Visitors

Linden kept demanding hugs at dinner. 

My parents are here for a visit!  They arrived early Sunday morning, and both kids were beyond excited. Sunday started out at the beach, and then involved a VERY long nap for Linden. 

All geared up...

... and headed for the water!

Juniper, on the other hand, got to make some ridiculously sugary treats in the kitchen with Mary in the afternoon, followed by some TV watching at the hotel room with Bob. Clearly, it is important to cram in as many sinful delights as possible when some obliging grandparents are visiting. I'm not sure what we'll get up today and tomorrow, but no doubt there will be at least a mini update next week.

Though nothing can top the excitement of the end of the week, there were some fun adventures during the week as well.  For instance, the "Carousel of Lights" has parked itself at Mullen Hall school for the time being, which is a pretty huge draw:

Holding hands and talking excitedly as they approach

Totally old-school ride

Mr. Stoic

All smiles!

 Juniper loves the carousel, and has now ridden it twice.  Linden, on the other hand, despite being Mr. Macho about the whole thing, secretly told Clark as he went to bed that night that the carousel had "gone too fast", and that he didn't want to ride it again the next day. Pretty sweet coming from a bonafide dare devil.

Other than that, it has been just play, as usual.  I have to say, I've really started loving the Wednesday mornings that I get with just Juniper since the summer schedule began.  It is one less work day for me, but it is a pretty rare opportunity to have some quality girl time.  We always get up to some fun adventures - biking all over, going to the Clay studio, out for lunch, to fairs and libraries and whatever seems the most fun at the moment.  For instance:

Learning to trim her piece

A delicious lunch at the Pickle Jar

Juniper's completed fairy house, nestled in beneath the tomato plant

 And, just for fun: here are a few pics from what I have dubbed "poor footwear choice" day.  Linden, in the mud in his very favourite "fancy shoes" (Juniper's wedding shoes from last summer), and Juniper, for whatever reason, in one Bogg and one dress-up shoe. It's a good thing I spent all that money on good, practical summer sandals.

Tractors, mud, and fancy white shoes

Why choose one type of inappropriate footwear, when you can choose two?

On the move

Finally, I thought I'd end with some recent Linden quotes:

(after surreptitiously pooping on the potty, wiping his own bum, and then washing his hands, all while he was actually supposed to be napping):

 "Oh, hi mom.  I pooped!  And I wiped my own bum.  I got poop on my fingers, but I washed them off."  (looking into my eyes, and with a very serious tone): "WE DON'T EAT POOP.  Only food."

(To my mom, at supper):

"Mary, could you take off your glasses, please?  I want to see your nice brown eyes."

(Talking with Clark, directly after waking up from a nap):

Linden: "Where are mom and Juniper?"

Clark: "At the pottery studio"

Linden: "No they're not.  They are RIDING A WHALE".

Have a great week!

Canada, Independence and Arthur

This new digger goes with Linden everywhere

I have to say, this first week of July was a doozy:  Canada Day, Independence Day, and a good old fashioned hurricane. Unsurprisingly, Canada Day came and went on the Cape with very little pomp and circumstance, though I did send both kids to their respective schools wearing Canada Day shirts (compliments of my mother), and bearing Canadian flags (also compliments of my mother). Juniper was too shy to do much other than timidly mention why she had brought the flag in, but Linden boisterously waved the flag around as soon as he got to his classroom, and launched into a rousing rendition of "Happy Father's Day to You" (sung to the tune of Happy Birthday).  Clearly the significance of the day was lost on him, but at least Clark and all the other hard-working dads in the world got a shout-out.

Last year I got a nice picture of Juniper and Linden in their Canada Day shirts.  This year I was lucky to snap this shot before the shirts were irreparably covered in mud.

As it so happens, Independence Day and Hurricane Arthur arrived on the Cape simultaneously.  We got hit with pretty strong wind and rains (enough to bring a tree down in our yard and lots of debris scattered about), but nothing compared to the East Coast of Canada!  I suspect I will have comparatively very few readers on this particular post today, as most of the people I know around the New Brunswick area are still without power, and will be for some days yet. 

Having Arthur hit us on the 4th, however, did mean that most of the Independence Day festivities were postponed around these parts.  I have to say, we all had a pretty fabulous day none-the-less.  A lovely breakfast at the Village Café, a play date in Oliver and Owen's inflatable pool, and a wonderful dinner at the Saitos' house to round it all off.  I even brought a "patriotic" salad - greens, topped with an outside ring of strawberries and beets, and middle ring of feta, and an inner ring of blueberries.  Red, white, blue, and delicious!  We ended up singing songs around the piano, only to find out that a "classic" American tune (called, appropriately, "America" or "My Country, 'Tis of Thee") is none other than "God Save the Queen", with a whole new set of very patriotic American lyrics. Clark and I had a quiet snicker about that, and offered a rendition of the original.

Best part of the hurricane for Linden? Getting to hold his own umbrella on the way to dinner.

 Other than the one day (and mostly evening) of stormy weather, the rest of the week was beautiful. One of the highlights was when Juniper and I took an afternoon and biked into Falmouth for the Farmer's Market, a big library book fair, and some open studio time at the Clay Center. The only thing that made that afternoon even better than it already sounds is that Juniper biked the WHOLE way there, on her own bike.  That was not a small feat - it was over 2 miles of biking. She completely freaking rocked it, and felt pretty awesome about herself when we got there.  Then, on the weekend, we all biked into Woods Hole for a carnival, and she insisted on biking on her own bike again.  We went pretty slowly, but she did both the way there AND the way back.  Pretty amazing!

Check out that look of satisfaction!

 Last night was the perfect end to a great week - I packed a supper, and we took off to the beach for an evening picnic and swim. Homemade bagels, cream cheese and smoked salmon, followed by fresh fruit and yogurt for dessert.  A-maz-ing.  It turned out to be pretty windy and wavy at that point, but we were undeterred.  That was actually my first beach swim of the season, and I can't believe I waited so long! We have discovered that the key to success for doing the beach thing in Falmouth is to hang out on the rocky portion.  That way, we don't have to contend with all that bothersome sand (seriously - sand in everything!), or the hoards of people. Glorious!

Showing off the bagels and smoked salmon

Excited to hop in the water!

Trying to warm up afterwards.

Here's to hoping everyone weathered Arthur safely without too much distress or destruction, and (especially to my NB friends and family), that you have power up and running soon!

Lost

Does it get any better than a yarn bombing exhibit and free ice cream?

I have some fun summery pictures for you this week, to go with the (mostly) fun, summery times that we had.  But first, I thought I should share a story that falls more into the "terrifying" category than the "fun times" photos that follow.

So. It was Friday.  The kids and I were stoked for what promised to be a pretty spectacular day at Heritage Museums & Gardens - a bit of a drive, but a favourite spot to spend a morning (or a day, if you don't have nappers). What's more, the weather was gorgeous, and we were meeting three other families there with whom we love spending time.  All signs pointed to awesome.

Map of Heritage Museums and Gardens

As you can see from the map, the grounds are extensive, and have any number of pretty amazing features to visit. Right now, they have a giant bug exhibit, where you find truly ginormous ants and spiders and other such things displayed at various different areas throughout the gardens and grounds.

The kids stumbled across a spider in a web

As a kid, however, the highlight is truly "Hidden Hollow" (the green area in the upper right hand corner of the map).  It is a hike to get there from the parking lot, but absolutely worth the price of admission, all on its own.  It is this HUGE outdoor area with countless different whimsical play areas, and a massive treehouse overlooking it all.  It is magical. 

Linden poses on a stump on our long hike to Hidden Hollow

So naturally, though we spent a nice amount of time poking around different trails and paths to get there, Hidden Hollow was the main attraction. It was a zoo - completely crawling with kids and families, but with 5 adults between all of our kids, I was not worried about where my kids were most of the time.  Correction - I was not worried about where Juniper was at any given time.  Linden was being particularly difficult that day - going out of his way to be defiant and just generally unpleasant.  So I mostly stuck very close to him to make sure he wasn't throwing marimba mallets at unsuspecting kids or purposely sabotaging someone's painstakingly built lean-to.

Anyway, the kids played there very happily for a good couple of hours,  and had managed to stuff some lunch in their mouths, and visit most of the different areas.  Juniper wanted to check out the tree house, so I let her do that with the intention of packing things up when she emerged at the bottom.  When she got to the top, I waved and yelled, "Hi, Juniper!", then turned to extricate Linden from a squabble that was starting to erupt between him and some not-very-nice older girls who were in the middle of saying "go away little boy!" (this particular altercation, for the record, was actually not his fault).

Finally, I managed to get everything packed up, strapped Linden into the stroller, and turned to wrangle Juniper from wherever she was playing.  "Juniper!"  I yelled.  No response. Stroller in tow, I started systematically poking around all the corners and all the different play areas, asking the kids who were with us if they knew where she was.  I did the loop about three times before I started to get a little panicky.  She wasn't in the tree house, she wasn't in any of the different stations, and no one had seen her in a little while.  Hidden Hollow is big, but contained, and by all accounts she had vanished. I left Linden and the stroller with a friend, and started running.  I left Hidden Hollow shouting her name, everyone else doing the same.  I did a large loop around the perimeter - nothing.

By the time I got back down, I was in tears, and the woman in charge of Hidden Hollow asked if I wanted her to contact security.  Yes, of course I did.  She was very reassuring, telling me how the security guards there are amazingly good at their job, and that they would find her in no time, but by that point I couldn't even give a description of her clothes without sobbing. Somehow, in a relatively short amount of time, there was a man in uniform, with a walkie-talkie, asking me "what's her name, again?" 

"Juniper", I managed to tell him.

He nodded. "We've got her - she's at the gift shop".

"Oh my god, THANK YOU", I managed to sob, and took off at a run.  

The way back seemed to take FOREVER.  If you look at the map, it is actually a pretty good distance between Hidden Hollow (top right), and the Main Gate (bottom left), which is where the admin buildings and the parking lot are. 

As it turns out, Juniper had made it back to that area ALL BY HERSELF.  Two kindly old ladies found her just before she reached the admin buildings, and took her to the gift shop to wait. This still completely boggles my mind.  It is not a straight or intuitive path to get from one to the other, and we had meandered and poked along different paths on our way there. That she didn't just get completely lost along the way is kind of a miracle.

Apparently, when I was waving and saying "hi" when she was in the treehouse, Juniper thought I was waving good-bye.  When she got to the bottom, and didn't immediately see me, she just assumed that I had already left, and decided the best course of action was to make her way back to the car and meet me there.  We had a good long talk about that, and what she should do next time if she was in the same situation.

I honestly cannot remember the last time I was that terrified.  I would just break into tears throughout the rest of that day whenever I thought about it.  But all ended as well as it could have, and hopefully (at the very least), it was a good lesson.

BIG BREATH.

So that is my long, terrifying story.  The rest of the week was pretty grand, and ended in a spectacular Sunday, where (among other things) Juniper and I went to a celebration at Highfield Hall and Gardens.  Free ice cream, lots of great activities, a yarn bombing exhibit, and the opening of a fabulous installation put on by some wonderful local potter friends of ours, called Collaborations in Clay (see here).  I actually really wish I'd gotten a picture of that, because it is put on by Kim and Hollis, both of whom I feel lucky to have met through my pottery journey here, but (more to the point) Juniper truly considers them both dear and bosom friends.  I will make sure to snap a photo next time around.

And... here are those photos I promised. Have a great week!

On our way to a lovely backyard Mexican-themed fiesta at the Morrisons' 

Linden asked me to help him into this tree, and then said "OK - now take my picture".  No joke.

"Smile, Juniper".  Maybe one day it will be a nice, normal smile :)

A particularly beautiful yarn-bombed tree

OK - is this not a pretty amazing elephant for a 2-year old?

Nothing feels quite so powerful as being in charge of the hose.

up north and back again

Joyful running: Covered Bridge, Wakefield QC

You got treated to a guest post last week!  Clark totally stepped up to the plate, and remembered that I had no way of posting in the middle of of girls' retreat. I had just sadly resigned myself to the fact that we'd have a missing Monday, but was thrilled to get back to Wakefield Monday evening, and find that the blogging had gone on as usual.

So, clearly, we did an epic road trip with the kids, managed some complicated details in the middle of it all, and then made it home in one piece.  I'm not going to say it was a piece of cake, or that I came back refreshed and ready to tackle the world, but I am, at the very least, extremely happy that we did it. 

The kids were truly as good as you could hope a 2- and 4 year-old would be on such long stretches of driving, which was 9.5 hours on the way there, and 11 on the way back.  There was a prize bag involved (with new books, drawing pads, stickers and the like), more snacks than seemed humanly possible to consume, ipods loaded with classic Sesame Street episodes, endless supplies of kids music, and lots of rest stops.  For instance:

Jumping Jack break at the NH liquor store, of all places

Lunch picnic break after crossing the border

The main goal of the trip was to visit some pretty amazing people, and to that end, we had an awesome time.  For almost the entire trip, the family hunkered down at Judith and Simon's absolutely gorgeous house in Wakefield, QC. We had an entire floor to ourselves, so it was comfortable, homey, and luxurious.  There was also a crazy-amazing backyard play area, complete with climbing wall, swings, rings, fort, soccer net, and zip-line (plus a trampoline next door). And even though Juniper started off the visit by being sick (a day of puking, followed by some night-time extended periods of hallucinating, which was terrifying), it was honestly a nicer space to convalesce than it would have been if we were home.  Plus, miraculously, no one else got sick, so it could have been much, much worse.  Plus, we got to hang out with Simon and Judith, which is always such an amazing treat.  How I wish we lived closer!

So many delicious meals around this table!

Then, on Friday, the family dropped me off at Jane's house in Ottawa for the beginning of our girls' retreat.  2014 marks the 20 year anniversary of when the group of us all started hanging out (ie, the beginning of highschool), so there was an agreement that a reunion was in order.  Masterminded by Erin (who also lives in Ottawa), and hosted by Jane, somehow 6 of the 8 of us managed to make our way there for one hilarious and jam-packed weekend. There was a lot of chatting and laughing, some old-school road tripping, a whole lot of ridiculously good food (food ended up being the focal point of our side-trip to Montreal), and it all ended with a trip to Spa Nordique.  Ummmm... amazing. Seriously.  I may have to move there just for Spa Nordique. 

After one of the best meals I've ever had, at Damas in Montreal

 And now we're back! I feel like I'm still recovering a bit (I'm just getting over what ended up being a 3-week-long sore throat), and Clark has been going full-tilt overtime since our return (which means I have as well), and Juniper is in a little lull between the end of pre-school and the beginning of summer camp (she'll be going two mornings a week, starting in July), so the days have been packed.  Juniper is in a phase where she writes signs, and then very earnestly wonders why people are not showing up.  It is ridiculously cute, and a little bit heartbreaking. For instance, on Saturday, she spent a good part of the afternoon making little patties of mud from the garden, and put out a "flower compost on sale, open until supper" sign. It was a super good deal, too - 50 cents/patty, but you could also pay in leaves. No one came except me and Clark.
And this morning, she got dressed in a fancy skirt and dress and tiara, and put a sign in the window, indicating: "dance going on today". An air-conditioner repairman mistakenly showed up at one point (oh, if only we had an air conditioner to repair!), and she honestly thought he had seen the sign and had come for the show.

If only people had known what a good deal it was!

 At the very least, the weather has been phenomenal here - warm and sunny, coupled with a crisp, fresh breeze, hovering around 19 degrees C.  Perfect for - well - most outdoor adventures.  Saturday we went to an awesome Mexican-themed party at our friends' house, and yesterday we spent much of our day in and around the "Arts Alive Falmouth" fair, Juniper rocking her new oversized dress shirt and my hat.  Not a bad way to welcome in summer!

Clearly, she looked ridiculously cute.

Guest post: Fathers' day, by dad

Tara's off on a weekend retreat with her high school girlfriends in Montréal, and the kids and I have hunkered down with our good friends Simon and Judith in the Gatineau region of Québec so it's my duty to fulfill the regular update. Our drive from the Cape to Ottawa went pretty well, all things considered. The kids were about as good as you could expect two people under 5 to be on a 10 hour trip -- no meltdowns, no significant issues, but no naps, either. Tara brought along a bunch of "prizes" to be awarded after successful rest stops, a few of which were big hits.

Now, on to the photos. First, the Child Center Carnival day:

Linden making huge bubbles

Cuteness!

Face-painting was a popular activity

After the long drive to Ottawa, a nice night at our friends Jane and Mike's place, followed by some puking by Juniper (some kind of stomach bug I guess), we made it to Simon and Judith's in the Gatineau hills. Below, some photos from our adventures over the last couple days while Tara has been away:

Story time with Judith

Making Fathers' day surprises at the Wakefield Farmers Market

Making good use of the nice neighbors trampoline

Superhero mask-making at WestFest!

Juniper showing her strength on the high striker (with Simon's help). She got a 4!

Almost on our way...

Post-sprinkler picnic

 Clark is back. Thank. Goodness. I survived the week - albeit barely.  I pulled it off with the help of wonderful neighbours, an extra day of preschool/daycare, a bunch of Advil, and a whole lot of bonus sleep whenever I could manage it.  But my throat is still quite sore (over a week later!) and I'm perpetually exhausted.  So whatever this was (is?) really did a number on me.

Juniper making a fairy house at pottery class.

 Anyway, needless to say, I did not spend the week snapping whimsical pictures of our many hilarious escapades...  I was too busy grasping desperately at the threads of sanity that were receding farther and farther with each passing day. (not to be overly dramatic or anything).

Today we madly try and get ready for an epic road trip - bright and early tomorrow, we are off to visit some wonderful friends in Ontario and Quebec.  Did I mention it was a road trip?  With two young, demanding, bouncy kids?  Please wish us luck. Juniper has already packed her own suitcase, and apparently I'm not allowed to touch it or make adjustments, so we're already off to a good start.

I leave you with a mixed media piece I found on the easel yesterday (acrylic, glitter glue, wildflowers), entitled "buttercup painting".

buttercup painting

Sick and solo

Mud Pool

This is going to be a short post - I am sick with some sort of flu-like thing that has left me miserable, but clearly functional enough to take care of both kids solo.  Clark is off at a conference in Quebec, I literally started getting chills and a sore throat etc maybe an hour after he left.  Needless to say, this weekend has been a bust, but there were a couple of things during the week that were picture-worthy:

I weeded the garden, and Juniper made herself a "mud pool", where she sat and made mud cakes for hours.

Linden, of course, joined in on the fun when he got up from his nap.  They have never been so muddy.

Juniper, about to go to "kindergarten orientation". WHAT?  That's right, folks - kindergarten in the fall.

Tackling the climbing wall

At a b-day party on Saturday, which  I miraculously brought them to.

I'll leave you with some Linden musings I've been getting lately. You can let me know if they make sense to you, because I'm still trying to puzzle them out...

Linden: "Mom, can I squeak your breast?"
Tara: "Ummmm... no?"
Linden: "Why?  Is it too hard?"

Linden: (grabbing my face with both hands) "Mom, can I rip your face off?"
Tara: "Goodness, Linden! No!"
Linden: "Why?  Is it stuck?"

And there you have it. Here's hoping the rest of my solo week goes better than the first bit!