Liz's 43rd Birthday

I spent my 43rd birthday at Kerry and Eric's who made a very yummy chocolate salted caramel cake.  The night was equally enjoyable with lovely weather and great conversation.

The following day was a no school day due to Yom Kippur.  With ongoing beautiful weather, we headed on over to the Franklin Park Zoo for their lantern display.  We started off by finding our Chinese birth animals.

When we returned home, the kids worked together to create a very special birthday cake.  Izzy has made the cake earlier in the day.  They all worked to decorate it with sprinkles and a plethora of candles.

I had showed Izzy how to buy a birthday present using my Amazon account.  This is what they schemed together to purchase, a purple wallet.  I had mentioned needing a new wallet.  Purple was their choice which is my favorite color.

While Izzy made the cake earlier, Victoria went to town creating birthday party hats.  She even made a small one for her stuffed animal, Jerry Berry.

 

Apple Picking Time Again

Though the calendar says fall, the weather is showing the last remnants of summer.  For enjoyment, we headed out for apple picking at one of our favorite locations, Connors Farm.  COVID definitely changed how things were run.  Most of what we enjoy however was not affected.  Our favorite has always been the corn maze.  Ironically no apples were actually picked.  We were too distracted by all the other activities.

This year we did not get a map of the farmstand which helps us get an aerial view of the maze.  We were therefore left with doing it the old way.  Nevertheless we worked together and made it out in 29 minutes.  This wasn't our best time but worthy nonetheless.

The pedal tractors is always a hit.  This year the twins were big enough to reach the pedals and could go by themselves.  I might have had to jump off a few times to give them a push when they got stuck though. 

New for us was the apple guns.  We purchased one large basket of apples to split between the four of us.  Micah was all about this activity and took aiming seriously.  Victoria came at it with humor and ironically was the sharp shooter in this family.  Our favorite target was the beat up truck probably because everyone was able to hit it more than once.

After being on our feet for awhile, we headed to take a train ride (Victoria's choice) around the farm.

We could have played Who's Your Pumpkin longer.  This was a fun fall version of Guess Who.  It's funny how something so simple can be so interesting.

The end of the day was spent jumping their hearts out until hunger took over and it was time to go eat.

 

First Day of School

The first day of school looked a bit different than most years.  Due to the ongoing COVID pandemic, school was pushed back by 10 days to allow for teachers to prepare for virtual learning.  Initially it was thought Brookline would offer a remote or hybrid option.  Shortly before school started, it was announced everyone except for special education and kindergarten would begin remotely with a plan to phase in each grade.  There has been no road map for how the grade phasing will occur however.  This lead to Izzy's comment of her grade not getting back into school at all as everyone will be fully remote with a second wave.  In the meantime we are embracing remote learning.  There is officially a middle schooler in our family!  Izzy is in 6th grade.  Micah and Victoria are back in the same class together to make remote learning easier - 3rd grade.

 

A Cape Cod Summer Vacation

Even though COVID changed typical summer plans for many, we were able to head out on a mini-vacation to Cape Cod.  This was not something on our summer list of things to do.  With limited tourists coming from out of state due to COVID and the Massachusetts travel ban, we were able to snag a once in a lifetime deal that shined a bit of light on our summer.

All three enjoyed their body boards.  True to herself, Victoria did not want to go out deeper.  Instead she chose to play in the sand while Izzy and Micah ventured out trying their best to avoid any seaweed.

Keeping an eye out while in the ocean let us see a variety of life.  Seagulls were definitely not afraid of any of us.  Tiny fish swam everywhere.  We stumbled upon this horseshoe crab.  This one was alive which was nice to see since we had found a few on the beach that had a fatal demise of some sort.

Water shoes came in handy with the seaweed.  However the sand was lovely and the water was warm.

While driving around we found several shops that sold a variety of inflatable items.  This one Victoria really, really, really wanted.... so much so we asked how much... a whopping $300!  She better start saving for that unicorn.

Though the beach was fun, it was the pool that the kids enjoyed the most.  The resort had three pools to choose from; two outdoor and one indoor.  We typically hung out at night until the outdoor pool closed only to then transition, with everyone else, to the indoor pool which was open one hour later.

Once kids realize they have an underwater camera, it's only inevitable that they try taking all sorts of pictures.  Here are a few of the better ones.

On my to-do list was eating some amazing seafood.  On our first night we headed to The Skipper Chowder House but were greeted with a 3 hour wait.  One of the hostesses was great and gave me the skinny on how to get in on another night.  So we headed back the following day and enjoyed a variety of seafood including clam chowder, scallops, and local oysters.  Our waiter was taken back by Izzy's palate and started at her while she slurped down all four in a matter of minutes.

Local oysters from Dennis, Yarmouth, Duxbury, and Wellfleet.

Given a chance of rain in the forecast, we looked at an activity that was indoors.  This took us to the Wyndham Pirate Museum.  Commanded by the pirate Sam Bellamy, the Whydah was wrecked off Wellfleet in 1717, taking with her the treasure of fifty plundered ships.  According to folklore, Bellamy was returning to his love in New England when his ship met disasters in one of the worst nor'easter.  Only two men of the 146 made it alive which were subsequently caught by authorities.  The Whydah was found in 1984 with a then $400 million dollar treasure.

In the evening we took on another pirate adventure... Pirate's Cove Adventure Golf.  We had won a free game from a sister miniature golf course in Acadia.  The kids were tickled to be able to use this token.  We all voted that this was one of the better miniature golf courses we've played.