Costumes, Birthday, and Turkey!

It's been a while since the last highlights, but as you can see, it's been a busy few months! Halloween was a hit with the kids, even shy Erin didn't hesitate to grab as much candy as possible from all of the houses we visited. Erin turned 2 in November, and she is becoming less and less of a baby. I don't know whether to be happy or sad, but I guess it is really a little of both. We had Dave's parents up for Thanksgiving, and despite the fact that our sewer line backed up (gross), fun was had by all. Caroline especially loved all of the one-on-one time spent with her great buddy Grandma Joan, and we even got to go to a movie (Harry Potter) while Grandma Joan and Grandpa Ed watched the kids!

Our first harvest from the winter shared agriculture cooperative that we joined. Almost all of the vegetables found a good home in our bellies, with the exception of the turnips.

One of these years we'll hit the fall festivals, but this year we were content to visit Wilson Farm and their spooky hayride.

It was a milestone when Erin & Caroline could play outside long enough without intervention for Dad to get some raking done. In fact, Erin turned out to be the perfect ramrod for the leaf bags.

Our Halloween turtle

and clown (using Mom's home-made costume from when she was a girl)

We had a fun weekend in NY to see Lyla, Charlie, Katy, & Brad. The girls liked the scary decorations around the Blazer Pub.

Can you hear the screams?

Charlie has mellowed out a little and didn't get into too much trouble

For her birthday Erin received several cute gifts and quickly reminded us that at age two the box is often as much fun as the toy.

Max knows a cozy spot when he sees one

Birthday girl

Before... (good thing it wasn't lit)

...and after

For Turkey Day Grandma helped to prepare a traditional roasted bird

On Friday we visited a gallery at Radcliffe to see an exhibit of Bevil's work. Caroline is supposed to be striking her ballet pose in reference to the painting of Mark Morris's troupe.

Erin's joey-filled version of "Mommy Loves"

Thanksgiving certainly loses out to Halloween and Christmas when it comes to holiday songs, but here's one that we'd never heard before until Caroline came home one day and knocked it out.

Fall fun 2010

Meet Pete the Cat, Grandma Lu's new companion

Caroline's class went apple picking and enjoyed the fruits of their labor

Caroline's new weekend activity is dance classes

Erin is taking a music class, although she is often too scared to fully participate. One weekend after the classes we toured the Arlington Town Day street festival

Dad's company picnic is still a huge hit and now Caroline is big enough to go on the bumper boats

She still remembers her pony ride from last year. This time she rode Trixie, who was a bumpy ride.

Ceci and Caroline

Wilson Farm is in full fall form and the fresh cider donuts were worth the trip

Horsing around at the Bishop School playground

Grandma & Grampa came up for a weekend visit

and a few weeks later we went down to NY. If something looks strange with this picture it is because Erin is airborne.

Dad hasn't lost the fisherman's touch and even pulled in a couple of sunfish

Erin climbed everywhere in the yard and had to be monitored at all times on the rocks

Caroline ran around playing with Sabrina and Brooke

Sleepover on the rocks


Girls plooping acorns into the lake

Erin shows of her new conversational ability

Last Blast of Summer

Back in July we visited Grandma Lu in Atlanta

Keith, Grace, and Vincent were in town from Arizona and met us at the Childrens Museum.

The piano from Grandma Lu is a big hit, especially since Mom started playing from the Disney songbook

Friends Caren and Dave came to town with their children, Reese and Sadie. Jonah, Amelia, Susan, & Eugene joined us all for an afternoon at Robbins Farm Park.

We took a short trip to the New Hampshire / Maine coast over Labor Day. The weather reports hyped up Hurricane Earl, but he kindly stayed out to sea and didn't cause any problems. Always a sucker for a local bakery, here in Kittery, Maine, at the Beach Pea Bakery we found a humungous and quite tasty focaccia.

York Beach wasn't crowded at all because of the hurricane fears

It wouldn't be Maine without lobster and dinner at Chauncey Creek hit the spot

We gave the New Hampshire Childrens Museum a visit

Back home for a walk to the boardwalk in Arlington Great Meadows to see the froggies

Caroline's friend from school, Anna, visited for brunch

Some outtakes of Erin: first dancing

then saying her version of "Caroline" while stuffing her face

and finally doing what she loves best, drinking her mook

Cape Escape

We went back to Wellfleet this summer. This year the weather was perfect - much cooler than last year - and we were joined midweek by Katy, Brad, Lyla, & Charlie.

Erin sports her new full body bathing suit, a wise investment that limited the greasy sunscreen slathering. This year instead of eating the sand Erin played happily in it. She still wasn't very excited about the waves and only went in the water firmly attached to Mom or Dad

We took an evening stroll along the Cove looking for hermit crabs, but the sand fleas drove us home early

The new redhead and the ex-redhead

Lyla wasn't a big fan of the salty water and preferred to hunt for shells with Brad. Caroline in her floaty suit loved to ride the "waves"

Heading to the ocean beach in the evening turned out to be a great success. Lyla and Caroline chased the waves getting their feet wet. With a temp of 62F they weren't going in any further!

Charlie is truly an energetic boy and at 17 months, he is firmly in the sand-eating phase. When Katy passed out brownies on the beach he deliberately rolled his pieces in sand and popped them in his mouth before we could stop him. Charlie also allowed us to take maximum advantage of daylight hours by rousing the household at 6 AM each day.

Lyla really wanted to get buried in the sand...

...until Erin saw her chance to get in some unopposed poking

Caroline and Lyla played great together. They would go off and play make-believe for most of the afternoon

Poor Erin came down with a multi-day prolonged fever that wiped her out

Dad absolutely loves this painting at the Cape house. Look at it - what on earth is going on? With those bizarre clouds, the odd red dot, and that creepy yellow thing this work truly belongs in the MOBA

We found the new PB Boulangerie, which lived up to the hype and provided excellent pastries. Caroline could be seated at a cafe in Paris

Meanwhile Charlie took the end table and decided to ride it like a hobby horse

Twice daily trips to the beach wiped out Lyla & Caroline. Are they really asleep?

Rather than play golf at Highland Links we visited the lighthouse and had a picnic on the overlook

Our year-long quest to get a single good picture of both of the girls may have finally ended

One of many tame bunnies at Highland Light

The fox was more unexpected - maybe he knows where the tame bunnies are

Sunset at Head of the Meadow beach in Truro

Sicky Eri was a trooper for the expedition

Erin really liked the rocking chair





Lyla and Caroline just being silly