LG’s school is across the street from our house, and about a 5-10 minute walk from a local beach. Her teacher is truly wonderful, and planned a spontaneous trip to the beach. We packed up shovels & pails & tubs, and went down to collect shells and build sand castles!

We worked on matching skills (collecting 10 each of blue mussel, littorina, and lady slipper shells), and then worked on the physics of molecular bonding and surface tension by making sand castles. Apparently, as we determine how wet the sand needs to be to make the sand castle work, we are making many more connections than we realize consciously.

The class was divided into groups of three, and they set to work on their castles. Some kids worked on their own, some worked together with the group. It was very interesting to see how they worked, and the questions the teacher asked to help their thinking.

I’ve really enjoyed both field trips I’ve been on, and I’m loving learning the names and personalities of the other kids in LG’s class. They are all such sweet children, the teachers guide them gently, and the classroom is a very pleasant, welcoming place. I know I’ll be working soon, so I’m enjoying the field trips I can attend now!

Today was my girls’ first day of school. But it’s not just their first day for this school year, but their first day ever. They’ve been homeschooled until now, but with the separation and me looking for work, they needed to go to school this year. It was a very difficult decision to make, and one that has been the cause of much anxiety and much excitement for our family.

My parents were nice enough to take the girls school supply shopping one at a time. (I’m amazed at these lists – they’re so long! I know we never had to bring that much in when I was a kid.) When BG was out shopping, they ran into a friend I’ve known since preschool. She was shopping with her daughter, and when BG said she was going “back to school shopping”, my friend said, “but it’s ‘to school shopping’, since you’ve never been before!” We’ve been giggling about that – yes, today was “to school day”, not back to school day!

Yesterday’s Labor Day labor was to pack up the backpacks with all the stuff from the list of school supplies given by their teachers, lay out clothes for the first day, pack lunches, and generally get ready. Plus the older two needed to finish their summer reading, BG had to write a short book review, and both MG and LG wanted their hair in rollers so they’d have a curl. Finally, they needed to calm down enough to sleep. Phew!

This morning I woke up a few minutes later than I had planned (someone turned the volume off on my alarm clock!), so the girls were dressed when I walked up to get their breakfasts ready. After breakfast they got washed up, and then it was time to go!

Quick hugs and kisses with the older girls, and their Vovo took them to their schools. Why yes, they do start at the same time, and they are about 5 min apart… Everyone can be in two places at once, right? Well, I needed to be in 3 places at once, because LG’s school starts 5 min after BG & MG. I wonder how people do the first day with only 1 parent. Amelia’s school is across the street, so I can easily walk her over. Her teacher is lovely, and is fine with parents being in class for the first 15 min, but when the music starts, it’s time for parents to go.

The older girls quickly found friends they knew from other places, and LG was feeling OK about school when I left. I’m very curious what their reactions will be this afternoon when they are dismissed! Right now, I’m worried about them. I am certain they will be fine in time, but I worry about how long it will take for them to be comfortable being themselves in class.

I’ve been battling with a bug that’s had me dizzy, nauseated, headachy, and with a low grade fever. So, today is resting, recuperating, & resumé reworking day. There’s been a lot of excitement lately, so here’s hoping for a very peaceful day!

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!

My daughters have been dairy free since birth. All three of them reacted negatively to the introduction of dairy into their diet, and have had GI trouble when they have accidentally ingested some dairy. So we’ve been avoiding dairy for the girls for 11 years, and I’ve been off dairy (with a few accidents) for 6 years.

However, since my girls will be ack! starting school soon, it was important to see if they have outgrown their dairy intolerance. I know what’s happened in the past, but had no way of knowing what would happen this time. We leaped into the unknown last weekend with a week-long trial of organic lactose-free milk. I was incredibly nervous and anxious and worried, trying all three kids on cow’s milk after spending so much time making dairy-free recipes and researching how to live without milk, it just felt wrong. But I worked past that feeling, and after a week, we’ve had no reactions!

Tonight we started with organic milk. As with before, I have no idea what to expect from this leap into the unknown. Either way, we’ll know what to do for this school year – either they are lactose intolerant or not, but at least we can worry less about dairy.

I wish, when making leaps into the unknown, that I could be as fearless as the girls are when they leap into a pool!

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!

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!