfield’s favorite food). Alex rated it “medium”.

Loves listening to: Drake and DJ Snake (Turn down for what)

Dream job: YouTube channel host. Alex LOVES to record himself and play it back. He could watch videos of himself forever. Sometimes I’m flipping through my camera roll and find surprise pictures and videos he has taken on selfie mode. He always wants me to record him while he tells me what he is doing (like this one, when he tells you how to eat a stuffed shell on a piece of toast, and this one, where he teaches some kind of dance). He turns into this weird character, like “yeah man, today we are going to _____” and I know it’s because of the shows on YouTube kids he watches. Somewhat alarming.

Speaking of technology: Alex gets it. He doesn’t let a little thing like not being able to read or write stop him from using iPads or iPhones, let me tell you. The other night he was pestering me to put on the song du jour in our house (see above) and because I was cooking I couldn’t type it in on Apple Music. I kept saying “I will in a minute Alex, hold on” and finally, annoyed, he threw his hands up and said “WHY CAN’T WE JUST GET ALEXA?” And then grabbed my phone, held down the home button, and said “Siri, play the Drake song In My Feelings.” And she did as he sauntered off.

School: Alex is wrapping up at CNS in May. He’s all registered for Kindergarten in the fall and he’s sooo ready.

In fact if there were any real time left in this school year I might up him from 3 days to 5 days – he’s pretty under-stimulated on Tuesdays and Thursdays when he’s home and that’s when we see the attitude the most.

Sports: Alex wrapped up a successful hockey season (well, skills clinic) in March.

In swimming he has the beginnings of a front crawl down pat and he absolutely cannot wait for his Little Laxers lacrosse clinic to start this spring.

Brotherly love: For the most part, Ashton and Alex are BFFs. Ashton is excited about pretty much everything in life and it passes easily on to Alex. They are honestly happy coloring a box together.

They play and play and can be quite, er, enterprising. It’s not uncommon to find them like this:

Yes. They stuck a football under the rug to more accurately simulate a putting green’s topography.

Alex thinks all of Ashton’s ideas are good and wants to be friends with all his friends. And this works out most of the time considering Ashton is such an amazing big brother (really).

So age 4 on the left, age 5 on the right:

It’s been a big year for Alex! Literally: he grew 3 inches and gained almost 6 pounds. There is so much more to know about Alex in the day-to-day so if I think of anything else I’ll keep updating this post.

I’ll leave you with his HBD video – YAY FIVE!!