A little apple fest

Last weekend, some of us considered going apple picking. What actually happened was that the older Muffins picked very hard pears from trees in our back yard. A week later, the pears were still very hard, to the point of being beyond what our modest kitchen equipment can easily process. So, during the week, we picked (up) a bunch of apples (at the store), and then we turned some of them into yummy treats. Mom made apple fritters, using Pioneer Woman's recipe. Dad made the apple pie pictured above. Overall verdict: apple treats are good.

Introducing Rosie the Rabbit

Whilst sitting around as a family yesterday, we started the pet discussion for the zillionth time. You know, "I want a dog" says one, "No, a turtle!" says the other, and so it goes until we get to the part about "no pets allowed" and "Mom doesn't feel like taking care of one of those." This time, things turned out differently. When Mom said, "I want a rabbit," Dad said, "Okay, let's check craigslist and talk to the landlord." Less than four hours later, Rosie had moved in with us (Amanda's name choice).

Here we have Muffins waiting semi-patiently to give Rosie some time to adjust to her new home.

Here we have Amanda in the background giving a live broadcast of the bunny news as the smaller Muffins pet Rosie.

We are very excited to have Rosie in our family. :)

Fourth of July 2013

First time in New England on the Fourth of July . . . what to do, what to do. We decided to go to the beach. Turns out that pretty much everyone else did, too. All our careful research into beaches did nothing to prepare us for packed parking lots. But still, we'd gone all that way, and we could see the salt water, so we searched and searched for street parking. There weren't any parking meters, but there were lots of "resident only" parking signs. After driving around for a very long time (over half an hour, maybe as much as an hour), we finally found a signless section of road, and right by the beach, too. We slathered on the sunscreen and made our way down to the water at long last. Fourth of July beach trip? Check!

Sweet Home New England, 2013 edition

It is customary among others of our acquaintance to post photos of their new homes online when they move. We've done our fair share of moving, but very little "this is our house" posting, primarily because most of the places we've lived thus far have fallen under the category "well, at least it's only for a couple of years". Cost and location are usually the deciding factors. That was also the case this time, but, miraculously, the end result is in the "We're so glad we get to live here!!!" category. It's about the same size as our last place in terms of square footage and room count, but, unlike the last place, the space is actually distributed in way that fits our needs. Kind of like the difference between a blah pair of jeans and an amazing pair of jeans. We start our tour in the living room. Most of the photos are from the day we moved in, hence the lack of furniture and other trappings. Behold Clarissa on the glorious brand new non orange carpet!

Here we have the same room a couple of weeks later with couches, obtained from a local thrift store for less than $50 total and hauled home in our faithful minivan.

Here's the main level bathroom. Note the absence of washer and dryer. (No, Mom wasn't a fan of having a laundry room/bathroom combo on the main ["company"] floor of the last place.)

Moving on to the kitchen (cue angelic choir music here). The space that would have housed the washer and dryer in the old layout goes instead to a great pantry (see door by fridge). There's actually room for a table beyond the area shown, which means it's actually possible to have a family meal without bumping into the fridge all the time (more "unlike the last place" issues being solved here).

Next up, the playroom/family room/den/you-get-the-idea. The equivalent room in our last place was in the basement. A finished basement, mind you, but still a far cry from the cozy room with a great view that we now enjoy.

The master bedroom:

The upper level bathrooms. Note the toothpaste, soap, and toilet paper placed there by our new landlord. How thoughtful is that?

Kid room 1:

Kid room 2:

The closets in the kids' rooms are really fun, like secret hideaways. Here's Lydia in a closet to give some size perspective:

We like the yard, too. We ate our first prepared-in-the-new-kitchen meal out back. Lots of lovely lawn there.

And yes, there is still a bit of dirt to play in, too.

This concludes our tour.

The Ecotarium

We start this post with Clarissa, happy to be out and about. Our destination? The Ecotarium in Worcester, Massachusetts.

At this point, you may be wondering what on earth an ecotarium is. It's a science center, with exhibits like the one Lydia is checking out about how mountains are made.

They also have a wall for sideways climbing, which the Muffins said is harder than they thought it would be.

The Ecotarium also serves as an animal rescue station, where animals in need are either rehabilitated and released or given permanent homes on site. Most of the habitats were outdoors, but we did see this bearded dragon in the main building:

And this macaw:

Here's Amanda building a balanced dinosaur. In the background Dad and the smaller Muffins are visiting a tank of turtles.

At the time of our visit, the museum was featuring an Alice in Wonderland themed exhibit. Here we have Muffins in an ever shrinking hallway:

And here are Dad and the Muffins playing golf ball games with upside down flamingo head launch ramps:

Speaking of balls, take a look at this ball ramp gadget that Amanda found. The Muffins spent quite a lot of time watching little balls travel through the gizmo over and over and over again:

Not far from the gadget, Mom got this picture of Dad helping out with the Muffins:

Here we have a truly unusual photo: Mom on the other side of the camera lens (that's right, folks, she's still corporeal).

One of the absolute favorite exhibits for the Muffins was the bubble blowing station, which had all kinds of tools for large or unusually shaped bubble fun. It was right outside the front door, and we spent a lot of time there both coming in and heading out.

Special thanks to Dad for lending his phone to photograph this outing.