My daughters are finishing their second full weeks of camp today. The girls have two more weeks of camp left, the lucky ducks! All three are attending camps my younger brother and I attended as well. It’s a bit odd to be seeing your children doing things you did as a child. And while some things have changed a lot in the intervening years, a lot has not.

LG is attending Small Fry Camp, which is for the little kiddos in the K-1 grades. She’s been so excited to go, and even insisted on staying for the extended day program so she could have more fun with her friends! She’s ended up with a wonderful counselor for this first session, and we’re hoping her counselor for next session is just as wonderful!

Small Fry camp is at our new YMCA, when I was a kid it was at the old facility, and we would sit on the front steps and sing to “wake up the bank”. Funnily, my mom and I both remember the song, and I’m disappointed they don’t sing it any more. We taught it to LG anyhow, though.

We are from Small Fry.
Small Fry are we.
We never lose our pep-ability!
rah rah rah
We are the best kids
We are the best camp
We are the kids from Small Fry Camp!

Meanwhile, BG and MG have gone out to Children’s Island, which is an island off the coast of our town that has a camp on it, and that’s all it has. It’s a lovely small island with a few buildings (Sailing lodge, Arts & Crafts, Main Lodge, a small building near the Pool, and a couple other small shed-type-things. They get on a boat early in the morning, and come home in the evening, spending all day (practically) rain or shine on the Island.

Right now, one of BG’s favorite things is to swim in the ocean in the rain. MG loves swimming and kayaking, and they both love Rangers, which is a nature focused type program. They aren’t as big on sailing as I was when I was a kid, but I’m sure we’ll get them hooked. At least they are learning the knots they’ll need as sailors in Rangers! MG’s big joy yesterday was that she found a buoy that had washed up in Pirate’s Cove, and then brought it home to decorate her room!

I spent 10 years on Children’s Island – from 6 to 16. I was a camper, a sailor (we had a separate sailing camp then, now sailing is integrated into the main camp), and a CIT. My brother was out there for years as well, and he ended up being a counselor for a while, too. I loved my time at camp, and looked forward to going to camp every summer. I remember one year being disappointed my father was taking us to England because it meant I would miss camp. It’s so wonderful to see the girls following in my footsteps and loving camp so much!

I spent part of last Thursday taking scenic pictures before we went out to the Island, and I’m finding it amazing that the picture I took from the Island to the Lighthouse (at right) is so incredibly foggy, but the picture I took (above) is clear and beautiful. And these pictures were taken just a few hours apart. It was a wonderful late morning for looking at scenery, and then the day got progressively foggier and rainier. But, there are still quite a few beautiful pictures from the day, so go check them out!

MG and BG spent last Thursday night on the Island for the Parents’ Night, and BG spent last night on the Island as part of the Rangers Overnight – you have to be over 10 and have your “blue patch”. This year MG is working on her blue patch so she can stay on the Ranger Overnight next year when she’s ten!

It’s obvious to me that the girls’ counselors know them well – BG was given the award for “future counselor”, and given how she’s been acting with LG and other small children, I can see why! She’s even talking about wanting to be a CIT at Small Fry, not just on the Island. I know not all YMCA camps are great, but this camp is amazing, and I’m so grateful that we are able to send the girls – it’s a wonderful way to spend the summer! I wish I could go with them, relive some time as a camper… It’s just so gorgeous out there, well, if you can ignore all the seagull poop!

Last Friday we went to a wonderful “Surf Party” at the PEM. The girls had a great time seeing this amazing Trash Menagerie exhibit, and then pretending to surf, decorating (paper) surfboards, making sand sculptures, and playing a surfing video game. After a day at the beach, we brought a friend along for a couple hours before the girls went with their dad, and it was fabulous, and they all had so much fun.

Tonight MG has her birthday party! We’re meeting the kids at the movie theater, then have cake & ice cream, and then we’ll watch Harry Potter (or another movie in the lounge for kids who don’t do HP). AND then they’re having a sleepover!

Phew!

And yes, they slept out (in the rain) at camp last night. On an island. What an adventure!

I think we’ll all collapse for a bit on Saturday before they go off with their dad!

It feels like only yesterday I had this tiny newborn in my arms. And now I have 3 kids, and none of them are newborns. In fact, now all 3 are riding bikes. Admittedly, LG still has training wheels, but I doubt she’ll have them at the end of the summer.

Now that it’s not raining constantly, we’re able to do more things outside, In addition to our many walks, the girls love to bike ride. I can sit in the shade at the park while they ride circles around on the pavement. LG’s training wheels sometimes get stuck in the sand, but she’s learning how to move the bike so she’s unstuck. It’s astounding how far she’s come now that her bike is ready and she has somewhere flat to ride! She’s still the slowest rider of the three of them, though, so it’s much easier to capture face pictures of her. She’s very determined, and has progressed from watching her pedals to watching where she’s going, which cuts down on the number of poles she hits!

MG is steady and sturdy on her bike, and has decided that she doesn’t want to bike alone. So she bribed coerced convinced LG to let her use the basket so she could bring her favorite “child” (Ellie the Littlest Pet Shop bear) with her on her bike rides. She’s so cute getting Ellie all secure in the basket, but she switches to being ruthless and cuts everyone off as she rides! Watch out park-goers!

After zoom zoom zooming around the park for a little bit, BG wanted a new challenge. She could only go so fast within the park boundaries. So her Nani went for a ride with MG and BG to a nearby pond and back, and now BG and MG are confident in how to get there and back, so they can take off on a ride anytime I say OK. They are loving the freedom on their bikes – they were able to go all around our peninsula last summer, and it’s time for the girls to enjoy (safe) independence again!

Of course, everyone needs a break for drinks and snacks. That’s why Mama always brings a bag with water, some bags of dried fruit and nuts from Trader Joe’s, rice cakes, and chips if they’re really lucky. Having snacks is a great way of making sure the girls remember to check in with me – they always come by for food!

Long-time readers of my blog know that I’ve been battling the effects of Lyme Disease for 3 1/2 years. For a long time I was practically bed-ridden. Thankfully, that isn’t the case any more. My doctors have worked with me over the years to get my pain and symptoms well managed, and with the right supports in place, I’m more active.

This has meant that the girls and I are going on more walks together. It doesn’t hurt that there are actually places to go here, as opposed to where we lived before! I was very grateful to have had a whole weekend’s worth of walks. We actually started our walking weekend on Thursday, but I didn’t bring my camera on that hike. You can just imagine 6 kids walking for 2 hours in the woods. It was a green and muddy walk near a pond and a swamp.

Friday we took a walk with some friends to a local park. The girls’ Vóvó (grandfather in Portuguese) had told them that one rock was very popular for sliding. So they grabbed some cardboard boxes, and walked/ran to the rock. Once we got there, though, the kids decided that the sliding rock was steeper than they were expecting. Only one kiddo tried it, and it wasn’t a big success. However, we still enjoyed the park and the great views of the harbor. Certain children enjoyed hanging out by the railing and freaking out the moms until we looked beyond the railing and saw that they weren’t just hanging over a cliff. Phew! It was a great walk and a fun time – these 5 kids really enjoyed the rocks and water!

On Saturday the girls were with their dad, and I was in Boston. I ended up going for a lovely walk around the Chestnut Hill reservoir. It’s a beautiful area, and it has walking/jogging paths. It’s sunny, but it has some nice benches in the shade, too. A lovely walk, and a great idea for a warm sunny day in the Boston area! Being an over-prepared mom-type-person, I had water, snacks, camera, and phone. I highly recommend bringing water and the camera, as the reservoir has some gorgeous views. I’m glad I saw this huge gaggle of fearless geese, it was a great reminder of the girls! The geese were quieter than the girls usually are, though.

On Sunday LG and I took a walk to a nearby fort. A group of revolutionary war re-enactors had an encampment there for the weekend, and we got there just as they were starting to pack up. It was still really cool to see the tents and everyone in period costume, including the kids whose parents are part of the regiment. As a bonus, LG got to be put behind bars, one of her favorite things about the walk! We also got some wonderful pictures of the harbor and the island where BG and MG will go to camp.

All in all, we’ve been having a wonderful walk each day. Today’s was just to the store to get MG more tofu pups, but we still enjoyed it.

We’ve been lucky enough to have some actually sunny days lately, it feels so magical! It also makes me think about what summer means to me. Summers as a child were filled with so many wonderful memories, and I want to help my girls also have wonderful memories. While I can’t take them to Cape Cod every summer, I can recreate some of my favorite things, and help them find favorites, too.

Gazpacho is the perfect summer food, it’s fresh and delicious, and will never heat up the kitchen! As a bonus, it can include cilantro and avocado, two of summer’s best foods.

Summer is for deciding one day you are going to do something (like catch a squirrel), and then devote several days to accomplishing that thing. My older girls spent 2 days trying to catch a squirrel. That time included researching squirrels, figuring out the best way to build a trap, determining the best bait, and sitting quietly waiting for a squirrel.

Eating lobster rolls out on the deck. Lobster rolls are an integral part of summer for me, and while it’s wonderful, it hasn’t been quite the same with lobster salad. So the most recent time I bought lobster salad, I put it on top of toasted gluten-free, dairy-free english muffins from Trader Joe’s. Yum! It worked beautifully. And yes, lobster rolls (like lobster itself) should be eaten outside whenever possible.

Part of summer is the local Arts Festival. Some of that means looking at amazing sculpture, crafts, “mixed media”, photography, painting, etc. But some of it means the Street Festival, which includes waiting in long lines for balloon animals. I have to say that this time it was worth it – this guy was great! Check out LG’s “hot dog dog” that even has a “hot dog” part on top of the blue wiener dog!

What’s a summer festival without face paint? Of course BG got a butterfly across her face (her theme lately has been butterflies), MG got a little rainbow on her cheek, and LG got a puppy dog face, which ended up looking a lot like freckles. The great thing about the Arts Festival’s Street Festival is that all this stuff was free! So not only did we have a ton of fun and get a bunch of exercise wandering around town for a few hours, but we also did it all without spending a penny!

Summer is also for being silly. Which means that it’s ok to be the Mama Dragon, and be running around in a people-as-puppets play in the middle of the street! In the summer you can’t take yourself too seriously – it’s vital to get your wiggles out and get your sillies out too.

I don’t have pictures of the Fireworks or the amazing lobster on the boat picnic before fireworks, but I count those as must-have summer events too. Along with beach days. And if the weather would just cooperate, we could have some more beach days to make even more summer memories!

On Wednesday we had a lovely visit with my two grandmothers. My maternal Nana (Nana M) turned 87, and we joined her for lunch at the assisted living place. Both of my grandmothers live in the same assisted living place, so despite it being a 2 1/2 hour trip, it’s quite easy to visit both of them. (The picture at right is from a few months ago, the camera needed batteries and the pics of the Nanas didn’t come out)

It turns out that Wednesdays are “Chef’s Choice” for lunch, and because we had reserved the private dining room, the chef called my mother to ask what we would like to have served for lunch. This chef had been wonderful about accommodating food allergies and celiac disease, but we didn’t want to make things too difficult for him.
”
My mom replied, “what my mother would like best, you couldn’t do.”
The chef answered, “try me.”
My mom said, “lobster.”
And the chef surprised us all by saying, “ok, lobster rolls, lobster salad for the folks with allergies, and grilled vegetables on the side!”

Let me tell you, when I’m older, I hope I can live in a place as wonderful as this one! This lobster salad was warmed, with no mayo, and was incredibly divine, with huge chunks of lobster. And as an extra bonus, there were seconds and thirds offered!

My Nana M’s uncle, Izzy, and his sister Flo also live in the same assisted living place, so after lunch they joined us for dessert and birthday wishes.

For dessert, we tried the new Betty Crocker Gluten-Free chocolate cake mix (which is made in a gluten-free facility) – review here. We topped it with a “chocolate syrup frosting” my mother made, and then set out some lovely candied violets. The cake was moist and delicious, and we made room. Though MG had eaten 4ths on lobster and couldn’t finish her cake. I had only had 2 1/2 servings, so I could help LG finish off MG’s piece. Perhaps BG was the smart one, she had seconds on soup rather than lobster and saved her appetite for cake, and ate two pieces!

When dessert was finished, Nana M went to a doctor’s appointment with my mom, while we met up with Nana R (my paternal Nana, seen here in a picture from her 91st birthday last September). She was enroute to High Stakes Bingo, where you have to pony up a nickle to play. BG and LG helped her out (though she wins well enough without them!), and MG was invited to play by another resident. Nana R was so happy to show off her great-granddaughters! And I’m always happy to be called a “young girl” by someone! Luckily for BG, in the 3rd game she got a card, too.

Watching the residents and the girls play bingo was wonderful. There’s such spunk, such individuality, and such fun among the residents, and the employees are wonderful. I get teary when I think of the devotion and openness of the folks employed there – they clearly know the residents so very well, and they recognize how wonderful they all are, including my two Nanas! The gentle combination of teasing and politeness really shows how genuine they are about caring for every individual.

It was a long and exhausting day, but one that built more great memories. I am very lucky to have so many wonderful memories of time with my Nanas!

Our family has been living gluten-free due to Celiac Disease for over 6 years. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, barley, and very similar to the protein found in outs. This means that any food needs to be made specially – bread, pasta, cake, pizza crust, pretzels, cookies, etc. Finding the Betty Crocker gluten-free mixes was a wonderful surprise!

Over the past 6 years there has been a huge increase in availability of gluten-free products, but most of the GF products have been found in the health food aisle of the grocery store or in a specialty store.

However, gluten-free products are becoming more mainstream as the number of people diagnosed with celiac disease rises, as well as the number of people living gluten-free for other reasons. Last summer, General Mills introduced a new, gluten-free formulation of Rice Chex (they changed the sweetener from barley malt to another sweetener). In addition to becoming more mainstream, gluten-free products are becoming much more commonly available and found in most grocery stores.
Read the rest of the review

The weather in New England has not been particularly summer-like. So, any day that it isn’t raining should be celebrated! On Friday morning, we took a walk through the local conservation land, and around a pond, and then had lunch at home while it rained for a little bit.

However, the rain stopped again after lunch, and it continued to be warmer than it had been for ages, so we packed up our swim bag, put on our swim suits, packed up some shovels and buckets, put everything into a wagon, and walked off to a new-to-us nearby beach. I couldn’t believe that there was a beach just a few blocks from where we live that we had never explored! It’s a lovely, quiet, and protected beach, too – just right for taking a few kids and a picnic.

We had some trouble at first pulling the wagon, as the only one who was the right size to pull it was LG, and it was a bit heavy for LG to pull. So, the girls worked out the best way to pull the wagon. This turned into a roller-coaster style ride for MG as she sat on the wagon and was pulled by a sister on either side.

Once we got to the beach, everything was dropped on the sand, and the girls hurtled themselves into the water. It was surprisingly cold, but BG and MG quickly ducked under and started swimming. After realizing the intense cold of the water, LG didn’t get more than her feet wet, and worked on making sandcastles rather than swimming.

It was fun watching the older girls swim and play in the water, they looked like seals when their heads popped up out of the water, bobbing as they swam around. I don’t know how they can stand the cold, they definitely don’t have a layer of blubber to keep them warm, like seals do!

After swimming and digging, the girls climbed the rocks on the side of the beach, a trick they seem to do at every beach – who knows what they would do if they were at a beach without rocks! This habit proves that climbing the rock wall at the YMCA like little monkeys can come in handy at other times, too. I’m always amazed that they have the energy and coordination to climb rocks after swimming in that cold water for so long! While LG can’t climb quite as high as her sisters can, she still has pretty impressive rock climbing skills, and she’s so proud of what she can do!

At the end of our time at the beach, the girls picked some wildflowers to bring home, and of course MG had to put a couple flowers in her braids. They looked so cute, and I remember doing things like that when I was little – I’m sure I looked a lot like her, too!