See you in April (Bemoaning Daylight Saving or Savings or whatever!!)

Well, we've gone and done it. We've turned the clocks back which, as any mother will attest, spells doom. NOT ONLY do the playground trips and bike rides after work cease entirely, but all of a sudden we have newly minted "early risers". It's a vicious cycle because, at least with my kids, after it has been dark for 3 hours I am ready to put them to bed, even though it is barely 7:15. Kids only need so much sleep, so 6:00 am and BAM! Loud mouth breathing straight into your face by two expectant children wearing dinosaur pajamas. Long gone are the 8:30 pm - 7:30 am days. The darkness shifts everything earlier because there is flat out NOTHING TO DO. For months.

But we've had a few things going on in the three days since this catastrophe. Jason and I hit the Giants game on Sunday with Evan and Kaelyn and Chera and Eric. It was a bright sunny day (but I had a zillion layers on) and perfect for tailgating and football!

We left the boys with Grandma and Grandpa allllllll daaaaaaaaay (insert fireworks and cheering). Actually it was funny, on Sunday morning Jason and I were heading out, packing up the final car stuff and Alex came running over to me. I bent down because I thought he wanted a goodbye hug, but he pushed me and said "Go 'way Mommy!"  I was like geez, I'm going, I'm going! I guess the feeling was mutual ;) But the boys got to go to McDonald's for lunch, on the big carousel in Greenport, and spent time with their cousin Owen who they love. Bedtime songs with Grandma:

The Giants game turned out to be an important one (who knew?) and they won, so everyone was quite happy.

We rolled on home on Monday and Jason started up on the dining room built-ins...

Things are looking good. Our new dining room table got delivered today, FINALLY! I have only been waiting for ten weeks. Thanksgiving is around the corner and that is our deadline to get this all ship shape and magazine-like. [The (temporary) salvation with the time change is that you're distracted by all the holiday stuff coming up. I don't become suicidal until January.]

And then of course, yesterday was election day. I was at the polls at 7:03 am and it was hoppin'! I got my sticker, took an obligatory selfie, told Facebook I voted and went off to work.

Today I woke up to discover that we picked Donald Trump to be our next president. I really have nothing further to say about that except he will be in office the next time we change the clocks. There is a lot to survive between now and then (and of course, in the next 4 years overall). But, one season at a time.

Halloween 2016

[WARNING: Halloween is filed under "Major, MAJOR Holidays" in our house and as such, this post will be a monster.]

Madness to the Nth degree. That's what last night was. You want to know the funniest part? I don't think either kid ate a single piece of candy. It's like the treats were secondary; tearing through the neighborhood after dark with their friends whilst wearing a superhero costume is all it took. We're talking bona fide frenzy.

So here are the boys, right before they completely lost their minds.

Ashton struck that pose on his own, by the way. Maybe that's how Captain America sits leisurely, I wouldn't know.

But let's back up. The Halloween prep this year was ridiculous. A week ago we went to our neighbor's party. Then last Saturday was the Natick Spooktacular, Sunday was Brae Burn's kids' Halloween, Monday was Ashton's school parade and wait, don't forget the pumpkins! I'd like to say we went to a pumpkin patch and cut them off the vine like true pioneers, but the truth is they were $4.99 at BJ's and it was too good of a deal.

On Sunday afternoon Kayleigh and her mom (our neighbors) came over and we all got to work scooping out the guts and drawing our faces.

Done! The dress rehearsal:

From left to right: Kayleigh's puppy, Alex's smiley one, my nervous nelly and Ashton's dental nightmare.

Now, let's get to the costumes. It started about a month ago when I began encouraging cute complementary ideas. I thought it would be nice to give Alex a day in the sun and have him go as Batman and Ashton go as Robin. No? Santa and an elf? How about Mario and Luigi? Woody and Buzz Lightyear? I mean, for Pete's sake, what good are kids if you can't dress them up on Halloween. Ashton warmed to the idea of coupling up with Alex only if he could be a pumpkin and Alex could be the seeds. Uh, next.

For awhile after that, Ashton wanted to be some kind of dragon/ghost combination. Specifically, a half of each. Then, he thought he could go as a lightbulb. After that, a witch (I corrected him, "You mean warlock" and he said "No, I mean witch."). Finally, they settled on the most original costumes ever in the history of little boys on Halloween: superheroes. Captain America and Spiderman, to be specific.

As an aside, superhero worship amongst kids is a real thing. The thought is that children sometimes struggle with their vulnerability and lack of strength and superheroes, by contrast, are extraordinary and powerful, they get the bad guy and they always win. Especially with boys, it is so easy to see why they love dressing up as these characters. People need them to "save the day" and they get to pretend to do so, which can really give their confidence a boost. The boys smiled so big every time they put on their costumes. They raced around striking poses and flexing their "muscles":

The night broke down as follows. We had our new awesome friends come over (Ashton and Elijah are both 5 (they met at camp) and Alex and Crosby are both 2) for round 1.

They were off like rockets as soon as we blew the whistle (metaphorically speaking). My pictures all look like this.

Round 1 was a blur. Perhaps because I had (hot cider + bourbon) in my travel mug :D But honestly, the boys ran around at full throttle. Ashton took off his mask at one point and said, "I can't wear this anymore Mommy, there's too much water in it." (Um it was sweat.)

Around 7:15 pm we regrouped at the house, our friends said goodbye and I tried to serve the boys some semblance of dinner (BAHAHAHA, as if they could focus on anything at all). 7:45 pm? Round 2 baby! We hit a different corner of the neighborhood and the decorations were pretty impressive.

The new thing seems to be this little device:

It is FRIGGIN' CREEPY. For example, if your house is totally blacked out and you put this on one of your windows, people outside will see this:

But the figures are moving. Like you SWEAR they are real and trying to claw their way out. It's so lifelike that I was nervously laughing, wondering aloud if there weren't really paid actors in there. Right? Anyway, there are lots of other scenes too and they rotate (i.e. dancing skeletons, ALSO very realistic!). Can you tell I was thrown by this.

Anyway, a few random shots:

See Ashton's dazed look? Halloween wore him out good.

Same with Alex. On our way home from Round 2, he just stopped and laid down in the middle of someone's driveway. Really, he did.

Even Spiderman needs to rest sometimes. 

Back at the ranch, last ones :)

Captain America and Spiderman costumes, may you rest in peace.

One Year in 01760

Well we just hit the one year mark (we moved 9/30/15) on our life in Natick Massachusetts. It's gone by fast and slow at the same time hahaha. True to form, we did not let much time pass before launching into our projects. Our major ones included the mudroom and kitchen, as well as some updates to our downstairs bathroom. But, you know how some things stay the same for so long and you just live with them to the point where you don't even notice them anymore? It doesn't make it any less awful, just that you're immune to the sight of it.  For example, we had a mind to paint our guest room right around this time last year. We put some samples up but beyond that? Nada. The squares are still there.

Oh, and our foyer remains completely unfurnished. Not only that, the shelves next to the fireplace have looked like this since, well, we moved in.

There are tools and contact paper and a picture hanging thing and a shoebox full of Jason's random paperwork and a camera...this room will eventually be a piano room even though no one in our house plays the piano but a baby grand would fit perfectly along with two chairs so, it's a natural choice for decoration. Utility is secondary here. I just want a pretty room :) But wahhhhhh pianos and rugs and furniture and the lamp I want and all that is so expensive so, it's kinda empty and I'll probably be whining about it next year too. People that come in the front door DO ask, hesitantly, if we are moving. I don't blame them, it is an odd way to enter a house.

But basically, we love it. Here, exactly, are all the things I love.
1) There aren't too many neighborhoods like ours - you aren't driving back there unless you live there, really. So it's quiet, there's no traffic, no cut through streets, no shortcuts. And it is all perfectly flat, which makes bike riding super enjoyable. The outer perimeter is over a mile, and zig zagging through all the little streets makes for some pretty long rides! I put Alex in the toddler seat on the back of my bike and off we go.

2) Our neighborhood has a pond! A great destination for when we are out walking and feel the need to go see if there are turtles or frogs (there never are, but I up-sell the possibility to the boys to get them excited about leaving the house) or throw some pebbles.

3) On the other side, we also have a little playground, with tennis courts and a big field to run in.

Also a good destination. We frequently need to get out of the house. 

4a) We have a great front door. In Watertown, we painted our door a fun yellow except it didn't face the street, so it's like, why bother to hang a wreath or something when no one will enjoy it? It's a small thing, but I particularly love how visible our front door is and how much it lends itself to good decorations.

4b) Speaking of decorations, we had two Christmas trees last year!! One in the front foyer window seen above, and one in the back in the family room. Dizzy with happiness, I tell you. I love Christmas trees.

5) I also love Wayland Town Beach. This gem is about 6 minutes from our house.

I've already written about that. But it was my zen spot all summer.

There are so many other things too, truly! The boys have their own bathroom. The trees are beautiful. We are within 10 minutes of any shopping experience you could ever want. We have met so many new people and our neighborhood even has its own Facebook group. Jason has plenty of projects to keep him busy. We are living the dream in all its suburban glory. The only con is that everyone else is too. We live in a pretty trafficky, busy area in general, and my commute to Waltham can be a little nightmarish. If Jason were here he would jump in and tell you that it's because I leave too late (7:30 am), but I wish it were a quick zip to work no matter what time it was and it's not. There are a lot of turns, waiting, lights, stop signs, cut throughs, etc. It's 30 minutes on average of not-the-easiest driving and I'm still working on accepting it.

When we were looking at houses last year, I was looking for a place where the kids could ride their bikes and with top notch trick-or-treating. The latter is not so much about collecting candy of course, it's symbolic of the type of community I wanted to be in. And our neighborhood is a party on Halloween. It is fast approaching, the boys have their costumes and can not, will not be stopped! Start guessing...

Davis Farmland Love

If you have a child/children under the age of 12, and live near enough to Sterling MA, sweet christmas go to Davis Farmland straight away. This place, this nirvana, is not just kid-friendly, it is actually designed for them. Like, you wouldn't even come here if you didn't have kids. I simply don't know where to begin regarding the completely awesome wonderful time we had there yesterday. There is so much to do and see, but somehow it is a manageable, easy, and relaxed environment. We stayed all day and it was not hard to do!

So Davis Farmland is a great place to take your little animals to see other little animals. They sell $3 feed cups at admission, which you quickly realize is the best $3 you will ever spend. There are animals everywhere. Most are in little pens but you can freely enter and exit them, get as close as you would like to and touch and feed almost all of them. The ones that aren't in enclosures just roam freely, basking in the sun and not even thinking about what life would be like on the other side of the fence. It's the only explanation for how peaceful they all were. 

Actually, we were told that the one animal who ever made an escape was this guy:

The slowest of them all, isn't that funny? They found him a half mile down the road. Allegedly.

The goats and sheep, for their part, were very eager to eat. There was no evidence whatsoever that they are tired of the same feed being shoved down their throats by the gallon every day.  They see someone coming who is under 4 feet tall and holding a red cup? They know what's next and they line right up.

The boys held a TON of different things: baby goats, lizards, kittens, chicks, mice...

That mouse right there did a huge (by mouse standards) #2 in Ashton's palm. Which brings me to: just as you are thinking that your kids' hands have been slobbered all over by these animals and you are looking around for a place to wash them or for some Purell...voila. There are sinks and hand sanitizer dispensers all over this place. The sinks and toilets are even kid height! I'm telling you, Davis Farmland FTW.

After all the animals, we hopped on a hayride. This was the last picture Jason was in charge of.

Can you see any four-legged animals? Any hay bales or a tractor or anything that would indicate this is a hay ride? Or the other half of Jason's face for that matter? No, you cannot. I love him but his pictures are terrible (he knows).

After that, we sat at one of the zillion covered picnic tables (that had complimentary wipes on them!) and had lunch, which I had brought, but there was an awesome BBQ stand as well as an indoor cafe. We didn't sit long because the boys were itching to sift for some treasure (which, obviously, they "found"):

They fished:

Slid:

Posed:

And raced.

Not pictured is the Halloween parade and candy hunt they participated in, as well as learning how to milk a faux cow, the pony ride, and all the playgrounds. There were play structures all over the place - plus little interactive and pretend areas, plus a bounce house, PLUS in the summer they have a huge spray park. I just can't even describe how much there was to do here.

At this point you may be thinking this all sounds busy and nightmarish. It was not! There was no sensory overload in any way, for kids or their parents. I would not have objected to a beer tent, but other than that, I literally have no recommendations for improvement. It was perfect.

On our way out we noticed that the orchard across the parking lot was still open for apple picking. We were like, well, we're here, so...$7 bought a half peck and off we went!

Well I've done it. I've overposted for no reason. But I couldn't help myself. Our day at Davis Farmland was a 10 so if you meet my initial criteria, go. You are guaranteed to have fun AND get naps on the car ride home! What else is there to want ;)