Archive for the ‘Friends’ Tag

Hammond Castle

Thursday, July 5th, 2012 by Jen

This morning our preschool group drove up to Gloucester to enhance our lessons on castles at Hammond Castle. As usual with all trips, we arrive, and then we eat.

It was built in the 1920’s by a man made wealthy by inventing new kinds of remote control to be used in the war. It was built taking inspiration from his favorite parts of Europe including using gargolyes, a rose window, flying buttresses as well as small cross windows to make it hard to shoot arrows inside. It was eclectic. Also not the best place for small children as the entire museum is ‘don’t touch’ so Blake and Celia were carried through. The grounds outside were lovely though and the kids loved finding the different lions around. The drawbridge was also a big hit. All-together I was actually a bit disappointed though because it was hard  to get any information about anything, it was just a self-guided look at things tour, not too many explanations or detailed information on items. Josie was mostly concerned that someone would try to knock it down while we were in it. She and Bronwyn also had a heated discussion about whether the knight’s armor would be what someone would wear if they were to knock down a castle. Celia loved to walk up and down the steep stone stairs and sit on the lions. Blake celebrated the huge truck that was there to deliver and install a tent. He wanted his photo taken with the truck wheel.

Strawberry picking

Sunday, June 17th, 2012 by Jen

Yesterday morning we went strawberry picking at Verill Farm in Concord. They had a pick-your-own strawberries and since I usually miss the season each year, this year I really tried to pay attention and jump on it when the strawberries were ripe. We went with our neighbors Christina, Zach and Ethan and had a great time picking the berries. Josie caught on right away how to look for the good ones and did pretty well. Celia was just tickled pink at getting to rip things off of plants which is usually not allowed, she’d often pick the white ones. After a while she figured out that she was allowed to eat some and then she was overjoyed as she loves strawberries. The picking was fast as we can’t eat too many pounds of strawberries at once. We got about 3 lbs by the time we were done, I sorted through them for the rotten/squished/not ripe ones and we headed over near the other fields for a snack and we and the kids played around for a while. I enjoyed using my camera and trying to work on backlighting since it was full sun but at least it wasn’t noon.

We had fun, we’ll definitely have to go again next year! I also tried a new trick that I read online which was  to soak the berries in a 1-10 vinegar-water solution to kill mold and bacteria that makes them rot. Normally I know they shouldn’t get wet so I’m interested to see if this works at all.

Driveway Paint

Monday, May 28th, 2012 by Jen

About a month ago I found a recipe for some driveway paint and let the kids have at it. It was easy to mix, half water half cornstarch and while the mixture was a little odd, when poured on thick it went well onto the driveway and left some major fun colors! We even attracted all the neighboring kids to play with us too and paint. This week we bought three boxes of cornstarch to make more fun paint!

Don’t look now…

Monday, May 7th, 2012 by Jen

but there’s a bear behind you!

My weekend photoshoot

Monday, April 16th, 2012 by Jen

I had some fun this weekend with my friend Chrissie and her family trying to get some family shots and those of the kids! Here’s some of my favorites.

And oh yeah we had a lot of this too…

It’s a tough time to get small children cooperating when the sun is looking it’s best!

Christmas festivities throughout December

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012 by Jen

Going way back again… as part of our Christmas celebrations I did a number of projects over the month of December while inviting friends over to join us. I wanted to make sure the holiday season was about more than just a big pile of presents but about sharing and making memories with friends. We did cinnamon ornaments (note to self: use glue), string balls (note to self fill water balloons with water), gingerbread houses (note to self: awesome job using milk cartons!), and a mommy gift of hand scrub.

The cinnamon ornaments burned Josie’s hands and rather fell apart. So I think next year we need to use rolling pins and add glue to the mixture of applesauce and cinnamon, or maybe just skip them all together. They sure made the house smell good.

The string balls proved to be a little difficult for the kids. (Basically you dip thin string in glue watered down and wrap it around a balloon and pop the balloon after it dries. Viola, string ball) But Josie enjoyed making them and we had a good party. Next year not only will I get water balloons, but I will fill them with water, not air, so they are actually round. They were more pears shaped. They are pretty though and Josie liked hanging them up and pointing them out. Maybe next year she’ll be able to do it more herself.

And our final project was the classic gingerbread houses. I wasn’t going to buy a bunch of kits at $20 a pop so I made my own gingerbread and royal icing and bought the candies to go on top. This was a project the kids really jumped into. We used small milk or cream containers to be the basic structure so it would stand up to preschooler-applied-candy-pressure, this was KEY. Then they squeezed and decorated to their hearts content. Celia loved it too, although I had to keep pulling candy out of her mouth. She’d put it on the house and then take it off and lick it. Josie had a particular favorite candy as I’m sure you can see from her house. Chrissie and Charlotte joined us for construction. I had to guilt Chrissie into coming over after all the work making the gingerbread, because it turns out she was in the early weeks of pregnancy and super sick, so I feel bad now, but I think they had some fun.

More photostalking my friend’s kids

Thursday, March 29th, 2012 by Jen

We’ve had an incredibly warm March and winter here in Boston this year. A few weeks ago we got fantastic weather and so I invited friends to a nearby park to play and let me take their picture. We brought some balloons because I wanted to have some fun photos with them, which didn’t quite work out according to plan. We lost half of them 30 minutes or so into playtime as they came untied from the weight they were attached to, which was a BIG TRAGEDY for the three year olds. It was this set of photographs that made me convinced something was wrong with my camera too, as I was focusing behind adults sitting still and not getting the results I was careful to make sure it was set up to do. So the photos are a bit soft sadly, but I like a bunch of them still and enjoyed playing with the light and shadows!

Cape Cod 2011

Monday, March 26th, 2012 by Jen

To continue with my super-late posts… We went to Cape Cod last summer too! With my parents, and Christina and family joined us for half the week too. We rented the same house with the pool on the lower cape and had a blast swimming and enjoying the outdoors. Right before this trip I just got my 35mm lens which was super fun as the house had a lot of light for taking some decent pictures. I shot over 1000 photos that trip through the week. Now I’d like to think I could do a better job this year but some of these weren’t too bad.

We did our usual fun things. Swim in the pool, go to the beach, flew the kites, go to a baseball game, and eat lots of ice cream. Sadly I really do need to write these posts more quickly because now I’ve forgotten most of the details. I do remember Celia constantly walking off with people’s shoes. The flies were bad this year on the south cape beach, we couldn’t even eat on the beach unless we were in the tent or in the water, the previous year it had been the seaweed. Both years going to Old Silver Beach proved to be a good choice! I’ll let the photos do most of the talking… we had good clean fun and it was nice how the kids enjoyed each other!

I enjoyed getting to photograph my parents, as they follow directions much better than my children!

 

 

 

Storyland from Summer 2011

Sunday, March 25th, 2012 by Jen

So I’m way behind with several fun things we’ve been doing over the year. One of which was going to Storyland last summer! It’s now so late that we are already planning our trip for this next summer! Last year when we went, Celia was just starting to walk and was still taking two naps. We went with our friends and neighbors Christina, Chanh, Ethan and Zach and another family of friends too. Ethan was big enough to go on all the rides but Josie and Zach weren’t yet. We drove down, stopped at Panera and played in the grass after eating. I snapped one of these photos that somehow I keep taking, Josie has a habit of grabbing Celia around the neck.

The first ride we got on was a variation of the tea cups. Josie was not experienced with those kinds of rides and so she neglected to let go of the center spinner and go dragged around the circle. Not the best of beginnings but after she dusted herself off we were on our way to find some more rides including the polar coaster (an artic themed roller coaster).

Celia spent a lot of time in the stroller taking in all the people and sounds of the area. She loved a little clock in the middle of a garden and the milk-able cow. One fun spot was this indoor place that had balls flinging all over, falling from the ceiling through tubes and vacuums.

It is a very small-child oriented park, at the beginning of every ride they tell you to give a ‘thumbs down’ if you want the ride to stop. The most intense one where I almost stuck out my thumb for Josie was the spinning turtles. The green on Josie’s face was a color cast from the ride, but she was a little overwhelmed.

Josie was pretty excited all day and it was nice to get big smiles like this!

A big highlight for Josie was meeting Cinderella. The castle was sadly dark and horribly lit for photos, which is odd considering the castle is nothing BUT a photo opportunity place. Josie has said her current career aspiration is to be Cinderella at Storyland when she grows up, telling people that the park is going to close at 5:45 every night and taking pictures with little kids. She also plans to market and sell a pillow with her picture on it, one set with her as a little girl (aka now) and one as a grown up. These business plans have been a recent development.

We also got Josie’s face painted, which we won’t be doing again, at least to that extent. It was a neat face design and she even waited pretty well in a long hot line to get painted. But it got into her eyes and it was a big crying mess to clean her up that night. Here she is with her tiger face paint milking the pretend cow.

I can’t believe how little Celia was last year compared to now, she’s grown so much so fast. Celia spent a lot of time in the carrier watching everything going by, like in this photo on the train. I think she’s going to be overjoyed to go this year and see everything!

It was a great trip, other than the ride up there and back in which Josie chose to cry and complain most of the time. She was so sad to go home she pretty much just cried the whole 3 hours home. Thankfully Celia was at the stage where she just slept.

The other little girl sadly was sick the whole time with what turned out to be Roseola which we didn’t catch. Hopefully she and Celia will be able to play more this year. Next year I’ll work on a better group photo, but keeping everyone looking and even in frame was a real challenge and none of the kids were too cheerful about going home!

Sunday with the Howells

Monday, February 27th, 2012 by Jen

Sunday we drove down to Rhode Island to have a visit with our friends and the Providence Children’s Museum. Using our nice shiny new Boston museum membership we enjoyed a free trip (except for the gas) and a new place for the kids to play while the grown ups catch up. Very different from the parties of yesteryear but we had fun and kept the kids busy and tired with new activities. Here’s a few photos from our fun! Josie liked the over-sized light-bright best. Celia loved the water tables and had to be dragged away kicking and screaming for lunch, she’s going to be happy in the summer with the water table.

The light was different all over the museum, so it gave me a real run for my money adjusting settings to try to get usable pictures.

Shortly after this picture was taken Xander turned the pipe and sent the water direction out of the table onto the floor (right near the drain thankfully).