Yesterday Chris and I took the boys strawberry picking. Since strawberry picking season only lasts for three or four weeks around here, and it was a gorgeous day, we decided to knock it out for this year.
We went to a place called Spring Rain Farm in East Taunton, MA, which is where we usually go because they have a decent sized strawberry patch there. After a while, the gruesome twosome went in separate directions and had at it. Continue reading »
Summer has officially hit us here in Massachusetts and by that I mean that the past few days have been 90 degrees or warmer. Last night, we decided that it would be a perfect night to have ice cream for dinner – so that’s what we did.
There’s really no shortage of delicious ice cream places around us, but there is a new one in the next town over that we figured we’d try out. Actually I had already tried it one night after zumba, but I figured that it didn’t count since I ate the ice cream immediately following a workout, so the calories were canceled out…..right? Continue reading »
Last weekend, Chris and I had planned to take the boys to northern New Hampshire so that we could go to Santa’s Village (theme park), but rain was in the forecast, so we thought it was best to postpone the trip. As it turns out, the rain they were supposed to get ended up being snow up and the park was closed because of it on Sunday, so it’s a good thing we decided to stay home. To get to where we were going, it would have been a 3 to 3 1/2 hour drive and trust me, there is nothing else to do up there – so we would have been stuck in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do if we had gone.
We decided to take the boys to The John Carver Inn in Plymouth to swim for the day instead. The John Carver Inn has a big pilgrim themed pool, and we figured it would be a good way for the boys to burn off some energy. We got there in the late morning and we were there all day.
They were excited to get to the water slide. As you can see it’s a Mayflower replica:
Continue reading »
Where we live there are several small zoos, and the gruesome twosome and I are frequent visitors. We have a membership to one and with our membership, we get into the other one (in Attleboro, MA) for free – so when the nice weather hits, we make the rounds. The Buttonwood Zoo in New Bedford is awesome. Like I said, it’s small, so you can blow through it in about an hour – or make the day out of it if you want to pack a picnic lunch and participate in some of the activities they have going on throughout the day.
Chris and I took the boys for the first time this spring a couple of weeks ago and they were psyched to get back there.
Our first stop is almost always the bears.
And then we head to the elephants. Continue reading »
When the weather gets nice around here, my family are regulars at our local state park: Massasoit State Park in Taunton, MA. We all love to hike the wooded trails and go exploring. It’s finally started to warm up enough that we can make it to the park on the weekends and we went for the first time this year about two weeks ago.
This past Sunday I attended the Life is good Festival with my family and we had such a good time. The Life is good Festival is a fundraising event that took place this past weekend (September 24th & 25th) at Prowse Farm in Canton, MA. The festival was a two-day celebration of music and optimism, featuring three stages of nationally known musical talent, hands-on games, interactive arts activities, and the “Good Kids” zone — home to the top acts in kids entertainment. 100% of Life is good’s profits from the Festival will go towards The Life is good Playmakers, helping kids overcome life-threatening challenges such as violence, illness and extreme poverty.
Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks. And when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one.
I have such vivid memories of jumping rope while singing that song when I was a little girl. But I digress….
We’ve all heard of Lizzie Borden, right? She was accused of hacking her father and step-mother to death with an axe, but was acquitted. No one else was ever arrested or tried for the murders and it remains an unsolved mystery to this day. Wikipedia has a pretty decent recount of the story if you’re interested in the gory details.
Yesterday, I took my boys out for our annual blueberry picking outting. There’s nothing like fresh blueberries and we picked about five pounds of them. It’s not as much as it sounds, trust me. One pound of blueberries equals about three cups and (unwashed) blueberries actually freeze really well, so you can freeze what you’re not going to use right now.
In the little town of Raynham Massachusetts, there is a restaurant inside of a two story milk bottle. I grew up in the next town over (Easton) and I remember going there often as a kid and I didn’t think anything off it. I still don’t. While my husband and I were having breakfast there last weekend, it occured to me that a gigantic milk bottle is probably a bit unusual….ok, a lot unusual – and I thought it was worth sharing.
When I woke up yesterday morning, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do with the boys all day. It was hot & humid and I didn’t really feel up to a long daytrip. After thinking for a little while, I remembered someone on Facebook telling me about this place in Plymouth called Claychick, where kids (and adults) can go and paint pottery. I checked out their website and decided to give it a go – especially since it’s only about 15 minutes from my house.
We got there and were met by Chickie, the owner, who was very helpful and explained to the kids how everything worked – right down to how the paint will look after she fires the pottery in the kiln (ie – how it will be glossy when it’s done, but it doesn’t look like that when it first goes on). Once we were ready to get started, each of my boys took forever to choose what they wanted to paint picked out a piece of pottery to paint and got to work picking out colors.
This past winter my sister had purchased some Groupon tickets for The Colonial Lantern Tour in Plymouth. She knows how much I love haunted ghost walking tours and how much I especially love the one in Plymouth,so her and I made plans (with our respective mates) to go on the tour in the spring. It was challenging coordinating our schedules, but we finally made it happen this past Saturday much to my husbands horror my delight!
We only live about 15-20 minutes from The John Carver Inn, which is where the tour left from. Since my kids were off with their dad for the weekend, we sent his son to his grandparent’s house and decided to stay the night down in Plymouth. We ended up picking the Bayberry Inn Bed & Breakfast, which was right outside the center of town to spend the night at. The B&B was really nice and once we arrived, we found out that the owners ended up upgrading our room to a suite because the people that were in the room that we originally booked, wanted to say an extra night (the night we booked), so it worked out in our favor.
A couple of weeks ago I gave you some great day trip ideas if you live on or near the South Shore of Massachusetts, however they were all outdoor things. That prompted me to put together a list of things you can do with the kiddos on rainy days (ie-indoor activities) around the South Shore. So, without further adeu…..
Have you ever gone strawberry picking? For my family, it’s an annual event – actually, so is blueberry picking, apple picking and pumpkin picking! Raspberry picking would be on the list, but they are so flippin’ expensive, who can afford them? So every June I pack up the kids (and my camera) and off we go to load up on strawberries half of which will go uneaten and I’ll fund moldy in the back of my fridge next month. I’ll admit that I’m not a huge strawberry fan, but my six year old absolutley loves them. Continue reading »
Summer vacation is rapidly approaching! In my town the kids last day of school is June 24th – which is only a month away! Yikes.
Since I work from home and have the luxury of being flexible with my hours, I tend to take the kids out a lot. I live on the South Shore and there are about a million and a half things to do with the kids in the area, but I decided to make a list of places I frequent because I can speak from personal experience.
This past Friday night, I dragged Chris with me on the Ghost & Legends Tour in Plymouth, MA (think pilgrims). In my post that day I mentioned that Chris gets super creeped out by this sort of thing, but never the less, he loves me, so he lets me drag him along to these. The tour group was really small, which made it SOO much better. I’ve been on tours that have been packed and I’ve had to struggle to hear the guide…and that’s not cool. The tour on Friday was just myself, Chris & another family (a mom, dad, the nanny, a 9 year old & a 6 year old, who I feel was much too young to be on that type of tour, but that’s just me).
I took the kids to Edaville Railroad last night. Edaville is an amusement park (I use that term loosely here) in Carver, MA. It’s really in the middle of nowhere to be honest, but it’s the next town over from me. It’s built amongst tons of cranberry bogs, that is lit up with millions of Christmas lights this time of year. In addition to the lights, there are about 10 different carnival-type rides like a carousel and several other “spinning” rides, such as flying elephants and airplanes. There are also a few games and things along those lines. It’s very small, but it’s a completely magical experience when you’re a kid. And I know that feeling well, because my parents took us there every year while I was growing up. I still get that sense of excitement pulling up to it and seeing all the lights. Just an FYI, Edaville was first opened in 1947!
