My gave the girls a trip to the Aquarium and the IMAX theater for Christmas. However, between relatives from out of state and a stomach bug, he couldn’t take them. I rounded up the girls and one of their friends and took them into Boston. My brother stepped in to help out, and we had quite a fun outing!

The New England Aquarium has a giant center tank, and you walk round-and-round, looking at the coral reef dwellers at different depths. Along the outer edges of the aquarium are different exhibits about creatures in other habitats. The two types of exhibits that are my girls’ favorites, though, are the two penguin exhibits and the two seal exhibits.

The girls all loved to watch the African Penguins groom eachother and go for a swim. Watching the penguins groom made me think of sisters – helping each other out, but simultaneously picking on them. Just like the penguins (or penguinis, as MG calls them) are helping each other clean their feathers, the girls love to be helpful. BG was helping LG as she was reading a book yesterday, which really warmed my heart! I’m sure the penguins get annoyed by the nibbling sometimes, just as one of the girls will get fed up with the others and start yelling rude things at them.

Unlike the girls, I’ve never seen penguins argue. I don’t speak penguin, though, so when the African penguins bray at each other, so they could be arguing. The adorable Little Blue Penguins just sit around and look cute, kind of like what small children do when they aren’t being picked at by their siblings…

The other place in the aquarium where I really thought the kids and the animals were very similar is the seals. The girls love to swim underwater, splash, and play in the pool, just the way the harbor seals and fur seals do. Admittedly, my girls have no interest in swimming in an outdoor pool when the windchill is -8. They do look like seals and penguins when they tummy-slide down the hill at the park in the winter! I’m taking the girls to go swimming in the Y’s indoor pool tomorrow afternoon, and I’m sure they’ll remind me of seals and penguinis when they’re barreling down the new water slide!

As an aside to anyone who also has monocular vision, the 3D movies at the New England Aquarium IMAX theater don’t use 1 eye green, 1 eye red glasses, instead they use special sunglasses. This meant that I could actually see most of what was on the screen – there was just a shadow, and I ended up with a bit of a headache afterward.

Sorry it’s been so long between posts – we’ve been busy with school, job hunting, playdates, and Church, plus I was reading Anna Karenina for book club last month – 800 pages!

We had a lovely November, filled with food, friends, and family. A party for my mother’s birthday had 9 kids 11 and under, plus a dozen or so adults. We had a lovely Thanksgiving with our cousins, and a similar adult:child ratio.

We got some snow last Sunday, which meant we had girls playing in the snow and making snowballs before Church, then sledding as soon as Church was over. After everyone was worn out from sledding we decorated the house and the tree. We put out my parents’ collections – carolers, smokers, Santas, and nutcrackers. Combine that with the tree and the wreath I made, the house is very, very Christmas-y! Watching everyone work together peacefully to get the house decorated. It was LG’s turn to put the star on the tree, but of course she needed to put the star on herself, first!

Last night the girls and I went to our Church’s Christmas party – so much fun with great food, lovely conversation, a talent show, and then Santa came! Much fun was enjoyed by all. LG had a great time sitting on Santa’s lap, and all the girls enjoyed one church member’s re-enactment of How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
All this joy and fun, and still a week and a half before Christmas!

Last year, due to some forces beyond my control, we weren’t able to go to the Topsfield Fair. It’s the longest-running county fair in the country, and it’s a lot of fun. There’s so much to do and see – I have so many wonderful memories of going to the fair when I was a kid, and now the girls have memories of the fair from attending every year we lived in Ipswich.

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  This year was wonderful – we started the day just like every year, with a trip on the ferris wheel. From the ferris wheel you can see all of the midway spread out before you, before you explore the Fair.

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  The other reason to go on the ferris wheel is to see the foliage – all the trees spread out with their beautiful colors. It’s a gorgeous sight that I look forward to every year.

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  The girls like looking at the Fair from the top of the Ferris wheel, but seem to prefer the fun of the ride to the view of the foliage.

• Looking at the fair is only the first step at the fair – there’s so much more!

There are all the animals to look at, feed, and pet, the giant pumpkin, and all the rides to try.

Plus the food! Maple cotton candy, caramel apples, fudge, maple sugar candies, chocolate covered apples, fresh squeezed lemonade, and so much more. If only we didn’t have to wait until next October for the next time!

Happy Birthday to my LG, my youngest, who turns six today. I remember blogging and waiting impatiently for her to be born – she was born 12 days after her due date. Now she’s getting ready to go to Kindergarten! The cliché is true – they do grow up too fast!

I was lucky enough to grow up in a town with a lot of boats. I learned to sail long before I learned to drive (and I greatly prefer sailing to driving, even now!). I sailed every summer for ages, and then stopped for a while due to the logistics of mothering little kids.

This summer, since I’m living in my hometown with my parents, I have been able to go back out on the boat. Sadly, due to weather, I’ve only been able to sail once, but Oh! How wonderful! It felt like all the worries and anxieties I had were blown out of my mind with the breeze. We filled the sails, sailed past the island where the girls go to camp, and just enjoyed the day.

This past Saturday I was able to go out on the boat just to be on the water and enjoy the gorgeous sea breezes. We relaxed, enjoyed the gentle rocking of the boat, and then after it got very hot it was time to jump in off the side (tip: take your glasses off BEFORE going in the water! I barely managed to rescue mine). The water was much warmer than I expected, but still much chillier than the pools!

As I spend time with people who have never been on a private boat, nor swam in the ocean, I realize how special my childhood was. Which makes me so glad the girls are able to have some of those same benefits. Plus, shouldn’t we all have days where we can honestly smile this big? Everyone has something that makes them very happy, and I’m treasuring all the days I have around boats!

Imagine you live near the ocean.

You go to camp on an island, taking a boat each day to and from camp.

One set of grandparents take you sailing.

Your other set of grandparents have a motor boat.

On a visit with those grandparents, you are allowed to drive the motor boat.

Your grandfather has a few lobster traps, and you get to go lobster fishing.

You are also allowed to catch the lobster buoy, and help bring up the lobster trap!

Then!

There are actually lobsters in 2/3 of the traps!

And then, magic of all magic, 1 of the 10 lobsters in the traps is a keeper -big enough to be legal to bring home!

So now, you can imagine your camp lunch contains a bit of lobster salad from that keeper lobster.

Yum!

(Check out all the pictures in this photo set on flickr)

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!

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!