Year: 2019

Readers, we had the most lovely Christmas. I mean, really and truly. For the first time ever, we were home on Christmas morning and then stayed home (usually after the Santa craziness we pack up and head to Vermont or New York, depending on the year). But in 2019, our family came to us and we celebrated with Grandma, Grandpa and GG. The gifts were perfect, the boys were happy, the house looked beautiful and we all felt the magic.

There were lots of Decembery things we did (filed under “holiday cheer”) but for the first time, the boys never went and saw Santa. They didn’t really ask and it didn’t seem super important somehow 😦 We also picked our tree in about 3 minutes: it was the first one we saw, it looked good, done. That’s usually a process (and I have, in the past, devoted whole posts to it, like here and here). If you’ve followed this blog since the beginning, by now you know what Christmas cookie making looks like and that we read Christmas books all month long. I would hold off from posting those, except the boys still watch so intently when we bake:

And now, Ashton is the one that reads the stories 🙂

Besides that, we went to church on Christmas Eve, had some wonderful meals and generally enjoyed ourselves immensely. Some of my favorite pics:

And the main event! I didn’t include most of the blurry present-opening pictures. You’re welcome.

And we just hung out! It was totally perfect. The boys got a lot of sports stuff and while they did get a Lego set each and some new games, there were really no true “toys”. Their lists were pretty difficult this year. Alex wanted, specifically, “a desk with a trash can and lots of white paper.” He started asking for that in the beginning of December and never wavered. He even practiced having one with a box.

So I found a desk on Craigslist like I do and had it refinished for him just in time for Christmas. If you want to see the totally adorable video of him opening it, click here. It’s now up in his room and he stays very busy while sitting at it. And of course now Ashton wants one.

Anyway we had such an amazing holiday and felt incredibly fortunate for all that we have.

On to the three worst, most awful months of the year, the completely useless January February and March. Such fun posts ahead!

Well let’s see, what did we do this month! First, Ashton has been playing a lot of hockey and in my next post I will tell a super cool story about that. But we love to go to the Bentley games now (say hey for $7.50 staff tickets!) and it’s been consuming our schedule for the most part. In fact I’m at the rink right now writing this post while Ashton has practice haha. Friday night fantastic.

HAHA that’s such a blurry picture. It’s hard to shoot a family photo on a timer with a phone that’s propped in the storm drain from the street.

Getting ready to eat. Honestly, this is pretty normal in our house (“But Mommy, we had to take off our clothes, we were so hot.”)

So Halloween at ages 5 and 8 happened and here is the skinny.

In the pumpkin department: 
The usual scooping out of the guts and all that. Alex commanded me to do a skull and crossbones and I modeled mine after my favorite emoji.

I didn’t do too bad! Jason and Ashton did pointy teeth AGAIN. That’s all they ever do – have some creativity, sheesh.

In the costume department:
For a long time Alex wanted to be a parrot. Parrot as in the bird and if this choice is a mystery to you, well, same. But then after about a month he was like, “Now I want to be a vending machine. I will walk around and pass out snacks.” Well that was sufficiently funny so I said fine. But it turns out making a vending machine costume is no small feat so on the weekend before Halloween, Jason took both boys to Party City in hopes of inspiration/diversion from the parrot and the vending machine.

Now, this whole time Ashton was easy because he was just going to wear his football uniform and go as, you guessed it, a football player. But he scored himself a funny wig at Party City and Alex, oh Alex. He came home with an zombie hunter outfit that was basically a vest wrapped with faux bullets, camo pants and a bloody ax. He was so happy. Me on the other hand? Well there was no way he could wear that to school – like the principal would have called me (no violent costumes).

And so, on the day of the Halloween parade, Alex had to wear a hand-me-down ninja and he was, shall we say, quite grumpy.

Up close, that’s:

There was a little mayhem afterwards with the sorting, trading, and inventory, but when I told the boys they could not eat more than three pieces they said “Ok Mommy, no problem” and didn’t protest their 8:30 bedtime. Not going to lie, I pinched myself haha.

So yeah ummm that’s pretty much it lol. No severe maniacal behavior or candy craziness in 2019! I wonder if that will carry over into the Christmas season, we shall see… 🙂

Well we decided to switch things up this year for our family photos. Instead of our usual fall theme, when the photographer we use announced she was doing beach sessions, I thought hmmm, that could work!

And it pretty much did! Although the weather was totally dark and stormy, and I felt like the wind was whipping my hair in every direction. It was damp, our feet were freezing because the sand was wet from the rain earlier that day, and it took an hour to get there so the boys were a bit crazed.

But you would never be able to tell 🙂 Here are the best ones! I can’t figure out why they aren’t posting like crystal clear but sometimes the internet is mysterious.

Well, my official first day of school photos are here!

Ashton (and this blog) have just turned 8! Eight. Eiiiiiiight. Yep, it happened on August 3rd and I’m here to tell you all about it.

The past few years, Ashton’s birthday has fallen on our “family vacation” week and I thereby get away with not throwing him a birthday party We usually do something special while we are away and that satisfies as long as he gets presents. This year was no different and we were on the cape (see last post). Actually Saturday, August 3rd was the day we had to pack up and go home, which, sadness. And not wanting to fully exit “vacation mode” we stopped at Duxbury Beach on the way back. It is here that Ashton spent most of his birthday hours, doing what he does best, which I can only describe as “beach busy”.

Ok so I suspect 75% of my readers (6 out of a possible 8, haha) are also on Facebook and have therefore seen most of these pictures already. To that 75% I say: feel free to skip this post and look forward to the next one, which will be a riveting account of second grade football so far.

Let’s dive in! By way of background, I was feeling a tad “been there done that” with Block Island this year. Given where we live, pretty much everyone gets down to the cape and you know, it’s for a good reason. There are zillions of beaches and so many sights and things to do: mini golf, bumper boats, ziplines, trampolines, ice cream, shark stuff, water sports, etc etc. Generally more goings-on than BI and we wanted to explore a new place.

{Pretend I’ve just told you all the criteria and research I did about where we were going to go. Turns out the cape is huge.} We ended up in Chatham and specifically, a house walking distance from Ridgevale Beach. It was so cute and actually perfect for us.

Gosh we had such a great week you guys! The weather was this:

And then we went into town, had lunch, moved into the house and enjoyed some late afternoon beach time. Off to a good start!

The Seafarer, where GG/Erik/Grandma and Grandpa stayed had a pool so we did a quick dip there after the beach:

Followed by lawn games before dinner (you can’t have long grass for those! Ashton generously cut it for us haha):

Monday – White Crest Beach in Wellfleet. It just felt epic, the geography is so dramatic because you hike down the bluff to get there:

Tuesday – We rolled on down to Ridgevale, wagon style:

Look at Alex in his sunglasses chugging his seltzer. Cracks me up.

But ugh when we got there, sooo much seaweed 😦

So we hopped in the car and went to Hardings Beach which was a bit better.

 SO fun. Ashton was obsessed with catching a fly ball and we had to drag him out of there.

 {Pause for a water break. This post is exhausting.}

Friday! Happy birthday Callie! Stay with me…

Friday, ironically, we figured out where the very best part of Ridgevale Beach actually is – all the way down by the inlet. The water is warm, clear and shallow. It was gorgeous.

Erik, GG, Grandma and Grandpa all left Friday morning so we decided to head to Wequassett Resort for our last dinner and Callie’s birthday.

Last stop of the night, Sundae School in Harwich Port.

 I’m not usually an ice cream person, but I had some coffee Oreo thing and it was like, incredible. This place lived up to its reputation.

And Saturday, everyone, we packed up and went home. To our family who always drives FAR distances to be with us, thank you. To Cape Cod, you define what it feels like to be on “summer vacation”. To Mother Nature, you more than made up for last year and the year before. And to all the creatures who spent time in our buckets wondering what the hell happened, send me your therapy bills.

School starts in two weeks y’all. Things are about to get real!

Kids take a rest while parents get tanned.

Pick up the football, throw pass throw

Go check out the pools during tide that is low.

Hermit crabs, fish and creatures galore
So many wonders to find on the shore.

Speaking of tide pools, these are unreal
Waist deep, like grottos, and the water is teal.

 

 

Then snack number one hundred and fifty eleven

For the best videos click here and then here.

One last refreshment, some Italian ice
Nothing on the beach tastes quite so nice

Time to head home and fire up the grill
Today we earned our license to chill.

P.s this was obviously just a post with so-so poetry about how much I love Good Harbor Beach haha. Our Cape Cod summer vacation is up next!!

Guys I’m obviously just skipping right over spring at this point. It was rainy, filled with sports, and general busyness. The boys had their last days of school and while I would love to do “first day/last day” side by sides, some things you just have to let go. Let’s get recent, shall we? Like July 4 weekend! We did something completely original and headed down to HB NY 😉 But it’s really the best place for celebrating America’s birthday (as well as Jason’s). It’s also a weird anniversary thing for us because the first time I ever went there was for Jason’s 30th, and now he’s 42.

Haha.

Anyway, we went to see some fireworks and hung out at the beach and in the pool with the whole fam and it was perfect 🙂

Welllll I guess this is my 7th Mother’s Day! And what I have to say about it would fill maybe a…thimble? Is that a saying? It rained all day. ALLLLL.DAAAAAY. Jason worked, we had plans with friends to meet at the bike path and ride to an ice cream stand and wear sunglasses. But no. Instead, we spent 3 hours at the Discovery Museum in Acton. If it had not been for Kathleen (three cheers for other boy moms that are also solo on Mother’s Day!), I would have walked around that place asleep. It was that dreary of a day But, Ashton and Alex behaved themselves and kept their food demands to a minimum, so that was nice. Oh, and at the museum, Alex made me this: