SillyDad.com!

My wife and I are still looking for a new home. The current house we are in is nice but doesn’t have all the space we need for 8 of us… especially in the kitchen area. Storing a lot of our nice dishes and stemware. So we decided to purchase a really nice buffet. The picture isn’t perfect but you can see it here in our Dining Room.

It has been a nice addition to our house and has lots of added storage.

-sillydad

6 in one hand, half dozen in the other. It’s all the same. That makes a nice basketball team. Or hockey team. Heck why stop here… let’s shoot for a baseball team.

Last month the family was blessed with another daughter, making it our 6th child in 8 1/2 years.

A lot of people are asking if we will be having more. Honestly I don’t know. I am very happy with 6 kids and I am very content. To a lot of people 6 is a number, but I see them all as individuals who all have a wonderful personality. But for a good laugh.. we aren’t too far from becoming the folks in the following picture.

-sillydad

OK I have been told I don’t post enough pictures. There are friends and family who are half away across the continent so they would like more updates. So the following is a little bit about the last couple weeks and some of the things we have done.

So Aaron this is for you.

A couple weeks ago my dad came up to Bangor to visit with the kids. He had never been out to the boardwalk so we took the 4 older kids up and walked around and I shot a few photos. (Take note: Sammy’s outgrown shirt. )

We had a lot of fun walking the boardwalk. We picked blackberries and then came home. The following weekend I traveled with the 3 older kids over to my parent’s camp in Bethel where we spent time camping, sitting around the campfire, and visiting family.

Here are a few pictures I took. Enjoy!

Campfire at night

My parents did some clearing on their land and on one edge you can get a nice view of the mountains. I took these photos around sunset.

The following picture is of the view out towards New Hampshire. It was too cloudy but up behind these mountains you see here is Mt Washington, which you can see clearly on a cloudless day.

And here is Fred, “keeper of the campfire”

sillydad

Well looks like Dadstock was a great success.

I was not able to attend but here is a group shot of all those who could make it:

Looks like a few guys there to relax:

Click here to see more photos from the event.

-sillydad

Well we had a real busy weekend. We all headed up to the lake today and did some playing by the water. The kids were excited to start catching fish again. This was the 2nd time this year they have been. We caught lots of sunfish. I caught a pickerel. There were some white perch that were caught too. But I snapped some photos and thought I would share.

Here is a picture of that pickerel I caught. It was actually about 17 inches long. I lost my hat on the catch. Also Emma is caught wearing a diaper as she went swimming earlier and got completely soaked. We weren’t planning on swimming until after we got there so we tossed her in a diaper and called it good.

Here is Sammy showing off his big catch of the day.

The following is Elizabeth checking out her line… making sure it isn’t all tangled up in the hook.

Emma watching the fish we caught swimming around in the pail.

Isobel having a good ol’ time as usual.

The fishing was a lot of fun but we actually realized the water was real nice and we were getting hot. So we took a break and swam. Snapped a few pictures of the kids playing in the water:

-sillydad

You are not gonna believe this. I took the 3 older kids to the annual Free Fishing Festival and didn’t snap one photo. I brought my camera, I had charged batteries, and everything was working fine but I spent all day untangling fishing lines, showing the kids how to cast, and putting new worms on the end of the hooks.

95 kids showed up and registered for the day and 45 parents. It was a better turn out than last year due to torrential downpours. See last years pictures and story here.

Even though I didn’t get any pictures, my dad shot a few. Here is one of Sam who is the closest casting. Elizabeth is behind him sitting on the rock waiting for a fish to bite. And you can barely see Isobel behind her watching.

Check out full story and photos of the event here.

Normally what we do is drive 3 hours to my parent’s camp where we meet them, pitch a tent, roast marshmallows, and attend the Family Fish Day only 2 miles down the road. Then we come back after the event and cook hot dogs, marshmallows, and catch up on old times and get some good visiting in while the kids run around.

The weather held off and was great up through the event and into Saturday night and then the rains came. It rained so hard it drove the kids from the tent. They were perfectly dry just the sound of the rain hitting the tent and the nearby tarps created a real loud noise it was hard to hear people just next to you. They all wanted to come in and sleep in the loft in my parent’s camp. So that’s where we all slept.

More pictures coming soon.

-sillydad

-sillydad

Well my 5th child was born at 7am on February 4th, 2007.

Read more and see more pictures here.

-sillydad

Well I finally bought me a new camera so I can start taking pictures again. Here are some I took as soon as I came home.

Emma eating her lunch:

Isobel smiling:

Emma close up:

Here is a group photo of me, sam, isobel, and emma:

If you want to see more pics of our snow day check them out here!

sillydad

Well we have been having some fun so far this Fall. We have been apple picking twice. The first time I went my batteries in my camera died on us so we weren’t able to get any photos. But the second time we were prepared. We also took a trip over to Fort Knox, army fort… I took some photos, take a look…

First off Fort Knox….

Isobel

Isobel with Bucksport in the background. This is what you see from the fort.

Elizabeth, Sam, and Isobel posing in front of the old cannon.

Emma sitting on a pile of cannon balls.

Apple picking pics…

Sam crunching into his Cortland apple.

Yummy… Isobel eating her apple…

Crunch…

Elizabeth getting right into it… getting her hands dirty…

Mommy having some fun in the orchard…

-sillydad

Elizabeth and Sam are happy to ride the bus to school together. I did happen to get a ‘frist day of school’ picture and here they are…

Hey if you got first day of school pics you want to share you can comment and link to them..

-sillydad

My 2 oldest kids ages 6 and (almost) 5 caught a bucket full of sunfish this past weekend. Elizabeth caught the largest one of the day and Sam came in at a close second. Here are a couple pictures I took of them this afternoon.

Summers around here are nothing but fun in the sun…

-sillydad

Here is my hunting rifle. Can anybody tell me what it is? It is a classic. My father and grandfather both owned it before me. A lot of game have been killed with this puppy. I plan to get me a bear with it. I grew up shooting this rifle and am a good shot with it.

-sillydad

Despite the torrential downpours all weekend the Family Fish Day that took place this last Saturday over in Bethel was quite fun for the family. Most people stayed in where it was warm and dry but there were still a lot of children who came out and faced the rain and wind.

I first arrived at my parent’s camp the night before with my 2 older children, Elizabeth and Sam. The following shows them roasting marshmallows over the campfire. This picture was taken about 10pm.

The next morning we woke up to rain coming down in buckets. As you can see from the next picture we were all dressed from head to toe in rain gear.

Not too long after standing around the stocked pond Kiley Walker from the Bethel Area reeled in one of the only 2 fish (trout) caught all day. The following are the 3 pictures I took.

After an hour or two of fishing we all sat under the outdoor tent trying to remain warm and dry. The following is a picture of my 2 kids sitting at one of the picnic tables.

Then it was time to do our give aways. There were a ton of prizes to be given out and many kids walked away with a smile. My daughter Elizabeth walked away with a nice fishing pole:

Though it rained all weekend, we had a great time and it was a great experience for those kids who came out and made it happen. Next year let’s hope the sun is shining and more kids come out and have fun. Maybe I can bring Isobel next time.

-sillydad

Wow, what a nice couple of days it has been around here. Unfortunately the rain is coming again but I was able to get the kids out, clean up the back yard, do some repairs, and believe it or not take a few pictures. I would like to share them with you.

Here is Sam kneeling by his soccer ball

Caught a great shot of Isobel flinging the frisbee.

Emma here is trying to fit in and stole Sam’s ball away so I could snap a picture of her.

Last and of course not least I snapped a picture of my canoe sitting on the canoe rack I just built so I can raise it up off the lawn. Poor grass was dying. Now I can get in there and mow under it.

-sillydad