Sheep Herding at Drumlin

This weekend we went out to Drumlin Farm for their "Wool-a-pa-looza" festival. This is when they shear the sheep herds and also bring out a bunch of people to demo wool arts and this year they also had this great lady and her group of sheep herding border collies.
Here is one of the collies waiting for his chance to go run after the sheep... and below is a photo of one of the dogs getting the sheep up to & into the corral.

Proud mama and her doggies.

So I don't know if the lil monkey loved the demo, but I sure did.

Sheep Shearing at Drumlin

I was surprised at how relaxed the sheep are as they are getting their annual haircuts.

Shabat Shalom

A bit of singing on a hike through the redwoods by Orr - Oct 2008

Nursery School

These are some shots I took last week as I was trying to decide about what Nursery School the lil guy should go to starting this fall. For some reason this one - Garden - just tugs at my heartstrings. Maybe because it is tiny - it takes 17 3 year olds 2 days a week, and 17 4 year olds 3 days a week... Maybe because its not in a church building but in its own little house,,, Maybe because its hidden behind a 400 year old graveyard & in the shadow of Harvard....





Or maybe its because this is where I can imagine spending my Tues & Thur mornings...

Shopping

Our local Whole Paycheck has added the kids carts.
Monito discovered them for the first time this past week.
Shopping is now a whole new adventure!!!



Here he is trying to make up his mind about what to get next -
deli counter or prepared chicken --- hmmmm


decision made & crisis averted

(doesn't it look like he's about to smash into that counter....)

Wheels... sorta

Dev, Jesse & the Silly Bus

Thanks for a great weekend guys!!!!

ButterNut Boy!!!

We were up in the Berkeshires for Em's "Golden Weekend" - her last weekend on night shift so she had all of Sat & Sun off & didn't need to be back till Monday am (yeah). On Saturday afternoon we brought Blasto up to Butternut - to get his first SKI Lesson with Grandpa Phil.

First he got his boots and ski's - they are soooo cute & adorable -

Then after hanging out in the boots for a bit we headed outside to the "slopes" - well the bunny slope at least. Grandpa popped his lil feet into the skis and scooted him along the flats for a minute or two and then walked him up to some markers & let him glide down to Emmy from each one. I wouldn't say he was loving it, but he wasn't screaming & crying either.

Then we took him over to the ski lift (ok the people mover-magic carpet thingy) & he rode with Emmy & Gpa half way up the hill and then got to SKI down.

Now for the main attraction...

and here are some shots of the Grownups helping point him in the right direction ...

Em and I are actually showing him where the chocolate is waiting for him if he will just agree to make the last couple of slides down the bottom of the bunnyslope. If you look close at his face you can tell that he is pretty much done (after about 12 minutes on ski's) and is ready for a treat & to go home to Grandma.


This shot was about 6 minutes earlier after he rode up the magic carpet to the top of the bunny slope with Em & Grandpa Phil - & he is making his first couple of solo "runs" between them.

Chopsticks

I fancied up a pair of chopsticks with a spreader (paper folded up) & a rubber band & gave it to the boy.
In no time he had polished off a plate of white rice & scrambled eggs.


It looks like Seth is also discovering the joys of chopsticks I guess its the newest milestone for the 2 1/2 year old set - Now we just need photos of Xan & Jack...

Harvard Sq Weekend

Everyone needs a little pick me up now and again - On Saturday the family headed out to have a little lunch together - something we don't get to do to often since Em has been on Nights for 5 weeks and she is generally either gone or sleeping, or she's off & we are all out of town. But Mabel had to go to the vet for a check up so we stayed in town this weekend. With our big block of free time (and lack of food in the house) we decided it was time for a meal out - so we "bundled up" in clothing worthy of the BALMY 60 degree weather (note the sleeveless vests everyone - whoo hoo spring has sprung!!!) and headed out for pizza - well until we were sidetracked by the smell of a really good burger place. So burgers & sweet potato fries all around were followed by a stop at PEETS - meaning Beans for me, A coffee for Em and a GIANT chocolate chip cookie for the munchkin.

All this followed by a nice walk home through the Harvard dorms along the river with a pit stop for the monkey to take a huge dump & get a diaper change (well almost - it turns out there were NO diapers in the diaper bag) - can you say bad mommy moment??? and A BIG nap for all of us when we got home.

We also got a bit of good news this weekend so that was a nice topping to the shit-stream of bad news feelings I've been having the past 2 weeks.

Okay Maybe One More Snow Shot

I am cheating because this one is a bit old, but here is the lil monkey infront of our neighbors cool snow dude-ette. S/he has coke bottle tops for eyes - nice don't you think. Now no more snow shots - really I mean it.

Last Snow Photo for Awhile

This is a Boston/Cambridge tradition...

After you spend what seems like hours/months/weeks digging your car out of the snow & ice you are loathe to see some other sucker pull right into your freshly cleared spot. So the tradition was created - in the South End or so I heard - of putting out some sort of space saver. This isn't done on our block, but about two blocks over I noted that nearly every spot on the street had been marked in this way - with a cone, a lawn chair or in this case a garbage can.

Supposedly the city lets the markers stay there for the first 48 hours after a big storm and then after that they start scooping them up - but people in some hoods report getting their car vandalized if they "take" someone else's spot.

Yet another lesson learned by the Californians...

OMG The Cuteness

(The lil Monkey & Jack)