Catching crabs with Marc and other adventures

We headed to Heritage Museum and Gardens to do three awesome things:  1.) Enjoy the beautiful grounds (amazing), 2.) Ride the huge indoor carousel at one of their museums and 3.) visit their incredible outdoor play zone for kids (called Hidden Hollow).  Here are pictures from to of the three, but mostly of playing.        

After the gardens we headed over to Marc, Wendy, Griffin, and Colton’s house for food and fun.

Marc took Clara down to the inlet and taught her how to net some crabs!

Seesaw, boardwalk, and ice cream

One our favorite ponds is Wakeby pond, because it is large, has great shade, a good short hike, and a seesaw!

One of the signature images in Sandwich is its long boardwalk across saltwater marsh to the ocean.  We walked the planks together and spotted some crabs and birds along the way.  Clara and Gwen both loved being up so high and on such a big long bridge.

(Ordering these is a little difficult on my cell phone-c if u can figure it out)

After our boardwalk adventure we had our seafood night out at Sam’s.
Fried haddock, calamari, scallops, shrimp, etc. Awesome! We topped the day off with a trip to some ice cream. Papa came out on top thus night-ask Gwen who gave her, her first cone.

Wendy’s House, Jam, and Snuggling

We visited Wendy, Griffin, and Colton today!  We started indoors with puzzles and quickly moved to the beach.

After playing at the beach we headed back for lunch and let Gwen have a little nap. Clara went on an adventure with Grammy shopping. After nap we headed to Briarwood Nature Center to see flowers, animals, and hike!

Peter’s Pond

We started our first full day in the warmer and gentler waters at Peter’s Pond.  We like Peter’s Pond because it has the big three (beyond water and sand): shade, swings, and picnic tables. We used all of them!

 

In the late afternoon we did a short hike at Murkwood reservation.

Sandwich with three begins

We are returning to Sandwich for a week in the sun with family and friends.  As soon as we pulled up we unloaded our things and walked down for our first touch of “ocean water.”

After we took our brief beach outing we returned for Papa’s birthday party. The main event was obviously the cake!

A good first night.

Grammy and Papa visit for the day*

Grammy and Papa came to hit the zoo and water park with girls and enjoy our sunny 83 degree day.  Clara loves when Grammy visits, and can barely control herself when Grammy brings daisy.  Gwen squeaks and screams with joy around daisy and Clara provides all the words.  They both live, it seems, to see “aminals” (cats, squirrels, dogs, birds, giraffes, zebra, etc.), but daisy is definitely king.

Gwen is a climbing machine and her physical prowess continues, but she has recently picked up in the vocabulary department-we are now in double digits with agua and gracias at the forefront.

I hope to have a couple posts soon on our two weeks on the cape.  Stay tuned.

Oh, and Clara and Gwen if your reading this-your Mom and dad love you very much.

Parties and playgrounds*

We just got back from a bday party at one of Clara’s friends–Clara and Gwen really rocked it out.  I have included four videos of their exploits for you to enjoy.

After the videos are more pics and videos from the playgrounds, malls, and other party we hit.  It is absolutely wonderful to watch both of them grow and live–enjoy it with us!

*post done by cell phone

Bay Head, NJ*

I don’t have too many pics from this past weekend, but the few I have I’ll share!

We visited a whole lot of people in a matter of a couple of days.  Heather and Papa (Vic) took the girls on Thursday and visited the great grandparents in Brick, NJ.  I love that they get to visit them in the flesh so we can talk about them and tell stories when we are away.  Sorry to have missed that part of the trip.

On Friday I joined them at Chuck and Jaime Vernon’s house for Heather’s annual high school reunion.  Chuck and Jaime are such gracious hosts-each year we test their hospitality more and more!  On Saturday, the house was full of humans both little and big:

1.  Chuck and Jaime

2.  Cara, Brenda, Hailey, Patrick, and Tatum

3.  Heike, Brendan, Quinn, Ronin, Declin, and Cavan

4.  Heather, Darren, Vic, Clara, and Gwen.

We went crabbing, hit the playground, and the beach as well as swung on the swing on the porch, read books, rode some scooters, and kicked beach balls in the backyard.  Never a dull moment!

It was wonderful seeing everyone. Thank you.

*Another cell phone post.

The only video of the weekend!

Where to begin?

So I have lapsed a bit.  Here are the excuses in no particular order: (1)  mac broke about 3 months ago and it holds a lot of the recent pics, etc.  (2)  two young ladies in constant motion (3) professional demands and of course (4) life.

I decided, today, that I will catch-up once I replace the computer, but for now I need to start documenting our family adventures.  This will be my first cell phone post.

This weekend was super hot in Boston so we spent our time cooling off at the water parks, relaxing in the indoor parts of the zoo,  and chilling in AC over at Clara’s friend’s house (Lorelei).

Clara and Gwen are becoming good friends and are playing with each other more and more each day.  I hope the pics and video show how close they are becoming.

Food and conversation

[This is the first of many catching-up posts for our activities before February 21, 2011]

We are almost to totally real food for everyone at the table and even some conversation.  Gwen has started eating real soup, yogurt, bread, and fruit.  She is crawling and cruising around everywhere (almost walking), uttering more noises by the day, and playing alongside of Clara [Remember, this post is for before February 21st!!!].  As for the conversation, Clara is starting to tell some short stories.  One of my favorite conversations occur when we are in the car after we pick up Gwen from “baby-school.”  Clara tells Gwen that we are in dada’s car and that we are going to see mama really soon.  Then she tells her that mama’s car is better and to not worry, because we are almost there.  Every day.

With all the snow days this past month, we have spent a GREAT deal of time indoors.  We are finding our groove mixing it up between forts, playdough, drawing, building wth blocks, cooking, and wrestling.  We have had a great time!

Next post will be a little bit of Grammy’s house mixed with our trip to Philadelphia!!  I’m playing catch-up.  Remember walking Gwen is coming soon!