Day 163, Year 11: All Together Again
Date: Saturday, April 2, 2016
Weather: Overcast with Rain, Clearing in the PM, High Temp 50’s F
Location: At Home in Evergreen Preserve, Lowell, MA
The weather today was awful, but we ignored the weather and celebrated having our whole family together again. The entire day was filled with the giggles, squeals, and yelps of grandchildren. What sounds of happiness children make! Justin, Jo, Ziggy, Coco, and I headed out this morning to go to a gluten-free bakery just north of Boston. Both Jo and Ziggy are gluten and dairy free for health reasons and the Sweets Without Wheat bakery in Arlington was fantastic and elicited squeals of delight from not only Ziggy and Coco, but Justin and Jo as well. From there we drove to Watertown to the Magic Art Studio. This is owned by Ray Goulet. He is now 82 years old but has dedicated his life to magic and now has the shop that is only open on Saturdays and a museum that is open by appointment. The man behind the counter in the shop is also a magician and he put on quite a show for us. Again, there were squeals of delight. Coco was quite taken with the magic and decided that tickling my hand was a great magic trick. Every time she touched my hand, I would jump and she would belt out that Janis Joplin-like belly laugh of hers. Mark was not feeling up to going with us and we were gone much longer than we expected, but when we got home we found that Mark was feeling better and Heather, Jed, and the Goldpebbles had arrived. The addition of three more kids added a lot of yelps to our sound effects. The rain stopped just about the time we all arrived, so the kids played out back in the woods. When Heather was sure they were so loud that we were going to get evicted, I walked with the Fab Five to the playground. But instead of playing on the equipment, they decided to build a damn across the adjacent stream.
In the evening, Jed volunteered to go out and pick-up the sushi feast we had ordered. Justin made the restaurant choice and he made a great one. The sushi was fantastic. After dinner we had a little birthday celebration for Ziggy. He will celebrate his seventh birthday on April 7th. We brought out the gluten-free bounty–chocolate decadence cake, brownies, and Boston crème pie. Every choice was just a bit better than the last one and I think Ziggy really appreciated having the family sing Happy Birthday to him.
We are having a sleep-over tonight. All five kids are sleeping in the extra bedroom and their parents are sleeping in the living room. It is so wonderful to have them all here with us tonight.
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| 160402 Day 163 Cape Cod, USA–Celebrating Family |
