More Emily Walking

Jamie took this video with her phone!! Isn't technology amazing??

First week of camp

Well, the first week of camp is over and I'm absolutely exhausted! Yesterday I came home and lay on the couch "for a minute" and didn't get up until an hour later. It's lots of fun to be at camp, but it's outside and on your feet, standing or walking around all day. We certainly could have had better weather this week. Monday it rained and thundered and lighteninged (???) all day so we were pretty much indoors. The rest of the week it kind of rained on and off during the days and then just thundered late in the afternoon. It makes it hard when it's so rainy but the kids don't care......they have fun anyway. We did the usual assortment of activities in Art and Crafts.....friendship bracelets, gimp, spin art, etc. Every year I find the kids are the same. This year we have lots of new staff....interesting to see them involved with the campers when the were the campers just a few short years ago. I think I'm going to go lay on the couch and "watch" Oprah!

Emily Walking!

Some exciting video of Emily walking!! She took her first steps a few days ago and Memere could NOT wait to go see her! I apologize the video is so short.....on the longer one I took I held the camera sideways so the video is sideways and I can't figure out how to rotate it! Enjoy!

Pottery

I was so in "the zone" tonight!! For whatever reason, it seems I've gotten the hang of it and things are coming out much better than they were.

Tonight I made not ONE but TWO coffee mugs and learned how to make a bowl. Next week I'll learn how to put handles on the mugs. I'm finding the pottery to be very relaxing. I wonder how much it'll cost to get a pottery wheel and a kiln in our condo??

First Day of Camp

Our first day of summer camp was today. It was not the nicest of weather to start our summer! It rained just about all day and there was thunder, lightening and torrential downpours late in the afternoon.It's not so bad for me since Arts and Crafts is under cover anyway, but they cancelled free swim and boating, and athletics had to be done inside the building. The kids had lunch inside the building as well because even though the rain had stopped for a half hour or so, the picnic tables were all wet. The other specialist staff and I chose to eat out on the wet tables rather than in the very noisy building!

It was a typical first day of camp. Thankfully for us, first session is a "soft opening"......meaning there are much fewer kids than later sessions and we can work all the kinks out before the majority of the kids show up. The morning bus was late because it was a new driver and she didnt' know the route and also because she apparently tried to take the turn into our very narrow, bumpy road too tight and had to do an 87 point turn to get in.

The rest of the day went well. Our new floating docks actually floated - we had bets that they wouldn't because they were made of composite which is heavier than regular wood. The kids had fun in Arts and Crafts. The staff did well to come up with activities for their bunks to do in lieu of boating and swim. We even held it together without our AD, who is out on sick leave for another week or two.

And of course, the state inspector showed up just as our director was leaving for an appointment. But our extremely wonderful staff shone through and the inspector left very satisfied.

For once the huge deluge of rain held off until after the kids were on the bus. We had to stick around to wait for car-rider kids to get picked up, so we watched as the camp was completely washed with the rain - a river was running down the central walkway of the camp!

I hope all the kids had fun despite the rain, and I'm hoping for some sunshine for tomorrow!

Hiking

Hubby and I had something very unusual happen today. We had absolutely nothing planned! Unbelievable! That never happens. So we got up and relaxed, read, had a nice breakfast that Hubby made, and then decided to check out someplace to go hiking. We've found there are dozens of State Parks in every state. Some of them you have to pay a nominal fee to get into, but some of them are free. They range from beaches to lakes to ponds to just hiking trails in the woods. Today we felt like a hike, so we went online and found the Georgetown-Rowley State Forest. We've been trying to go to new and different places just for the fun of it. This State Forest was about a half hour from our house. We found it easily. We were thankful that we'd printed out a trail guide from the internet because there were no guides at the trailhead. It was a nice little State Forest. The trails were pretty well marked and fairly flat. We're not too excited about going up hills! The odd thing about this forest was that a major, eight-lane highway ran right through the middle of it! We had to go over a bridge to access the other half of the forest! It was too bad, because it ruined the ambiance of the place. Strangely enough, it's the only place we've been hiking where we saw some actual wildlife. Hubby thought some other people were on the trail because he thought he saw a dog, and it turned out to be a fox! He scampered off into the woods when he saw us coming (and before we could snap a picture). Later on we saw a huge, fat beaver waddling across the road from one side of a pond to the other. He hopped into the water and we could just see his little nose as he swam away. We came home and cooked some hotdogs over the grill and watched a DVD on the TV. Now that was a relaxing day!

Childhood Toys

My dear friend Joan wrote in her blog http://joanoh2.blogspot.com/ about her childhood toys and asked what our childhood toys were. Her childhood sounds so exactly like mine! * We spent hours and hours playing Barbies with the whole neighborhood. My mom also made my sister and I Barbie clothes for Christmas one year. Every girl in the neighborhood would bring their Barbies and accessories to someone's backyard and we'd play all afternoon. When it was time to go home, it took us about ten seconds to sort our stuff and take it all home. * We had the roller skates you put over your shoes and tightened with a key. (Remember the song??) Our very quiet streets had high, high sidewalks with ramps dipping down to accomodate driveway so we had a fun surface to ride on. The neighborhood became our "town" with each house being some part of the town.....store, church, school, etc. * Speaking of which, school and house and church were some of our favorite imaginary games. One year I got a whole box of "school supplies" so we could play..including a little bell! For our games of "church" Mom would less us take a slice of bread and squash it, cut it out in a circle and use it for "hosts" for "communion". We were always nuns with the dishtowels on our heads. * We all had bikes. One year for Christmas my Dad went to the auction they held at the police station every year for all the things the police would find or confiscate and wanted to get rid of. Dad got us each a bike, took it apart and fixed it up, spray-painted it and gave it to us for Christmas. * We lived in such a perfect neighborhood when I was a kid. We lived at the bottom of a hill, so we could ride our bikes down fearlessly during the summer (except the time I tried to do a "pop-a-wheelie" going down the hill and the handle grips came off and I went flying) and we sledded down the hill in the winter. We lived on a dead-end street so we could play endless games of kickball or shoot hoops into the rim my Dad put up. Our house was surrounded by woods, which led us to all kinds of games. It was beside a creek so in winter we could skate. And at the end of our street was a path leading to the schoolyard where we could play ball or hit a tennis ball against the school building. * We also played cards from the time I was very small. In our area, the Merrimack Valley, we played a card game called 45's which is only played in this area. It's a weird game with strange rules...in fact my husband thought I was making it up as I went along when I tried to teach it to him. There are probably dozens of more things I could write about. We spent most of our time outside, summer and winter. We never watched TV during the day, no computer, no videogames, no trips to the mall .....or trips to anywhere really. We kept ourselves amused and had extremely vivid imaginations. Ahhh...the good old days!

Miscellaneous Stuff

After a crazy busy weekend, it's a quiet week here for me. It's the last week of school and no one is using a substitute teacher this week. Fine by me. I am done, done, done!! Our weekend went like this: Saturday morning I went up to the summer camp to work for a couple hours. We got a ton of work done. Unfortunately, right before I left, I stepped wrong on the edge of a walkway and severely twisted my ankle. Damn that hurts!!! Despite my ankle blowing up like a balloon and turning purple, we went to Jamie's football game in Medway, MA. We missed the opening kickoff but only missed a couple minutes of the first quarter. It was a very hard-played game but Manchester Freedom lost......which means they are not in the playoffs. I'm sad for my daughter who worked so hard to get the team there. It was hot as hell at the game and my ankle throbbed like a son-of-a-gun. Hubby and I wanted to go to a coffeehouse Saturday night. It's one we used to go to a lot when he lived in Central MA, but it's a bit far away from us now and we only go occasionally. It was the tenth anniversary of the coffeehouse and they were having a bunch of their highlighted performers come back for an encore. So after the game, we went to Cogshall Park in Fitchburg to spend about an hour. By this time I could hardly walk. We hobbled......well, I hobbled and Hubby just hung on.....to a bench and no sooner sat down than it began to rain. We gave that up and went to Boston Market for some dinner, then went to the coffeehouse. It was just as amazing as we thought it would be. Sunday was Father's Day, and I'd told Hubby we could do whatever he wanted. He had seen a sign for a free jazz concert at Winnekinni Castle in Haverhill and wanted to go. We went up to visit my Dad first and then went to the concert. It was great to see Hubby enjoy it so much. Since it was Father's Day, I told Hubby I'd make him whatever he wanted. Now, when it's MY turn to pick a meal, I ask Hubby to make his home-made fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and don't forget the cranberry sauce! Hubby wanted frozen ravioli, canned sauce, frozen meatballs and frozen garlic bread! I have the feeling I'm a bit more high maintenance when it comes to food than he is! No work for me on Monday.....I spent the day doing stuff for camp. Lots of planning and I even went over there for an hour or so to straighten out my room and take stuff I'd been piling up to bring over there. Today was a babysitting day for me.....my last one!! Oh no! I'll have Emily withdrawals! I told DIL I'd have to call her a couple days a week after the camp day is over and visit for an hour or so. This afternoon I will visit Jamie at her apartment in Nashua since she lives about 3 minutes away from my pottery class. Tonight I will continue my attempts to create a coffee mug. I hope I have better luck than last week!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there. This day gives me the opportunity to tell you about my dad.

It sounds so corny but I really do have the best Dad in the world. From the time we were little I can remember him playing with us. Either we'd be climbing all over him on the kitchen floor, or he'd be outside playing kickball with us and all the neighborhood kids. He gave me a sense of stability.

That's probably the most important thing I can say about my Dad. He loved us. He loved our Mom. My parents have been married for just over 50 years.

He loves her absolutely and undconditionally. That's the kind of relationship that anchors children and gives them a sense of security like no other. I'm convinced that's why all my father's children turned out to be good people and good parents. They learned from the best.

Mom and Dad still have a great relationship. They spend lots of time together. They've taken up camping and I'm glad....it gives my Dad a chance to relax....he always worked so hard. He did everything he needed to do to support his family, including having two jobs for a long time.

My Dad is also a fun-loving guy. Besides his regular job, when we became teen-agers he started Square Dance calling. He and my Mom enjoyed dancing and calling for over 30 years and made many great friends. He loves being with people and enjoys friends and family.
This is one of my favorite photos ever. It was at our last family reunion.....and just shows my Dad having such a great time.

Now my Dad has more new family members to love. He's accepted a new son-in-law, daughter-in-law and step children. He shows them the same affection he's given to everyone else he knows. His new baby great-grand daughter is, I think, a favorite though!

I'm so lucky to have a Dad like mine. He's been the stable, loving influence of my life. As much as I learned how to be a good mother from my Mom, I learned to be a solid, unwavering parent to my children from my Dad.

Happy Father's Day, Dad! I love you!!!

Camp Ideas

Camp starts in just a week and a half and I have to be prepared to hit the ground running with activities for the kids to do in Arts and Crafts. Last year I kept a written log of things I did which will help me out as a reference for this year. I don't want to do exactly the same things as last year, because lots of campers come back. There are certain activities that they expect and would be disappointed to miss: Tie-dye, gimp, friendship bracelets, craft stix, wooden race cars and rockets for the older kids. But I do need to come up with new stuff. There are lots and lots of web sites out there with craft ideas. I've already gotten some great ideas. A lot of the sites are repetitious - you can find the same crafts on each site. But some have come up with some good ideas. For "Special Days" I have to come up with ideas that go along with that theme. The three special days I have in the first two-week session are: All Star Sports Day, Red White and Blue Day and Pirate Day. Each of those days I might not have kids of every age group...just whoever is scheduled for that day. For All Star Sports Day I have the 6-7 year olds, who will make Pennants out of foam paper and pre-cut foam letters. I'm HOPING I can get those at the craft store. I also have lots of foam paper scraps they'll be able to cut up and glue to their pennants. If I can steal....uhmmmm...borrow enough paint stirrers from the Home Depot I will use them to hold the pennants. I also have the 11-12 year olds, who will make football, baseball or soccer players from Pony Beads. http://www.makingfriends.com/ponybead/ponybaseball_player.htm I still have to come up with something for the 4-5 year olds. For Pirate Day I'im going to have the 6-7 year old boys make Pirate hats with construction paper. The only other group I have is 8-9 year olds and I'm looking to perhaps order kits for them to make pirate treasure chests. Finally there's Red, White and Blue Day. For the 4-5 year olds I can have them make flags from construction paper using either real white star stickers (if I can find them) or make stars from scrunched up squares of tissue paper. Pretty much stickers and glueing is all they can handle! the 6-7 year olds can make "fireworks" by dropping watered-down tempera paint onto construction paper and then blowing through a straw to make the paint "spider" out. We could also use watered down white glue to do the same thing and add glitter to it. And the 11-12 year olds can make an "Acrostic Poem" using the words "America" or "Freedom" and decorate it accordingly. Of course, those are only the Special Days. There are all the regular days in between! Any and all ideas are appreciated!

Pottery/Construction/Anniversary

Alright, it's a weird title for today but I have to catch up on all the little things I want to talk about.

Pottery - I had my second pottery class last night. I really, really love it. I come home absolutely covered in clay just like a little kid playing in the mud. I do have to say it's so much harder than it looks! AND no Patrick Swayze in tight jeans and no shirt standing behind me! It's one of those things that will just take practice. Unfortunately once the class is over, who knows when I might be able to do some more? Not everyone has a pottery wheel and a kiln at their disposal.

Anyway - last night she showed us how to make a coffee mug, which is good cause Hubby really wants me to make him one. (He sent me a web site with all kinds of hand-made pottery mugs - like I'm going to have any say at all in how it comes out. I told Hubby whatever comes off the wheel in one piece that even vaguely resembles a mug will be his!) I'm still pretty much at the bowl stage, and pulling up the sides to make the coffee mug taller is very hard. By the end of class I was pretty proud that I had pulled the sides halfway as high as I need for a mug! But they were even!

Construction - (Caution!! Ranting ahead!) Yesterday on the way to my son's house to babysit I passed about 8 construction trucks parked on the side of the road with a dozen guys standing there doing nothing. I should have taken a clue.

On the way home they had blocked off the street I needed to go down to get home. Mr. Policeman said I could go the other way. I went the other way and about a third of the way down the road, there was a detour sign! I had to go back the way I'd come and go the long, long way around. Now don't you think the cop could have clued me in??? (He might have, if he'd gotten off his CELL PHONE for a half-second!) Today, same situation. This time I knew not to even try the first way, so I went the long way. Then I decided to treat myself to a salad at Shaw's and when I got there, guess what they were doing??? PAVING the parking lot! Some lady says to her friend, "Why the %$# are they doing that now? It's just STOOPID!" I agree with her....however....Shaw's is right across the street from our house and I sure don't want to listen to the BEEP, BEEP, BEEP of the trucks if they work on it at night!

Anniversary - Hubby and I have been married two years today! Wow! That was fast! We've been so lucky - we never had that first year "adjustment" time. He moved into my condo and it was like he'd always been there. I loved our wedding - I keep telling him I want to do it again! We planned it all ourselves and Hubby was just as involved as I was. It was a blast.

For our Anniversary tonight we will go out to eat at T-Bones and then come home and snuggle on the couch to watch the wedding video. Thank you my sweet Hubby for 2 wonderful years! I can't wait to see what the next 50 years or so will bring!

Thank God for Air Conditioning!

The New England states are "enjoying" a heat wave! The definition, I believe, of a real heat wave is three consecutive days or more of 90 degrees or more. We are now in our third day of over 90 degree heat and the weatherman is saying another day of it. Saturday we went to Jamie's football game and it was excruciatingly hot for us sitting in the shade on the bleachers...I can't even imagine how hot it must have been on the field. It was the slowest-moving game I've ever seen. The players were just wiped out. Jamie said later she felt like she was "swimming" through the heat. Sunday we went to an outdoor concert back in Fitchburg where Hubby used to live. It's at a place called Cogshall Park.....it has a small pond and dozens of geese and ducks and one Swan. Hubby and I used to go there often when he was living there. Now it's about an hour's drive. Even though it was kind of ridiculous to go that far considering the price of gas, it was nice to visit the place again. The band playing was called "Help!" and was a Beatles tribute band. Sitting beside the pond there was a little breeze and it was tolerable. I kind of cringed this morning when my phone rang at 6am and I knew they were calling me to sub. The school buildings are made of brick and are like little ovens. I was praying when I answered to at least be assigned a classroom on a first floor, which might be cooler. Much to my delight, I was called to be a secretary....the offices are the only places in the building that are air-conditioned!! At home, I asked Hubby to put in the air-conditioner in the bedroom, which he did do at 10:30 Saturday night. We have an in-the-wall one in the living room, so we're all set now for the summer. I ran the one in the bedroom all night on Saturday and Sunday. I know my electric bill will go up, but I don't care. I want to be able to sleep! Tomorrow will be another bad one, then we're supposed to get some nasty thunderstorms which will cool things down. I'm glad I'm babysitting tomorrow. My chances of getting called in to be a secretary again would have been slim. And if I had to sub in a hot classroom with a bunch of kids who think school is already over.....I might have killed one of them.

Sturbridge Village

Our vacation to Sturbridge Village was even more fun than I thought it would be! We left Wednesday morning and drove west to Mason, NH to have breakfast at Parker's. It was wonderful, as usual, and so nice not to have to wait! My stuffed french toast was raspberry and cream cheese this time and Tag had an omelet stuffed with hash. Delicious! Since it was raining, as the weathermen had predicted, we couldn't go canoeing so we went to Plan B. We drove to Worcester and went to the Ecotarium. This turned out to be better than I thought. They had tons of displays on animals and wildlife and habitats. Their special display was all about the weather, which was cool. They also have a big area outside with animals, including a polar bear. The rain had let up a bit by that time so we took the nature walk around the pond. Tag begged so I let him have a ride on the train. Inside, they had a presentation in their Planetarium on the planets which was aimed at children but was fun and informative. We spent a longer time there than I thought we would. We left Worcester and got into Sturbridge about 6pm. I was a bit disappointed in the area of Main St. where our B and B was located. I thought it would be cobblestone streets and little shops we could walk to....ala Newburyport or Rockport. But it was a regular street with lots of traffic. Our B and B was very nice. Not the same kind of B and B we usually go to. This was bigger and more of an Inn, so it didn't have that "family" feel to it that we usually enjoy. But the room was nice and the girl at the desk was very pleasant. We asked her for a recommendation for dinner and she sent us to Admiral TJ O'Brien's. The food was good and the atmosphere was nice and quiet. Breakfast at the B and B was a disappointment. We usually pick a place that has a full, hardy breakfast, but I wanted a place that would be within walking distance of everything (or so I thought) so I picked this place even though I knew it was a "continental breakfast". There was some pastry and muffins and you could cook your own english muffin and that was about it. After breakfast we left for Sturbridge Village. The weatherman may have been right the first day but he screwed up the rest of the week. It was overcast and threatening rain. We were well-prepared with both rain coats and sunscreen in Tag's backpack. As it turned out it was cool and overcast all day but did not rain. Really perfect weather for walking around outside. Sturbridge Village was awesome! I had never been there, and Tag went when he was in fourth grade. He only remembered the gift shop. It's all set up like a village from the 1830's. There was a town common and all the buildings one would expect to see. The first place we entered as called "Small House" because it was literally very small...about 400 square feet! Two women in there were dressed in 1830's clothing and were cleaning up from breakfast. They didn't try to stay in character of the time.....which actually turned out to be great. They gave us tons of history of the time and compared it to the present. From there we went to the Quaker Church and then the Congregational Church. The "pastor" was in at the Congregational Church. We visited so many different buildings it's hard to remember them all. Most buildings had people in them, or "interpreters" as they were called, who were extremely knowledeable about the time period and were very willing to talk. The buildings that did not have people in them had interactive displays. We talked to: A farmer and his wife, the Cooper (barrel-maker), the Tinsmith, the Blacksmith, the Potter, the men droving the oxen, the General Store, the Gristmill. the Carding Mill (where they take the wool from sheep and separate it into big bales of clean, smooth wool that women can then spin), the Tavern, the Glass blower, the Printer, the Sawmill, the bank, the lawyer's office and the schoolhouse. The potter had an outdoor kiln that was wood-fired only once a year. Everyone were farmers and only did the extra jobs on the side. The school master said he was not a school "teacher" as all the children did was memorize and then recite what they memorized. The parents were responsible for buying whatever books they wanted the children to memorize, therefore deciding their own child's curriculum. Life revolved around church and family. Children were put to work doing whatever they were able to do. Children under 4-10 went to school just about year-round. Children over 10 went in the winter only so they could help on the farm. There was no mandatory education. The funniest thing I saw was a sign in the lawyer's office explaining how to get a divorce. There was a list of reasons for which you could divorce, including "idiocy". I took a picture of that sign to show to Tag when I want to keep him in line! We finally left the Village when it closed at 5pm. They allow you to return for free within the next 10 days. Since we had forgotten our camera, we decided to return the next day to take pictures. Thursday night we went to The Cedar Street restaurant. We had gotten a gift certificate from restaurant.com, so even though the place was pricey, we only paid $25, including tip. I got an absolutely delicious plank-cooked Salmon and Tag got a pork chop stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes, spinach and goat cheese. It was a wonderful place, and may have cured us of our aversion to restaurants with tablecloths! Friday we woke up to pouring rain. It was disappointing because we were still hoping to canoe. We decided to do some browsing around. We visited a beautiful pottery shop and studio. I got some great inspiration for my class! Then we went down to Southbridge to a place called 12 Crane. It was an old cannery building that was supposedly renovated but when we got there, I think it was more like they were in the process of renovating. We wandered around, confused. We saw workmen, but no one else was there so we left. By this time it had stopped raining and the weather was similar to the day before. We went back to the town of Sturbridge and visited a few antique stores then went back to Sturbridge Village, supposedly for an hour to take pictures but we ended out staying for the rest of the day! The few places that hadn't had people in them the day before had someone in them on this day so we talked to more "interpreters". On the way home we stopped at Cracker Barrel for our last hurrah. We love the place and go to the one near home occasionally. We love going away but we love coming home. We unpacked and vegged. I did the budget and we congratulated each other on staying in-budget for our trip.....we made it with $4.16 to spare!

Pottery!!

I'm so excited that my Hubby's birthday surprise turned out to be a pottery class! I was hoping it would be but didn't want to tell Hubby I thought I knew what it was...in case it wasn't. But it was! There were only four people in the class which was great. She only spent about ten minutes talking to and then let us get out bags of clay and start working with it. I was glad. I wanted to get right onto that pottery wheel! Leslie, the teacher, gave a demo then watched us and assisted as we went hands-on, step-by-step through the process. I thought my first bowl (or whatever it was) came out the best and they got progressively worse as the night went on! I saved the last one, but will probably throw it back in the bag next week. We each get a huge bag of clay and can make as many pieces as we want in the six weeks. I'm excited about this. I've always wanted to try it. I know it'll take patience and practice.....two things I do not excel at....but I'll try really hard. Thank you my sweet Hubby for a wonderful Birthday Surprise! Tomorrow we are off to Sturbridge...... look forward to a long blog and some photos on Saturday!

Birthday Fun

So tonight I finally find out what my Hubby got for me for my birthday. It's something I have to go to every Tuesday night for the next six weeks. I have my ideas of what it might be, but I'm not saying. Hubby has been particularly close-mouthed about it. He knows if he gives me an inch with the clues I will take a mile and eventually figure out what it is. I'm excited. Tomorrow we leave for our "Spring Trip". Since my birthday is in June and Hubby's is in October, we go away twice a year. Our anniversary is also next week, so we're kind of counting it as our anniversary too, even though I told Hubby when we got married a week after my birthday that he wouldn't be able to give me "combination gifts". We usually go on a weekend, but our weekends in June are full, so we decided to go Wed, Thurs, Fri. This year we decided on Sturbridge, MA. We've stayed in the New England States so far and we've managed to visit each one of them. This will actually be our third time in MA. We've gone previously to Western MA - Quabbin Resevoir area and to Nantucket. I've never been to Sturbridge Village before, so that's the main focus of our trip. We'll leave first thing tomorrow morning and go to our favorite breakfast place - Parker's Maple Barn. http://www.parkersmaplebarn.com/ It's not really on the way.....we'll be going West then South instead of going diagonally. But it's worth the extra mileage. This time we shouldn't have to wait so long since it'll be the middle of the week, and also not Maple Syrup season! Then we're going to have to play it by ear. Our original thought was to go almost all the way to Sturbridge after breakfast and stop at a place called White's Landing where you can rent canoes and go out on the Quaboag River. Then we could check into our B and B in the afternoon. But they're forecasting rain tomorrow so we might have to switch plans. I looked online to find something interesting to do inside that's on the way, and found the EcoTarium in Worcester, MA. http://www.ecotarium.org/ That might be fun. Thursday is supposed to be gorgeous, so we're planning on Sturbridge Village. And Friday we will either go canoeing if we didn't do it on Wednesday or we can go down to Southbridge, MA where they have lots of shops and stuff including an artist's building called 12 Crane. http://www.12crane.com/ And/or we can go to Brimfield State Park. http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/central/brim.htm No matter what we do we'll have a great time. Just spending time alone with my Hubby with no phones and no TV and no work.........mmmmmmmm.

Emily Finds the Stairs

I couldn't resist sharing this video. She is sooooo cute!