Lost Among the Shoots

The other day, after our sunflower farm visit, we made the trip to RI institution - the Fantastic Umbrella Factory. It's a place down in Charlestown and it kind of defies description. No, the do not make or sell umbrellas. It's a collection of small artisan and souvenir shops on a wooded property along with animals (goats, chickens, emus, ducks, and other fowl), a greenhouse, and a small cafe.

Benj and his surf hair

There are wonderful gardens all over the property and in the back there is a bamboo forest. I hadn't known it was there but we happened upon it and decided to explore. Julia was not too certain about this plan because as we were heading in she overheard some other folks talking about getting lost. I'm sure this was easy to imagine from her perspective because it was thickly wooded bamboo, towering over her head!

The explorers venturing into the forest!

a little nervous about whether we would make it out

she found the way back!

 It was a fun adventure and Julia was thrilled that she got us out safely! We then went onto the greenhouses where we happened upon a garden snake (Benjamin's first sighting of one outside of a zoo). We watched him slither away for a little while (as Lyndsay and I did our best to stand there and not act freaked out as neither of us is a fan of snakes) and after he disappeared into some plants Benjamin's response was "we need to go find him. I want to pet the snake." I am glad that he did not have a response of fear but that won't be happening while I'm standing there!

Sunflowers for Wishes

Last year I heard about a farm in CT that each year plants 25 acres of sunflowers to benefit the Make a Wish foundation of CT. I really wanted to see it but on the day we were supposed to go (one of the last of the festival - it only last 1 week) it poured. So I believe we went bowling instead. It looked like we may have a similar outcome this year but on the day we were supposed to go the skies were bright and sunny.

We got there right when they opened and were on the first hayride of the day. The tractor took us through the barnyard (where we were able to feed the cows their breakfast of hay) and then on to the sunflower fields. We were surrounded by tall, gorgeous, yellow sunflowers. It's quite a sight!

ready to go on a hayride

feeding the cows

summer beauty

Auntie Yndsay giving Benj a lesson about sunflowers

yellows and blues

 After the hayride the kids and I went for a ride on the "cow train." These cows were made from recycled plastic barrels. Such a good cute and fun use for old materials!

on the cow train!

It was quite a bumpy ride!

After the rides, we sampled some of the farm's ice cream - some of the most delicious I've ever had. Next year, I'll be getting Sunflower flavor!

Baseball!

Going to the ballpark is one of our favorite summer activities and of course, our favorite place to go is McCoy Stadium to see the PawSox. We get there a little early, stake out a spot on the outfield berm, and enjoy the game... and eat peanuts... and take quite a few walks around the stadium to check out what's going on... and play in the dirt and grass... and eat more peanuts... and roll down the hill... and eat ice cream... and eat a few more peanuts...So maybe there's not that much actual watching of the game but we have a lot of fun and it's a great afternoon outing.

Benjamin staking out our spot on the berm

The first ball I've caught! I was nearly knocked unconscious by it but that's a small price to pay!

she looks so excited! ;)

Getting ready to run the bases after the game

Beach Babes

Our first beach day of the year! 

The kids with their "secret ingredient" sand castle...
we were very careful sticking our hands in to discover the secret!

periwinkles, trying to escape the bucket!

Julia's first time on a boogie board - she's on the far right,
Alex is in the middle, Merrill on the left

her it comes!

surfer girls!

Beach hair!

The kids also had a great time chasing any seagulls that came within 15 feet of our blanket. They would pick up a shoe and run after them, threatening to throw a shoe at them. Especially at the "army seagull" who was so dubbed by Julia because of his mottled brown feathers which did look a lot like camo!

Maine 2014 - Miscellaneous

A few other tidbits from our vacation

We spent a lot of time swimming but didn't get too many photos. Here's Julia getting ready to jump in with Grandma Su-Su

We spent one morning picking strawberries (almost 13lbs!!)

a couple more playground shots

We found a nice park on the Kennebunk River with a playground and trail. The kids opted to ride rather than walk the trail.

daily ice cream... the kids order? mint chip - every. single. time. they were never disappointed!

Maine 2014 - Fourth of July

Fourth of July was a cool, overcast day so we decided to head to Freeport for the morning. We're always up for a trip to LL Bean! It turned out to be gray but not raining and the town's parade went on as planned. So we watched the parade and then made our annual Bean shopping trip. A very American Fourth of July!

Benj watched the parade from my back

a traveling boot!

in the fish tank

ready for shopping

The rain did come down in the afternoon so we spent it inside, playing and relaxing. But of course, we had to have ice cream (we only missed 1 day of ice cream!) so:

drive-through ice cream to the rescue!

Maine 2014 - Cousins!

One of the best parts of our trip was the amount of time that Julia and Benjamin got to spend playing with Annabel. Julia took on the role of the big cousin and quickly had the other two following her lead. 

on the playground

dominos were popular all week

the readers

the big cousin!

come on, Julia!

Annabel wasn't having any of Benj's good night kisses. He settled for a high-five!

Swimming Progress

There's been a lot of swimming so far this summer and Julia has also continued her lessons. As a goldfish one of the things she loves is learning to dive. This week was the first time she dove, from kneeling, unassisted and went in head first!

Maine 2014 - Kayaking

The lake house had a great little kayak which was the perfect size for me to take out with the kids. Not too far from our dock was a quiet cove that we paddled to each time and searched for turtles, listened to frogs, and watched the loons diving for their meals.

Benj particularly liked dangling his fingers in the water.
Thankfully none of the snapping turtles were hungry for a snack!

Julia taking over!

This is probably the last year that I'll be able to take out Julia but that's ok because she was beginning to practice paddling so next year she might be ready to be out on her own!

King of the Mountain!

This is why I have a hard time remembering that yes, Benjamin is only 2 and a half!

Maine 2014 - Fishing!!

For our first summer vacation this year we spent 10 days up in Maine on Lake Cobbossee with Grandpa Herb, Grandma Su-Su, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Helki, Annabel, and the newest Crowder cousin, Finley. We couldn't have asked for a better vacation - the weather was wonderful, there was plenty of fishing, swimming, and kayaking, the cousins all got to spend lots of time together, and being on the lake was incredibly relaxing. We even had a view of the only inland lighthouse in ME!

We got into a routine pretty quickly on this vacation and it looked like this:

5:00am -- Julia woke up and went upstairs to wake-up Grandma Su-Su and they spent some quiet time together, watching shows, reading The Visual Dictionary (a very cool book which we found in the house), and chatting.

~6:00am -- Benj woke up and got up either Andrew or myself, then chilled out for awhile while we got coffee and breakfast together; on a couple of days the lake was incredibly calm first thing in the morning so Julia and I went out in the kayak

9:30am -- We went out to do some activity. On a couple of days we went to the playground, one day we went hiking, another day we went shopping...

12:00pm -- lunch and then played inside or in the shade for awhile. read books, played with squirt guns and water balloons, etc.

2:00pm -- water activities started... fishing, kayaking, canoeing, and of course, swimming!

5:00pm -- dinner

6:30pm -- bed for the kids!

I have a lot of pictures to share so I thought that this year I would share them by activity. First up - fishing!!

Both Benjamin and Julia were into fishing this year. Julia got a new rod right before our trip. She insisted on choosing (over my objections) a 5'5" rod -- a true, grown-up fishing rod. I wasn't sure it was the best choice I thought that she should stick with a kids rod for another year but boy, did she prove me wrong!

She caught a bunch of fish right off the dock and was easily casting 25' by the second day we were there. Benjamin also enjoyed fishing but he mostly stuck to the kids' rod and a lot of the time he did not have a hook attached. But when he did have a hook he caught 2 fish!

Benjamin the fisherman

Ready for action!

We caught a fish!

It's a big one!

Checking out the catch

Scaly!!

Julia was quite the fisher-girl. She dug out all the worms, Andrew insisted on baiting the hook but I think she would have done it if he let her, she casted and reeled her line in all by herself, and then she released each fish she caught back into the water. And she loved every minute of it!