Art on the Waterway

This past weekend was another action packed series of events.  Saturday early afternoon Ethan had a ball game.  The Brewers lost...but this time only by one point!  Let's celebrate this!  I have NO fingernails at this point and am looking forward to growing them again once baseball season is over.  After we got home from the game it was a quick turn around to get ready for our little neighbors pool party celebration, Adler's fifth b-day!  Fiona and Ethan are getting used to the role of being the older kids on the street, and taking the role of protectors, and babysitters pretty seriously!  It is weird for me to see them this way.
     Yesterday we headed to the Waterway for an art festival.  It was amazing!  Great live music, good food, and some of the best and most extensive array of fine art and artists I have ever seen.  Scott and I took a deep breath and invested in some great works of art from a fellow from Colorado.  He and his wife and young son have decided to hit the road, sell all their belongings, and make a go of living off his art.  Scott and I were happy to give our money to him, and are quite proud to be adding to our fine art "collection".

Giant pizza slices!

We got free sunglasses.  Cool right?

I think Scott was making fun of me...usually that's good for a laugh!

Simple Homeschool Fun

This week has been a pretty fun school week if I do say so myself.  I had to go to the hairdresser yesterday, and normally I just bring the kids with me.  No fun for them.  No fun for me.  They are constantly looking at me mouthing,"Are you almost done yet?"  Then it dawned on me.  Our friends down the street homeschool, and one of their 7 kids is a 16 year old girl!!!  Hooray!  With the approval of her parents, we now have Zoe as a babysitter...available during the day on weekdays!!!!!
So, the kids got a few hours yesterday to play and take a walk with their new sitter!
We are also working on some fun poetry.  Lots of reading of Shel Silverstein.  I have the kids select a poem and then copy, illustrate and memorize it.  We are having fun listening to each other recite these hilarious works.  I also had them each write a poem about the other.  The only instruction was to keep it short and sweet.  I LOVE what they turned in.  I had them read their poems out loud to each other...and I think they each blushed!  Too sweet.

Easter gifts from Gammy and Gampy fit!

This was Ethan's illustration!  Hilarious!

Glub! Glub!

Fiona's.

Oh, how they love each other...

Definitely "friends forever".

These are our babies, just outside our door.

Out feeding the ducks.

Ethan at his friend Joel's house.  Baseball, baseball, baseball...

Little League, with some Big League Chew!

This past Saturday was "Baseball Day" at the field complex where Ethan has his games.  This means that all 1,002 kids in the little league from this town come for games, food vendors, and to have their team pictures taken.  We then had a game after all that excitement!  Soo different from what we are used to back in Nahant!  The weather was absolutely pitch perfect!  Sunny, 78 and not a cloud in the sky.  The Brewer's played hard...but ultimately lost 12-14.  Ethan was thrilled to actually tag a kid out (something he could not do back home due to different rules...one of which was that there was NO stealing).
Friday night we got our first exposure to a "Low Country Boil".  This entails throwing everything you are going to eat into a VERY big pot and boiling it with tons of "Old Bay" seasoning.  King crab legs, shrimp, sausage, corn on the cob and lemon halves.  People were shocked that it was the first time Ethan and Fiona had ever tried king crab.  (They put on a good front...but did not like it).  We also enjoyed homemade lobster risotto.  A labor of love for those of you who have ever made a true risotto!

I just love the light in Fiona's room!

So handsome!

The Brewers!

Num, num, num....

This is the baby that makes people want more babies...

Spring Has Sprung!

The idea of celebrating our first Easter away from family was daunting.  This changed as we learned to celebrate with new friends.  Although not the same, it gave the kids a true sense of the holiday, and Scott and I were distracted from our homesickness.  The Friday before Easter we were invited to a BBQ/pool party.  The kids colored eggs by the pool while parents enjoyed ham and salad.  Then they enjoyed an egg hunt in the dark with head lamps!  Andrea (our host) had stuffed and hidden 300 eggs!  Saturday was a great baseball game.  Clear, sunny, 80.  Easter Sunday we woke to filled Easter baskets and an egg hunt of our own.  Fiona discovered that our little nest of eggs had in fact hatched into 5 chicks!  Later in the afternoon we headed to another neighbor home for another BBQ!  I am still vegetarian...so I brought a bean burger.  Wes was not offended placing it next to the homemade venison sausage made from the deer his father in law had recently shot.  Mmmmmm.

Classic sleepy-eyed hunt shot.

Easter bunny left candy, and tons of different dice!

Can you see the little chicks?

Our class pictures...

Ethan liked himself in this pose.  What's he thinking?

Cute party favors for the kids!

After swimming, and just before the big hunt!

Such fun!  Drawing on the trampoline with chalk!

They came, they conquered, they left...

Ugh! I miss my mommy and daddy!!!!  My parents left yesterday and it is going to take some getting used to.  The house is a lot quieter, and my coffee isn't made for me when I get up in the morning.  The pool is getting dirty, and there is no one to clean it.  My plants need watering and dead-heading, and mom's not here to help.
     Monday and Tuesday we explored the city.  Monday we enjoyed the public gardens and ate our picnic in the rose garden.  Then it was on to the Museum of Natural Science. This place was amazing!  The next day Scott took the day off, and we headed to the NASA Space Center.  What a great place.  Tons of hands on displays.  This was definitely a place to go to with Gampy!  He new everything!

Amazing!  The shuttle was transported on the top of a 747!

Our own personal docent!

Learning about hover crafts.

Fiona flying her brother in the flight simulator.

Yeah, he scares me too...

Ethan touching the moon.

Fiona touching the moon.

All four of us touching an actual piece of the moon.  One of only 8 in the country we can touch!

Gammie guiding the kids through egg coloring.

We gave the kids a little egg hunt with the freshly dyed eggs.

Zevon enjoying some ear noogies.

500 Piece Puzzles, growing bacteria...and the big city tomorrow....

The weather has been beautiful this week.  Today Gammy and Gampy got a taste of New England spring weather.  We had sun and highs in the 60's!  Cold for these parts...but just right for us MA residents.  We all took to the Waterway for a picnic and some kite flying.  Of course the trip would not be complete with out a visit to the koi pond.  One of our favorite spots.
     Earlier in the week my parents helped me with our bacteria lesson.  I had ordered some agar plates from Amazon along with all the sterlie equipment needed to grow our own bacteria!  Boy were we successful!  It is stinking up my bedroom!  I am looking forward to identifying what we have, and throwing it out with the trash.  A few of the things we swiped: Zevon's tooth, Gampy's cell phone, a lizards back, the inside of Ethan's shoe...  We placed the samples in a homemade incubator and only had to wait 12 hours for things to start growing.
     Tomorrow we are headed into Houston to explore the gardens and perhaps the Natural History Museum.

Tucking in our bacteria babies.

Careful to keep them between 85 and 100 degrees.

Gammie and Ethan before his birthday date.

Notice that Gammie is wearing HIGH HEELS!

Gampy and Fiona selfie from duck/turtle feeding expedition.

They chose to work, I didn't make them...

Zevon only likes to lay in freshly planted flower beds.

Waterway.

Technicolor picnic.

There was some snoring involved.

This is the result of the hard work put forth by the entire family.

Gampy the science guy.