Family of Photographers

A few nights ago, Adam was concentrating rather intensively on one of his Hanukkah gifts.  I wanted to capture the moment with photos or videos, but the fluorescent lighting wasn't doing me any favors.  Ashley stepped in with the built-in light on Karla's phone to help:

What was the gift?  It was a set of sticker mosaics:

Breakfast at Bickfords

The citizens love it when we go out for breakfast.  Ashley gets to color to her heart's content:

While Adam picks up more tech tips from Daddy:

A-Ridin' We Will Go

Lucy's roving camera snapped some cute photos and videos recently.  I'll post them as they become available.  Today's insight:  car travel.

Piggyback Rides

I hope the kids never get too old to enjoy this.  Hopefully Daddy's back will keep up with them!

Hanukkah: Post #1

The wonderful thing about Hanukkah is that it lasts 8 great nights.  Here's one of them.  More to come in the next few days.

Tzedakah

The PJ Library thoughtfully sent us tzedakah (charity) boxes for the citizens.  They're as much fun to open as they are to use!

H-Mart Excursion

We took Lucy to the nearest Korean grocery store called H-Mart.  There's a small food court there, so we decided to have lunch too:

Media Lab Holiday Party

Had lots of fun at the holiday party.  Thanks to John Werner for snapping these wonderful photos!

Priceless Parcel

We received a priceless parcel from Grandma and Papa.  Guess what was inside?  If you've followed this blog for any length of time, you will certainly know what we received:  cookies!

School Visitors

Karla and I tagged along with the kids one Friday morning to see what the citizens do on Friday mornings.  It was a very enjoyable morning:

Team Lumberjack

Lumberjacks-in-training are on the move.  Not sure how these skills are going to pay off in our home state, but if we ever move to Maine, Alaska or the Pacific Northwest, these two will blend right in.

And did you see who had closed his eyes again?  Aarrrgh!

The Hug

When Adam and Ashley hug, it fills this mother with great joy.  So I (foolishly) thought I'd snap a photo of it:

No luck getting both of them at once.  So I tried again:

B
ut Adam's eyes were shut. I pointed this out to Adam.  You know where this is going, don't you?  Yup:  closed eyes in each photo for the rest of the day.  You can see it in tomorrow's post too! 

Daddy Returns

Best part about Daddy's latest business trip?  His early morning return.  As the kids were jumping all over him, Ashley shouted, "Mommy, get your phone and take a picture!".  What a smart cookie!

Climbing Monkeys

It's amazing.  I no longer fear watching the kids climb through the ropes course, because I know they can do it on their own.

"Me" Readers

Found something called a "me" reader at Costco.  This is heaven for Adam and Ashley.  Each reader is programmed to read 8 books to the kids.  We bought two different readers.  If we throw in a bit of math, that's 16 books that the adults don't have to read repeatedly!  Thank goodness for early holiday shopping at Costco this year.

Whole Foods

Whoever studies demographics for Whole Foods has our family pegged.  Not only do they have non-GMO, non-offensive foods for wackadoodle moms like me, but they also have Hello Kitty tea sets and a large Lightning McQueen toy in the play area.  The A-team didn't want to leave!

Share a Lick

The only thing better than licking a lollipop is getting to share lollipop flavors with your best friend:

Architect to Be?

Ashley saw my hat from Tsoi/Kobus & Associates.  Being the fashion-forward gal that she is, Ashley immediately appropriated it for her own use.  I'll fully admit it looks cuter on her than it does on me.

Invincible Citizens

Nothing stops these two.  Nothing.  I'm happy to report they appear to be as comfortable running around in the woods as they are running around on a playground.  What a lucky mommy I am!

Chef

Apparently some of the homeschooling lessons have paid off:  Ashley wants to make some dessert for us.

Office Visit

I took the citizens to visit my new office at the MIT Media Lab.  It was a big hit:

Dancing Scarecrow

Ashley is very patient.  Watch her teach the scarecrow how to run and dance:

Veterans Day Hike

We went on a beautiful fall hike at the Middlesex Fells with our friends Jackson and Campbell.  In the middle of our hike, we stopped for a snack:

Yum!

Trick or Treat?

Finally had a chance to go through our Halloween photos.  Without further ado, please meet Ariel and Mr. STI (a Subaru racecar driver, for those of you not in-the-know).

Light Up My Life

The citizens really do light up my life, especially when they play together.  Here's a clip of them playing with Daddy's bicycle lights:

Twirling Cucumbers

Bet you did a double-take when you saw the title of today's post, right?  Well, it's true.  MLM purchased a fun, but completely unnecessary, kitchen toy.  The citizens think it's fantastic!

Happy Birthday from the Pumpkins

Our little pumpkins called Grandma to wish her a happy birthday:

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday was a few days ago.  Karla decorated the play room with streamers and photos of the citizens.  The citizens sang a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday Mommy".  What a wonderful way to celebrate!

Galapagos Double-take?

Is that a tortoise from the Galapagos?  Umm... nope!  It's a photo from our trip to the Turtleback Zoo.  Thanks Deduskha for sending us this photo.

Cousin Cuddle

As we've established, Adam and Ashley love to read books.  Imagine how thrilled they were to find another member of the family who loves to read to them!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from our little witches!  Our little witches also want to send special birthday wishes to the Chief Witch in NY.  

As you'll see below, neither one was tall enough to be a ghost this year.  

Photos of the citizens in their costumes to follow in a few days.

Blair Witches?

Do you recall the movie The Blair Witch Project?  To be fair, I don't recall most of it, but I do remember there was a lot of running in the woods.  At night.

Our video isn't quite as scary.  It's a corn maze.  And it's day time.  But the kids kept popping out to "scare" me.  

Are these two in training to run in the woods at night and scare their mother?  I hope not...

Hiking The Fells

We had a chance to take a lovely fall walk through the Middlesex Fells park.  Along the way, we stopped by Spot Pond for a short snack:

"The Magical Place"

I just don't get it.  Our kids watch Netflix where there are no commercials.  So how (or why) the heck did they get the idea to start calling our local McDonald's "The Magical Place"?  

As we drive by, you can hear the reverence in their voice as they point it out to me, afraid that I might pass by too quickly and miss the opportunity to see the Magical Place once again.  It's the same excited voice Adam uses when he sees a Subaru STI on the road (which is a fairly high level of excitement, just for the record).

When I asked Karla about this, she smiled sheepishly and said, "We only go there on special occasions."  A-ha!  Mystery solved.

 Being the good natured mom that I am, I took them there a few days ago:

And the irony of it all?  Neither one wanted to climb any higher than the steps you see in the clips.  We'll have to get Karla to work on that one ;)

Homeschooling, Lesson #19

Today we studied Vietnamese culture, specifically food (isn't that what so many of our posts are about?).  In today's lesson, we tackled traditional Vietnamese pho with chopsticks.  Not an easy task;  those noodles are slippery little things!

We are going to have to ask our next au pair for help.  If Adam and Ashley were to rely upon chopsticks alone, they wouldn't eat very much.

But I do give them enormous credit for trying so hard to succeed!

Playing with Leaves

Best part about fall in New England?  Playing in the leaves:

Making "leaf angels"

Topsfield Is Tops, Part #3

And today is our final tribute to the Topsfield Fair:  food.  Adam and Ashley happily wolfed down the warm cider donut before I could even take out my camera.  So Adam then tried some fried dough (huge hit).  Ashley preferred the soft pretzel.

Sheesh Mom!  Can you take a photo when I'm not eating?

No more pretzel!

Topsfield Is Tops, Part #2

Entertainment!  That's why Adam and Ashley wanted to go to the fair.  They were even more excited to learn that our neighbor was able to join us for the morning:

With the tame ride out of the way, we ventured to the more exciting rides.  First we took flight:

Then we plowed the fields:

And chugged on home:

Tomorrow will be the final installment of our trip to the fair.  Stay tuned!

Topsfield Is Tops, Part #1

Karla and I took the citizens to see the Topsfield Fair, the oldest agricultural fair in the States.  There was so much to see, learn and eat, that I'm going to separate our visit into 3 posts:  Education, Entertainment, and Eating (because I always work food into this blog).

Today's spotlight:  Education

We waited patiently in line to pet bunny rabbits:

Feed the ducks:

And stand next to the winner of this year's Big Pumpkin Contest:

And if you're wondering, yes, the pumpkin is displayed in a temperature controlled environment, with better air quality than we experienced in other areas of the farm (I'm referring to the Cow Barn and Sheep Area in particular, ha!).

Tomorrow's post?  Entertainment!

Homeschooling, Lesson #18

A homeschoolin' mama such as myself understands when it's time to bring in the pros.  Or rather, when to bring your students to the pros.  We visited Drumlin Farm to learn about hawks.  

This one here is about 10 years old and came to Drumlin Farm as a baby.  She is blind in one eye and unable to live in the wild on her own.  Adam and Ashley, who are excellent at following a teacher's instructions, sat quietly to avoid startling the hawk.