kennebunkport, me

On one of our free days between finals and graduation, we drove up to Kennebunkport, ME for one last visit to the gorgeous Maine coast. It was a perfect day, as you can see.

 

mothers day 2013

I took lots of pictures on Mother's Day this year so I thought I'd share them. It was one of my best Mother's (Mothers'?) Days that I can remember.

Anna made me some pipe cleaner flowers and pictures which she wrapped up and decorated.

Sam gave a thoughtful talk in church that made me cry- in a good way. 

He also bought these cute and delicious chocolates from L.A.Burdick in Harvard Square. I'd put them almost on par with La Maison du Chocolat. Wish I'd known about them sooner...

After church I got to read and go on a walk along the river with the kids. All the daffodils, and lilacs, and trees were blooming and it was just a little bit chilly. Sam made dinner.

(Rose from church and lilacs from MIT- in Grandma Fawnie's vase, tulips from a friend, and pipe cleaner flowers from Anna)

It's good to be a mom.

my favorite weekend of the year

Here's one way to know you've got an awesome husband. You say, "Husband, on the day after your last final ever, signalling the end of your grueling two years of work, I'd like to leave you alone with the children for three days." Then your husband says, "That sounds wonderful. Have fun."

And so began my girls weekend in New York. I drove down Friday morning (May 24) with some other women from Westgate who were also going down the same weekend. Our native New Englander, Katie, drove us on the most beautiful, easy drive to New York from Boston ever. We had lots of fun chatting and planning and talking about all the delicious food we planned to eat.

We parked on the upper west side and prayed that Katie's car would be there when we returned three days later. Then we hauled our luggage over to Levain Bakery. On the way we spotted Jacques Torres. At Levain I got some giant chocolate cookie that became my lunch and was absolutely divine. And then on the way back we stopped at Jacques Torres. The NYTimes said Jacques Torres had the best chocolate chip cookies in the whole city, though I'd have to say in the whole universe. It was a mind-blowing cookie. Especially warm. I bought some to share with Lizzie, Micah, and Allison. I thought about that cookie throughout the whole weekend, and kicked myself for not buying some cookie dough while I was there.

so goooooood......

After that we parted ways, and I browsed at some stores for a while before heading over to Lizzie's apartment in Brooklyn. It is absolutely charming. I love her style and taste in music. We chatted a while until Allison came. (Lizzie's husband meanwhile had taken the kids for the day- another awesome husband sign.)

After that we took a beautiful walk to the Brooklyn museum where we spent a blissful half hour until it closed which sent us on another walk to Grimaldi's for pizza for dinner. Hot stringy mozzarella hit the spot on a cold rainy day. And to finish the evening, we walked across the Brooklyn bridge which was lovely in spite of the rain and cold (but not lovely enough to entice us to walk back-- we took the subway home).

On Saturday morning we went to the Met first where Lizzie got us in for free with a fancy pass she had. I will love her forever for that. We perused the classical statuary a while and then stopped at a civil war photography exhibit which was fascinating. I learned all sorts of things I never knew.

After that we split up and I sped to my favorites: 19-20th century European statuary and paintings. Luckily, while getting lost on the way, I stumbled on the American wing and saw the huge Tiffany glass all around the room. It just took my breath away. I'm so glad I didn't miss it.

For lunch we went to the Shake Shack and then did some shopping. Allison and Lizzie were kind enough to wait in the ridiculously long line with me.

(I just stopped to think of what happened next and I can't believe we fit all this stuff into one day. It was an incredible day)

After shopping we walked through Central Park, past Lincoln Center, and then took the train over to the High Line. By this point it was FREEZING and quite rainy. But we caught a few sunny moments on the High Line and I was quite impressed with the charming long and narrow park. I wish it had been lounging weather.

view of Manhattan from Central Park

LDS temple across from Lincoln Center

After the High Line we went down to Broadway and bought tickets for Cinderella. We went to dinner at a Greek place nearby, though I can't remember the name.

Our theater tickets were right up front and the show was incredible. The cast was lively and funny and the costume changes were literally magic. I was surprised at just how much I enjoyed myself. At the very end of the show, Cinderella and the Prince said they had a special prize and would pull a seat number out of a hat. A man and woman won and went up to the front. They chatted with the two leads for a bit and said they were loving New York when the prince handed the microphone to the guy. He started telling the girl how much he loved her and got choked up. It was very sweet, and then he got down on one knee and proposed! It was so cute and romantic and why I love big cities.

After the show we went home and unloaded ourselves of our souvenirs. We talked a long while and slept very well. We were up early for church and were greeted with a beautiful sunny day. Lizzie's ward was very welcoming and felt a lot like the Cambridge 1st ward.

Allison and I left after Sunday School- she to the airport and I to the WTC. I thought I'd be able to just walk around and see it. Which shows you I did absolutely no research and didn't know you had to get tickets online first, only to stand in a two hour long line for your turn to get in. Needless to say, I didn't see it. But the city was finally warm and sunny and that's always fun.

I trained up to Central Park and found a bench and a tree and ate my sandwich and read a book which felt very luxurious. I called my Boston friends to see if we could meet up and they were less than a block away, so we met up and trained down to Eataly so they could pick up a few things. I got a glimpse of the Flat Iron and soaked in the smell of Eataly. I wish I'd been able to go earlier.

my view of Central Park

the flat iron

The girls and I swapped stories of our short time apart and our favorites about the city and about the show (they'd also gone to Cinderella). We picked up their luggage from their cute hotel and got back to Katie's car which was unharmed.

I think some of my favorite time was the trip back to Boston where we told stories about bad dates and strange boyfriends, and our dreams for the future and our personal goals. I miss you ladies!!!!!

some wonderful friends, with Danielle behind the camera

We got back around bed time and it was lovely to see the kids and Sam again and read bedtime stories and talk about the trip. I'm so glad I got to see New York one last time while it was easy to do it. I've always loved it and can't wait to go back. I also can't wait for our next girls weekend- when did we decide Lizzie and Allison? 2015? See you then.

anna's birthday

(Yes, this happened in May)

When my mom sent some fairy party supplies in the package for Levi's birthday, Anna was very easily persuaded that a fairy theme would be perfect for her 5th birthday. I hadn't really wanted to invite so many people, but I didn't want anyone feeling left out, so we invited all the girls Anna's age at Westgate

 This was how we set up the table. I told Anna the balloons were the fairy lanterns. One of the other moms, Min, brought her son Zane over to play with Levi and helped me make the cake stands.

 This was Anna's fairy costume. For some reason she didn't want to wear a dress up, but opted for this flowery shirt with little butterflies on it that she called fairies. And she had wings, of course.

 Pin the fairy on the flower- one of the games Mom sent.

 Here is Anna leading a game of "Fairy Says." The girls did not get the point of saying Fairy Says or not saying Fairy Says, but they loved getting a chance to tell everyone what to do. Here Anna is having us fly like fairies.

 Here we are playing "Don't Eat the Fairy," which is Don't Eat Pete, but with fairy pictures. The girls loved this game. We played it twice. A couple of them were pretty concerned that we were saying "Don't Eat the Fairy!" when some of the pictures were of toadstools and fairy homes (5 seems to be a very literal age for girls) but I convinced them that for the purposes of this game it would be OK.

 I copied my friend Laurie's idea and made individual cake for each girl from pancake batter made with cake mix and sprinkles. It was lots of fun for the girls, but was so messy and needed so much help that we completely forgot to sing Happy Birthday to Anna. I'm still feeling some Mommy guilt from that one.

 But they were awfully happy with their creations.

 How old is Anna?

 We miss these silly girls!

 Anna's dolls were so excited for her birthday that they had a little party for her. Anna woke up to this on the morning of her actual birthday and was so surprised. I had a little too much fun dressing all her dolls up after she went to bed :) (And I just remembered that Sam had put the lego house together while I dressed the dolls, so we both spent our evening playing with the kids' toys.)

More sprinkle pancakes for breakfast on her real birthday.

 And on the afternoon of her birthday, we drove down to the Cape to go camping!

 It was very cold, but the kids loved it.

 We stayed at Nickerson State Park with a bunch of friends. It was gorgeous. We were near the edge of a sparkling lake with pine trees all around. We all brought stuff for dinner and had hot dogs and smores with Reeses and Texas caviar and chips and "SODA!" as our friend Asher exclaimed. It was so fun to be with such good friends and in such a beautiful place. I was also very happy not to have a baby around.

Anna taught herself how to ride a bike!

A pretty light house (I can't remember which one). But it was near the receiver for the transatlantic cable. 

We miss Massachusetts!

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