talk talk talk

Lucy may a little behind with the actual saying of words, but she has perfected her own language of babble. She's very expressive with her fake words and it's hysterical. I can never capture it on video, and I don't think others would find it as cute as I do. Anyway, this week she has expanded her vocabulary of actual english a little bit. here is a video of her at dinner the other night....

Monday Meet up

The first meet up Julie went to a little over a year ago was at a mom's house in Stoneham. There were a bunch of very cool moms and we all seemed to click. since then we have gotten together almost every monday possible. some of the mom's have unfortunately moved further out and we don't get to see them as often, but we are still a pretty tight group. here is a 5 minute long video of 4 of the kids (Alexander, Myles, Elinor, and Lucy) having fun in the pools at Anglika's place on August 3rd.

The DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park

Julie's love for art and sculpture is definitely getting Lucy acclimated to cool spots early on. Today we all went to the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA. It' Lucy's 3rd sculpture park visit (one in MN and on in TN). It was Patrick's first visit ever and we also met up with 2 other DeCordova virgins; Julie's brother's friend Christian, and his girlfriend Beth. I think we all had a pretty good time walking the grounds and museum. It was a muggy day, but we had no rain, or sunburns, so it was good. We spent a few hours walking the grounds and still managed to miss at least 1/3 of the sculptures, a great reason to go back soon!There are no photos allowed inside (though Christian was bad and suck a few -hopes he sends them this way too!), but there was a very interesting and controversial exhibit being shown. The Old, Weird America. I think Patrick and Julie found it more interesting than Christian and Beth, even while chasing Lucy around. Julie and lucy's favorite part was a room that had paper leaves string around the walls, a fake tree made out of wood scraps puzzle pieced together, and a quilted floor. there were tree stumps made out of magazines and then cased in the same wood puzzle technique. there were also altered iconic posters, a folk art wall collage/installation, confederate watercolors and prints, twirling dresses, and several Abe Lincoln impersonator photos.

the picture Christian snuck......

Simone's visit

Simone came back to visit for a few weeks. After the first week her friend went to Maine, and she was stuck with a toddler's schedule..... the complete opposite to a teenager's schedule might I add. She was pretty bored but still managed to hit up several malls a week (which then in turn made Julie very bored). We also went to Art beat (an independent artisan and craft festival) in Davis Sq, the beach, the zoo, Salem Willows, Chinatown, Boston Public Gardens, Newbury Street, Mini golfing with the grandparents, and hanging out with Julie's mom.

Hopefully next time we will have less mall visits and more city visits (NYC please?!)

She left for Texas, to visit with her girlfriend, then back to Seattle, then to Florida to visit her grandfather, and then back to Seattle to start highschool! of course we haven't heard from her since she left, but according to her internet updates she's safely in the right place and having fun.

Salem Willows and The Franklin Park Zoo

one of the things I have done every summer since I was a kid living across the bay, is go to Salem Willows. I thankfully succeeded in getting both Patrick and Simone hooked as well. It's an old arcade with a tot amusement park and really yummy ice cream. very old timey and basic. it's also on the water; the aroma of the salt water mixed with fresh popped corn is intoxicating. It was one of the places she wanted to visit while she was here, so Patrick took a day off and all four of us went up. it was hot and humid, so in the arcades it was even worse. Lucy was pretty miserable most of the time, but I got a few photos of the family (seemingly) having fun.

The next week we went to The Franklin Park Zoo. It's the bigger of the two zoo's in the Boston area. it was a drizzly cool summer day, so many of the animals were in hiding, but we still had fun!

so here are a bunch of pix for you.......