School Pictures

I've never had a lot of luck with school pictures. Too many variables I suppose. When mom's not there, the collar may or may not get straightened, hair is often haphazardly combed, and not often the way it would usually be done. And the photographer has to snap pictures of around 300 bored and wiggly kids all in a few hours during the school day. I get that it's a nice little fundraiser for the PTA, but it often becomes a quantity over quality kind of thing. These pictures sit atop my piano for 12 whole months. 2 grandmothers hang them on their walls. And they are expensive!

Last year I had to work on picture day. I left the house before anyone else was even up, so it was up to the husband to get them “picture ready.” Now, the husband is a great guy, he packs lunches, helps with homework, and I think even makes them brush their teeth and make their beds most mornings. But God love him...this is what came home after last years picture day:

Sweet Jesus, I was not about to put that in a frame and have it follow me around the living room for the next 12 months! So this year, I came up with a plan. Avoid the inevitable argument with the teen about what to wear to school, no worries about boys who are not fond of hairbrushes, I'd let them just be themselves for the school pictures, and take them to the local portrait studio for nice “hang on the wall and give to grandma” pictures. I made an appointment for the end of the summer, when they would be nice and tan and full of fresh air and summer sunshine. After all, we live in the northeast, and if you wait until closer to the holidays, the color in their faces has often faded and then the pictures tend to look like they were taken during the last zombie apocalypse (see above). I made haircut appointments for the morning, picked out nice crisp shirts and ties and gave myself a big pat on the back for coming up with this fabulous idea!

Some of you know what happened next...and if you live in a house full of boys you can probably guess that all did not go according to plan. The morning before picture day the little dude came stumbling out of his room in his Star Wars pj's, hopping from foot to foot with that early morning look of urgency on his face. The teen was in the shower, so I waved him on into my room with instructions to just “use my bathroom, and make sure you flush...” He finished up and headed down stairs to breakfast without so much as a “good morning” and the next thing I heard was the husband SCREAMING “What happened to your eyebrows!!!” Complete and total silence followed...nobody was admitting to anything. I checked the bathroom and the evidence, tiny little fuzzy brown eyebrow hairs, were all over the sink and counter. He had used the husbands razor to cleanly and efficiently remove his eyebrows. Where he once had eyebrows he now had perfectly arched tan lines. When we calmed down I snapped a picture:

The inquisition began during breakfast. “Why on earth would you shave off your eyebrows?” “On what planet would this seem like a good idea?” “What on earth were you thinking??” Slowly, the story began to emerge. It seems that the middle child and a neighbor kid convinced him that he could score 25 large on America's Funniest Home Videos (is that show even on anymore?) if he shaved off his eyebrows then filmed his father's reaction and sent it on in. Alas, as 7 year old boys are not that well organized, he shaved without recording. I briefly considered bagging the whole picture day adventure and trying to take some kind of photos myself, but lets be honest, at best I would have ended up with something like these:

Now, seriously considering why on earth I agreed to spend 8 weeks in a 27 foot tin can with this group of nitwits, I decided to forge ahead and came up with another plan!! We headed to the mall for haircuts, and when the little dude was done I dashed him over to the department store makeup counter. I retold my tale of woe to a VERY Kind young woman who, with a look of horror on her face, penciled his eyebrows back in, we dressed them up in shirts and ties and headed upstairs to the portrait studio. It took a while, but we did end up with some very nice photos. Here's one of the three amigo's, they clean up pretty well:

The tie's a little crooked, but the eyebrows don't look too bad.  I sure hope grandma likes her copy!!

Campground Review : Moorings Oceanfront RV Resort

While in Maine we stayed at Moorings Oceanfront RV Resort in Belfast. I found it through a simple Google search of campgrounds in the mid-coast Maine area and booked it based solely on their website and reasonable weekly rates. I called to make the reservation, and the person I spoke with was informative and very helpful as I had a ton of questions. I quickly received a confirmation e-mail with directions to the campground and instructions for checking in.

We arrived rather late in the day (around 8) and the office was closed. We checked in at the restaurant, were directed to our site and told to check back in at the office in the morning. Our site was easy to find, all the hookups were easy to access and by 8:30 pm. We were on our way back up to the restaurant for a late dinner.

The sites at Moorings are larger than others we have stayed at, which was very nice. With only 44 sites in the whole campground, you didn't feel like you were smooshed in right next to another motor home and we had room to spread out our chairs around the campfire ring. Each site also has a picnic table and a view of the ocean. The site was level and had hookups for water, electric and cable television. While there was no sewer hookup, the mobile sewer service came through the campground each Monday and Thursday to pump out holding tanks. The dump station was also conveniently located near the exit and was very easy to use.  Here is the evening view from our campsite:

Moorings also provides free Wifi at each campsite. We loved having this available as it meant we could search for things to do in the area and purchase tickets for local boat excursions and whale watches right from our laptop at the picnic table. The connection was pretty fast and I was even able to write a couple of blog posts and check email while we were there. There were bathroom and laundry facilities with free hot showers and coin operated washers and dryers located next to the office. They were very well maintained and clean. The owners and office staff were friendly and helpful.

The owners of Moorings also own a restaurant located right at the campground. Papa J's and the Lobster Bar serves local seafood, pasta dishes, pizza and a variety of homemade desserts. They also have a full bar and wine list and campground guests receive a discount on food. We ate there the night we arrived and it was delicious! 4 of us ordered the fish sandwich, served on a soft roll with french fries. The fish had a wonderful crispy coating and was flaky and buttery inside. We all enjoyed it! The teen, our resident vegetarian, had the three cheese manicotti. It was huge, with at least 4 manicotti shells stuffed with a creamy cheese mixture and served with a delicious, slightly spicy homemade sauce. Our waitress was very nice, helpful and provided quick, excellent service.

The town of Belfast was very nice with a touristy “downtown” area right on the waterfront. It also had a clean, well stocked grocery store (Hannaford) and a couple of auto parts stores, which we predictably had to visit a couple of times. Belfast is also located about halfway between the bigger towns of Bar Harbor and Boothbay and is close to Acadia National Park. We had a fabulous time and hope to return in a couple of years! 

    

We did some other stuff too

We did lots of other things while we were in Maine. We spent a few days just hanging out at the camp ground, swimming in the ocean, collecting shells and sea glass and flying kites on the beach. The weather was beautiful and the water was pretty warm. The boys loved watching the tide go in and out, and Penobscot Bay at high tide provided just enough wave action to keep the boys happy. I have to admit here, having never been to Maine, that I was kind of expecting the tan sandy beaches of my childhood spring vacations in Florida with my grandparents, and this beach was nothing like that. It was very rocky and the waves were much calmer in the bay than out on the open ocean, but it was beautiful none the less. Many of the rocks were flat and perfect for skipping and the shells were a beautiful blue color. There was always a breeze and at low tide it was a beautiful place to take a walk , fly a kite, or look for sea creatures.

We also visited the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, Maine. This museum reminded me a lot of the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake. It had lots of small buildings depicting life in a coastal shipping village. Their collection of antique wooden boats kept the husband drooling and I really enjoyed the artwork on display by local artists. They also had lots of neat activities for the kids! The boys had fun playing on the huge model square-rigger mast, learning how to set the sails and climb to the top:

Some of us dressed up as fishermen:

And we happened upon the touch tank just as the keeper was arriving to clean it:

The boys LOVED the touch tank!

Finally, we enjoyed lots of delicious, fresh seafood! The Maine coast is dotted with establishments called “Lobster Pounds.” Every small coastal town seems to have one right on the water. Basically, the boats pull up in the morning, unload, and the fresh goodies are placed in large tanks with circulating sea water. You can buy your live clams, crabs, mussels or lobsters and take them home or have them cooked right in front of you. Not really a restaurant, as they don't serve alcohol or any side dishes, they do have picnic table and seating areas inside and out by the water and you may bring your own side dishes and drinks to enjoy there. We stopped at Young's Lobster Pound

and purchased a pound of fresh mussels (for $1.99/pound, unheard of inland where we live!) Back at the campground, I sauteed them in some butter, garlic and white wine and we had them with a plate of pasta. Can you say delicious!!

We went back a few nights later and decided to picnic! We ordered some lobster and clams and possibly the most delicious bowl of crab chowder I have ever eaten!

Everything was yummy!! While the teen was not a fan of the lobster, the other 2 boys loved it. We hope to go back someday...soon!