Baseball

Last night a friend who used to be a little league coach couldn't help but give Shara pointers on batting, catching and throwing. We had a good half hour before being chased away by the hordes of mosquitoes on that rainy evening. It was great because she listened to him and he knew how to give her direction in a way she would understand and respect. He told her how to hold her arms in terms of geometry. She commented that it was more of an isosceles triangle than a right triangle, but we're not going to quibble, right? I was really happy because I miss playing sports. Until recently I stopped thinking about how much sports was a part of my growing up and want Shara to have good experiences and learn to appreciate the benefits too. Even if she never wants to play on a team, she should have the skills and be able to make the choice for the right reasons, not just because she thinks, "I don't like sports". That's something I tend to say but when I get away from that rote response, I have to admit that I actually like sports a lot. Playing and watching, if not by myself. Maybe this will be an activity we could enjoy together. Branch out from mini golf and bowling.

Audition - Sword in the Stone

Last week Shara tried out for the Easton Children's Theater production of The Sword in the Stone. It sounds like there were more younger kids trying out than parts available and she didn't get in. They offered a workshop and she was going to do it, but then that was cancelled due to lack of interest. It was also pretty late at night. She was unphased about the whole thing and will be trying out for the Spring musical, The Wizard of Oz. I'm guessing what made it such a small loss is chorus. She started yesterday at school and is so excited. She didn't like the trumpet and decided last year that an instrument wasn't for her but she really wanted to sing and now she is and loves it!

Sunday we did the corn maze at Flint Farm and made it to the exit in just over an hour! Last year we were going in circles and never got to the end. We were so happy we had to treat ourselves with ice cream, as opposed to console ourselves with ice cream. I think it tasted just as good either way.

Saturday Shara went with Auntie Chris to Frozen on Ice at the Dunkin Donuts Center. She had a great time. Maybe she'll fill in some details. All I know is they went to the show, then to Chili's for fajitas, then to Oma & Jidors for a visit and dinner.

Friday she was at a birthday party and had another fun night. Silly photos were taken, a scavenger hunt was had and truth or dare was played. There was a chocolate fountain and everyone had to have at least one strawberry and she did and also had chocolate dipped marshmallows.

Fulfilling the End of Summer Bucket List

Miniature Golf - we have a beautiful mini golf course so close to home, but this is the first time we've ever gone. Won't wait so long to make another visit. Alan went to a meeting and we had a girls night out. Shara and I were pretty closely matched. She was good about chasing the balls that got away - and we both overshot and had them taken away by water or fly down a hill!

Ended with a lot of mosquitoes so had to have our ice cream in the car. What suffering!















Shara's bucket list includes a lot of camping out. Since I wasn't wanting an overnight outside, she set up her own tent in the family room.

 

Big Time Concert

Last night Shara and a friend from school had a fun time at the Victoria Justice/Big Time Rush concert. Victoria Justice was much more enjoyable since we didn't have to deal with the blood-curdling scream of this girl behind us. Nice that the adult with them didn't care that it was bothering us so much - I actually had to say it was so loud it hurt. Oh well, eardrums heal! Anyway, all happy in the end, but Shara will freak when her ears are still ringing today like mine are.

A sea of pink!, but we used the buddy system and on the way out, all held hands. And only one wrong turn to get to the car.

Girls Day Out

Shara and I had a fun day out - first we dropped off the clothes that were in my car for the past month to Salvation Army, then popped into A.C. Moore for some decorating/display needs for July 4th and CupCake Camp. For lunch we tried a new to us sushi place, Asian Ginger. We ate at the sushi bar and had a very nice meal.

Yummy!

Then we saw Epic at Patriot's Place and had an ice cream supper at Dairy Queen - BOGO Blizzard for my birthday. We ended with a trip to the market where Shara drove the cart and then checked us out at the self checkout. Being able to take over the cart and checkout made the trip a bit more enjoyable than normal!

Kaleidoscope Night

Kaleidoscope night at school - they played "quidditch" from Harry Potter - but they didn't fly in the air on broomsticks. This was more like lacrosse. And they all wore mouth guards - ick. She's been looking forward to this for a couple of weeks now. She's on the green team and the teams earn points by reading, exercising, random acts of kindness, donating to the food pantry, etc. It's very nice all around. First was dinner - pizza & salad & donated desserts. A DJ played and they all danced. Then they went around to various rooms with activities - a scavenger hunt, identify what's in the bucket without looking, fingerprint yourself, and a fit and lit choice - Shara got a bag with running things - a picture book biography of Wilma Rudolph and a baton. The teacher another girl in there and Shara did a few laps around the room for a relay. Then Shara got a couple of point coupons for her team.

Shara playing keeper during Quidditch

New Year's Eve & Day

We had a family discussion about what everyone wanted to do for New Year's Eve. I had no real desire to go into Boston again. Last year worked out great with the holiday being on a weekend, but this year it would have been too much of a rush to head out after work, even if I had taken a short day. Alan had to work too, but we were more than happy to stay home. We all liked the idea of sushi (guess who's idea!) and a fire and watch tv from Times Square. I got home and we looked at the menu from Hayashi. We got a lot of everything, skipping the soup because of the issue with eating by the fire in the bedroom. Alan went to pick it up and Shara and I got things together for dinner and then got into comfy jammies. We supplemented sushi, sashimi, and edamame with spinach & swiss stuffed mushrooms. 

On Disney Channel they were playing Despicable Me so we watched it. The first time we saw it, I didn't see more than a quarter, and Shara didn't remember it enough, so it was pretty much new to us. After the movie we turned to Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve and had fun dancing, a lot. Shara discovered how fun it is to fall backwards onto the water bed and got a kick out of me doing it too. We then ran around being silly, dancing, chasing each other and acting like eight year olds. Alan didn't join in but he had fun too, until he was ready for bed. Shara and I stayed up dancing more and then she wanted to watch the special Jessie/Austin & Ally New Year's special. I set up Dick Clark to record and we were able to watch her show, skip the end for later, and see the ball drop. By the time the ball dropped, Shara was done with the dancing and ready for bed. 

On New Year's Day we finally stayed home for the first time in months, as much as I can remember. If it's a weekend, we usually have activities at the Y and on Sunday we have church things going on. So we welcomed a day to just goof off and not be on a schedule. We went sledding down our mound in the back, I brought in some wood, Alan tried taming the pricker brambles on the mound and we didn't look at the time. We went in, showered, ate picky foods again, watched Paranorman, ate more picky foods, watched a Disney Nature movie (started to at least) and ended with another fire with s'mores for dessert. Could it really be any better?

Where's the Post?

Between posting to facebook and my own blog, I forget what I've posted where but do know I've been neglecting everything lately. Here are the photos from Halloween. We had a fun night - a friend of Shara's and her family joined us trick-or-treating. Shara was so excited to go out the first thing she did was start running to Keira's house to see if she could join the party. On the way she tripped over some Sandy debris and cut up her hands. Well that didn't stop her and we were off to get candy. We made the monster eyeballs to hand out to the grown-ups who were left at home to give out the candy. It was appreciated and got a few laughs. Shara had a ton of fun and was crazy-happy-excited the whole time. We have to get her out more!

Laurie & Shara as Hermione and Harry

Alan as Ron

The "joint effort" jack-o-lantern

And so for the things that are happening now - there was a field trip today from church to the Maha Yoga Center. My independent child couldn't wait for me to leave her and seemed to have a nice time. She didn't say too much about it when asked, but it was fun for her. Later we had dinner and a movie - the Court Jester. Very cool - she's a Danny Kaye fan too! For dinner she didn't want tuna noodle casserole, which I haven't made in years but got out her cookbook and selected twice baked potatoes. I should have taken a picture, they were so cute. The potatoes were boats, with celery oars and olive people. She also liked the red kuri squash I baked with some brown sugar and apple cider, and the tuna noodle, because who doesn't like tuna noodle? I know, bubbe doesn't like it! The best thing about having tuna fish is Shara gets to give the juice to the cats.

Last week we had Shara's parent-teacher conference. He saved ours for the end of the night so he could end on a happy note. He had nothing but positive things to say about Shara and she's having no trouble with anything and even got the best grade in the class on their first real big test. It was on soil. They learned about it by reading and also doing some experiments in the science lab. She brought home the worksheets and other materials so she could study last weekend and had fun quizzing me and having me quiz her. She really likes school and even wants us to give her hard addition and subtraction problems for her to solve. So it wasn't that big of a surprise that she is doing so well, but it's always nice to have the teacher confirm our suspicions.

The other big event was dad/grandpa's memorial service. I was so proud. Shara had agreed to do a reading with me and we practiced a bit but it didn't really come together until we were at the pulpit during the ceremony. The whole thing only took about a minute to read but she did a wonderful job and took it seriously. After the ceremony she met several of the people I had worked with at Gershons and was able to put faces to the names in the stories I've told her. Earlier in the day we went to Lakeside Farms to get some lunch, apples and doughnuts (of course). The first and last time she was was there was back in 2005. Apparently she likes cider doughnuts just as much now as she did back then!

Beach Day

Amazing how time goes by so fast at the beach. We left around 11:30 am, I didn't realize it took over an hour to there. We went to Roger Wheelers park in narragansett. We had to make a stop on the way because we forgot the swimmies. We also didn't bring a chair for shara because her little folding chair is a bit on the small side for her now. At the market we found the swimmies and a chair. It was hard to tell the cost but I asked shara if it's $30, can we share a chair or can you sit on the towel? She had no problem understanding that was too much to spend for this. We also picked up a couple pieces of pizza for alan and shara since she didn't like anything in the house and I thought it would be better for her to have one thing, rather than try to get her to eat the various items I brought to make up an actual meal. The pizza was a good idea. She ate it in the car and ended up eating nothing at the beach. Much more interesting things to so there than eat!
Turns out we didn't even need the swimmies we bought. Shara had a fine time trying out body surfing with alan. She drank some of the ocean, said she nearly drowned but was able to save herself, and was very happy swimming around. The water was warm and calm. The sand was soft and fine. I think it is much nicer than the beaches on the Cape. Alan & Shara were in the water most of the time. When she wasn't in the water, she was being buried in the sand, digging in the sand, or complaining about not being in the water.
After the beach we went down the road to Auntie Carries seafood  restaurant & ice cream for dinner and dessert.

Around the neighborhood

Well it's finally happened. Shara didn't want to join me to pick up the farm order the other day because she was too busy playing with the neighborhood kids. How fun! She went over to her friends the other day and came traipsing home with several kids in tow. It looks like they played tag a bit, ran through the house to the front yard, back through the house to the basement, got some juice bags, back outside, then it was time for them all to go home!

Stowe Vacation, day 8

Today was pretty sad, but we were brave and kept busy with a really fun event - the Alpine Slide! Shara and Alan were psyched to go but mommy chickened out. Shara said that sometimes we have to do things even if we're scared. She was scared but was still going to go. Right she was, but after I watched a bit of the action, I didn't feel scared and wished I had gotten a ticket. Well the fates took over and Alan and Shara were behind a woman who went really slowly and her husband gave me their third ticket! Pretty cool! Shara was thrilled because she really wanted me to go. We tried to keep the goodbyes quick and no one cried.

A girl with a purpose

Drive-In

Last night was Shara's first trip to the Drive-In. What was playing, the Smurfs! After being gone all last weekend, on Monday I picked Shara up early from Tina's and took her to... the Smurfs. We had a good time both times, but last night we had the bonus of being with other kids from school. Actually Shara only new one, but she was more than happy to see her and boy was Shara excited. She talked non-stop, all the way to the Mendon Drive-In. We all followed together so we could get spaces together and ate, played a bit, then the movie. It was fun and I'd like to do it again.

Whale Watch

Last Monday we had a very nice time going on a whale watch from Plymouth. We didn't see the whales super close, but boy there were a lot of them. Shara was so excited to go that when the whales started jumping, I think she was  a little disappointed because they were farther away. The boat can't get too close, and they didn't come right up to us. She did take a nap on the way back to the harbor, and has very happy memories of the trip and wants to go on another, so that's really the tell-tale sign of how much she liked it!

Artful Day

Today we went to the MFA to see the Chihuly exhibit. It was breathtaking, but to Shara, it wasn't that great and she was, to but it in her words, bored. But all wasn't lost. We went through the maze of a museum and found the cafeteria to get some quick food in her and low and behold, with the bribe of Doritos and a dessert to come later, her attitude started to change. Then it went bad again, and with the threat of not going out to dinner and no dessert, she turned it around for good and we had a very nice time. We basically wandered around and got to see one floor of the Americas wing. 

I'm amazed at how observant she is. Most of the time it didn't look like she was really interested in anything, but then I'd say, "Shara, can you find the rainbow?" and she pointed to it and said she already did before. One part that she wanted to see was the ancient art, the Egyptian, Greek and Roman exhibits. She really enjoyed looking at the sculptures and artifacts.

For dinner we went closer to home, since we hadn't thought of where to go, it was cold and rainy, and still a bit early. We ended up going to Fiesta in East Bridgewater. It was good, about as good as any other Mexican in this area, and we all enjoyed our meal and the company. Ended with ice cream across the street at Skinner's Candy Store.

Carlsbad Vacation - Day 3 - Zoo

At the zoo I saw monkeys, giraffes, and elephants.

Today we checked out the world famous san diego zoo. We saw elephants, giraffes, and monkeys. Shara's favorite animals were the monkeys, because they were so cute. The skyline was very fun too because we got to go up in the air and  it was like a ride. My favorite part of it was was was um was the last part of it because the last part you would go
back down really fast. Oh oh oh, and the pandas were so cute too. The walking part was very boring. The maze wasn't like really cool because we kept getting lost trying to find the pandas and we felt really frustrated. And you could even have a root beer float, but I didn't have a root beer float. All I had was a plain root beer. But it wasn't just a plain root beer. It was bigger than Shara's head! and cost a bizillion dollars!

After the zoo, we went back to the resort and Shara and mommy checked out the pool while daddy had a nap. The water felt much warmer when we tested it the day before. Today it was oh so cold! But we got in anyway and had quite a fun time swimming around and jumping. We stayed for just a short time because we wanted to go out to dinner and needed to shower/bath and get dressed. Getting out of the pool was an experience. THe pool temperature was about 70 degrees, but the outside temperature was probably 62 and it was cloudy and breezy. We made a dash for the towels and managed to get dried off a little before freezing to death. On the way out of the pool area, we dropped off the towels and took a look at the ice cream snacks in the freezer at the pool. THey had very yummy looking treats and the person at the activities desk asked if we wanted any. I asked if we needed to keep them at the pool, and she very nicely said we could bring them back to the rooms. They ranged in price from $1.25 to 3.75. I said thank you and it was good to know they were available. I then told Shara, quietly, on the way back to the room, that I thought they may have been free, but I guess not!

So we got back to the room and cleaned up. After last night's terrible sushi we all wanted some good food for dinner. The vote was cast and sushi won, but only really good sushi. According to chowhound.com, Kaito sushi in Encinidas was supposed to be the best sushi in the world, it would seem, so we headed there. Bonus that it was only about 15 minutes away. I had thought it was all the way in downtown San Diego. We got to the restaurant and Shara's a beautyful girl. i learned to eat with chopsticks. they're very fun! I LOVE SUSHI! We also were able to get seats at the sushi bar and decided that this is the best way to go. The meal began with us receiving our place settings of ginger, wasabi (they were nice and didn't give any to Shara) and a small bowl of pickled rice noodles. Shara ate both her's and daddy's, with chopsticks! We looked at the menu for the sweet potato tempura maki and it wasn't there, but they had no problem making it on request. Shara also ate a whole bowl of edamame along with her 1 1/2 sweet potato rolls! The sweet potato was white, not the usual orange we get back home. She was a hungry bunny. Alan and I ordered saki, uni, since we thought if any place would have it done properly, it would be here, and a roll called spicy crispy. The spicy crispy had cream cheese, which I don't normally like, but the roll was battered and deep fried and the cream cheese melted into the tuna, jalapenos, and something else none of us remember. It was very good. The uni was also really good and made both Alan and myself feel confident that we gotten a bad batch the first time we tried it. It reminded me of tomally - lobster liver. Shara even liked it. It's very rich though, so I couldn't eat more than one piece. I also tried the eel - sea, not fresh water. The sushi chef told me to eat it with my fingers because it was very tender. He was right and it was also very good. Not too sweet or overcooked like other eel. It was a fabulous meal and much deserved after the dinner we had the evening before.

Carlsbad Vacation - Day 2 - Legoland

We were all excited to get up and going today to Legoland. We found out that guests of the resort don't even need to drive but can walk there and get in through a secret back entrance. We walked about 1/3 mile and had to wait a little while in line for the gates to open. They finally did and we were in! We took the left hand lane through the secret hideaway, but it turned out to be a little scary since we were the only ones in it and there were sounds of wolves! It is actually a bit of an obstacle course and we visited visited it later in the day, when there were more people and it was more populated. We decided to take the road to the pirate cove and see what was happening over there.

The first ride we went on had boats with water guns to let us shoot people, real and lego. That was fun but really wet, especially for a day that was in the low 60's and not yet sunny. We did eventually dry off though, so don't worry. We didn't melt. After the boats, we moved on to a ship that was suspended in the air. When we got on, it looked to us like it would go back and forth, and boy were we surprised when it started spinning around too! Well, I don't know if any of us liked that too much, but we survived and thought it was pretty funny. Our next stop was the flume. We couldn't all go on together, so Shara picked daddy to ride with and mommy waited and took some pictures. Shara was a little nervous, but found that she did really like it and it wasn't scary. We finished pirate cove and decided lunch would be good, so walked over to the castle area, looked around a bit and once the bbq restaurant opened, went there. While we were looking around we saw one ride called the Knights' Tournament. There were people in the ride, but we didn't know what was going to happen. It finally started and they went spinning and very much like a gyroscope, went in all directions. Definitly not for us! Shara also didn't want to do the jousting and I don't blame her. She thought it looked boring - pretend horses on a track that moved very slowly around a pretty large track in a nice woodsy setting. But they did move slow and it looked like mostly little kids were on it. So lunch was next and we all split a big combo dinner, cornbread, and a salad. Just perfect for us all and really good for amusement park food. From there we went on to ride the boats. These were cute! Shara and I went in little raceboats and Shara got to drive the boat! These were a bit hard to steer, and there were actually several people that got spun around and had a difficult time getting back to the correct direction. But we managed - Shara controlled the "gas" and when times got too hard to navigate, I took over the wheel. We made a good team!

During the whole time we were keeping our eyes open for geocache clues. We found a puzzle cache and were on the lookout for 11 clues around the park. There were several in Miniland USA, which was really cool! I had heard that the replicas of famous landmarks was great, but I was skeptical. We all agreed it was something to be seen. That actually took quite some time to walk around, so when we looked at the time to decide what to do next, Shara thought a snack and playing at the Hideaway play structure would be fun. It was a good idea. Shara & I had ice cream and Daddy got some fried apples. Playing in the Hideaway was a great activity, but we couldn't stay there all day because we wanted to see at least one of the shows. It turned out that we got a little lost and didn't get there in time to see, but ended up playing with more water. After a bit of playing there, in DUPLO Village, we headed back to the Hideaway. That really was a lot of fun and Shara and I had a turn to play this time. Last time Shara and Daddy went around so Shara knew all the fun spots and she would go up one way and I'd go up another, we'd meet at the top level and go down the slides to the bottom. These slides started in pitch black and were really fun and fast!

We had to leave because it was near closing time and Shara was really going to crash soon. Dinner ended up being a mess. We didn't think going out would be a good idea and all Shara would agree to eat was sushi, so we gave in and found a place that looked like it got high ratings on Yelp, but am looking now and see that it didn't get the highest. It was lousy - I had the Japanese curry, which was a bit like Thai curry, but pretty bland and very watery. Shara had a tuna roll, which she liked pretty much, and Alan got a couple of things, Monkey Balls being one of them. I think the balls were coated in tofu and deep fried, but they didn't taste very good and the spicy tuna roll he got wasn't so great either. While Alan & I were finishing dinner, Shara started watching TV and Glee came on. I told her not to listen and only pay attention to the singing and dancing part, but I'm sure the rest went over her head anyway.

Carlsbad Vacation - Day 1

We got up super early to get to the airport to make our 6 am flight. As last time, Shara was a huge helper at the airport. She wheeled one of the suitcases, stood in line patiently, and really did a great job getting herself together for security. Shara and Alan had fun playing BrainQuest in the airport, but we all found it a little difficult to stay entertained during the long flight. We managed by taking a little nap, doing some puzzles, playing Uno, and reading Peter Rabbit and the beginning of the Phantom Tollbooth, but Shara didn't care for Phantom Tollbooth yet.

We landed, got our luggage, and finally found where to get the bus to the car rental station. More lines, but we prevailed and finally got the car and made the good decision to get a GPS too. Then we went directly to Hodad's, getting to see some surfers on the way. Waiting in line, Shara amused herself and others by practicing her dancing. One woman inside Hodad's noticed Shara dancing and had to come out to tell her that her Pa da sha was beautiful. That was very nice to hear!

When it was our turn, we got seated in the bus - Shara actually needed a booster!

Alan & Shara in the bus

What a strange nose!

Blue cheese



Big Mouth!



It's a fun place with tons going on. It was hard to order, but Shara got a mini-cheeseburger with ketchep and pickles on the side. We split a 1/2 order of frunions - really good steak fries and onion rings. They came with good ranch dressing. Alan got the bacon cheeseburger and I got a mini-hamburger with blue cheese & grilled onions. Shara didn't like the onion rings but ate almost her whole burger and lots of fries. It was really good and messy.

We needed to all make a trip into the bathroom to hose ourselves off. We then took a walk down the street and even went into a real record store.

Our next stop was Balboa Park to see the Japanese Friendship Garden. There were lots of interesting sculptures at the various museums and gorgeous flowers. The garden is actually closed because they're expanding, but Shara's favorite part was running around the Organ stage and playing fashion model. We meandered our way back to the car, after playing tag and running around, and went to check in at the resort. It's nice and small. Our room is overlooking the golf course. There is a pool and the grounds are pretty. We get a special back entrance to Logoland and can even walk there!

For dinner, I ordered some pizza & salad and while it was getting ready, went next door to the market to pick up some things for breakfasts. At the market they had flats of local, Carlsbad strawberries - 6 pints - for $3.99. Even though we were on vacation and it was only the 3 of us, I couldn't resist. We actually ended up eating all but about a pint, which we brought home with us. The pizza and salad were pretty lousy though.

Cupcakes - finally a photo of all of us!

Photo By thomasglobal

No Great Wall

Saturday we had a real treat. We met Aunt Jill, Liz, Samantha, and Jesus in Chinatown for Dim Sum. It was a lot of fun. Shara read her Junie B. Jones book all the way there. We got to Chau Chow City and went upstairs. The place wasn't very busy yet but immediately we had a bunch of food put in front of us. Shara wanted to sit next to Samantha, of course, and didn't want to be anywhere near mommy. She really liked the food too and wants to go back. I asked her later what she liked most about it to want to go back, thinking she'd say family, but she actually said the food. Not that she didn't love spending time with family, but she definitely separated the two. While we walked around a bit, Shara kept mentioning the Great Wall of China. We told her it was far away, in China. Just tonight she mentioned it again and said she really thought we were going to see it that day. At least we got to see the cool gate.

On the way home, we stopped by the AAA travel show. After a piece of candy, Shara was much happier and decided looking at possible vacations wasn't so bad. So we got the Disney cruise and adventure brochures and also picked up a bunch of other pamphlets. Not sure what we'll do. We have our trip to CA to think about first, but a cruise is very appealing. And so is New Orleans, and the national parks...

Game On

This weekend we all had a good time playing Yatzee in preparation for visiting Grandpa and Noni this coming weekend. This Yatzee game is the original game I got as a kid. It even has the original set of score cards, including some used ones with scores from Tobi, Jill, Susan, Nanny, and even Sara Zimmerman! Shara beat the pants off us both of us! Then we moved on to Monopoly, but after a dozen or so rounds Shara started getting tired so we put it on hold. Looks like Wednesday may be a snow day, so we may have time to play a few more rounds.

Tonight we were reading a Junie B. Jones book and they were talking about a halftime show. Shara wondered what that was and we started talking about sports games and the super bowl. Then Shara started riffing on super bowls and that she wants a super bowl and it's not fair that she never gets to have a super bowl but maybe we can get one...