Lemonade for sale!

Mia recently decided she wanted to host a yard sale and lemonade stand.  The yard sale only got one customer since we didn't have that much stuff and it was all very age specific.  But the lemonade stand was booming, especially with the after-church crowd.  A couple of people gave donations and didn't want their lemonade.  Although Crystal light would have been easier (and way cheaper...lemons are a buck each!!), I wanted to show Mia how to do it right so we got lemons, sugar, water and ice.  We sold it for $0.75 for a brimming 12oz cup and many people didn't accept their quarter change.  All in all she made about $20, which she used $5 of for a birthday present idea for her brother (whose birthday isn't for 9 months).  But even better than money were the neighbors I finally go to meet.  One of the neighbors we met were Alyssa/Paul and their daughter Maya (6 yrs old).  Maya had just finished Kindergarten with Mrs. Sidoruk who is going to be Mia's teacher.  The girls played (and moms chatted) until it was dinner time and we invited them in for some food.  They came in and then we walked them home afterwards.  We look forward to getting to know them better!  Also priceless was the high school senior young lady I met (I got her number for future babysitting needs!!).  Thanks Mia for your entrepreneurial spirit, I had a ton of fun!

 

Blueberry Picking @ Ward's Berry Farm

Last Saturday we made our first visit to Ward's Berry Farm in Sharon, MA for late season blueberry picking.  Many bushes were very picked over, especially the bottoms, but we found a trove of bushes with many berries to be picked.  In 10 mins we filled both the kids' pints.  Then we headed down to a lovely surprise they had a quaint playground complete with a large sand area.  Even more exciting were the farm animals.  We paid $1 for a generous bag of food to feed the pigs, goats and sheep.  There were also roosters/hens and a mini-horse!  After a week of berries in their lunch box we are all happy to have some left for this weekend too (blueberry muffins?  blueberry pancakes?).

Michelson's beach house

Another year at the Michelson's beach house. . . I am really loving these traditions and watching the cousins grow up together.  This year they were fortunate enough to have a huge driveway to play in and of course there were trips to the beach and movie nights.

Chase and Gavin

Mia loves the scooter

Logan loves my water bottle!

no shirts

Alex and Gavin

an amazing shot of Chase

such a hard worker

Mia loving Logan

Bat boys!!

All five in one shot wasn't easy.  What was surprising was that Logan, the youngest, was the one hamming it up for the camera in all 20 shot attempts.  

Thank you Nichole and Ben for inviting us to your beach house.  It was so much fun and quite relaxing too.  We always love reconnecting and look forward to having you for Thanksgiving.

Zoo trip with Mom

Dave needed time to prepare for his fall classes and so the kids and I took a morning trip to the South Attleboro zoo.  It was their 2nd time and my first.  

Mia saw a kookaburra

the kids pretended to be bats (very timely with our recent visitor)

can you spot the sloth?

Splashing in the sprayground!

haha I thought this was a cute photo op with my little vegetarians :)

Maria & Charlie visit

We love our yearly visits from Charlie and Maria.  Poor things, the drive is way too long now with us in Boston.  Next year we will split the cost of their plane tickets for their generous visits.  Thursday night they arrived in time for dinner and bedtime followed by beers and adult time.  Friday morning they all went to the cranberry bog at Patriots Place while I was at work.  At night, Maria, myself and the children went to family swim at the YMCA, which was frigid.  Saturday was our traditional all-day beach day.  We had been disappointed with the wimpy waves at all other beaches we had been to in MA thus far and headed to Horseneck in New Bedford based on the rumored waves.  As one eloquent Yelp reviewer put it, "they are not knock you on your butt waves, but pretty good".  Sunday morning they took off after the kids and I made them a waffle breakfast send off.  Thank you so much for visiting guys.  We continue to cherish our annual beach bummeries.  

Friday night bedtime stories ala Maria

This picture was taken by Mia

A bat just hanging out

It was a weekday morning just like every other until Dave, not wanting to cause alarm, walks up to me calmly and says out of the corner of his mouth, "there's a bat".  So of course I am alarmed, but surprisingly manage to follow his signal and keep my cool as I retort, "kids, lets go eat in the kitchen" (vs the dining room where the bat had graced us with her/his presence).  Dave then proceeds to Google "how to catch a bat". . . so millenial of us!  I tried to tell Dave to call someone trained to do it and he felt that was a crazy suggestion.

Here is our hero (Batman!) with our scared visitor.  We released him into the backyard 2 seconds later, despite the website suggesting you release them at night (yeah and keep him in a pitcher in our house all day?!  I don' think so!!)

visit to Lubec, ME

This was our 2nd visit to Lubec, ME to visit Mary.  I was very excited to have a 6 hr (vs 12 hr) drive, however, apparently leaving town at 1:30pm on a Friday is not early enough. . . the traffic didn't let up until Bangor, ME and the drive was closer to 8 hours in the end.  Still, very worth the trip.  I just love how the pace slows down 20 mph when we visit Mary, regardless of where she lives but especially in the tiny town of Lubec.  She generously gave each of the kids their own rooms, gave us her room and then she slept on the couch with Lucy at her feet.  The kids loved having their own (HUGE) rooms and she put a little something for each of them in it (legos for Gavin and arts/crafts for Mia with loads of books for each. . . oh and yummy treats in our room!).  The first day we spent at the farmers market and at the lighthouse/rocky beach, the next day we went to the shell beach and hung out in the backyard in the wading pool and the last day we went back to the rocky beach and left after lunch and a tea party.  For once, Lucy was there with us and it was so nice to see the kids get to know Lucy (and visa versa).  Mary, thank you for all your generous hospitality.  I love our visits, I love our traditions and I treasure our conversations.

SATURDAY

Breakfast!

Doesn't running down Summer St. sound so poetic?

~early morning explorations~

Visiting the Lighthouse:

the rocky beach

leaving a. . . what do you call those? rock tower??

Who thinks it will be there when we visit next summer?

Me vs. Rock (I won!)

Adventurers (this was their "cave")

Mia later scaled the mossy, steep hill vs using the stairs to return to the trail/parking lot

a well deserved nap!

co-journalers during quiet time


Mia's room

SUNDAY @ the shell beach

MONDAY

look at those curls (I love humidity on Mia!)

and that squinchy nose :) 

There is something about this picture. . . I can almost imagine her at a much older age here.

our traditional* farewell tea/coffee party

Maine service plaza animals

*other traditions started/continued with this visit:  each person puts their favorite rock from the rocky beach with their name and year on it in Mary's decorative glass bowl (how many years until it fills up?) and our first annual play (Mia and I wrote a screenplay for acting out during our farewell tea party), even Lucy had a part!