Fall Activities Begin

Last weekend we went apple picking at Phantom Farms orchard near Alan's parents. It was very warm. Last year was the same thing - very warm, and didn't remind me at all of when I was a kid. Global warming anyone? This past weekend was the same thing. We went to Bubbe's for Yom Kippur and again, it didn't remind me of when I was a kid. I always remember being rather chilly but the past few years we've been dressing for summer. Shara had a great time though.

For the apple picking she reached up and was tall enough to grab an apple herself, which put a big smile on her face. Then we listened to Cajun music for a bit and had a little picnic outside. Just being outside is nice. She wanted to get pumpkins, and they had cute little ones, so she picked out one of those, then she zoned in on a bigger one, really went right to it, and we got that as well, since we weren't sure if the Pumpkin Farie was coming this year. Well, yesterday when we got home, low and behold, there were 3 pumpkins on our steps. We were all pretty excited that for another year, we did get visited by the Pumpkin Farie.

Yesterday we dropped Liz off at school and we all had lunch at a cute Mexican place in Amherst. Very college, but good food. Then we saw her dorm room and walked around a bit and played racing & hide & seek. By the time we left it was close to 3PM and we (I) wanted to stop at Atkin's Farm. That was a mob scene so Alan stayed in the car and Shara & I went to pick up doughnuts. After we picked out what we wanted, not a big selection at the end of a Sunday, Shara says to me, "Mommy, you're so nice to me. You give me lots of things I want." I replied that that was very sweet to say and nice to hear, but that sometimes you don't think I'm nice because I won't give you what you want", but I wanted her to know that it is because I love her that I don't let her have everything. The lines were long, so I got a couple other things as well because I really didn't want to stand in line for just doughnuts. Then Shara decided she would rather have a doughnut instead of ice cream and I had apple crisp with soft vanilla on it. It was really good. Much better than any I've had. Not too sweet and I could really taste the apples. Shara enjoyed her chocolate dipped doughnut and watching the little dogs. By now Alan had joined us but passed on dessert.

We didn't get home until late and dinner was problematic. Shara fell asleep in the car and I had to wake her up. I gave her strawberries & mango because she didn't really want anything else to eat. Then she did want something else and was very upset that I didn't bring home the tuna & rings. Should have listened to Bubbe. Then she got mad at me because I didn't understand that the kind of egg she wanted was hard boiled. She said no to the sunnyside up, no to scrambled, and then I showed her a sunnyside up just to make sure and she really got mad. Then she calmed down and said she wanted the kind she could see then said the kind she could hold. I stupidly asked, "an egg sandwich?" Not good. But then I finally asked, "hard boiled?" and yes, that's what she wanted. But then it was too late and we unhappily settled for cereal, with the promise that I'd make tuna and rings and deviled eggs for tomorrow. She then asked to finish her doughnut and Alan said only if you eat all that cereal, which she did, so she got some of the rest of her doughnut and went to bed happy.

List of summer activities

After we got back from Florida I had the rest of the week off as well. Shara went back to school on Tuesday and I stayed home with horrible allergies. Wednesday I went shopping and got my hair cut. At night we went to Yardley Rink for a Blues Festival and had a fabulous time dancing and enjoying the music. I think Shara's going to be a groupie. She loves to watch the band put away their instruments. Thursday Alan & I had a date day and went into Boston and had lunch on Newbury St. and looked around. Saw Minnie Driver when we were at Emac & Bolio's - she went in and left fairly quickly so she must have been window shopping?

Friday was a mommy & Shara day. We went to Verrill Farms and got lots of produce and had lunch there too. The shopping part was fun, but then things got a little ugly because Shara wanted to eat there but I knew she wouldn't like the sandwich but we got it anyway and she picked and mostly fooled around and then complained a lot. She didn't want to leave but we did anyway and then stopped for ice cream and she took what seemed to be 2 hours to eat a small dish of soft ice cream with hot fudge. Of course mommy had to finish the ice cream soup. She did fall asleep on the way home.

Saturday was the last swim class and Oma & Jidor came to watch. It was fun and Shara was happy to have them see her. After Florida she really was swimming great. What a difference - Alan really noticed. We then were home for lunch and nap and that evening went to Cambridge to Jasper White's Summer Shack. What a great place. It lives up to its reputation as kid friendly. Grownups get to eat very grown-up dishes (or not) while the kids can choose from good quality hot dogs and other "shack" items. After that we took a quick trip to the computer store and then home.

Sunday we went to the Marshfield Fair. What can I say? we looked at the amilos and for some reason Shara didn't like looking at the tiny new born bunnies. We listened to music and the biggest problem was moving away from the music for any reason. We did let Shara play one of the midway games so we came home with a plush flower. We also left crying because she didn't want to leave. Obviously we had a great time.

Last weekend we went into Boston on Saturday to see the Swan Boats. Shara, I later found out, didn't want to go on the boats because she didn't realize she could have sat on my lap. She thought it was like the airplane where she'd need to be in her own seat. That was ok because we had a great time anyway. We had an Upper Crust pizza picnic in the Boston Garden. Shara had a great time feeding the ducks. We later found out that was a no no. They really liked the roasted fava beans but not the wheat thins - too crunchy.

We played for quite a while at the Frog Pond/Playground. What a fabulous playground. All the kids were having so much fun in the fountains and on the climber. Shara made up a story that we were on a train and running away from the big bad wolf.

We also walked up and down Arlington St. picking up a pear for snack at a nice Italian market, and looked in a beautiful pastry shop. The nicest pastries would have required refrigeration, so we decided to go local and stop at White's on our way home. As usual, Shara didn't want to leave, but duckie & giraffe comforted her and she fell asleep on the way home.

Monday we went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then got sneakers at Nike. We also picked up Shara's leotards. Shara and I baked as well. We made chocolate, coconut, oatmeal, raisin cookies! They were good and we shared with lots of people. It was fun as soon as we got the rules straightened out - I measure and she dump. She did lick one of the cookies on the cookie sheet and I needed to explain why we don't do that and she ate the raw cookie. As Alan says, all the eggs are pasteurized and it would seem that it's safer to eat raw eggs now than when we were kids. These are also the good eggs, so if we don't make a habit of it, I think it's ok.

Yesterday we went to the (ähts) The Boston Arts Festival. It was so hot! but a great time. We got to watch a few dances by Boston Ballet II and were really impressed. Turns out we made a very good decision to enroll Shara in dance classes. She was enthralled and when we got home was trying to do the fan dance from Dance Asia. We had our picnic supper while listening to the Boston Gay Men's Chorus. Between bites of sausage pizza from Regina's (not the original but Fannuil Hall), Shara was performing her interpretive dance. We played for a few minutes at the playground and got scared away by the thunder & a little lightening and decided it was time to vamoose. Shara, of course, didn't want to leave, but didn't put up too much of a fight. If Alan didn't really want to go, I would have liked to stay and look around Quincy Market, but he was right that Shara was really tired and we all had a great day and shouldn't push when she was so tired. She didn't have a nap and didn't seem to need one. Went to sleep within 10 minutes and I don't think she cried all day!

Picture from these events!