K2 is coming!

Frances is returning to the Trotter this year.  The school invited the kids in before school started to see their classrooms and meet their teachers.

Frances was just a wee bit pleased with her teacher, i.e. she didn't stop talking about her the rest of the afternoon.

And so, another adventure begins.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Food Truck Time!

Have I said this all before?  During the "warm" months in Jamaica Plain, every Thursday night, two or three food trucks set up shop at a historic house and garden.  It's wonderful.  I don't have to make dinner.  I get to have adult conversation with lots of friends.  And the kids have playmates. A real sanity saver.  Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

The gardens are really not so bad.  Chandler is the orange bit in the back.

And here's Chandler being "loved on" by Frances and Darby.

Darby's family usually comes even when they have to take the bus to get there.  Thank God.

And, now, perhaps my favorite pictures of the girls ever:

An ice cream truck was added to the mix this year - artisanal, small-batch, organic ice cream, of course.  Not the cheapest, but who cares when it gives me the opportunity for these pictures?

And, yes, I've bought stock in sunscreen.

Oh, food trucks!  Someday, when I'm a poet, I will compose an ode to you!

She Sewed It Herself!

 I had this great idea:  all the child-aged cousins and friends in Maine were going to go off into the woods and build a playhouse.  This would take hours.  Meanwhile, the adults would read on the porch.

This playhouse would clearly need decorations.  And so Frances completed her almost-first sewing project, some bunting:

I think she really was proud of herself.  And there were no tears shed or accusations made during the completion of the project, which tells me it was the perfect level of difficulty.  Frances wants to sew with Mimi during her upcoming visit.  I think some Christmas bunting will be the perfect thing.

The Spring Recital

Frances had a ballet recital back in the Spring.  Here's Miss Long Legs getting ready for the show.

One of the things I love about Frances's ballet teacher is that the recitals are not a big production.  The kids just wear their regular ballet outfits and then Miss Gina adds a little something to complement the music.  In this case, Frances got a big yellow bow because the music was Build Me Up, Buttercup.

That's Frances in the middle and Chandler to her left.

I wasn't able to get any good pictures of Frances during the dance.  She is one of the tallest girls in the class so she was in the back of the dancing group.  I could hardly see her, much less get a good picture of her.  This is a new problem I'm discovering as a short mom to a tall girl.  But, here's the beautiful Darby, post-performance:

Cindy, Darby's mom, brought flowers for both the girls.  What would we do without her?

Aren't they beautiful?  

And here's Miss Gina, the fearless leader.

She was many months pregnant during the performance, but was still full of energy and smiles.  Very impressive.  Frances and Darby are holding hands!

And one last dramatic Frances pose:

Oh, my aching heart!

Oh, so fun Chinatown

This was so fun.  We went into the city with friends, which we never do, and it was so fun.  First stop was a restaurant in Chinatown.  It had a name which was both generic and hilarious, like Jumbo Seafood Restaurant.

The girls were fascinated by the fish tanks.

Poor little, bald Chewie.  It was a tad late for her and she seemed slightly overwhelmed.  Maybe because her beloved older sister was paying attention to Keala and not her.

Frances and Keala were a hoot.  I wasn't sure what Frances was going to eat at this Chinese restaurant, but I needn't have worried.  Frances and Keala took one look at the plate of fried chicken parts and got busy.  They were having a contest to see who could accumulate the most chicken bones.  Just when you think you know a kid...

The kiddos were ready to run around before the adults were quite ready to get up from dinner, but we were blessed by a small park across the street.  Perfect location.

After everyone finished, we started wandering through Chinatown and came across a great stream.  I believe it was designed by one of Mark's Harvard professors, but I could be mistaken about that.

A great place for washing off chicken grease.

This picture reminds me of the Abbey Road cover.  Is it just me?

The night just kept getting better.  We wandered into the gardens, where the tuckered out kids could have a rest...

...and we hung out under this artwork.

I wish I could remember the artist name, or all the details associated with it.  There were a lot of details, like each knot in the net represented the "blank" of Boston and the giant holes represented the three? landfills? of Boston.  Something like that.

Regardless, it was cool.

Just ask these two.

A little more relaxing (I promise I do take my kids out in the sun)...

...and we headed for home.

Going On A Bear Hunt

We hiked to this view...

...and did this:

(That's a mess of people having snacks.)

I was soooo pleased with myself.  I'd come up with this idea of inviting a bunch of people to go on a hike together.  I thought it would be a great way to see people without requiring anyone to clean their homes.  I invited seven families - seven! - people from Frances's old school, her new school, the gym, the playground.  What did I get?  One and a half families, very much the usual suspects (Darby's family, Keala and Akea).

It was still great.

This is Chandler, thinking it was great.

These are the big boys with their sketch books.  I got so excited when they pulled out their books.  I thought maybe they were going to draw the nature around us.  I am so naive.  They drew something like aircraft carriers.  I'm not sure when I'll get used to boys.

This boy has stolen my heart.

It's Peanut.  He's adorable.  I will weep when he starts drawing aircraft carriers.

And here's Mark silently having a heart attack whilst praying those girls don't fall backwards off the wall.

They had no fear.  But Mark did eventually make them get down.

Then there was some ring-around-the-rosies.

It ended up being a really nice day.

I'm going to go put organizing another hike on my list of things to organize.

Twenty-Seven Months of Toddler Chandler

Please excuse the blurriness.  The camera and I weren't getting along.

Twenty-Seven Month Fun Facts:

• Chandler, the Hiker:  Chandler is a great hiker; she can keep going for impressive distances, but don't ask her to do it quickly.  She will gladly go anywhere with you as long as she can do it at her own slow speed.
• Language:  Her language skills really started picking up about a month ago.  Some recent additions to her repertoire: Diet Coke; "issue" for tissue (it was a long winter); "geen" and blue though it's unclear if she actually knows these colors; chunks of the alphabet song, sung in rhyme; "bahr" for bear; "guhgu" for whatever she needs it to mean; hug; dirt; purple; Elmo; big; "anya" for another one; spoon; home; come; too; chair; blueberry; band aid; play; oopsie daisy; oatmeal; bumblebee; ant; and fly as a verb.  A typical sentence: "Beep-go on my side," which means "There's a car on my side of the car."
• Physical development:  She did a Montessori coat flip for the first time on April 26, 2015.  I nearly cried with pride.

Sixty-Six Months of Preschooler Frances

I'm going to have to break the rules a bit this month.  I did take pictures of the girls on their month birthdays, but they were terribly unfocused.  I'm going to make do with some photos from later in the month.  I'd taken the girls hiking and they did a great job.

Sixty-Six Fun Fact

• Frances, the Hiker:  Frances has bursts of enthusiasm for hiking, almost too much enthusiasm, in fact.  She'll take off exploring and before I know it, she's been gone for five minutes and I start to panic a bit about how I'm going to find her if she's not where she's supposed to be.   I've consulted other hiking families for strategies.  One suggestion was to have Frances and I both where whistles.  In theory, if I go too long without a sighting, I blow on my whistle and Frances stops.  Luckily, we haven't had to put the theory to the test.  Here's hoping we never do.

When my children paint...

It's That Time Again!

That's right!  It's Wake Up The Earth time!  It's safe to say I've never been so happy for the Wake Up the Earth Festival, even if I started the day in a winter jacket.  Chandler came armed with bonnet, fleece and book, because you never know when you might need to read.

Little #1 needed a rainbow, so...

Little #2 needed a rainbow, too.

Then we lost Little #2 for a bit.  But for some reason she let a Complete Stranger pick her up and return her to us.  The Complete Stranger must have had some very good vibes. Thank you, thank you, Complete Stranger.

And then Mark and I felt like crappy parents.  Moving on...

A huge plus of living in Jamaica Plain is that friends are never far.  We bumped into a couple Montessori friends who get along swimmingly with the girls.

Plus, these friends like books.  A big plus.

The girls clearly needed ice cream.  Yes, I'd had my winter jacket on that morning, but the snow was gone, and surely ice cream was in order.

After wandering around a bit, it seemed time to call it a day.  But we had to pass a band on our way out of the park.  Well, that was that.  We had to dance.

Spring is so good.