Happy Thanksgiving!

It's shaping up to be a snowy Thanksgiving, which is fine with us since we're staying home.  Jake finished all the shopping on Tuesday, and all our long-distance guests have already arrived.  We have John and Rose and Margaret already with us, and we will soon have Paul and Kathy and Christopher.   Jake has been in the kitchen cooking up a storm.

Lucy had a half day at school today, which was actually a 2.5 hour long school day, likely the least educational day ever.  But nonetheless, she brought home her turkey-in-disguise:

Explanation: every student was sent home last week with a picture of a turkey, and we were told to disguise the turkey so no one would know it was a turkey.  Not so easy.  So they all brought their turkeys back, and then every kid wrote a story about his/her turkey. Here is Lucy's:

So pillgrums and canabulls.  First grade is going well.

And for any of you out there struggling to prepare Thanksgiving dinner, here's Lucy's expert cooking advice:

 That about does it.  Have a Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

We are very grateful to have so many wonderful friends and family in our lives.

Happy Seventh Birthday, Lucy!

We've had a tremendous couple of days here celebrating Lucy's seventh Birthday.  On Saturday we went to see the live show of the Wild Kratts (a PBS show about wild animals).  Lucy and her BFF Ruth loved it.  And it was a total surprise (for the girls) until we arrived at the auditorium.  On Sunday, Lucy had her Birthday party, including kids from the neighborhood and school.  Lucy asked for a science theme, and we delivered, I am proud to say. Every kid got a lab coat and eye protection (naturally) and they loved being dressed up. We had a microscope (the kids were crazy about it!), a volcano experiment, and then polymer worms that they got to make.  It was great, great, science-y fun.  Also, Jake made a cake.  A fabulous cake (shown on the table near the very excited pre-party Lucy):

Today was the day.  Lucy had to go to school and we had to go to work, but there was no denying the excitement.  We have a seven year old!  We have this seven year old:

Life is good.

It's going to be a busy week with the upcoming trip for Abby's wedding (hooray!) and then the impending Thanksgiving visitors.  We can't wait to see everyone.

Happy November!

Life with Alice

We have so much to learn.

Recent losses to Alice include:
--shoes
--books
--crayons (poop the rainbow!)
--tiny, tiny, tiny Playmobile vet kit (oh, the irony!)

Here's the scene of her crime against literature:

That's Shel Silverstein, Beverly Cleary, and Bunnicula. Either she has good taste, or they taste good.

And you've already seen what she can do when left alone with shoes.

One of the very first toys we got her was a super-tough stuffed lobster (we got it in Maine, naturally).  She finally conquered the lobster, after quite a long time of working on it; here she is, proud of her handiwork:

So I decided to restuff it (adding some fleece fabric in the carapace):

Her response:

With those paws crossed, doesn't she look pleased with herself?  Maybe something like "you have grossly underestimated my capacity for destruction" is her thought here?

She can be chill; here's a shot of a pretty typical morning:

But now that I examine the photographic evidence, Lucy is reading the Shel Silverstein book that Alice would later go on to chew (see above).  Maybe she's not relaxed here, but rather, harboring seething resentment against Shel for distracting Lucy from her.

Anyway, we are working on giving Alice appropriate outlets for her energy, including regular visits to the Social Pup, our awesome local doggy daycare.

And also, we're working on her first film (dogs in this house are required to become famous).  Here's her first internet meme reel:

http://cuteoverload.com/2014/10/30/alice-just-cannot-be-leaf-it/

And if that's not funny enough, Jake also got it Benny-Hill-ified:

http://bennyhillifier.com/?id=GC9fMdTUsng

Have a happy day.  May your dog only destroy things you wanted to have destroyed.

'Tis the Season...

....when we celebrate Lucy's Birthday!  This year, it's a week-long affair, it seems (maybe more!).

Today, since we all had off from school & work, *and* the weather was unbelievable beautiful, we decided to take our November Salem vacation day, which is now an annual event.  I believe it began back when Lucy turned five, at least if our blog is to be believed: http://thischarmingoldhouse.blogspot.com/2012/11/happy-5th-birthday-lucy.html

Once again, we hit the Peabody Essex Museum, which once again amazed us.  I think it is simply one of the best museums to visit with a kid (or without one!).  Right now, they have a Calder exhibit (yes, the guy who did all the mobiles) and it was so cool.  In addition, they have an exhibit called Branching Out: Trees as Art, which has a ton of hands-on features (it's in the gallery that previously had the human-animal exhibit, which was also very hands-on).  We recommend both exhibits highly.  Lucy particularly liked the tree room.

So we've taken Lucy to the Peabody Essex a handful of times, and every time we intend to go on the tour of the Yin Yu Tang Chinese House, but every time we end up spending so much time in the other galleries that we are exhausted and don't manage to get to it.  But today, we made it the FIRST thing. And it was awesome. The house was built in 1800 and housed 8 generations of the Huang family in southeaster China.  The house was taken apart and brought to Salem, where it was reconstructed in 2006.  Everyday objects (cooking utensils, clothing, games, etc.) are all placed in the home, and you can go into each room to see how people lived there at various times.  Lucy loved it (so did we).

We had both breakfast and lunch at our favorite Salem bakery, A&J King, and we also had a brief visit to Nathaniel Hawthorne's House of Seven Gables and to Ye Olde Pepper Candy Companie (their spelling, not mine), where horehound candies abound. We walked along the waterfront and checked out the lighthouse.

All in all, a lovely day!  And don't worry, Alice was very happy, too.  She spent the day with all her dog buddies at the Social Pup.

Stay tuned for the further Birthday chronicles, including a surprise secret trip to see a show (she doesn't know about this), the SCIENCE-themed Birthday party, and who knows what else.

Happy November, folks!