Bar Harbor, ME - Memorial Day Weekend

Another item on our bucket list was Acadia National Park.  After the Ryan family reunion in 2017, we rekindled love for our national parks.  Acadia is on the top 10 most visited national parks and is only 5 hours away.  I've lived here over ten years and haven't journeyed north until this past Memorial Day weekend.

 We lucked out with lovely weather allowing us to hike along the coast.  Our first stop was sand beach.  At low tide, this was to be a hot spot for sea glass.  Unfortunately we arrived closer to high tide.  Not all was lost.  We enjoyed the scenery, especially climbing on rocks.  We dipped our toes in the water which was a bit too chilly yet to wade further out.

 Izzy found a lovely spot to gaze out among the water.  Getting out to where she was at was a bit slippery but Victoria and I eventually made it.

 Even the smallest flowers were beautiful.

 A short hike lead us to Thunder Hole... an experience of the thunder of the sea against the rocky shore.  Thunder Hole is a small inlet that ends in a cavern.  Waves rush in and force air out like a clap of thunder.  Hence the name.  In rougher seas, higher waves create more of a show.  According to the park ranger, Thunder Hole was behaving on average for us.  Winter is when higher waves come in.  I'm not sure I'd want to be here when it's that cold!

 Our final stop of the day was Cadillac Mountain, over 1300 feet in elevation from where we started out.  By the time we reached the top, there was a 15 degree change in weather.  We stayed at the top for only a few minutes before deciding we were too cold to stay longer.  The view was simply amazing though.  You can see near completely around the entire park's perimeter.

 As luck would have it, right outside our hotel was a rocky seacoast.  We went exploring for rocks and seashells only to discover sea glass!  Two mornings at low tide we headed out and found a color not yet in our collection... pink.  This has become a fun past time at New England beaches for us.

 Maine is well known for lighthouses.  We learned they have over 70.  To distinguish which lighthouse was which for sailors, each has it own unique color and signal pattern of blinking.

 We stayed just outside of Bar Harbor but came into town to eat most days.  We stumbled upon this eclectic restaurant... Route 66.  I think this is one of my favorites.  There were so many antiques and mementos.  I especially liked how the bathrooms identified gender.  The women's had a 50's prom dress hanging on the front and the men's a funny gas station sign. 

 Reminiscent of Diane and I when we were younger, the kids always ask if there is a pool at any hotel we stay at.  One morning when the weather had not yet cleared, we headed to the pool.

 Bar Harbor is a fun destination town.  For lunch we walked around taking in the sights before grabbing a bite.

 Overlooking the harbor in Bar Harbor.

Miniature golf to change the mood a bit helped.

 We tried to not eat the same genre of food for more than one meal.  Due to a GI bug that affected Micah, we opted to stay in one night and bring food into the hotel.  This meant we didn't get to go out for seafood which was Izzy's choice.  By luck on the drive home, we stumbled upon this quaint roadside seafood shack.  Boy were we in for a surprise.  This might have seemed like a shack but it was well equipped including a big screen TV outside and two fire pits.  The owner is a husband and wife combo.  The husband is the fisherman and brings in the lobsters for the shack.  The wife works in the kitchen.

 Izzy and John ordered a lobster and mussels meal to share.  A treat was watching how these are cooked in real time.

 Micah still wasn't up to par and took a few bites of clam chowder.  Victoria however devoured her clam chowder bread bowel in no time.  I ordered a lobster roll with butter, not the mayonnaise version.  So yummy!

 To finish off our meal, homemade blueberry pie... another food Maine is known for.  The Travelin Lobsta was a hidden gem!

Izzy's 10th Birthday

 We were blessed with Jackie and Josh coming over to celebrate Izzy's birthday with us.  Jackie and John created such a fun atmosphere with their attention to details that for those of us who's birthday it wasn't still had an sensational time.

What I want to remember about Izzy over this past year:

1.  We are in the midst of puberty!  With this comes a desire to be treated older while holding onto her childhood.  You want to stay up later than your siblings.  However you still cannot sleep without silky or teddy.  In addition, you are interested in learning more about the changes going on with your body and ask many nights if we can read more from the book I bought you.

2.  You still have an anxious temperament though are getting better at using the coping skills taught to you.  You often find another technique in fencing beside retreating or reposting.  Your nerves got the best of you with trying skiing outside of ski school.  However in a short amount of time, you overcame this and thoroughly enjoyed the mountain.

3.  You have one of the biggest, caring hearts.  You often think of someone else's feeling and want to include anyone including teachers, classmates and even siblings.  I've watched you help orchestrate play when your siblings have play dates.  You are becoming aware of social circles at school and how feelings can be hurt including yours when someone tries to break apart/into those circles.

4.  You define yourself by theatre and fencing.  You are excited for trying out for the school play and hope to get a larger, leading part.  You often sing in the car to "practice" knowing you will have to sing a solo in the play.  Your fencing skills are improving all the time.  This past tournament you felt proud from fighting in the elimination round only to loose by one point.  That was disappointing for you.  However, you are now asking to go to practice more often next year in hopes of honing your skills.

5.  You are your own self and comfortable with who you are.  Sometimes you were the oddest combination of socks to school but you do so with pride.  You were not phased by wearing headgear to school as you didn't want to wear it at night.  You don't always follow the main stream of activity choices at school or in your after school program.  Your circle of friends remain the same and are very similar to you in having slight oddities.  Those core friendships make you solid in knowing who you are.  I can't wait to see what comes next for you!

 This was Izzy's favorite present.  Her coach, J.D., mentioned that the fencing masks could be airbrushed.  A quick google search showed many of the masked had very intimidating paintings.  As her cat Coco is one of her treasured possessions, this seemed quite fitting.  Google came handy again when locating airbrush artists.  Roscoe was up for the challenge as he was "bored" of t-shirts.  He went above and beyond what I imagined.

 John and I attempted to incorporate a "10" inside her cake.  What we didn't expect is for the one and zero to float up on the cake batter.  In the end, it tasted great.  And we were surprised that the "10" could be seen.

Fencing Cookies

 Izzy wanted to create fencing cookies to take to her fencing class for her birthday.  It was hard to find a fencing cookie cutter.  Thanks to Etsy, someone created one using a 3-D printer.  So we were in business.  This was both of our first time trying the flooding technique for frosting.  In the end we were pleased with how they all turned out.

 Using an edible pen, Izzy created a cookie for each of her coaches.  Watching their faces when she handed them out was such a kill.

Izzy's Fencing Birthday Party

 For Izzy's 10th birthday she requested to have a party at her fencing club.  Not only was she excited about her birthday, she was also excited to share with her friends one of her extracurricular activities.

 Izzy with two of her coaches who supervised her party, Yasser and J.D.

 Her requested / designed birthday cake.

Originally Micah wanted to join in the fencing.  However he was hooked on the video game system which had over 200 games to choose from.  Her really enjoyed a favorite ol' school game, Mario Brothers.

 Warming up and practicing before teams were created and a challenge was made.

 Izzy requested the glow in the dark party option which made the challenge more suspenseful and lively.

A salute at the end of the challenge.

Teacher Appreciation Week

 One of the responsibilities for a room parent at the kid's school is organizing something for teacher appreciation week.  As I'm the sole room parent for each of the kid's classrooms, it was up to me to get creative for teacher appreciation week.  I'm grateful for John always being willing to be my partner in crime with these endeavors.  The PTO typically encourages door decorations but each classroom can decide what they would like to do.  As Izzy's classroom is within the library, John and I were baffled as to how to let Izzy's teacher know she is appreciated without a free wall or door to decorate.  John came up with an idea of creating a mailbox with the students "mailing" her letters or packages throughout the week.  We then decided to create mailboxes for Micah and Victoria's classrooms as well.  Both of us were amazed at what we created.  John was the builder and I was the decorator.  We do make one outstanding team!

 Often forgotten on teacher appreciate week is the non-classroom teachers.  These are two of Izzy's Learning Center teachers.  She would not be where she is now with her reading if it weren't for these two amazing teachers.  We created a mini version of the mailboxes for them.  Unbeknownst to us, Izzy made letters for all the students that attend the LC requesting that they "mail" the LC teachers a letter throughout the week.  She is one incredible daughter and student. 

Izzy with Ms. Gallagher, her 4th grade teacher.

 Victoria with Ms. Herard and Mr. Shi, her 1st grade teacher and para.

Micah with Ms. Young and Ms. O, his 1st grade teacher and para.

Bunny Pictures

 For some Easter fun, we had a handful of pictures taken at a local studio.  Every year they have bunnies for a few weeks that are the spotlight of the pictures.  These bunnies are then adopted after their work is done.  We were matched with Jelly Bean (totally an appropriate name for an Easter bunny!).  Oh how everyone loved Jelly Bean.  Not only was he a ham for the photographer, but he was soooo soft.  I had to remind the kids that the cats would not mix well with Jelly Bean.  It was tough for them to leave him behind.  But we captured a few good memories with him.