Our New Blog

We are making the switch over to wordpress.  I am still trying to figure out how to spruce up the look of the blog and getting it into a format that I like, but I think it will be a nice space to continue to share The Adventures of Finnbar and Josette.  Check it out and let us know what you think!  Our first post is up with a recap of our Thanksgiving holiday.  I hope you all had a wonderful day and I am so thankful to have had this blog to share our lives with our friends and family near and far.

Once I am comfortable with wordpress I will be relocating the archives from this blog.

Here is the link:  http://deerfielddiary.wordpress.com

We may be moving....blog sites!

In almost five years of blogging on this site (wow, 5 years!), I have finally managed to fill up the free allotment of space provided by google on blogger - a mere 1G of picture storage.  We all know this blog is all about the pictures of two adorable kiddos, so I have been exploring other blog options.  I am thinking of switching over to wordpress which allows 3G of free space.  Maybe that will get me through another 10 years of blogging?  I am slightly technically challenged, so it may take me a few days to make the change.  I want to make sure I can transfer the blogger posts without losing anything.  In fact, I really need to figure out how to back everything up.  Any advice out there would be appreciated.  I will let you know soon what the new domain will be.

Good Morning, "Yi-Yee"

When Josette wakes up in the morning, she stands up, grabs her babies and immediately asks about Lily (pronounced "Yi-Yee").  So, then we must seek out the dog and Josette grins big grins and asks to pet Lily.  Here they are having some good morning cuddles with the babies that Josette has to cuddle to sleep:

Two Bikers

Josette is now just tall enough to ride on the "motorcycle" balance bike.  It has extra wide tires and is a good intro to balancing.  She can just walk with it now, but give her another inch in height and she will be cruising, I am sure.  Finn was thrilled to have his sister has a biking partner:

Painting Tickles

Here is yet another messy paint post.  We were painting and doing car tracks again and after a bit, Josette climbed up onto the table and began painting her feet.  Finn decided she would be the canvas and started painting his sister.  This resulted in many giggles from Josette, which, of course, only encouraged Finn more.  Thus both kiddos ended up on top of the table getting covered in paint and giggling like crazy!

Kiwi Crate: Shadow and Light

For his birthday, Finn got a subscription to Kiwi Crate.  It is a great company that packages up several craft and learning activities into a box complete with all instructions and materials along with learning topics and it is delivered to your door once a month.  Finn was thrilled to get his first one:

 Digging in:

 We got out all the materials and just the new scissors and new flashlight kept him busy for awhile:

 Then, we made some shadow puppets and had a fun time telling stories on the wall.  Finn greatly enjoyed the shark that could move its mouth and eat the little fish:

 Then, he got creative building his own kaleidoscope:

Since the arrival of the crate, we had played with the shadow puppets quite a bit and made several different designs.  We are excited to get the next crate for November. 

Snow Joy

We got our first snow fall last week and Finn and Josette were thrilled to go out and play.  We had to go to the attic and find all the snow gear and luckily we have hand-me downs that fit well for the season.

 Finn had to throw some snowballs and he was disappointed there was just not quite enough snow for sledding:

 The cool air and snow always gets Lily spunky and she grabbed a soccer ball and ran with it, enticing the kiddos to chase her:

 Josette was very excited by the snow and kept pointing at it and saying, "snow":

It has already melted and Finn keeps asking when the next snow fall will be and when can we go sledding?!?

Finnbar's 4th Birthday

 Our fantastic Finnbar is 4-years-old!  What an amazing age this is - so full of curiousity and exploration and laughter and fun!  We had a very fun celebration with family and friends.

Finn requested a strawberry cake:

 Josette was a huge fan:

 Finn had a lot of fun opening presents and genuinely loved and appreciated each gift:

 And, it seems that every family gathering these days must include a good game of soccer.  Finn received some goal posts and everyone dug in for some serious competition:

Finn decides to implement some tackling:

Halloween

We did a little pumpkin carving and some neighborhood trick-or-treating on Halloween too:

Happy Birthday, Lily

Our sweet Lily dog turned 7 on October 30th.  She is such a wonderful dog and the kids love her so much.  She is always in the middle of it all and is so amazingly patient.  Sure, she has her naughty, stomach-driven, labrador moments, but what would we do without those stories?  Happy Birthday, sweet Lily!

Here she is in the midst of some heavy reading by the kiddos:

Trunk or Treating

I am sorry for the lull in posting lately.  I have been just about as sick as I have ever been for the past few weeks.  I have lots of posts on the back burner and will try to catch up slowly as I have time and hopefully begin to heal.  

First, is the town's annual trunk-or-treating gathering.  Finn was certain he wanted to be a knight this year.  He also wanted Josette to be a dragon and Sean to be a knight with him.  He told me that I should be a horse.  We found some fabulous do-it-yourself knight instructions and we had the dragon costume kicking around.  Unfortunately, due to the sickness, I just couldn't pull off the horse.  I convinced Finn that I would put on a tiara and be a princess to complete the theme.  So, here is the knightly crew with the captured dragon:

 Uh oh, she has escaped (she really would have run happily all over the place if left to her own devices):

 The family:

 I am hanging in there by a thread:

 Battle!:

 Sean and Finn had fun forging the swords and shield together:

A Blue Egg!

Since I posted about our first egg, we have consistently been getting one egg a day for two days in a row and then one rest day then another two days of eggs and so on.  They have been all the same color and it was obvious that just one hen had started laying.  After laying the first two on the ground, she figured out to use a nesting box and has always used the 4th nesting box.  So, today Finn and I went in to check for our daily egg and were surprised to find these two beauties in the 4th nesting box!  Another hen has joined in the egg laying and this one is blue (or greenish blue - the picture makes it look really green).  It is very exciting.  Finn has been telling everyone who will listen that we got one pink egg and one blue!

Adventure Running

A lot of folks have been asking about our recent race, so I thought I would blog about it.  I forgot to blog about my last mud run held in July.  For those who don't know, a whole bunch of races have cropped up under the adventure running category where not only do you have to run, but you have to navigate obstacles along the course.  I did my first one in July and it was just a blast.  So, we all signed up for another one this past weekend called the Adventure 5k.  It was held on the property of a water park very near our town.  This one was a lot of fun and a bit more challenging than the one I did in July.  It was wicked cold too which made it really challenging.  Nothing like jumping into a lake in mid October and then having to climb up walls and cargo nets in the woods.  Yep, we paid for this fun :)  Seriously, I am addicted to these runs now.  I am hoping to up my training to increase my upper body strength though.

Here is the group at the beginning:

 Going up to the start line:

 Here is Sean right at the end.  This was one of the worst obstacles, right at the end, you had to jump into a dumpster of water and go underneath several boards across the top.  It was extra cold, but as you can see Sean flew right out of there.  In fact, he placed 21st overall and 8th in his age group!  I think I placed around 75th :)

 This obstacle was called "eat dirt" where you had to army crawl under the ropes for awhile:

 Up and over the small wall:

 Monkey bars right at the end.  My hands were ice at this point:

 And a race to the finish:

 A few of us who finished together at the end.  We were soaked and freezing, but happy to be done.

Have I convinced you to join us on the next one?