April 2018

A very full and fun month! We had Easter, got together with the family in Maine to celebrate mom's birthday, had lots of friends over for playdates/babysitting (including my adorable 6mo neighbor who's total chub), started Ladies Tea prep in earnest, and celebrated Henri's seventh birthday. A few glimpses:

We twinned for Easter

Annual family photo

Saying "hi" to the geese with the twins

Library event; African storytelling and paper bead making (and cookie eating).

Perfect weekend in Maine. It snowed hard on the drive up on Friday, but Saturday was gorgeous.

....a bit chilly, but still perfect

Mom worked her magic again and found a sand dollar

Meghan did not. But she found some great shells

Baby A was a love the whole time

Love birds

Nate's grand find: a cannonball!

Researching the treasure

One of the best parts of the weekend: the boys took over the kitchen and created a seafood feast that boggled the mind. And tasted scrumptious!

Our house was right on the ocean so we just sat on the seawall and soaked in the salt air

I had steamers for the first time. Delicious but definitely something to eat in dim lighting. 

Tranquil sunset

Trying to feed the gulls the leftover dinner. They weren't interested

Had the beach almost to ourselves

It was a weekend of great food. Had a huge selection of Congdon Donuts on Sunday morning

Papa looking dapper

Some of the Sunday walkers. It was pretty cold.

Meghan and Nate organized the whole thing and did a fantastic job. Would love if this became a yearly event!

Making lemon lip balm for Tea favors

Walked Broadmoor with friends

The first steps in a very long process (so. much. measuring!)

...and the final results. Pretty tasty if I do say so myself. Making 6 dozen for the Tea and freezing them ahead of time. As it's a 48 hour process, the timing of making croissants is consuming a lot of my schedule. 

Then Mom came to Boston to visit us! And we went to the circus! (My first time. So good!)

Kept Henri home on Monday since the weather was glorious and we went downtown to explore. Historical field trip if you will. 

We walked almost nine miles and the kids didn't make a peep (or slow us down once). It's nice having older kids!

One of my favorite spots in the city, the Holocaust Memorial. 

Long Wharf still makes me nervous with the kids (that's a pretty sheer drop and no protection from it!) but the north side of it is fun to hang out on. 

And of course I can't go into town without stopping by Modern. They never disappoint.

Monday was National Picnic Day so we ate supper outside and then took another walk.

She's 7!!!!!!

Lemon cake for dessert

The boxes are still as much fun as the actual gifts

She got her 1/2 guitar. We're still vetting teachers but anticipate starting lessons this month. She's pretty excited.

And what would be a Henri birthday without at least one meal at Mr. Sushi?

They were pretending this box was a coffin. Sigh. Too much time exploring cemeteries I guess. 

We are in to May, and it looks like the adage has held true; all the April showers are bringing an abundance of May flowers! My daffodils bloomed, my alliums have survived an initial assault by the groundhog/rabbits/squirrels and 4 have buds, the rhubarb exploded, all the peonies have pushed up, and the Solomon Seal that the kids killed last year right after I planted it has sent up TWO shoots. Very thrilling. I have remained steadfast in my resolution to not buy plants this year, but I did put in some bean seeds we had lying about so we'll see if anything comes up. This month is another busy one with every weekend accounted for, so hopefully there'll be some variety to show you.