Halloween

We had quite the front porch this year, with all of Liam's great decorations spread around. The kids in the neighborhood had a ball triggering all the sensors.

Lee painstakingly drew and colored each of the pictures on our front door the week before Halloween. She was so proud of them that we taped them up. I quite like the effect.

On Halloween night, Clara was a zebra (again) and Lee a bat (again) and we went around the neighborhood and then to Hancock with Elisha and Libby.

Halloween 2010

Clara's First Horseback Ride

Well, technically Jimmy Joe is a pony, but he's as tall as a pony can be before being a horse.


Clara was rapt during the "tack-up" process.

There was a lot of adjustment needed for the helmet.

I love the blue stairs.

She rode around the ring five or six times. She didn't come close to reaching the stirrups, so it was all her balance and legs keeping her on.

"I want to go tomorrow!" she said.

Mackworth Island

One of the things we did when we were in Falmouth was go out to Mackworth Island, which is known for its collection of fairy houses in the woods. It was fun to explore, looking at all the houses people had created from natural woodland and seaside treasures.

Some Cool Fairy Houses

Lee with a Fairy House of her Creation

Clara on the Beach - Cold but Barefoot

Lee on the Beach

Boo!

Meredith gave the kids black t-shirts, Halloween decals, and sparkly fabric paint. Heaven! Lee decided to keep paint a pair of pants and put the decals on her shirt. It's quite the look.

Pickle and Cosmo

Britton Boys

We spent nearly a week in Falmouth watching the Britton boys while Deb and Alan went on a cruise. It's fun to dive into a house full of boys. The last time we did this was five years ago, and it was amazing how much easier everything was.

My Sister's License Plate

Clara Swordfighting

The Blanket Ride

Lee, with Jeans, a Sword, and a Ninja

Losing Clara

The other day we lost Clara. It was the scariest moment I've had since having children. I was busy packing and getting ready to leave, and the kids had been playing outside and inside. Daniel and Xan were around, as was Johanna. Clara had gone upstairs to pack up her backpack, and she had been up there a while. I figured she needed some time alone as she will often take some time to herself. But all of a sudden I realized I hadn't seen her in quite some time. I figured she had fallen asleep, which would have been odd but not unheard of. So I wandered upstairs, and she wasn't there. That's odd, I thought. I looked around the house and didn't see her. I asked Lee, who was playing outside, and Lee said "Mommy, I haven't seen her in a long, long time."

I searched the house again, even pulling down the attic stairs and looking and calling for her up there since I had been up in the attic earlier. I looked in the basement where the cat sleeps, and behind the couch. Then I looked outside. Then I started to panic. I got Johanna involved, and soon Bridges heard what was going on and got off his conference call. This turned into an all-neighborhood search. We went in everyone's house, we searched near the pond, near the screen house, etc...Bridges searched the house again, even going up in the attic again.

I was really scared, because I knew she wouldn't have wandered off by herself, so I thought that something terrible must have happened. I experienced a flash of a future where I would never know what had happened to her, and it was absolutely awful.

But then, after what seemed like a long time, Bridges yelled that he had found her. She had climbed up into the attic, laid down behind a bean bag chair so we couldn't see her from the top of the stairs, and fallen asleep so deeply she didn't hear us yelling for her. We had closed up the stairs after she had fallen asleep, so she was shut up in the attic while we searched the neighborhood.

There were lots of tears, especially from Lee. It's scary to see your parents so frightened.

Swim Group

This is my new swim group at Nubi. It's rare that all of us go together, but usually there is a subset of us walking out to the car at 6:15 am (and sometimes 5:30) on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Columbus Day Visit from Aunt Lee

Aunt Lee came to visit us for the first time since we've been living at Nubi. We had a great weekend, and having a visitor was a wonderful excuse to put aside projects and do some sightseeing.

There was lots of things going on, including an art tour and a wool arts tour. We did two stops on each. We also went for a nice hike up Mount Skatutakee and went apple picking at Norway Hill Orchard. We had fabulous fall weather the whole weekend, although the colors seemed a bit muted, perhaps because of the summer-long drought.

The woods leading up Mount Skatutakee were absolutely magical - lots of big rocks covered with moss. Lee was on the lookout for fairy homes, and there were lots of them.

Here's the view of Monadnock from the top.


Here are Aunt Lee and the girls in the apple orchard. It was a beautiful spot, and we only picked Macs based on the opinion of the matron of the orchard. It's hard to imagine anyone picks anything but Macs with her sales pitch.


We took a beautiful hayride at one of the wool tour farms.

I saw some of my favorite chocolate-brown sheep. Lee got to lead around a baby alpaca which was unbelievably soft. It's wonderful to see how much more comfortable she is now with animals.

Of course, a few of us from the neighborhood were window shopping for animals. What should we get? Alpacas, goats, sheep, miniature donkeys? Really, who can resist a face like this?