Merry Christmas from the Chans!

To our friends and family, wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Delight

We are coming off of a full week with Terah working late, Halloween, throwing Sam a birthday party with 23 preschoolers (yeah 23), daylight savings and grandparents visiting, general adult life and I was feeling a little worn out by Sunday. As we were taking pictures yesterday, it suddenly became a jumping photo shoot with the kids and my favorite moment of the week.

Preschool graduation

Back in June, Max graduated from preschool. 

We will surely miss Teacher Geri. She is kind, patient, sensitive, knew him well, and really the best teacher Max could have had. 

Special shout out to my mom, who faithfully picked up Max every Tuesday and Thursday and fed him lunch for all his preschool years (and for all my kids really). 

He's off to kindergarten! We love you Maxwell.

Summer

Noah asked me yesterday, "is it July yet?" Guess we have had a good summer so far! After a few summers of feeling either like I drove around too much to camps or the boys were driving everyone crazy at home, this summer finally felt like the right balance.

We have traveled, camped, swam, made ice cream, biked, picked blackberries, baked pies, checked out books at the library, eaten at the food trucks, hiked, swam some more, played board games, visited favorite and new museums, watched movies, hung out at the park, watched fireworks, had Sunday suppers with friends, grilled, picnicked, read, and generally slowed down to enjoy the long summer days and nights.

We are down to three more weeks, with a few more fun things planned before we need to hunker down and start a new school year!

Boss of all countries

When we told the kids we were headed to Boston, with no rhyme or reason the boys started referring to Boston as "the Boss of All Countries!" This time we hoped to really show Boston to the kids. A few highlights...

While the boys went to a Red Sox game with Uncle Jonathan, I hung out with our newest nephew 

Buston Public Garden - the ducks of Make Way for Ducklings fame 

Max loves the book

Obligatory swan boat ride 

Hi Jon!

Across from the Boston Children's Museum is the Boston tea party site

Freedom Trail (we did the shorter 90 minute version)

Before our trip I had checked out a few children's books from the library on Benjamin Franklin, the Boston tea party, Paul Revere, Red Sox and the Pilgrims. Not sure how much they actually retained, but I tried.

Yes, they are eating bags of chips in front of Ben Franklin. We used bribery liberally on this trip.

Sam was really into it












Cape Cod



A rubber ducky store!

I should really label the second half of our week as How Many Times Can We Vomit Throughout Boston. All three kids and poor Aaron (our brother-in-law) caught a stomach bug that took days to recover from. It was a lot of vomiting. 

But one night we took an evening stroll after dinner from our Cape Cod vacation home and stumbled upon this peaceful pond tucked away in our neighborhood. Can you believe this spot??

Live crab

Final clam chowder meal. This happy moment was right before I forced Noah to eat and then he vomited everywhere. Not a proud parenting moment. 

On the final evening Oliver and Joice took us on this great stroll through Beacon Hill and the North End. We had amazing early summer weather all week and the city was truly showing off that night. Of course the evening would not be complete without one of our children (who shall remain nameless) vomiting on the streets of Boston. 

Goodbye Boston, we'll be back again. You truly are the Boss of All Countries!