by Judy Handley | Jul 6, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 187: Jonah’s Birthday Scavenger Hunt, Then Shopping
Date: Saturday, July 6, 2019
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Windy, Humid, Rain Late; High 84, Low 67 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
We celebrated Jonah’s birthday with family on June 26th, but his party with friends was delayed until today as his two best friends were out of town until now. Luke has been Jonah’s best friend since pre-school and Luke was in Paris with his mom attending a couple of World Cup soccer games. Lucky Luke! Kayden is Jonah’s best friend from elementary school and his family left for a trip to the west coast immediately after school was out. There are a couple of girls that have been good friends throughout elementary school, but only Lillie could come today. And Molly and Joey from next door were out of town this weekend. But Jonah was fine with just enjoying the day with just three of his best friends. After watching a little World Cup soccer and eating pizza, the remainder of the party was centered around a scavenger hunt. Evidently someone had stolen the birthday cake but left clues as to where it could be found. The clues were quite challenging and took the kids down to the bogs and all around the neighborhood. Jed and Sam tagged along to take photos and give a little direction when needed and finally the cake was found. After eating cake and opening presents, it was back to the front yard to play soccer. What a fun birthday party!
After the party, I headed to Hyannis to do a little food shopping in preparation for the arrival of Justin and family next week and then came home and finished the window cleaning I have been working at for a couple of weeks. Now I can open the windows and get some fresh air in this cottage.
by Judy Handley | Jul 5, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 186: Museums on the Green and Sonnay Fiddlers
Date: Friday, July 5, 2019
Weather: Sunny and Hot; High 86, Low 68 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The 4th of July celebrations are still in full swing here in Falmouth. The traffic is unbelievable so you just have to plan an extra 15-20 minutes to any trip into town. Today Sam had his last day of Photography camp and Jonah had a 10 am annual physical, so Jed took Jonah to the doctor and I had Ollie. Ollie and I headed into town to go to the Free Friday at the Museums on the Green. We went last year, and photos of Sam and Jonah playing colonial games have been used by the Museums in their advertisements for this year. Sam’s photo is in the official Chamber of Commerce tourist booklet and a photo of Sam and Jonah has been in all of the emails sent out by the Museums on the Green. There was no official photographer today, but Ollie had a great time playing colonial games–learning to roll the hoop–and then trying to break the huge bubbles that the Bubble Man made for the children. Once Jed and Jonah arrived, the boys had free Smitty’s ice cream (red strawberry, blueberry, and white vanilla) and Jed and Jonah played the games. Then we all toured one of the colonial homes. At that point, Jed had to leave and the boys went back outside to break more bubbles. When I thought we were ready to leave, Jonah said, “Oh, Oma. We can’t leave yet. They are going to read the Declaration of Independence at noon.” How do children know these things? And how can you deny a 10 year-old who wants to hear a reading of the Declaration? So, we stayed and listened for a bit before the boys got a bit antsy and wandered back into the forest area to explore the model of a colonial building. It is big enough for an adult my size to stand up in, just barely. I continued listening to the reading and then I heard this beautiful voice singing America the Beautiful. I knew instantly it was Jonah. It was enough to bring tears to my eyes. It turns out that the words to that song were written in chalk on the inside walls of the model building and Jonah couldn’t resist singing the song. When I went back to investigate, he and Ollie sang the song together for me. Very special.
Heather had the afternoon off and she and Jed met after Sam’s class to take the boys to the beach. I took the opportunity to do a massive grocery shop and then at 6 pm, I met up with the Goldstones at Peg Noonan Park on Main Street for a Stanley & Grimm and Sonnay Fiddlers concert. Stanley & Grimm is Ollie’s violin teacher, Nikki, and a guitar player who play Irish tunes and a little bluegrass. The Sonnay Fiddlers are Nikki’s violin students of all ages who come and go from the stage depending on the songs being played. Nikki wanted Ollie to play with the group tonight, but he decided to sit this one out and just watch. Since he has only been playing for six months and has already done a couple of pubic concerts, sitting this one out was just fine. And I think he really enjoyed watching his teacher play. He took my camera and got some great photos.
Coming up . . . tomorrow is Jonah’s belated birthday party with friends and Sunday morning at 11 am EDT is the final game of the Women’s World Cup–USA versus the Netherlands. Later in the day we will have dinner at my house in honor of Granddad’s birthday as Heather and the boys still like to observe that day in his honor.
by Judy Handley | Jul 4, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 185: Happy Birthday, USA
Date: Thursday, July 4, 2019
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Hot; High 89, Low 62 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I got up this morning, dressed in red, white, and blue, and headed downtown to the 4th of July parade and public library book sale. I stopped by Heather’s on the way to see if anyone wanted to go to the book sale with me, but they were all enjoying a lazy morning together. Well, all except Heather. She had been up since the crack of dawn to go to a special yoga class and then came home and put together a red, white, and blue breakfast for everyone. She had granola in wine glasses with a strawberry perched on the rim of the glass for everyone, and then yogurt (the white), blueberries, more strawberries, and watermelon in the shape of stars. Impressive!
When I returned from the book sale, I worked at Heather’s installing the drip irrigation system I have been thinking about installing for weeks. I finally got up the nerve to do it and it really is as easy as advertised. It just seems so complicated until you finally just do it. I am not quite finished, but almost. It was brutally hot today, so mid-afternoon, Heather, Jed, and boys headed to the beach and I headed home to shower and change clothes. While I was home, Karen and Peter Baranowski stopped by to visit and then I returned to Heather and Jed’s for dinner. After dinner, we were off to the fireworks. There are three beaches in town from which we have watched the fireworks, but two of them provide viewing from a distance. That means less traffic, but Jonah was lobbying for Falmouth Heights Beach which is the closest to the fireworks barge. Heather and Jed worked out a plan where Jed would drop us at the beach, drive a mile or so to where he could park, and then ride his bike back to the beach. It worked and we had a great view of fireworks display. The Hennen’s, neighbors of Heather and Jed’s, met us there and their two boys and our three had a great time standing at the water’s edge watching the fireworks. Happy Birthday, USA!
by Judy Handley | Jul 3, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 184: Great Beach Day and More Soccer
Date: Wednesday, July 3, 2019
Weather: Sunny and Hot; High 88, Low 63 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The weather these days is like a yo-yo. The temperature just goes up and down with one day warm, the next cool, the next hot, then back to cool. Yesterday morning was downright chilly but this morning was hot making it a great beach day and a great day for swim lessons.
But even with the great weather, Jonah usually tires of being at the beach by noon, so we headed home. The boys did some chores and then it was time to watch the second semi-final World Cup soccer game. Today’s match was between Sweden and the Netherlands. The regular game ended in a 0-0 tie, but in overtime, the Dutch team was able to score and they will play the US Women’s National Team in the final game on Sunday. As we watched the game, Ollie came up with the idea of sending a text message to momma to see if she would like to go to the beach with him when she got home from work. The morning at the beach was just not enough for him. Heather texted back that she was all in for a late afternoon at the beach and suggested that the whole family go and have a picnic dinner on the beach. Unfortunately, since the soccer game went into overtime, the departure time was a little delayed, but I do hope they got to the beach in time to still enjoy the lingering warmth of the day. I decided against going along on this trip and came home to just sit back and relax. Tomorrow is the Fourth of July and none of us has a specific plan. But I am certain that one will develop. I am hoping to head downtown first thing to go to the first day of the Falmouth Public Library annual book sale. It opens just as the downtown Fourth of July parade begins, so there will be plenty of people. But then there are always lots of people at any Cape Cod summer holiday weekend event. Later on in our day, I think there will be cook-out at the Goldstones, and then we will all head to the beach to watch the fireworks. At least, that’s our usual agenda for the Fourth of July.
by Judy Handley | Jul 2, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 183: US Goes to the World Cup Final
Date: Tuesday, July 2, 2019
Weather: Overcast AM, Sunny PM, Windy; High 81, Low 64 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Camp Oma continues and the focus today was once again a Women’s World Cup soccer game. Today’s game was the semi-final match between the US and England. As I have stated in a couple of logs, US co-captain Megan Rapinoe is my new sports hero, so I was devastated when I learned in the pre-game show that she would not be in the starting line-up today. And no one seemed to know why. But Jonah, Ollie, Joey from next door, and I watched the beginning of the game and were very excited when Rapinoe’s replacement made the first goal. And it was very exciting to see Alex Morgan, the other US co-captain, make a goal on her birthday—a first in World Cup history. It was a hard fought game from beginning to end and got a little scrappy near the end as both teams were determined to leave the field with a win. In the end, the US won, even without Rapinoe. The depth of the US team was deployed in this game was impressive. The final game is on Sunday and I sure hope Rapinoe will be able to play.
Sam was off early this morning to Photography camp. Yesterday the group went to Woods Hole to take photos and today they played mini-golf as the practiced their photographic skills. Sounds like a fun camp. Jonah, Ollie, and I headed to the beach for Jonah’s 10 am class and were met by a couple of surprises. The first surprise was the weather. Yesterday was so sunny and warm, but this morning it was totally overcast with a strong wind blowing and it felt downright chilly even before getting in the water.
The second surprise was that most of the kids Jonah had class with last year were moved to the 9:30 and there were only three kids in Jonah’s class. One was an eleven year-old named Owen that Jonah enjoyed playing with after his lesson. But first he went to the car for a full 30 minutes to warm up. By the time he returned to the beach, the wind had piped down and it didn’t feel quite so chilly. Ollie played with Owen’s little sister and brother. They ended up playing until after noon when we finally headed home to have lunch and get ready for the soccer game. Heather was in Boston today and Jed picked Sam up after his class so they could join us to watch the game. And as the Goldstone calendar goes, immediately after the soccer game, Jed and the boys were off to a Commodore’s baseball game where the Boy Scouts were hosting. No lack of activity here.
by Judy Handley | Jul 1, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 182: Swim Lessons and a Photography Class
Date: Monday, July 1, 2019
Weather: Sunny and Windy; High 85, Low 64 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Camp Oma welcomed the first day of July with a flurry of activities. Today was the first day of swim lessons for Jonah and Ollie, and it was the first day of a week-long Photography and Photoshop Adventures class that Sam chose to take at Falmouth Academy. The swim lessons are sponsored by the town of Falmouth and are offered at many of the beaches. Like last year, Heather signed the Goldpebbles up for lessons at Menauhant Beach which is the closest to home, only a couple of miles away. Not only are the lessons convenient, they are a true value for parents. Heather signed up all three boys for the summer for a total of $70. So, when they are double-booked, like Sam is this week, it is not a problem. You can come and go from the swim lessons as best suits your schedule.
Jonah is always the reluctant one when it comes to going to the beach, but he had a blast today and can’t wait to go back tomorrow. His class is at 10 am with many of the same kids he was with last summer and Ollie’s class is at 10:30 am. Before and after the classes, all the kids play together. Today they went across the road to Bourne’s Pond to go crabbing. That was just their excuse for going to the pond-side as they had no crabbing equipment or bait, but they happily explored for two hours before heading back across the road to the beach-side. All of the kids were older than Ollie, so after a brief exploration, he decided to just lay on the beach and soak up the sun (with sunscreen applied, of course). It was after 1 pm by the time we got home. The boys took quick showers, had lunch, and then I took Ollie to violin lessons while Jonah played with Joey next door. Sam was supposed to bike to Woods Hole after his class ended at 3 pm and then come home with Heather. But Jed found out that this morning a power truck hit a bridge on the bike path and that the path from that point on to Woods Hole will be closed for the rest of the summer. So Heather picked him up from class and got home earlier than expected. I didn’t really get to talk to Sam about his class, but hope to have time to catch up with him about what he is learning tomorrow. Today was a delightful day and we are all looking forward to the US versus England semi-final soccer game in the Women’s World Cup tomorrow afternoon.
