SPRING BREAK! (plus further meditations on mortality)

So it's Spring Break here.  And, amazingly, the weather is distinctly spring-y.  In fact, spring-y in a way that spring never is here.  We're loving it.

This weekend we played host to some cousins from family far and near, including Cole & Bianca (representing the "near" category, as they live in Boston), and the Texas branch of the Sullivan clan (representing "far" -- TEXAS!), including: Donny, Mary-Beth, Patrick, Daniel, Eileen, and Natalie.  I failed to get a photo of the full group, but this one of Lucy + the quadruplets is representative:

Lucy was SO excited to have so many people here.  She was in fine form, ready to entertain, in costumes such as this:

Don't ask me where she gets her fashion sense.

Further amping up the excitement levels, she (and Jake) had purchased a little kit that enables the user to make their own balloon animals. It included a bunch of those long skinny balloons and a little pumper that (supposedly) makes it easier to inflate those (insert expletive here) balloons.  It was $3.99 at the grocery store, and it was terrible.  But Lucy had been about to EXPLODE with anticipation of the balloon fun she wanted to have, so we had to press on, despite the disturbing sense of feeling faint from trying to blow up tiny balloons, and all the popping of said (very cheap) balloons.  We eventually resorted to the bike pump; Eileen and Patrick also somehow managed to get the pump (sort of ) working.  And Lucy proved to be a demanding manager, insisting on MORE balloons and MORE animals.  Good thing her cousins were so very very patient and tolerant of the tyrant.

We had a LOVELY time and we hope everyone comes back again really soon!  Natalie? Eileen? Daniel? Patrick? Which one will take the bait of college life in the Northeast?  We totally volunteer to be surrogate parents!  We will move you into your dorm!  You will have Thanksgiving at 83 Durant!  Join us! You'll just have to make the occasional balloon animal.

The weather was so lovely that after out guests departed (good luck, college-hunting gang!!!!) we went off for a hike at the Lowell-Dracut State Forest.  Lucy brought with her a fabulous walking stick, as modeled here:

 She also used it for balancing, as seen here:

 Many thanks, Aunt Florrie, for providing such an awesome accessory for our hiker-girl!

Right now we're getting things in order for the impending St. Patrick's Day Party.  Are you coming?  Because a lot of people are coming.  Why would you not come?  Don't you remember how awesome it was last year and the year before, and the year(s) before that when we had such a good time that we never even bothered to document it (there is [fingers crossed] a forthcoming post featuring photos from these events, if I can find them)? 

So in order to prepare for the festivities, Jake and Lucy did some shopping out at Blood Farm (in Groton) last Friday, where we acquired 25+ pounds of brisket, which is currently being turned into corned beef.  Right now.  While there, Jake learned this important fact about the meats of Blood Farm:

Wow.  That sure is good to know.  Apparently, is IS very good that they don't use this stuff.  I won't go into it here, but if you just google "pink slime" you'll read some pretty horrifying news reports about the stuff.  So Blood Farm is our source for awesome meats and the most amazing bacon ever.  It is certified by every bacon-eating guest we've ever had.  They also have amazing ham.  When Cole showed up on Sunday, and we said there was ham, he got this dreamy look in his eyes, asking about the last time we'd served him ham, and lo, he was joyful upon the news that this ham, too, would be good.

So as I'm working on this post, I was about to link to a previous post about Blood Farm.  And then I realized, I don't have a previous post about Blood Farm.  That seemed impossible, until I looked and saw that I had a post in "Draft" status since last fall.  Ack!  How did that happen?  Well, WAAAAY back in October, we were on a visit to Blood Farm, and here is what happened (I am now copying the draft post from then, so the material below in purple is a totally authentic recounting of the events):

Lucy attempted to chase after a cat; when the cat (understandably) ran, I was concerned that we would not have a chance to see any critters.  But then Mr. Blood came out and said "do you want to see our llama?" 

Best question ever!

Of course we'd love to see your llama!

So we met Larry, the mascot of Blood Farm.  He's awesome.

[That's all the draft there is...you can see why I didn't post it at the time, as it needed more fleshing out.  Yes, I know, I'm writing about meat farm and used a "flesh" metaphor. Get over it.]

Upon meeting Larry, Lucy couldn't have been more delighted, and we were all the more endeared to Blood farm.  And yes, Blood Farm IS run by Mr. Blood, the fifth generations of the Blood family running this place.  They are Serious about meat. 

Anyway, to return to the now (or at least the more recent past), when we told Lucy that we were making another visit to get stuff at Blood Farm, she was excited to see Larry.

Do you know where this is going?

After picking up our order, Jake asked if they might be able to go visit Larry. 

The sad answer: "Larry passed away."

Lucy apparently took the news in stride.  We're not really sure how much she understands this sort of thing.  We're pretty sure she's developing a rather skewed understanding of such things (but who doesn't).  Some readers may remember some of her past insistence on facing mortality.  But really, it's the literature that's doing a number on her.  Figures.  We've been listening to the Harry Potter audio books, and when I walked in while she was listening to the second one (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets), during the basilisk scene, she gleefully exclaimed "Harry's going to die!"

Oh.  OK.

So when Jake and Lucy got home, I (unaware of what had happened) asked, "did you get to see Larry?"

"He passed along."

and that was it.  So we've dodged that bullet for a little while longer.  [Also, yes, I used that metaphor to talk about avoiding a conversation about death.  Funny.]

So, all this is to say, you should come to the St. Patrick's Day party and help us eat 25+ pounds of corned beef.  We'll raise a glass to Larry.