Valentine's Day Play Date

We are very thankful that our good friend Sarah hosted another Valentine's Day play date this year. We love having the opportunity to spend the holiday for love with some very special people we've grown to love over these past few years. To prepare for the play date, we of course needed to make some cards. The first part of our card making involved me drawing some white hearts with crayons onto paper then having the boys paint all over them with water colors.

A few days later, I made heart stamps out of toilet paper tubes, scrap pieces of felt and tempera paint. I then let the boys go crazy and stamp red hearts all over their paintings. Link ended up just smearing red paint all over the papers with his hands, but I told him that was cool (and also what I anticipated).

The last step was to cut their art work into little pieces to give to each of their friends.

We also made little heart pies to share made from just five ingredients: whole wheat flour, grass-fed butter, dried fruit (raisins, currants,  cherries and cranberries), and almonds (in the crust). These are favorite little snacks in our house.

Today was the day of the party, and the boys had lots of fun! They both took off and immediately began playing toys with their friends leaving mommy to enjoy the company of her good friends as well. It's fantastic how well all the kids get along and how much fun they have together. Meo couldn't stop talking about all the fun things he did at the party today; it was priceless and I am grateful we had the opportunity.

Playing trains with Carter

Playing croquet with Daniel

Mattimeo is a walking stomach and enjoyed all the delicious Valentine's Day themed snacks Sarah had laid out for them.

This duck game was a big hit with Link and others

Daniel and Link

The big boys

Colin and Link

Lachlan and Meo played cars together for quite some time

Baby Logan

Sarah even set up this great craft for all of the families to do.

When we got home, the boys loved opening all their cards and little trinkets. Mattimeo said, "Thank you for all the presents, I love them ALL!"

The boys were completely exhausted after their big party and fell asleep immediately in the car. So I took a little drive to see the cold, blue ocean and search for snowy owls.

Just as I was giving up hope and searching for a good place to pull over and read my novel, I spotted one. And boy was it beatiful!

What a great day we had full of laughter, love, and beauty. Thanks again Sarah!

Our first Owling Adventure

Today, the boys and I all went owling for our very first time. I had heard that there has been snowy owls sighted throughout southern Maine this winter which is a very rare occurrence. Snowy owls are the largest North American owl and have snow white feathers and catlike yellow eyes. Apparently, ornithologists suspect that a lack of food in the arctic has forced some of the owls (mainly juveniles) to migrate further south than they normally would. This irruption (as it's scientifically called) of snowy owls has caused there to be more snowy owls in Maine than there has been since at least 1943, perhaps ever. Having had never seen an owl out in the wild, and knowing how much Mattimeo loves owls, I had been very eager to go out owling with the boys all winter. Finally, today was the day!

Link and I owling

Heading out, I wasn't sure we would actually see a snowy owl, but I was as happy as a fat man eating cake to be out looking. You can imagine my surprise when within a few minutes of driving around Biddeford Pool we spotted our first snowy owl! It was perched on top of a roof on a vacant house between the marsh and the ocean.

This first owl was beautiful, but also quite gruesome as it appears to have blood all over its face. Well, I'm glad it has had luck finding food here in Maine!

Biddeford Pool

The second owl we spotted was perched on a telephone pole. I hopped out of the car and quietly crept across the street so that I could photograph it when it swooped down in front of me and landed at the edge of the marsh to snatch up a mouse! I felt so giddy being able witness such graceful, fierce owl behavior first hand!

snatching up a mouse!

Here is a close up of the owl snatching up its lunch:

After I took a few photos, I hurried back to the car to grab Meo so that he could come out and see the owl too. Robbie had pointed it out to him when it took off flying, but I was hoping he could catch a glimpse of it closer. But by the time we got outside it had flown way out to the convent.

So to the convent we went.

This is how excited I was

After taking some photos of this beautiful snowy owl, the batteries in my camera died. So we decided to take a walk along the ocean before heading home. Mattimeo had fun running around in the field with me and pretending he was climbing really tall mountains. Link slept on Robbie most of the time, but it was Link's first time visiting the ocean and he did get to breastfeed next to its cold, crashing surf.

Breastfeeding Link

On the way home, we saw a third owl on a roof top, but I didn't have a camera to photograph it. I feel so blessed to have had such a wonderful day by the ocean with my family, and to have seen those majestic snowy owls in the wild.