Apples...are they or aren't they?

Yesterday was our annual apple picking adventure! We headed to Tougas Family Farm in Northborough and we had great company once we got there: the entire state of Massachusetts. I kid you not - the line to park (just to park!) was almost a mile long. That may not sound like a lot, but when you are snaking up a hill after driving 40 minutes and you know they have just opened at 10 am, how can so many people be ahead of you?? It's nerve-wracking and I swear I almost made Jason turn around. I have lost the ability to wait since having kids.

Well you can guess. Although we faced the seas of humanity...

our boat sailed on just fine.

TOO fine. It was a curious experience in fact. There were no, like, trees. Instead of an orchard, the apples were in rows, grown almost like grapes on a vine. Look at the "trunks":

And the "branches" were all strung up. Some were on these V-shaped structures.

I don't know why this really threw me off but it did. Not very orchard-y and the apples were just dripping off.

It was all a tad suspect. The fruit was too perfect! And the picking was too easy. But, we were not about to let a little genetic engineering get in our way. The honeycrisps, I have to admit, were completely amazing. Alex took itty bitty chipmunk bites out of all of his,

Ashton took monster bites,

and in general we all enjoyed ourselves for the 20 or so minutes that it took to fill our $38 bag ;) 

If we could have stood in the most terrifically long lines you've ever seen, there would have been cider doughnuts and kettle corn and all sorts of other treats. But we got the heck out of there and the line to get up the hill was even longer on our way out. At some point they must have stopped letting cars in - it was completely full. 

Currently the giant apple bag is sitting on our counter and I think tonight the boys and I might make some anonymous donations to the neighbors. How many can one person really eat??

After we make some applesauce, apple muffins, and apple crisp, and after we use them for stamping and possibly another craft, I'll be apple'ed out. Just in time to pick pumpkins...

p.s. Jason and I have been married 7 years today!!

Happy half birthday to Alex!

Alexander Michael is 2.5 today! Let's talk about him :)

Alex is very spunky and happy, except when he's not, and then things are very, very bad. He is either smiling, laughing and goofing off or crying and whining. He's always been like that. But I'll tell you, you cannot beat smiling/laughing/goofing off Alex. He is a little charmer.

As far as stats go, I don't have any height/weight info, but he's really getting heavy. Like, I-can-no-longer-comfortably-hold-him-and-walk-very-far heavy. He's in a solid 3T for clothes, just graduated to a size NINE sneaker, wears a size 6 diaper and climbs out of his crib on the regular. Who is this gargantuan kid?

First tattoo: Batman, left forearm.

Skillz: He can scooter and poop on the potty. Not at the same time.

Chipped teeth: 1 (of mysterious origin)

Toy obsession: Magnatiles. It's actually incredible how much he plays with these. He's not so much in to the trains like Ashton was, then again those are all in the basement now that I think about it.

Big brother Ashton: "AH-tee"

Favorite word: "Me."
Second favorite word: "No."

Favorite phrase: "No Mommy. Me, me, ME!"
Most often heard: any time I try and do something for him. Which is often.

Other "words": water is "WAH-wee", open is "OH-pee", dogs are all puppies or "PAW-bees", bunnies are "hop hops", Legos are "woe woes", swords are "hi-YAHs", ketchup is "tup-tup"...some of his other phrases are impossible to even write out how he makes them sound haha. He still has EI once a week and speech every other week, but he's really not making much progress. He does try, very much so, but a lot of it is barely understandable even by us. He has his 1 year EI evaluation next month so it will be interesting to see what they propose.

Currently attends; Miss Tammy's Playschool, 2 mornings per week

Favorite foods: honestly this depends a lot on whether he is hungry or not. But he will most always eat a hot dog (or something resembling a hot dog, like sausage or kielbasa), and garlic bread. He loves garlic bread. Who doesn't.

Looking forward to: a big boy bed. He loves to lay in Ashton's, they play "bedtime" and turn off the lights, say shhhhh and close eyes. Which is funny, because real bedtime is nothing like that. Joke's on me.

Mostly likely found: wherever Ashton is, or close behind.

Best friend: this is a tie between Addie, the 18th month old that lives on the corner of our street (I think because he can say her name, conveniently also "AH-tee"), and Kayleigh, our 9 year old next door neighbor. Here he is trying to woo her at dinner.

Kayleigh also happens to be Ashton's love interest. I don't see this being a problem at all. You know, later on.

Sleep: I always shoot for an 8 pm bedtime, but after all the nonsense involved it's usually 8:30 pm along with Ashton. He still takes naps in the afternoons.

Signature "handshake": a fist bump for the right hand and a high five for the left hand, done simultaneously.

Bet you didn't know: Jason and I considered naming him Ames. I didn't give Jason the green light and so we settled/chickened out and named him Alexander. We've regretted it ever since. If we thought it was a reasonable thing to do, we'd change it. But it's not.

Hopes and dreams: presidency of the Clean Plate Club

A lofty aspiration, considering his brother also eats everything in sight.

That about covers Alex's highlights at the ripe old age of two and a half. On to three! But not too fast :)

Back to School!

This is it! We've nearly made it! Our two kids are in school. Of course this means two tuitions plus our nanny every month (insert face with X's for eyes), but we'll make it work by selling all of our stuff. Signing Alex up was technically optional, but we found the cutest spot for him and everything fell into place: the schedule (2 mornings a week), the program (play-based), and the location (right over the Natick/Wellesley line). Plus he's ready for a little structure and socialization so we couldn't not send him. His first day was today!

Ashton has already been back in his classroom for a week. As a reminder he is in TK this year with Mrs. Cooney. If he is a genius by the end of the year (doubtful), he could jump straight to first grade, but in all likelihood this is going to be a bridge year to kindergarten. The cut off date was August 31, his birthday was August 3...eh, we held him back. I've been seriously second guessing this decision as I've been watching all his friends and other kids his age hop on the bus to public school, but we weren't ready for it. Luckily he has not seemed to have any issues with not going.

Just for fun, I thought I would now share our family schedule. A sample week, if you will. Keep in mind, this does not include the fun extras like Alex needs to bring a lunch to Miss Tammy's on Wednesdays and Ashton only eats at school on Mondays and Fridays. Speech is every other week, and Jason's day off is maybe Monday, maybe Tuesday, maybe none at all. Naps for both boys vary. Also Ashton commutes with me so we leave at 7:20 am to get to Belmont by 8 am and then I have to trek to Bentley after that...mornings on MWF are long. But more or less, it looks like this.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Jason	9:30 am Alex EI group drop off 10 am – 7 pm work	10:30 am – 7 pm work	8:45 am Alex drop off 9 am – 8 pm work	10:30 am – 9 pm work	8:45 am Alex drop off 9 am – 9 pm work
Kristen	8 am Ashton drop off 8:15 am-3 pm work 3:15 pm Ashton pickup	8-4 work	8:15-4 work 8 am Ashton drop off	8-4 work	8 am Ashton drop off 8:15-3 pm work 3:15 pm Ashton pickup
Ashton	BNS 8-3		BNS 8-12		BNS 8-3
Alex	9:30 am -12 pm | EI Group Class at Criterion in Framingham		8:45 am – 12:45 pm Miss Tammy’s including lunch bunch	11:45 am EI with Amanda	8:45 – 11:45 am Miss Tammy’s 1 pm speech
Jen	12 pm (pick up Alex) – 4 pm	10-5 Both kids	12 pm (pick up Ashton then 12:45 pm pick up Alex) – 5 pm	10-5 Both kids	11:45 am (pick up Alex) – 4 pm

Even with this, there is no such thing as a "normal" schedule. This week for example I also had a dentist appointment, Ashton has another food challenge downtown tomorrow which is a half-day thing, Jason squeezed in some golf, there's an open house for gymnastics on Thursday, etc etc. So you see, it's busy. And we have *just* two kids. Some people have more! Or have a dog! Or have both more kids AND a dog or other pets! Phew. I need a towel and some water.

Anyway I have been ready for a new season and back-to-school (or, in Alex's case, starting school!) is always an exciting time. Should be a great year! Ashton is already talking about Halloween and so far his two costume ideas are "hot water" and "half of a dragon and half of a ghost". ??? I better get going...

LDW 2016

Labor Day weekend had its ups and downs this year. There are a lot of holidays like this where we really have no plans due to Jason's work schedule but luckily, the boys and I were able to stay busy! And enjoy the weather; it was absolutely lovely. Heading into the weekend everyone was squawking that Hermine was going to dump all kinds of rain on us, but it held off until Monday evening. We spent all three days outside, beginning with:

1) the Home Depot kids workshop. This is a regularly scheduled thing on the first Saturday of every month, a drop in event from 9-12. It's always on my calendar but we have never gone...until NOW! The project was "back to school whiteboards" and they had all the paint, tools and supplies out...the sound of all the hammers going was deafening.

Naturally I had to do most of it and my fingers and hands were stuck together with wood glue, but voila! 

A closer look at Ashton's masterpiece shows his name written completely backwards.

Perhaps our "let's wait another year for kindergarten" decision was a good one haha.

2) Wayland Town Beach part 1. We went after naps and were the only ones there!

It was really warm out so it was nicer than it looked.

3) Sunday brought some errands with Jason and nothing really picture-worthy. After he left for work, I took the boys to Toys R Us and we bought remote control boats. Pause for effect.

After loading them with one zillion batteries, it was time for Wayland Town Beach part 2. Alex's boat crapped out almost immediately and we had to launch a rescue mission.

Ashton actually succeeded in pushing it back to the dock where, bizarrely, Alex kept kissing it.

Like, what a relief that his non-functioning $14.99 boat had been saved!

But Ashton's little yacht was solid and kept him busy for an hour. There were several "THIS IS SO AWESOME"'s and lots of jumping up and down :)

So that was Sunday.

4) When we woke up on Monday Jason was already gone so we hit a new (to us) playground in Framingham called Cushing Park. I wish I had known to bring bikes or scooters, there were huge wide paths and the play area was really neat.

I wish I had gotten more time out of this place but when the boys decided they were ready for a snack, that was it because we had to walk all the way back to the car. So there they were, in their carseats chomping away and it was about 11 am and I thought "Sigh. Now what?"

5) The what became...Honeypot! We went back for more blueberries because why not, we're crazy.

 I knew the season was just about over, and we could have done apples, but there is plenty of time for apples still. Plus if I'm out in an orchard I need to have my sweater and boots on and it needs to be slightly chilly and feel like fall. It just does.

Alex, again, just ate and ate. He got right down to it.

Reminds me of someone...

Anyway, the usual pics...

until Alex grabbed my phone and took a few of his own! These are the ones that weren't of the ground, his foot, or my butt.

It was a no makeup day for me, as you can likely tell.

My little farmers:

Ashton and I turned the blueberries into muffins when we got home/while Alex napped.

6) Jason got home around 4 pm on Monday and, drumroll please, it was time for the weekend's encore. It looked like this! No training wheels!

Yesterday afternoon I put Alex in the toddler seat and rode with him on my bike right behind Ashton, loops and loops around the neighborhood. We had so much fun! And I thought, my gosh, I have a five year old who is riding a bike! Whaaaaaaat! I think I know what I'll be doing a lot of this fall...