Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday fell right in the midst of Norah’s lump crisis, with the diagnosis of hyperthyroid a couple of days before, and a multitude of tests set up for the week after.  On Saturday we decided to meet Mom, Josh, Rachael, and Duende for dinner at Newicks Lobster House in Dover NH, and we went to York Beach after dinner for a quick (and chilly) splash.  I love the reflection on the sand in the beach photos.  Aliya had gone to Old Orchard Beach with her friends for their birthday, so she missed out on our fun.  I don’t think she sees it that way.

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OSV Again

I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve been to Old Sturbridge Village this summer, but they always have different activities going on so we stopped by yesterday for a few hours.  Adlani stayed home with Ben so it’s a girls’ weekend at camp.

The Salem Towne House and barn have reopened, so Aliya tried her hand at milking the fake cow:

As soon as Norah worked up the courage to try milking, a random dad walked into the barn and moo’ed really loud.  I don’t think Norah will be milking again any time soon:

The kids got to make marbled paper:

Stagecoach and boat rides are free for a couple more weeks:

It was really windy for flower photography, but I tried anyway:

Back to Blocks

Last Friday was orientation day at preschool for Norah.  She’s returning to the same class, but now she’s one of the “big kids.”  She’s really looking forward to her new role of helping the little kids, but I just hope she doesn’t take it too far and get a paintbrush in the eye.

Herry the Heron

This is a great blue heron that lives near our camp in Holland.  We don’t see a lot of wildlife in Holland, although there has been an unconfirmed sighting of a “big cat” nearby.  I saw a photo allegedly taken on the Holland/CT border at Holland Market, and I checked with the local blogger to get the scoop.  He said that they weren’t sure what animal was in the photo or where it was taken, but that there had been a black bear in Holland a while back.  Not surprising considering that surrounding the congestion of lake homes there’s a whole lot of nothing (see below).  Here’s a link to the bear photos.

We were watching this wildlife on our porch at home until a visitor tore down the nest and killed the spider.  The kids forced the visitor to oversee a burial.