by Judy Handley | Jun 30, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 181—Jonah’s Birthday Party with Friends
Date: Saturday, June 30, 2018
Weather: Sunny and Hot; High 85, Low 67 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Summer has arrived as evidenced by the 85 degree high temperature today. It was a perfect day for Jonah’s birthday party with friends. He invited three friends to join him to attend a New England Revolutions soccer game tonight followed by an overnight. The friends arrived mid-afternoon to play and have ice cream birthday cake.
Dessert first! Then they left to travel to the Gillette Stadium in Wrentham. Ollie really didn’t want to go to the game which is just as well as it was going to be a late night affair. So, Marti, Jed’s mother, and I took Ollie and friend Raylan
downtown to go bowling at the Ryan Family Bowling and Arcade Center. This is candlepin bowling with small lightweight balls and it is much easier and enjoyable for young kids and grandmothers. Neither Marti nor I are bowlers, but we managed to have a great time.
After bowling, the boys went into the arcade and they would have stayed there all evening if allowed.
But we had a dinner reservation at the nearby Simply Divine pizza restaurant. We chose to sit at an outside table. The boys entertained themselves with the games on the placement and just talking, talking, talking. This gave Marti and I a chance to talk as well. It was a fun evening.
In last night’s log, I said that I had no photos of our lovely dinner on Midge and Bill Frieswyk’s back deck. But today, Olivia White sent photos, so I’m including a couple here.
I also got photos of Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco in England from Jo’s father . . . Jo’s summer solstice birthday cake made by Justin, Jo with Coco and Ziggy visiting Stonehenge, and a photo of Ziggy and Coco with their cousins Rufus and Kitty.
?
As you can see from the photo posted here, it is very obvious that they are related. Can’t wait for JJZ&C to arrive here to visit in mid-July, but am so glad they are having such a wonderful visit with Jo’s parents.
by Judy Handley | Jun 29, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 180—Day at the Beach, Evening with Friends
Date: Friday, June 29, 2018
Weather: Sunny; High 82, Low 64 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was a beautiful day . . . great beach weather. But I had made no plans for the beach this week as the boys expresses a desire to just do nothing. But the next door neighbors were headed for the beach and that changed everything. All of a sudden, all Goldpebbles wanted to go to the beach. So, we came up with an agreement where Sam would stay at home while I took Ollie and Jonah to the library book sale. And when we returned, we would all go to the beach. So off we went. We are still working out the ‘kinks’ of summer decision making with three boys with different interests. Not easy, but I have hope. An additional kink in the system was that today Sam had a 2:30 pm doctor appointment to check out a bump on the back of his head. He wanted to go to the beach side of Wood Neck, so we did that first since he was going to have to leave.
And before we knew it, it was time for him to leave. Just having one boy leave was a logistical challenge. We all had to go to the parking lot to wait for Jed to come to get him. Then Jonah, Ollie, and I headed back to the marsh side of Wood Neck.
Jonah and Ollie had a great time, both of them really enjoying snorkeling in the shallow water. Ollie announced that he can now swim. In fact, he let it be known that he is a fish and he did keep up with the older boys. And Jonah, the one who has taken a very long time to get up the nerve to put his head underwater, was truly diving under like a fish. Hurray!
They were having so much fun that my next logistical challenge was getting the boys home in time for me to get ready for a 5:30 pm Newcomers Dining-In evening at Midge and Bill Friezwyk’s. This is the group of friends that gets together once a month or so, and we had a fabulous evening together. The evening was warm and we ate outside. The food was spectacular, and company was even better. I didn’t have my camera with me and my phone ran out of battery power on the way there, so sadly I have no photos of the event. But I have wonderful memories from an evening with friends.
by Judy Handley | Jun 28, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 179—Rainy Day . . . Lots of Rain
Date: Thursday, June 28, 2018
Weather: Overcast with Rain; High 70, Low 65 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Day Four of Camp Oma 2018 was a rainy, rainy day. Grammy Marti had planned to go to Martha’s Vineyard today to visit, but that was changed to tomorrow because of the weather. So today, the Goldpebbles once again had two grandmothers. With that luxury, we could divide tasks and give individual attention to the boys. When I arrived, Marti was working with each boy to help them remove 10 books each from their bookshelves to make room for new books from the annual Falmouth Public Library sale. While she did that, I worked with Sam and Jonah to help them sort through their end-of-year school papers and notebooks, keeping some and recycling others. After lunch, I took Sam to the opening day of the library book sale and we came home with two shopping bags full of chapter books. Marti stayed home with Jonah and Ollie serving as the audience while Jonah practiced playing his new guitar and Ollie kept beat on Sam’s drum set. Then they did some tidying up in the room in the basement that we are now calling the music studio. All the while the rain kept coming down, but when Sam and I got home, Marti took the boys for a walk and the skies really opened up. It was the kind of rain that little boys can’t ignore. The air temperature was warm and there was water running everywhere. They set about damming and redirecting water and called their efforts the Water Works.
I forgot to mention yesterday that while Marti was here visiting at the Cottage, she taught me some new plumbing skills. Not only has my kitchen faucet been dripping, over the weekend it started shooting little sprays of water in every direction. Marti unscrewed the end of the faucet and cleaned out the filters. Amazing. No more spraying. She then showed me how to troubleshoot the leaks. She really doesn’t think I’ll need to replace the whole faucet. Thank you, Marti.
The sun should be shining tomorrow and from the weather forecast, it looks like we are actually going to get temps in the low 80’s with lots of sunshine for the next week. Yippee! Maybe summer has decided to visit for a few days. I took some photos of my raised bed gardens yesterday and am sharing them here. After a week of warm weather and sunshine, it will be interesting to see how much things grow.
by Judy Handley | Jun 27, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 178—A Little Work, A Little Play
Date: Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 73, Low 67 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
On this third day of Camp Oma 2018, the Goldpebbles spent a day with both of their grandmothers doing a little work, and then a little play. Marti, Jed’s mother, will be here until Sunday morning. Of course, she wants to spend as much time as possible with the “Pebbles”. But when she comes to visit once a year, she also takes on one project. This year she has decided to work on sanding and priming the woodwork surrounding the front door. Heather and Jed started the project earlier in the spring, but we have been so busy that not much progress has been made. In between kid activities today, Marti made great progress. I worked with her for a couple of hours in the morning, and then I took the boys to my place to kayak. Sam had cooked up an idea where he would go out in the red kayak and tow Jonah in the inflatable two-man around the end of the island to a place where they could land and have a picnic lunch. Jonah didn’t feel confident that he could kayak on his own, but in the end, I think it would have been easier. But I just let them go and hoped for the best.
They made it just fine, but there was a bit of tension between the two when they returned. Sam was convinced that Jonah had not rowed hard enough and Jonah was frustrated because he felt he had. Towing, and rowing two boats in tandem is just not easy, but I think they learned that without me telling them. Ollie and I had a delightful lunch on the dock while we watched Sam and Jonah out on the water.
Just as Sam and Jonah returned from their adventure, Marti arrived. She had lunch on the dock while Ollie and I went out in the two-man and Sam came along in the red kayak. Ollie wanted to go around the bottom of the island and go ashore where Sam and Jonah had their picnic lunch. It is important for the youngest to do just what his older brothers have done. We accomplished that and called it a successful day of kayaking when we got back to the dock. While we were doing this, Jonah was back at the house watching another World Cup soccer game. Sam and Ollie joined him which gave me chance to give Marti a quick tour around the cottage and then she took the boys home. Tomorrow she is going to Martha’s Vineyard to visit with a friend, so I will have the boys. It is the first day of the Falmouth Public Library book sale and we plan to go to that and spend the rest of day just hanging out . . . hopefully reading some of the books we purchase from the library sale. It is supposed to rain, making it a perfect day for reading. Tonight is the full Strawberry Moon. The sky looks clear, but hazy. But even through the haze, there are few sights more beautiful than a full moon.
by Judy Handley | Jun 26, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 177—Happy Birthday to Jonah
Date: Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Weather: Sunny; High 72, Low 54 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today was Jonah’s 9th birthday. Happy Birthday, Jonah! Mark and I missed his 1st birthday, but I have always loved the photos of him at that age.
Now he is a nine-year-old full of energy who constantly reminds me of a sprite.
To promote his love of music, his grandmothers got together for this birthday. I gave Jonah the electric guitar and amp and Grammy Marti gave him music lessons. He is also a very curious child, so Heather and Jed gave him Little Bits electronic gizmos and a build-it-yourself hydraulic lift.
We started the day at my house where Sam, Ollie, and I kayaked while Jonah watched a World Cup soccer game. We had a build-your-pizza lunch and then headed to Woods Hole to Stoney Beach. We all found the water a little chilly, but we still dove in and enjoyed. Sam had to leave to go to drum lessons and when he returned, we all decided to head home to welcome Jed’s mother who arrived while we were out. She then took us all out to a Mexican restaurant on Main Street for the birthday dinner. That was Jonah’s choice and we all enjoyed it. He then wanted us to walk down to the Green before heading back up the street to Charlie’s Cupcakes where we each picked out our favorite cupcake to take home to have while Jonah opened his presents.
We were then treated to a demonstration of what he learned in his first guitar lesson yesterday. At this point, just tuning the guitar is a big part of the process, but I see a rock star in the making!
by Judy Handley | Jun 25, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 176—First Day of Camp Oma 2018
Date: Monday, June 25, 2018
Weather: Mix of Sun, Clouds, and Some Rain; High 72, Low 54 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today was the first day of Camp Oma 2018 and it was a good one even though the beginning was a little rocky. I had planned to start the day with a planning meeting to get the input from each boy on what they would like to do this summer. I divided a white board into three sections and was going to have each one write the things they would most like to do in one of the sections. The problem was that all three boys wanted to write in the center section. I tried all of my best cooperative ways of deciding who would get that center section, but nothing worked. So, I just gave each one a sheet a paper and had them write on that. Whew! That worked and disaster was avoided. Mostly Sam would just like free time to play with friends. The younger two are more open to some organized day trips. Not sure how I’ll pull this off, but where there is a will, there is a way. After the planning meeting, I was the pitcher for a baseball game between Team Ollie and Team Jonah, and I did a little gardening and a little laundry while Sam and Jonah watched a World Cup soccer game in the afternoon. Ollie just didn’t want to watch soccer, so I caved and let him watch an episode of Shaun the Sheep on my computer. We’ll come up with summer rules for screen time, but today I just went with the flow.
Tomorrow is Jonah’s ninth birthday and I got him an electric guitar and amp as his present.
The middle school music director, who is the father of twins Roland and Meadow, kindergarten friends of Ollie’s, will give him lessons on Mondays afternoons this summer . . . starting today. So Heather and Jed met us at my house at 4 pm for the gift opening and then Jed took Jonah to his first lesson. Jonah has quite the head of hair, and once he had that electric blue electric guitar in his hands, Heather commented that the hair had just been waiting for that guitar. And the snaggle-toothed smile added to the wild look.
Jonah wants to be a rock star (this month), so he and Sam will practice drums and guitar in the basement this summer. Ollie says he will learn to play bass so they will have a full-fledged band. Oh my, poor Heather and Jed!
While Jonah went to his first lesson, Sam and Ollie went down to the dock to feed the mother and baby ducks and to go out in the kayak.
At this point, we have only been using the red kayak I bought from my neighbor at The Studio. Both boys really wanted to get out the inflatable two-man kayak, so we did. But it was totally deflated at the end of last season and has been packed in a large plastic bin. Heather was still back in the cottage trying to get some work done, but we had to call on her to put the pieces of the kayak together and to get it inflated. It was very late when we got that job done, so using that kayak had to be put on hold until tomorrow morning. We’ll kayak in the morning and then head back to Heather and Jed’s to await the arrival of Grammy Marti. Jed’s mother arrives tomorrow for Jonah’s birthday and will be here for the remainder of the week. What a special way to begin the summer for the Goldpebbles.
