Surviving . . .

So far so good during our big separation! The girls have been entertained endlessly at Camp Nana and the daily reports read like a litany of fun activities. Molly especially seems to love calling me to chat. She has the cutest voice on the phone! I guess I've never heard it before because well, she's always with me! They've been on the go constantly and always seem to come home with some new object (read: toy) that they've conned Nana into buying. When they're at the house they're glued to the Webkins website, taking over Papa's tv remote or playing Polly Pockets (or "midget people" as Papa calls them which send Brenna into fits of giggles) Molly doesn't play Pollys as much as she colors - she's quite the artist and I imagine Nan's fridge is pretty well covered by now. They also are professional wildlife watchers now and hang out on the sunporch each night to watch the "stinky 'ol skunk" that walks down Papa's driveway every night between 8:30-9:00 pm.

I'm keeping busy too. I've been working each day and then trying to do some back-to-school shopping afterwards. My wardrobe of jeans, tshirts and sneakers is just not going to cut it "at the office" so I've had to do a fair bit of whirlwind shopping to outfit myself. I wish I could just wear the school uniform too! Luckily I can get a lot done in a short time when I'm alone.

Dean is on a plane somewhere over Tennessee in between business trips. The van has to go in the shop tomorrow for the 3rd time in two weeks. Otherwise not much else is new here. It's just awfully quiet without my little darlings around. I miss them like crazy!!

Rewind: High School Musical 2

Just downloading some pictures I took in Boston and wanted to add this one. Joining nearly every other girl between the ages of 4-16, Brenna and Molly hunkered down with some popcorn and ice cream last week to enjoy the long-awaited sequel to High School Musical. The anticipation was half the fun, but they both really enjoyed the show and now have a whole new repetoire of songs to perform in the mirror! The show was only halfway through the opening number when Molly said, "I can't wait for High School Musical 3!!" Thank God for Troy and Gabriella!!

Camp Nana

"Camp Nana" began last night when I hightailed it out of Boston leaving my two little monkeys in the care of their grandparents. I had to come home to start my new job but will be heading back to Boston in 10 days for my cousin's wedding. Rather than bring the girls here to leave them with a sitter all day and then fly them back to Boston again, we came to the conclusion that everyone would enjoy it more if they just stayed on with Nana and Papa. So the girls are living the high life in Boston for 2 more weeks while I slave away in the office.

I was chatting with Brenna's Gr. 2 teacher today . . .

Mrs. G: So what are your girls doing today?
Me: They aren't here. They stayed in Boston with my parents. Cross your fingers, I've never left them before!
Mrs. G: Oh no! Did they cry when you left?
Me: Well no they didn't, but my mom did!

(But honestly- she really wants the girls to stay! She wasn't crying that she had to take them!! (At least I don't think so!) To tell it truthfully, you have to know that my poor mom cries at any and all goodbyes but it sure makes for a good story when I say that she cried when I walked out and left my kids on her!)

The first report says all is well. Brenna misses me and Molly apparently hasn't noticed I'm gone. As long as she has control of Papa's tv remote, she's 100% happy. Let's hope the remaining nine days pass as quickly. They may not miss me, but I sure miss them!

Trailside Museum

Staying busy here! After a long day at the beach with friends earlier in the week, we stuck close to "base camp" today and went to a local nature center. Brenna had a few things about animal habitats that she needed to finish for a Girl Scout badge so I figured this was a perfect way to fit that in as well. I hadn't been to the Trailside Museum since I was a kid and everything was just as I remembered it. We saw the few outdoor animals they have and then spent just over an hour at the indoor exhibits. Molly enjoyed the turtles (and conned me into buying her a stuffed one - must be the only animal she doesn't own!) and Brenna really liked the owls and honeybees. I promised we'd go back some day (when we were wearing better shoes!) so we could take a long hike on one of the many trails through the Blue Hills. I remember the thrill of reaching the big observatory at the top and being able to see the Boston skyline right out to the Harbor Islands and I know the girls would really enjoy that too!

Flying High!

Here's something you do when the weather is gorgeous and the
sea breeze is in full force - FLY KITES! There's a perfect park nearby with a wide open field that we thought would work. So off we went to buy some today and then took to the park to see if we could get them flying.

Turns out that was not much of a problem.
We were pros in no time at all . . .

They launched immediately and climbed as high as the string would go.

Actually, we could even fly them lying down!

(Brenna's on the left and Molly's on the right - see how high their kites are?!!

Here's Molly below with her kite that's "a million miles high!")

We nearly had a run-in with a passing airplane but we pulled the kites down just in the nick of time to avoid getting them tangled in the wings. :)

Brenna and Molly hope the airplane passengers enjoyed the show!

SPLASH!

A great new addition to the park near Nana and Papa's house is a splash zone. We went over to check it out today and deemed it a most worthy neighborhood addition - especially since we can walk there! I think we'll be spending many a great afternoon enjoying this. There's also a playground directly across the street and a walking/bike trail that runs right along the side. Plus the whole thing is on a river and we spent some time watching people launching canoes and fishing. It's easy to forget we are so close to the city with all of this green space now!!

We Made It!

After a long delay at the airport on Tuesday, we finally made it to Boston. And in true fashion we've hit the ground running! We've already had a Cousins' Day at Auntie Dottie's pool (awesome as usual - we had 11 kids age 7 and under and they played beautifully together!), went to the movies with Nana, visited Castle Island with some Aunties, climbed all over Uncle Don, bought new Webkins, taken over Papa's television and all of the other fun things that are just expected when we visit. We sure do get spoiled here!

Here we are with some of our cousins. (Can you see that the boys really outnumber the girls? Luckily we still have lots more room in this growing family!) After a long day of swimming and playing we're all dressed in our pajamas for our moms to take us home. That's the only bad part of going to Dottie's! (We were watching a repair truck fixing electrical wires outside her house.)

We still have 3 weeks and a whole list of things to do so stay tuned for more adventures!

Three Random Thoughts

1.) Something prompted me today to sing the old Fritos jingle "Muncha buncha, muncha buncha Fritos go with lunch . . ." Brenna laughed and asked if I made that up. When I told her it was an old tv commercial she wanted to know why they didn't make commercials anymore. I didn't catch her drift at first. Then I realized that she pretty much only watches Disney Channel. Because they don't show commercials, she assumed they weren't made anymore! (This was not always true because I do remember them watching a lot of Nickelodeon a few years back. Molly started commenting at every commercial "I want that for my birthday!" I knew I had to draw the line when she even said it for a commercial for Pedisure!)

2.) Tonight Brenna was reading an American Girl Mystery book and asked if I had read it when I was her age. She looked surprised when I said there were no American Girl books then. Then she said with shock, "And there were no Polly Pockets either? How did you SURVIVE??!!" Can you tell what her favorite things are?

3.) Molly usually uses a mask when we're at the pool so she can swim underwater for a longer time. I bought her a new pair of goggles and was trying them out today. She went underwater in front of me and when she came back up I asked if they worked well. She replied "Oh yeah! And Mom? They make you look really skinny!" --- so I just ordered 300 pairs for everyone at the pool. :)

Pearly Whites

Getting ready for our vacation means that we need to finish up some business on this end. The girls won't be back here until the night before school starts so everything needs to be ready to go for that before we even leave on this trip. So today we picked up the last two things Brenna needed for her school supply list, returned all the library books we had out and squeezed in dentist appointments before the crush of school schedules begins.

Good reports all around and given that between the two of them there are several teeth missing and thus not able to be cleaned, we were in and out in record time! :) Dr. K announced that Molly has 3 more loose teeth and was surprised to see that she has all her 6 yo molars (and has since last year actually!) He predicted that she'll catch up with her big sister before long. (Needless to say, that didn't sit well with Brenna who already chafes that she's "late" losing teeth!)

And now after all that running around my lower leg is completely swollen like a sausage from a bee sting I got yesterday and someone smashed up the passenger rearview mirror in the van while I was running a 10 minute errand in the grocery store. I was telling Dean all of this on the phone (along with the fabulous news that we should plan on braces for both kids down the road, but who doesn't expect that nowadays!) and he was trying hard to sympathize. I helped him futher by telling him that he got a jury summons in the mail today - in District Court - for the whole month of September.

There must be light at the end, right?