Happy Birthday Jed

It's surprising how much my sons' birthdays mean to me. I can't help but think back to the days they were born, remembering the details and relishing the feelings of those incredible hours.









We celebrated Jed's 7th birthday today with a little family bowling trip, and were delighted to find the local bowling alley has duck pins! (called candlepins here).









Unfortunately, the smaller balls didn't do much to improve Jed's scores. :) There's just no substitute for the bumpers in modern-day bowling alleys. :)









However, I will humble myself enough to admit that Jed actually beat me in the second game.

It's a sad day, sad day. For me at least. Jed was pretty happy. :)







After bowling, we wandered to the arcade section and discovered, much to Tracy's delight, a couple of vintage pinball machines. Having been something of a pinball wizard in his day, he took the opportunity to pass on a few more of his skills to his progeny. Unfortunately, it was hard to get Jed off the life-sized motorcycle beside the pinball game we were playing...who knew he was so interested in motorcycles??





For some inexplicable reason, what Jed really wanted to play was pool. For some even more inexplicable reason, he was convinced he was something of a pool shark, despite the fact that he had never held a cue stick in his life.

Yup, the boy's growing up in the normal way of manhood, I'd say. :)

Maine Lobster Festival

Another highlight of the summer was attending the Maine Lobster Festival, held in the coastal town of Rockland.

It's one of the biggest festivals in Maine, serving tons (literally) of steamed lobsters to thousands of visitors. Mostly from away. :)









Jed's first time on a bungee thing (sorry, don't know the technical name for it) - look at his face - he was ecstatic!








This is my six year old, preparing to ride Pharoah's Fury by himself.










It made me sick just to watch.






I love rides that hurl you around at dizzying speeds, as long as they stay close to the ground.













This was Tracy's favorite ride at the festival. :)

Catching Up

Okay...so now we're up to August. :)

While outside the leaves are turning colors and even beginning to turn loose, I'm enjoying going through the summer photographs, especially these taken at our favorite place to play in Union.








The lake is called Seven Tree, and it's across the street from our house. Our neighbors (who are also our friends from church) very kindly gave us free reign of their little stretch of beach paradise.










Have I mentioned lately how much I love Maine? :)
























I was playing around with the manual focus in these shots.











Elementary, I know, but they make me happy.

Cookbooks

I thought I had uploaded pictures of the cookbook I made as a wedding gift for my daughter-in-law, but I can't find the post, so I'm uploading them (again? sorry!) now, because this cookbook was the impetus for the following ones.









Several years ago I had the idea to make a cookbook for Brad's then-unknown future bride, full of recipes for his favorite childhood dishes. We don't have a lot of traditions in our family, and I thought this might serve that purpose, however humble it might be.






One of my favorite things things about this cookbook is the leather I used for the binding on the piano hinge book - it came from a jacket that belonged to my great uncle, which I inherited when my great aunt passed away.







The jacket had several moth holes, and at the risk of seeming very unsentimental, I cut up and saved the leather as a way of re-using the coat so it wouldn't go to waste.




I enjoyed making this cookbook so much that I suppose it was still on my mind months later when my best buddy from Missouri, ScrappyGurl, suggested we exchange a few recipes. So I bought a kraft paper photo album, typed up the recipes and printed them out on patterned paper (same as for Jenn's cookbook), and created a couple of title cards for the first page.





I told ScrappyGurl I would send her more recipes for her book after she had tried the first ones I sent. Alas, she hasn't requested any more yet. I've been wondering if that's more a reflection on her busy life or my cooking. :)


















The photo album/cookbook thing got me to thinking about something I'd been wanting to do for a long time...create my own cookbook of all my favorite recipes...and now I knew how I wanted to do it. So back I went to the Christmas Tree Shop (for all you living outside New England, all I can say is I don't know how I ever lived in the South without this store!) to buy three more photo albums, and I set about creating cookbooks....




one for main dishes...












one for side dishes...












and one for desserts.









...and an envelope adhered to the inside front cover, which holds a plastic sleeve to slip a recipe card into for protection from spills.

{I'm a messy cook.}





It will be a long-term project, getting all my recipes typed and printed, but I've got a good start on the main and side dishes. When they're all done, I won't have to go scavenging through all my cookbooks/binders/folders for the recipe I'm looking for.

And maybe in the process, I'll be creating another family tradition.

Where I Live

I really love living in Union.

Considering this small town we moved to back in March is just 45 minutes away from our previous home in Winthrop, I've been surprised how different life is here.

Union is small - just a little over 2,000 - and mostly rural, with beautiful vistas on nearly every road you drive down. We pass close to a dozen large and small lakes on the way to Wal-Mart, where we are treated to glimpses of the Atlantic Ocean.

But that's not the best part.

What I love about it is the feeling of small-town living...visiting with neighbors, everyone knowing everyone else, everyone knowing the house we live in, buying fresh eggs and beef from a farm down the street, getting free firewood from someone when I asked if I could buy it and free ice cream cones from a farm store that wasn't even open yet, living within walking distance of friends...and the street signs - oh, these street signs!

Aren't they the cutest things you've ever seen?? This one is across the street from our house and there were actually birds living in it this summer!

Now how many people can say they have birds living in their street signs? :)

Mr & Mrs Davis in Maine - Day 3, Part 14

Near the end of the boat ride back to Port Clyde, we were standing outside watching the boat head into the harbor. Brad and Jed happened to be standing together and I wanted to get a picture of them...of course, that's Jed's cue to start acting like an idiot (sorry, Grandma and Grandpa, but it's true).

It was hard to be aggravated with him, though, when Brad started getting in on the act too. :) I never would have guessed these would turn out to be some of my favorite pictures from their visit.






































































The End.

Mr & Mrs Davis in Maine - Day 3, Part 13

Finally, we're on the boat ride home - I bet you thought this day would never end! :D

I bought a head massager as a souvenir (don't knock it till you've tried it, trust me) which had the added benefit of keeping Jed entertained the entire trip home.









He kept Jennifer pretty entertained with it as well. :)



















































And finally he got what he wanted. haha

Mr & Mrs Davis in Maine - Day 3, Part 12

A few more artistic impressions from the island...

Mr & Mrs Davis in Maine - Day 3, Part 11

Day 3 is getting ridiculously long, isn't it?

The thing is, Brad and Jenn had the camera most of the day, and they are both talented artists with a keen eye for composition that I can only long for. They took literally hundreds of shots, and most of them are so compelling, I'm having a hard time narrowing them down to just a few to share with you.

Today's pics are miscellaneous objects on Monhegan Island that became art in the hands of these masters.















Okay, one of them was already cute in its own right. :)