One Apple, Two Apples, Green Apples, Red Apples

This year's apple picking expedition included friends!  Many thanks to Jen M and her awesome family for joining us for a morning in the orchard and then lunch.

This year, we went to Boston Hill Farm in North Andover.  It's a small family owned farm relatively close to us.  (It's closer than gymnastics anyways!)

Our drive over to the farm was a bit of an adventure as power was still out to much of Andover and North Andover meaning the street lights were OUT.  Not even flashing.  OUT.  As a public service announcement before I even go any further -- dude, people, we need to talk.  When you are in a car and approach a light that has no power what's the proper way to proceed?  Treat the bloody intersection like a 4 way stop!  Do not blow through the intersection thinking woo hoo -- no light for me!  Because let me just tell you that some other idiot going the other direction is thinking the same ***** thing and while I'm a firm believer in the Darwin theory, there's no need for me to witness a massive traffic accident when I'm on my way to the farm!

Backtracking a bit... WHY was there no power you ask?  Well, there was a bit of a commotion on last Thursday afternoon.  Columbia Gas starting experiencing explosions all over Andover, North Andover and Lawrence.  It was chaos.  It's still chaos.  70+ explosions all over town.  And no one knew what was causing them or how to stop them.  We were fine at our house - we have our own propane tanks, so we're not on the city's gas line.  There's now a lawsuit and so many people still don't have the gas fixed at their house.  The neighbors are all jumpy every time they think their house is going to explode!

So - in an effort to return to normalcy and still spend money at small local businesses, we decided to go ahead and meet friends at the orchard.

We now are the proud owners of a half a bushel of Courtland and MacIntosh apples.  That's a LOT of apples folks.

Unlike the orchard we went to last year in Westchester, this orchard didn't require any crazy tools to reach the apples.  It merely required Wren to climb onto Greg's shoulders a couple of times!

We got really lucky with the weather and while it was warm - it was overcast and we didn't melt!  Yay.  

It was a great morning and lunch and I hope we're able to make it a tradition with our local friends!  

Apple Picking For The Win

On a whim, after seeing some photos from friends - I decided to take the kids apple picking.  I mean, who doesn't need 15 pounds of apples?  There are so many amazing farms within 30-45 minutes of our house, it seemed silly not to go.

The plan had us headed to Harvest Moon Orchard.  I knew the traffic would be a bit crazy, so we took the prior exit and used Waze to wiggle over.  And well, after following a line of cars, we ended up at Outhouse Orchard!  Eh - that worked out well too.

 

The map of the day said that we'd be picking Macintosh and Idared varieties.

The kids were smarter than me and both wore baseball caps for the day!  

He dropped the one he had been eating!

The highlight of the afternoon was using the 10 foot long apple picking stick!

Hayride?  Sure!  We were able to see more of the orchards this way.

Singing cowboy, Orville Davis was along for the hayrides.

I just did a quick google on Mr. Davis and it seems he's done a right plenty in his time here on earth.  Here's an article on him in the New York Times.

Now it's Monday morning and I'm staring at a huge bag of apples.  The kids each took an apple in for snack today and they each brought one for their teachers as well.  I've also spent about an hour peeling apples and tossed them into the crockpot with some sugar and cinnamon to simmer for the day.  Hopefully we'll all be having applesauce for dessert.  Tomorrow, I'll branch into apple cakes and apple muffins...

On the Move, Again...

I know.  You're shocked.  Surprised.  How can it be you think?

Greg has accepted a job as the General Counsel for a small(ish) software firm in Andover, MA.  Since we're leaving firm life, we've got fingers crossed that moving in house will bring a bit more stability to our day to day lives.  A little more family dinners and a whole lot less weekend stress.  That's the game plan.

Boston.

Never thought my kids would grow up in Boston, but then again - why not Boston?  I am definitely drawn to college towns and relatively large cities.  If it's by a body of water, even better.  The  Boston area definitely checks all the marks.  Oh, and there's the added bonus of some pretty cool US history too.

Now, it's as much a mental leap as it is a physical one.  Sure, there's the usual drama of packing, unpacking, trying to rearrange furniture that was bought in one location into another... but it's the mental game that has me up thinking these days.  Will I find friends?  Andover is much more rural than I'm used to.  I mean currently, I can walk to a plethora of coffee shops, pizza, bookstores, the train.... How am I going to cope when I put the kids on a school bus and then that's it?  No walking the kids to school.  No bumping into other moms outside the flagpole on a daily basis.  Eeeek.  I guess we'll take it day by day and just keep swimming!

Don't Tell Me It's Mid September!

So, there's actually been quite a bit going on lately I've just been too swamped to keep track of it all for you!  How about I start with current events and work my way backwards a bit?

Kid are in school.  Halle-freaking-lujah for getting back into routines!  Since school only takes us through 6.5 hours of the day, I thought it would be great fun to make myself nuts and sign the kids up for a bunch of activities!  The current breakdown looks like this: swim lessons 1x a week (only 7 more to go).  Taekwondo 2x a week for both kids - naturally since they're different levels, they go at different times.  Track 2x a week for Thing 1 -- at a high school that's about 15-20 minutes drive from here.  Ballet for Thing 2 only 1x a week for now, but I'm sure she'd go more often if time allowed!  And then Hebrew School for both of them on the weekends too just because we have so much free time.  I'm not exactly sure how we're going to squeeze in track meets around the current schedule, but we'll see!!

All these activities of course are just for the kids... I've also taken on quite a few responsibilities in the PTA at school.  I'm volunteering weekly at the library.  I'm organizing the Class Photo Day for the school, I'm co-chairing the STEM Committee to bring tinkering nights and other science and technology things to school and I'm one of the class moms for W's classroom.  Phew.

School... kids are settling in.  A few minor bumps the first week, but we're adjusting.  I'm happy to report that similar to the meme floating around FB I'm super proud of my daughter for being the one to sit with the new kid at school and make friends.  She was so nervous for the first day to not have her bestie with her, but she made two new friends from the first day!  Bonus, one of them lives a few doors down the road.

We finished off summer 2016 with a trip to Texas to see my folks.  The kids wanted to visit the water park in the neighborhood every day and I'm happy to report we did visit 10 out of the 11 days we were there.  Not too bad!  Hopefully, it makes the upcoming swim lessons a bit easier knowing they're slightly more comfortable in the water!

Here are the kids getting their wings for the flight down to Texas!

Two pictures of the amazing community pool and splash park!

Of course there were some fun games at Bubbe and Pops' house!  Here's our first attempt at Pie Face!

There was even a lost tooth!  A baby tooth, don't worry!  It took much convincing on my part, but Wren finally pulled it out herself!  

Travel and Weddings

Well, we survived.  :)  Actually - the weekend went rather smoothly.  I'm glad we've held onto our Amex Platinum card as it grants us access to the Centurion Lounge at the major airports.  Life at the airport is much nicer when you can sip on a mimosa and enjoy eggs florentine before boarding your flight!  And... 500 mile upgrades to first go along way towards an enjoyable travel day too.  :)

However... our kids are now totally spoiled and would like to travel like this from now on.

Upon arrival we had an awesome visit with the Asay family including meeting Anna for the first time.  The kids were equally enamored with Anna and Murphy the dog.  Ha!  I think Laura won the kids over with her gigantic s'mores icebox cake and they'd now like to move to Cincinnati.  Well played Laura, well played!

The remainder of the weekend was filled with family in and around Lexington, KY.  The kids were thrilled to see Grandma Baden, Aunt Yvonne, Uncle Chuck and their cousins.  The rolling green hills of rural Kentucky truly are spectacular and I now want to go horseback riding.  Go figure!  Chuck and Jessica's wedding went off without a hitch and even the rain managed to stay at bay during the couple hours of the reception.

Saying goodbye to family is always hard for the kids, but I know they had fun....

                                             Working on some hidden pictures in the hotel.

                                                        Looking smart for the wedding.

                                                  Wren making a wish for the new couple.

                                                 Greg and his sister, Yvonne catching up.

                      Chuck and Jessica cutting the cake.  Fireworks themed for the 4th of July!

                                       Cousin Grace getting us started with some bubbles....

                                                        Birdie getting in on the action...

                                  Greg decided to have some bubble blowing adventures too!

                                              Post wedding in our Happy 4th of July outfit.

                                                Saying goodbye to our new cousin, Katie.

Happy Father's Day

What a great day...

The kids and I prepared an exciting breakfast in bed for Greg.  Oatmeal, banana and coffee with Bailey's.  (The last one was my addition to the early morning breakfast!)

Then it was off to get Wren to her recital, pick up flowers for the ballerina, watch the performance, have a bit of a rest and then brunch!  Here's Greg and kids after stuffing our bellies!  We ended up at a local place called Chat19 that we'd never been to before.  We'll be back for sure!!

Just Strap 'Em In

I absolutely must tell this story before I forget and it gets lost in my memory...

(shaking my head and laughing still...)

So, on the night we (Jen, Bubbe, Atticus and Wren) flew from Detroit to Dallas, Pops met us at the airport. Our flight had been delayed due to weather in Detroit (that was actually a good thing as it bought be time to get some dinner for the kids and run to the restroom). We called Pops once we touched down and said that we'd be a bit before we made it to baggage claim. It takes quite the effort to get all of us off the plane, get the stroller, get our ducks in a row, head to the nearest restroom, pit-stop for all of us and then wind our way over to the carousel. We told Pops what suitcases to look for so he could grab them in case they things were unloading before we arrived. When we finally saw Pops, he exclaimed, "you didn't tell me about the car seats!". Well, no... we sort of assumed you'd know that we had two car seats in addition to the luggage because how else were we supposed to get home?

So, now with two car seats, a few suitcases, an Elmo backpack, a diaper bag, a laptop bag, a stroller, two kids, one mom and two grandparents we set out for the parking garage. WHEW. Pops thought it would be easier to pull the car up and let us get in curbside and we agreed. He jetted off and returned with the car a few minutes later. Mind you by this point, it's late and the kids are TIRED! Pops opens the trunk of the car and starts stacking suitcases, backpacks, bags and the car seats.

Huh? Wait, we need those car seats Pops...

His answer. Priceless.

"Can't we just strap them in and install the seats tomorrow?"

No Pops. The baby is only 15 months old. I don't think you can just "strap her in"...

Oy.

Father's Day Weekend

We had quite an eventful weekend. Saturday morning, the boys went out to get donuts for Daddy. Once again, they returned home with a large box containing 11 donuts (9 of which had at least one bite missing)! We all had some sugar and then packed up to head to a local air show at a small airport down the road in Millbury, OH. The airport is located just next door to Lake Highschool which was destroyed in a tornado just prior to our move to Ohio. Atticus thought it was grand fun to look at the airplanes and helicopters. He was even able to climb inside a few and sit in the cockpit. There was a lot of commotion and noise with planes taking off and landing with more regularity than we imagined -- but Atticus did a great job with the noise. It may help that we've also been reading a book from the library called The Noisy Airplane Ride. :-) Regardless, the kids had fun and it was nice to get out and walk around outside.

When we got home and got the little ones settled into naps, I snuck out to get in a little crafting time. Whew. I don't think I'll ever finish the kids scrapbooks - but at least I've made some progress. The afternoon was spent going on a walk, playing in the house, eating, etc. (I'm starting to get excited that soon we will all be eating the same thing for dinner!)

Sunday morning, we let Greg sleep in a little bit and the kids and I goofed off and finished "signing" our cards for Daddy. Atticus was very excited to show off his handy work! We squeezed in another nice walk around the neighborhood and then we met another little guy out for a stroll, Gavin. Atticus and Gavin (who will be 3 in September) hit it off and the two of them were playing on the tricycles, blowing bubbles, playing "fireman" in the backyard with the hose, etc while Greg got the chance to say hi and talk to Gavin's grandpa. Turns out the grandpa is about to retire as Vice President of the local community college. They had a nice chat and the boys had a blast. We hope Gavin comes to visit his grandparents again soon!

After naps, we packed up the family and headed down to visit with Grandma Baden and Papa. Atticus loves to visit Papa, but has a hard time staying put in Grandpa's room. We must have chased him up and down the hallway a few dozen times over the course of two hours!! The kids then got a treat and we stopped at McDonald's for dinner. :-) Whew.

Papa Baden

Me: Atticus, are you ready to go see Grandpa Baden?

Atti: (with a big smile) Papa?

Me: Yes, Papa.

Edit: We had a great first visit this evening. Grandma Baden was at the apartment too -- so we were able to see both Grandma and Papa. The little lady was on her best behavior - being passed around a bit and Atticus opened all the drawers, the fridge, etc. He got a bit fussy at the end of our visit, but I think it was only because he was getting hungry. I get grumpy when I'm hungry too (just ask Greg)!

I did take a few photos before the battery in the camera went kaput. Once I have two free seconds (ha ha ha) I'll free the photos from the camera and upload them to Picasa.