Tiny houses and giant pumpkins

 Back to Portsmouth, NH, for the fairy house festival, and this time Erin and Caroline brought friends. Two adults, five girls, and hundreds of fairy houses. 

 These were the non-professional houses made by local schools. Erin & Georgea loved the snakeskin decoration.

 

We thought this one should have won first prize

 

That's a fairy-sized Ping-Pong table



 Here's the blue ribbon winner. It wasn't big, but it had tons of detail on the inside, although no teenage fairy entertainment options.

 

 Caroline & Chloe

 

 The site for the festival, Strawberry Banke, is a restored colonial area reminiscent of Williamsburg

 

 The picture doesn't do it justice, but this was the area to build your own fairy house from leftover ingredients from the professionals, and there were soo many on the huge lawn.

 

That's right, we're hooked on the Pirate's Booty

 

 Dad took Grampa Ed to Fenway to see the Yankees get pummeled by the Sox in Derek Jeter's penultimate game in pinstripes.

 

Even though Fenway is an uncomfortable dump of a ballpark, the weather was spectacular for baseball.

 

You will have to watch a lot of baseball to find a position player with 175 at-bats and a batting average lower than .162.

 

 The following weekend Nana & Grampa Mike & Riley the dog came up to visit. On Friday afternoon we pulled the girls out of school early. Stated reason: Giant Pumpkins

 



 It was the day of the weigh-off and here are the oversized, saggy, and thoroughly gross-looking contestants

 We think that this was the winner: over 1900 pounds - almost a new World Record
 

 We went to the Museum of Science and Erin loved to hold Riley
 

 Wilson Farm was in full fall mode and worth a visit

 

 Show us that million-dollar smile, Belle the Llama

 

 Mmm, cider donuts

 

These oversized cupcakes are endlessly fascinating to the girls, and this year we decided to make one the prize for family competition - more below. 

 Each year they put up this display - wow!

 

 Another beautiful day, and we went to the DeCordova outdoor sculpture gallery

 

 How many girls can you spot?

 

 Gotcha, Erin!

 

 Lounging at the gift shop

 

 Caroline's entry into the napkin-art exhibit

 

Here is the cupcake contest - rather than follow the NFL, we're following English football this winter. Can Mom's team be beat?

 

Tessie is in full speak-and-spell mode now

Although she does have a little baby slamming problem

Proof that we were at Fenway. Jeter struck out in 3 pitches in this at-bat.

 The older girls have loved watching the Avatar cartoon series on Amazon Prime. Above is Momo the flying lemur, which Erin decided to imitate one night