With temperatures in the 50s this weekend, we took full advantage and met friend Ruby at the playground, walked and walked, had brunch at the local cafe on Sunday, and played in the yard the rest of the time.
Archive for the ‘Friends’ Category
Spring Sneak Peak
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010Seneca’s Fifth Birthday Party
Saturday, February 13th, 2010
Seneca celebrated her fifth birthday at Perpetual Motion in Lowell — an indoor playground with climbers, swings, slides, sandbox, and more. Flora and Charley had a blast running around, flailing in the ball pit, zooming down the slides, swinging high, and filling buckets with sand. The didn’t mind the Hanna Montana cake with lots of colored frosting either.
Poisonous Bears
Sunday, January 24th, 2010
Next door neighbor, Victoria, came over for a play date on Sunday. We made a fort from kitchen chairs, twine, and the disco ball … and the girls pretended to be “poisonous bears” in a dark cave — scary!
New Year’s With The Gibsons
Friday, January 1st, 2010
Long gone are the days of dressing up and painting the town red for New Years. Instead, we rung in 2010 (well, almost) with fondue and friends. Ruby, Flora and Charley had a great time dipping bread and apples into the gooey cheese, toasting and cheersing with sparkling cider, and ending the night eating Christine’s first attempt at a made-from-scratch cake (the verdict? damn tasty!).
Cookie Play Date
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Princess pal Raessler held her annual cookie play date on Monday. Her mom, Jennifer, makes individual batches of sugar cookie dough and frosting, and the friends bring the fixin’s bar. Flora went for quality over quantity, making just 4 cookies from her batch of dough — this gingerbread giant nearly consuming the whole batch! Afterwards the girls played Princesses and then Barbies with Jennifer’s vintage Barbie Dream House complete with ALL the accessories. Even I had fun playing with it!
Lola
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
We took Finn and Greta next door to play with their sister, Lola, this weekend. After just a few weeks apart, the kittens didn’t remember each other! Finn was pretty interested in making friends, but Greta and Lola just hissed like bitchy teenagers the whole time, and Greta was so pissed, she was even hissing at Finn. Cats!
In other news, Finn and Greta are getting more adventurous around the house and love to scout out a sunny window or open basket to snooze in.
First Sleepover!
Friday, October 16th, 2009
I had my first sleepover at my house with my pal, Ruby, from school. We snuggled up in sleeping bags to watch Snow White and munch on popcorn, and then we played, talked, giggled, and bickered in bed until 9PM when Mom finally put us in different rooms and we promptly fell fast asleep.
Honk!
Sunday, October 11th, 2009
This morning we met friends Gina, David, Dobbin, and Kate for brunch at Full Moon Restaurant in Cambridge. It’s super kid-friendly with buckets of toys at the tables, drawing paper table cloths and crayons, and a play area with train table, kitchenette, books, and tons of toys. While waiting for our food, we ran into Jennifer and Violet of the Affleck-Garner family, and Flora played trains with Violet while I chatted up Jennifer (Ben sat at the table with baby Serafina.) Seriously. After eating, we played at the newly remodeled Cambridge Commons playground and waited for the Honk Festival parade to come by. The kids loved looking at all the costumes and dancing to the funky music.
Gettin’ Our Fall On
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
This morning we met Hanna and Seneca at Smolak Farms in North Andover for donut eating, cider drinking, apple picking, pumpkin buying, and all around gettin’ our fall on — in that very order! This farm has a playground, animals, and a farm store with all kinds of baked goods and ice cream — but this weekend they also had bounce houses, hayrides, activities, and a food court. We picked Empire and Paula Red apples (Marty is making a crisp as I write), explored the pumpkin patch, and bought orange, orange and green marbled, and white pumpkins to carve later.
Old Friends
Monday, September 28th, 2009
Adam was Flora’s buddy way back when she was in the toddler room at school, but he and his little sister, Olivia, transferred to the other YMCA location. His mother and I have been trying to get the two together for about a year. That’s right, a year. We finally had success and met up at the Commons, and Flora and Adam wasted no time rekindling their friendship. Charley didn’t mind playing with Olivia either!
Fourth Birthday Parties
Monday, September 28th, 2009
All of Flora’s pals are turning FOUR this year, and last weekend we had THREE birthday parties to attend. The first was Lila’s Kidzfun party where exercise = fun! The second was Mackenzie’s princess party complete with a castle bounce house. And the third was Tristan’s party in the park with a really cool playground. Three solid days of cake and juice boxes!
View Flora’s “Lila’s Fourth Birthday Party” photos
Best Play Date EVER
Saturday, August 1st, 2009
The Colby Crewe and fams got together for a play date at the Nerneys this weekend. But this was not going to be an ordinary play date, we soon discovered. The Nerneys had rented a BOUNCE HOUSE and broke out with a SLIP N SLIDE to entertain the kids, and got FIVE flavors of Abbott’s frozen custard to keep everyone cool! The play date bar has been set high … very, very high.
Fairy Flora
Saturday, July 11th, 2009
Flora’s friend from school, Alice, celebrated her fourth birthday at Sugar Plum Parties in Stoneham. The girls dressed up like fairy princesses, got their nails painted and hair styled, stuffed animals of their choosing, danced on the stage under the disco ball, played bingo, did the limbo, decorated cookies, and had a cake and pink lemonade tea party while hearing a story. There certainly was no shortage of pink, purple, and glitter!
Poughkeepsie
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
We started off our week-long, rain-soaked vacation in Poughkeepsie, New York, where we attended the wedding of a Colby friend, Robin, and her main man, Anders. I have to admit that I get no more pleasure than when I get to dress the kids in cute clothes. Unfortunately they were promptly soiled in the wet and muddy lawn. Thank God for Oxiclean. But the kids had fun socializing, eating out, and swimming in the hotel hot tub.
Memorial Day Weekend
Sunday, May 24th, 2009
On Sunday we went to a cookout at Oliver’s house to celebrate Memorial Day. That’s me, Seneca, and Batman … I mean Oliver … pictured above. Hotdogs? Yah, whatever. Watermelon? Hmmm, pretty good. Chocolate Ice Cream Cones with Rainbow Sprinkles? Oh yah, now you’re talking!
On Monday, Mom and I went on a special date to the playground in Stoneham Center when Charley was napping, where we caught the tail-end of the Memorial Day parade before playing, then grabbed lunch at Mother’s Pizza. I really like their french fries dipped in mayonnaise.
Later when I was napping, Mom and Charley got to hang out in the yard together and enjoy the rest of the afternoon, before we cooked out for dinner and got soft serve ice cream cones at Dairy Dome for dessert.
Ruby G’s Third Birthday
Saturday, May 9th, 2009
Flora’s pal from preschool, Ruby G (top), turned three in April, but they celebrated this weekend with a cookout complete with Flora’s favorite, cake and ice cream, and of course, party hats! If you look close at Charley’s smiling photos in the link below, you may just spot another tooth that snuck through — his top, left incisor.
My Pals
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
My old pal Maggie, her Mom Suzanne, and her little sister Kalista, visited from Chicago this weekend. We’re were planning on going to the zoo, but the weather seemed iffy, so we just hung out in my backyard and played. It ended up being a really nice day, and a very nice visit with my pals (clockwise) Raessler, Mackenzie, and Maggie. You already know Charley — the one eating sand. “And when there was no meat, we ate fowl, and when there was no fowl, we ate crawdad, and when there was no crawdad to be found, we ate sand. You ate what? We ate sand. You ate SAND? That’s right!” — Raising Arizona
Boulton’s Fifth Birthday
Sunday, April 26th, 2009
Our little friend Boulton turned five this month, and held his birthday party at Lil Folk Farm in Holliston this weekend. The kids got to mingle with goats, sheep, rabbits, and chickens in the petting area, do laps around the barn riding on ponies, wack the candy out of a pinata, and of course eat pizza, cake, and ice cream. Flora’s favorite thing was the cake and ice cream (as usual), and Charley loved watching all the big kids run about.
Backyard Fun
Saturday, April 25th, 2009
It has been in the 80’s (!) here, and Flora and Charley have been having a great time playing outside now that spring is finally here. Flora’s favorite thing to do is ride her bike along the driveway where we’ve chalked big roadways, bridges, stop lights, street signs, and places to visit like the coffee shop and zoo. Charley’s favorite thing to do is to get into everything he’s not supposed to. Victoria, our neighbor, came over to play this weekend, and the girls had a great time making “pies” and “oatmeal” with the sand and playing on the climber. And Charley held his own and kept pace with the two big girls.
Sunday with Ruby G.
Sunday, April 5th, 2009
We spent the whole day today with Flora’s best buddy from preschool, Ruby G., and her Mom Christine. In the morning, they came over for a play date and picnic lunch, but we ended up eating inside because it was still a bit windy and overcast outside. In the afternoon, the sun came out, the wind died down, and it turned into a beautiful day, so we met halfway at Nettie’s playground to continue the fun. Flora and Ruby G. are peas-in-a-pod personality-wise (vocal, strong-willed, and authoritative), so in between fighting like sisters, there were some sweeter moments of sharing and caring. It’s all a learning process, I keep reminding myself, and apparently being four is much better than being three — just nine more months then … just nine more months then!
Seneca’s Fourth Birthday
Sunday, March 1st, 2009
This year we celebrated Seneca’s fourth birthday at, you guess it, Perpetual Motion! It was so fun last year that we had to go back again this year. Flora took full advantage of the indoor swings, slide, climbers, sandbox, and ball crawl this time around. And she of course delighted in eating the Disney princess cake. Charley enjoyed the foam block area, tasting everything inedible, and giving high fives (above). Happy Birthday, Cuz!
Meeting of the Minds Over Dim Sum
Saturday, November 15th, 2008
This morning we met friends Boulton, Porter, and dad Ken (mom Julia and baby William were home sick) at Hei La Moon in Chinatown for Dim Sum. I liked the sticky pork buns, fried dough, and jello shapes the best. It was fun using chopsticks and sipping Chinese tea … and pointing out all the dragons in the red and gold wallpaper.
Little Gym
Sunday, October 26th, 2008
My friend from school, Rachel, had a 3rd birthday party at The Little Gym in Woburn. We got to try out all the equipment, bounce on the air “mattress,” run around with scarves and swimming noodles, and eat pizza and cake. I really loved the balance beam best, and even pointed my toes and dismounted!
Dress Up
Friday, October 10th, 2008
When my pal Mackenzie came over to play today, we had the most fun playing dress up. Mackenzie pretended to be a ballerina and showed off some of her new dance class moves. I pretended to be a princess with an “umbrella” should it rain on my royal head.
Flora and Oliver
Friday, October 3rd, 2008
This morning we had a play date with Oliver at his house. He has a playroom full of toys, a flat-panel TV, and a big comfy couch! Flora and Oliver had fun playing with “Barber” play-doh, eating snack (which dog Willow helped finish up), and pretending with the Pirate Ship. Charley chilled out on the sidelines, as usual.