Fall fun

 This fall we tried to take advantage of our last season with two mobile children.We visited some local sites, survived Superstorm Sandy, and re-occupied our renovated upstairs.

Wilson Farm's haunted hayride is getting more and more popular

This year they mounted a giant Bug

 Duck racing at the Topsfield Fair. Caroline was picked to race one of the female mallards.

Ready,set, splash! Our feathered friend lost her heat.

Caroline had no problem with the big burlap sack slide, but Erin did not like it.

If you look at Caroline you'll see that she is wearing a hat because it was 45 degrees at Crane's Beach in Ipswich. Warm-blooded Erin didn't mind.

Getting bigger

When will Caroline be able to take our picture?

We had a group of Mom's work friends over for a fall party

Erin brought home Teddy from school for the weekend

Hurricane Sandy - run for your lives! Actually we were lucky to never lose power despite the high winds. The snowstorm last year at this time was much more destructive.

After the storm Halloween was a warm night for trick-or-treating. The girls brought home a small haul.

The finished renovation. The new baby's room is still being decorated, but here is the girls' new bedroom. To save space Caroline will take the top bunk (she is very excited) and Erin now gets the full. We hope that the girls will not remember how big their room was before we split it. 

Importantly, our existing furniture did fit in the room

The new master bedroom and king bed

The new walk-in closet 

Blue and gray is the color scheme for the bath. The tile people were excited not to be doing another one in black and white.

We splurged on the glass tile and pebble floor. It looks great in the natural light that comes in through...

... the 48-inch skylight. While framing the bath we learned that the headroom above the vanity was 2 inches short of the 6 ft 8 inch required by code. The solution was a huge skylight.

 People over 6 feet may have trouble in this space, but it works for us

Erin's healthy marshmallows

Caroline's big gigantic rhyme

September outings

 

The front yard garden produced tomatoes, peppers, and okra

We also grew greasy beans in the backyard. This year the girls were a big help de-stringing them.

Labor Day we picked early season apples at Parlee Farms

What's this? The rope pully goes up, up to...

a hungry goat on the platform in the trees.

 

Caroline's first day of school. First half-day. First half-day of a half-week. Followed by a four-day week. Then a four and a half-day week. But seriously, Caroline transitioned well to the new school and after-school program. Her favorite part of it all is riding the bus.

 

Our new sleeping arrangements. We're all in the back bedroom for two months while the upstairs is renovated.

 

The girls big bedroom was originally two smaller rooms before the previous owners remodeled. We're going to pay our contractor to re-install the old wall to create the new girls' room and a nursery.

 

And in the storage space we'll have a walk-in closet and a new master bathroom

We went to Atlanta for our last trip of the year. Erin was a trooper again and made it through take-off with no tears, just being held on Mom's lap.

We took Grandma Lu and Aunt Sue to the Georgia Aquarium

Japanese spider crab, said to be the world's largest living arthropod

After the aquarium we went to Centennial Olympic Park to cool off in the splash park

Bathing beauties

Erin needed comforting after getting bowled over on the splash deck

 

Fried chicken from the Brickery made it better

 

For completing the town-wide scavenger hunt we received our blue ribbons at the Lexington country fair

The girls have been on a puzzle kick lately

Thank you Wonder Pets, for introducing the concept of teamwork

We hope that kindergarten doesn't sour our sweet Caroline