all hooped up

I was invited to have breakfast with the kids at school and afterwards we went outside to play. Malcolm showed me the fun game he does at recess. He rolls a hula hoop along the ground and then runs in and out of it.

Jane thought it was fun, too!

apple afternoon

We finally went apple picking! First the kids had cider donuts.

All ready to go!

Maddy came with us, yay!

Climbing on ladders was the best part (after the donuts)!

Salem

We wanted to visit Salem before it gets too crazy in October. Our first stop was the Peabody Essex Museum. The Childe Hassam exhibit was fantastic (no photography allowed) but other than that we were pretty disappointed that many of the sections were closed. It was also too bad we missed the Rodin exhibit.

We found out later that Kirk Hammett, Metallica's guitarist, was at the museum the same weekend as us! Too bad we didn't run into him.

We had to stop at Stickwork again!

"Here's your coffee."

Salem Beer Works, of course.

We walked along the harbor. It was such a nice day.

I'm glad the photos don't show how much the kids were whining!

potluck dinner

We always have fun at the CSA potluck dinner!

Jane had an extra good time because her friend Maddy did the CSA this year.

Malcolm is back to dressing up on Saturdays.

They had fun with glow sticks in the dark!

Fall is here!

In May I planted six tiny tomato plants. They're huge now and I've been getting tons and tons of cherry tomatoes. There are 10-20 ripe ones a day!

I've been having a lot of lunches involving basil, mozzarella and tomatoes.

Our jalapeños haven't been as prolific but I used a few along with peppers from our CSA to make pickled spicy peppers. They were so good!

This is one of the nice views from my bike ride.

exciting stuff

Last week I got the kids Pedroia shirts when I was at Fenway!

Jane is going to play trumpet in the school band!

Jane and Maddy started a cooking club. Last week they told us they found a recipe for the "muffin recipe of the year" on the internet at school, and made these. After they were done Jane told me they had invented the recipe themselves but didn't tell us the truth because we wouldn't have let them try it! They actually came out pretty good!

The kids had fun doing activities at the library related to Roald Dahl books! They made chocolate slime, glow bugs and dream jars.

applefest 2016

We had a fun applefest this year! Some of the photos are by Lindsay!

We made apples out of felt.

There was a lot of yummy food, of course!

field hockey

Jane's playing field hockey this fall instead of soccer. She likes it so far! They do drills for the first part and then scrimmage at the end. She liked the artificial turf compared to playing on grass over the summer. I played when I was young so watching her makes me want to play again!

labor day cookout 2016

I didn't really take any photos at our cookout this year - I guess I was having too much fun! These are the flowers I picked at the farm to decorate for the party.

We had a lot of fun with our friends. The weather was perfect - 70 and sunny. The theme for the food was Middle Eastern!

school begins again

The kids were excited to go back to school! Malcolm blew bubbles while he waited for the bus.

They both had great days. They both like their teachers and have a lot of friends in their classes!