Day Hike to Crow Hill Ledges

What beautiful weather for hiking this past weekend! Love this fall weather! We headed up to Crow Hill Ledges in Princeton - part of Leominster State Forest. It was a great hike - we actually intended to do the Redemption Rock Trail but after several attempts to find the trailhead, we settled on the Crow Hill Ledges trailhead instead. What a nice spot! The ledges were really cool and the kids enjoyed climbing around them. We saw several people scaling the actual ledges with their rock climbing gear - pretty neat! We think Uncle Phil likes to climb this spot, as we recall. We much prefer to be soundly on the ground, on our feet rather than suspended in air by ropes!!! Sophia did great on her own and only had to be carried a couple of times on the really steep parts. It is great that she can hold her own now so that we can get back to doing some fun hikes as a family. She was not a big fan of the carrier backpack, unlike Evan who loved to hike in the backpack as a baby/toddler, so we have been very limited the last 3 or 4 years as to the hikes we can do together. Hope to get out more often now! Here are some pics....

New Big Girl Bike!

Sophia got an early Christmas present so she can enjoy these beautiful fall days riding bikes with all the kids. Trike was just too small. She's doing great - been down the end of the street a couple times already and has the hang of braking and everything. And her Cinderella doll is enjoying the rides too - this new bike came complete with a basket that she can strap her dolls into. It's quite the ride! Yay Sophia! Evan has a new ride too - he bought his bike at the church yard sale a few weeks ago with money he saved from his lemonade stand. (and a few extra $$ from Mom and Dad) Not a scratch on it - it was less than a year old and looks brand new. Love these fall days for riding bikes!

1st Soccer Game!

Here are a few pics of Ev's first soccer game this morning. Jeff is head coach again and the name of their team is "Val's Restaurant". They have a good little team - a few of Evan's friends from school are on the team, including Shannon. He had a blast and played really well! Ev has his Pats shirt on because the league was short 2 shirts for their team - hopefully he will have a team jersey on next week!!

Miss Sophia's First Day of Preschool!

Little Miss Sophia started pre-school this morning! She was very excited to go off and wanted pictures on the front step "just like Evan did." Very cute. Today was just an orientation day so I got to stay with her. She was a little shy, a little clingy, but did go off for a bit on her own to play with the playdough and legos. And they have a fantastic playground which she loved. There are 21 kids in her class....lots of little girls and only 7 boys. I know she will make lots of friends and have so much fun this year!