Here Fishy Fishy

Michael wasn't quite ready to give up on fishing this year, so we met up with him and his fishing buddy at one of the beaches in town. Isaac and I were going to go look for sea glass, we didn't see a single piece, and Michael didn't catch any fish, but had fun anyway.

Isaac got to run all around the lighthouse, and help Dada cast out his lure into the ocean. I think there will be plenty more days like this in the future. I think Eric may have his best-fishing-partner title challenged pretty soon. . .

Pumpkin Fest!

YAAAAAAAYYY!!! Pumpkin Fest was a huge hit this year! Isaac always has a blast at Morning Glory Farm, but this year he had so much fun! We ended up driving to a friends house, and then walking to the festival with them, which worked out very well indeed.

They had such a great turn out, I think it may have been even more crowded than last year! There were Alpacas, pumpkin painting, and carving, a bean bag toss (which Isaac mastered once he put on my sunglasses, "safety first mama" he reminded me) pumpkin bowling, face painting, tons of food, a hay maze which was more like pikes of baled hay stacked inside a tremendously hot green house, hay rides, and best of all. . . PONY RIDES!!

I wasn't sure how Isaac would do with them, but he said he wanted to go, so we paid our $2.00 and waited in line. Turns out, these were no tiny ponies like I thought they'd be. They were horse size ponies! Like a champ, when it was his turn, he walked slowly over, held out his hand for the pony (horse) to sniff him. Then I helped him climb up into the saddle, and he looked at my friend with the camera, and put his arms up! I thought I was going to have a stroke.

There wasn't even anything for him to hold on to!! He had SO much fun, my irrational fear of him falling to his doom quickly disappeared. The horses name was Mickey Blue Eyes, and was so very sweet, I wanted to just bring him home with us.

It has inspired me to bring Isaac to some more pony rides. There is a barn here that advertises they do them by appointment only every week, so I may take them up on that. I think it'd be a fun winter activity.

Halloween is coming!

It's always a great day when we see something in the mail from Hawaii. We know that whatever it is is filled with exciting things from one of my best buddies, who always seems to know exactly when I'm feeling a little down.

This year, she sent Isaac the best Halloween card that I have ever seen! It not only looked like she made it herself, in my all time favorite medium, felt of course, it had finger puppets!! I don't know how she knew, but Isaac has been obsessed with puppet shows for the past two weeks! These were pricelessly perfect!

Thank you Auntie Heather!!

The Grey Barn

I had seen something in the local paper about how you could visit one of the local farms, and watch them milking cows!! Well, that's right up my alley! I had to go check it out. I knew my sister Caitlin would love to tag along, so we planned a time to go check it out.

Of course it was raining harder than it had in months the morning we headed up that way, which turned out to be just fine. The cows didn't seem to mind it very much, Isaac got to splash in his rain boots, which is always fun, and I discovered a mammoth tear in mine. . . not so much fun.

We met a very, very scraggly dog there, who we named Stick, because everything we said that, he'd creep over. Turns out he just really wanted someone to play fetch with him.

Isaac found a tractor right away and insisted on "driving" it around the place. We've been working on imagination lately. He would make a very charming farmer someday : )

We walked through the barn to the milking area, and I was simply flabbergasted by how brilliant these cows were. They lined themselves up outside, then came into the room in pairs, had their turn on the milking machine, then when they were done, they walked themselves outside, in a straight line, to the open barn and had breakfast. I was simply amazed that nobody was leading them, they were doing it totally on their own! And when the newest cow approached the feeding area, the others just gently moved aside to make room for them.

There was one bull, who I spotted right away, he had this crazy looking contraption in his nose which made MY nose start itching like crazy just looking at it.

(I'll definitely go back there! Hopefully on a not so rainy day)

Piles of Pumpkins

Isaac and I have been going on allot of walks these days. I'm trying to take full advantage of what Mother Nature has been offering us. A couple weeks ago, we ventured down to Morning Glory Farm to check out this years harvest of pumpkins. They hadn't brought everything there the day we visited, but there were PLENTY to play around with!

Isaac had a really great time trying to count all the sugar pumpkins lined up along the railing on the porch. It went something like this "one, two, three, five, seven, eight, nine, seven" Over and over and over again. Hahaha, he cracks me up.

They had started to set things up for their annual pumpkin festival, which of course we went to, I'll save that adventure for another post. . .

Annnnnd He's Off

For Isaac's birthday this year his Aunt WooWoo, my sister Caitlin, gave him his very first pair of rollerblades! Complete with all the pads and helmet that he needs to be the next fastest rollerblader!

We've taken him to the playground a few times, and let him try them out. I think he'll be zipping around on his own in no time!

Thank you Ariel Thomas Photography

Here are a few of the remarkable photographs that Arial took of the boys:

Pumpkin Patch Kids

On the last week of September, it hit me that we hadn't had any two year portraits taken of Isaac yet, and then it struck me that we hardly have any pictures of Isaac and Ian together. . . Something had to be done about this!

One of my best friends is a local photographer who speciality is taking photos of babies and kids. . . Thank you lady luck!

I had really wanted to have their photos taken in a pumpkin patch. Which would have worked really well, because there is one near to my parents house that I drive by twice a week. Of course the week we had set up to have the portraits taken, the farmers tilled up that field. Blast.

Lucky for me, one of the kids who works for that farm told me about a super secret pumpkin patch on the other side of the island! After a while of driving hopelessly through the woods, and battling a few majorly bumpy dirt roads, I found it. It was an absolutely breathtaking location. I couldn't believe it wasn't part of an elaborate movie set.

There was a large patch of pumpkins of every size and color, down a hill beyond that was a pond, followed by more roiling hills of fields. There was an old barn, and a field of very curious sheep there as well. At one point, when the sun was setting over that picturesque pond, everything was suddenly flooded with this gorgeous soft, warm, buttery yellow light. It made for some fabulous photos for sure.

Ariel took some really amazing shots of the boys, I can't wait to blow some of them up and send them to the Grandmas!

Simple but Super

For my birthday this year, Michael got me a clothes line. I had been saying that I really wanted one for a while, so I was so happy to get it! I have taken advantage of it as often as the weather allows me to.

I remember looking at old photo albums of my parents, and seeing a clothesline full of clothes in the snow, frozen horizontally, from the wind. . . . I have a feeling I won't go to THAT extreme. Not this year anyway.

Beach Days in September

I am pretty sure that September is my favorite time of year here on the Vineyard. The tourists have left, for the most part, the humidity breaks, the crowds and traffic become scarce, the older kids are back at school, it seems to just be a little bit easier to breathe around here.

We have been so lucky with such glorious weather! Michael has been working the midnight shift, which means he is resting during the day now. The annual fisherman's derby came, and I think he wanted to take every opportunity he had to take a few casts, knowing he wouldn't be able to dedicate as much time to it as he would have liked to this year.

I was having a day where I felt trapped in the house all day, so when the question came up, "what do you want to do?" Go to the beach, was my answer!

I didn't go there to tan, or even go into the ocean, I'm not a big ocean fan to begin with, and in September it is far too cold for me!

The sunset was pretty that night, and we all seemed to have a nice time. Isaac spent the time bulldozing the sand, and making bird nests in it. I got to try out some different modes on my camera, and Michael tried to catch the big one.

Ahhhh, thank you September.

Call me the dragonfly whisperer

Isaac and I were going for a walk a few weeks ago with a couple of friends of ours. We were looking for more ducks to visit, so we stopped off at a very beautiful, very quite little pond. We didn't see any ducks, but we did see a Heron, we I hadn't ever seen here before. They look just ridiculous when they're flying, I can say that much. It's almost what I imagine flamingos look like when they fly.

While we were there, tossing pebbles into the pond, a bright red dragonfly landed on my hand. I waited a little while to see if he would fly away, but he didn't. So we continued on our walk down the bike path a ways, all the while this little dragonfly stayed on my hand. He was there the whole way to the farm, the whole time we were at the farm, and I eventually coaxed him to climb onto a pumpkin stem for fear he would never leave.

You'd be amazed at how many times that's happened to me before. I don't know what it is about me that dragonflies like so much. Maybe I look like a bug or something?

Pita and the Ducks

My childhood friend Kate decided to move back to the island this summer, and I for one could not be happier about it! It's nice to have a friend who has more in common with me than babies!! She has a super cute little dog named Pita, who she and her mom rescued from the street in Mexico. Isaac and she get along so well, I think it's because they're both so small and have slightly unruly hair.

On this one adventurous day, we walked into town from Kate's house and found some very friendly ducks, and baby ducks too! Great times, and of course I happened to have a container of duck food in the stroller, for just an occasion as this! It's always good to be prepared for anything I always say!

Future Rock Star

Annnnnd, he's TWO!

It blows me away that our little tiny tot is already a TWO year old! I'm not sure how it happened really. I must have taken too long of a blink.

We had two parties for Isaac this year, I thought we'd keep up the tradition. One family party, and one friends party. Both went off without a glitch! I went a little nuts with handmaking everything for his kids party, cakes, decorations and such, so I wanted to take it easy with the family party. Thank you Dairy Queen : )

He got so many wonderful presents this year, including two big wheels! One from each set of grandparents, which I think is so great! A giant cardboard playhouse, which he colored on right away, his very first pair of rollerblades, which we've already put a mile or two on.

My sister Andi ended up coming all the way here from Barrington, NH just for the kids party! She of course brought him one of his all time favorite toys. . . A stand up keyboard, with microphone! It's pretty awesome, it's hilarious to be in the other room, and hear him start to sing into it.

I was really happy to see that so many of his friends were able to make it to the party. Everyone had allot of fun, maximum fun, minimum meltdowns!

My father had made me a playhouse when I was younger, that fit perfectly into the prince/princess theme of the party! Without the roof on it, it looked just like a castle! I made Isaac a special birthday shirt, which is of course in his keepsake box now. I'm not sure, but I think this years party trumped last years!

Fifth Grade, here we come!

I can't believe that Ian is in fifth grade this year! He's moving right on up! And literally too, he's now on the third floor of the school : )

He is adjusting well to the bigger homework work load, and the older kid activity classes like shop class, and home ec. The only complaint he's had so far are the much, much, much shorter recesses. Ha. I love it!

9-4-11 The day I saved a bee

The day I saved a bee. . .

Oh yes, for those who don't know me, I am a lover of all (99.9% anyway) things. Snakes are the only exception. The idea of hunting sickens me, road kill makes me get all teary-eyed, dont get me started on fur coats.

Every day, many times a day even, the pool had to be cleaned, skimmed off at the very least. There were always tons of leaves, a thin layer of pollen on windy days, the occasional caterpillar and some sticks.

On this particular day, I saw something struggling in the water, being a lover of all (99.9% anyway) things, I swooped it up with my pool net and let it crawl onto my arm. It looked like a beautiful, harmless bumble bee, who had taken a tumble into the water.

The poor thing couldn't fly because its wings were so saturated, so I let it hang out on me for a little while until it got it's barrings.

It felt really funny having it crawl over my arm and hand, I guess I had never really looked at a bee very close up before. They have little barbs all over their legs and feet, which kept sticking to my skin. I was like tiny bits of Velcro scratching me.

I felt good that I could save it's life, but it didn't occur to me that my bee allergy would make me have this strange reaction to it even touching me. I broke out in teeny tiny blisters, everywhere it's little feet touched me. Bizarre.

But I was happy to save that little guys day! Next time I'll be sure to wear long sleeves though.