Wildlife in the sunflowers

We have had bumblebees, normal bees, and most recently, a preying mantis eating a bumble bee!

First Day at Preschool

Mr 4.5 has been chewing at the bit to get to preschool. He is very excited by all the preparation. I am surprised we got away with the bag from child care back in Australia, but luckily it hasn't been used much, so it is new to him.
He is looking forward to the toys, the art, and a friend who is in the same class.
I now have two and a half days of unaccustomed (but not unwelcome!) silence.
No photos that I can put in here!

Our Caterpillar!

I don't know why I did it, but I found a caterpillar on the basil, and brought it inside, and have been feeding it bits of basil and cleaning out its container, and everything. I am intrigued to see what sort of moth/butterfly it grows into! I also hope we still have a basil plant when it is finished eating.

Little Plastic ties

I know the micro-plastic in the abrasive face washes is the current focus, but I'm wondering when they're going to start discouraging the use of these plastic ties. My experience was that they're used to hold one label on, but in the recent stuff I've been unpacking, they're in multiple places - between 3 and 10 per item. It is about keeping the product neat in the packaging - one blanket even had a corner folded back and held in place! It discourages people from unpacking things in the stores I guess.

Colour in the trees!

One of the things I noticed when we got back from Cape Cod is that Fall is gradually creeping in (although we are having another heat wave of 90F, 60-80% humidity - ugh). I love seeing the little tinges of colour!

The Sunflowers

We planted sunflowers again this year, problem being that some ratty little squirrel came by after and dug up half the seeds. I should have replanted, but enough survived for a bit of a show. Here are the first flowers!

2nd Grade, already

School Opening

The official ribbon cutting to open the school.  (update - none of our sons involved)

The new art room. Desks are wooden topped.

Open day for the school, in its new premises, after a US$24 million, 2 year renovation. Everything is new, except perhaps for the posters the teachers use on the wall. I thought they'd reuse the old desks and chairs, but no. Each classroom has its own toilet! The school can cater for 314 students now. Mr 7's class size is 18 students.

Knight helmet craft

Mr 7 borrowed a book that helpfully suggested a way of making knight helmets. For once I could see how it could be done, and didn't feel overwhelmed. I don't know that they'll get a lot of play, but it was fun to make.

Bowling

Went bowling today. Felt sorry for the owners, watching our two kids attempt to bowl 6lbs worth of bowling ball without sort of dropping it with a clunk at the beginning (hint, it didn't happen).

Very enjoyable, except for the inane TV display of the score that they've installed.

The Castle (Big Box craft )

 We got new air conditioning as the old one was struck by lightning. We saved the box, and it became a castle, with a drawbridge, for atleast a week before it got squashed through rough play and overcrowding.

The mail flap was very important to add.

Home again!

We set off early to beat the traffic pinch point out of the Cape at Bourne Bridge, which is a very pretty bridge, but it was misty again this morning.
Adventures on the way included a lunch stop at Weir Farm National Park, one of our favourite National Parks, and the discovery that one of our tyres had a leak - not fast, but not slow either. So we stopped for an hour or so at the last Service Centre on the New Jersey Turnpike, and got the tyre patched by a very helpful mechanic.
Two comments:
Poison Ivy: We have still yet to work out what it looks like in the wild, but it keeps us out of the undergrowth more effectively than all the snakes in Australia... Apparently it is in this photo. I have only ever seen drawings on warning boards.

Overhead bridges: Frequently have American flags on them, but there were a couple on this road (Route 15? not sure. We drove through 6 states today...) that seemed to take the flag decoration one step further? I'm assuming it was in memory of someone.

Last Day...

Last day. We went to the beach (Coast Guard) again in the morning. There was a mist, visibility was zero, and the seals were swimming close to shore. Very beautiful!

Whale Watching, Provincetown

Whales were feeding, so not a lot of playing, just coming up for air then diving again.

We had sort of wanted to organise a day in Nantucket, mainly because of the Dr Seuss reference, but felt like it would be a big day for all, given the ferry schedule and the organisation required. So we booked a whale watching trip out of Provincetown, at the north of the Cape, instead.
First time we had gone whale watching, and it was awesome to see, and the kids loved it. Province turned out to be very tourist orientated, which sort of took away from its charm, so we didn't look around that much.

Before going home we also climbed the 252 ft high Pilgrim Monument (because they first landed at Provincetown, and wrote their compact there) and drove out to the ranger station to look at the view and finalise the boys Junior Ranger badge.

Coast Guard Beach

Mr 4.5 getting the hang of the lovely chairs

This beach was recommended to us as the best, the downside being that you had to take a shuttle which didn't start until 8.45am. We got to the carpark at 8am, and put on sunscreen in the carpark, which took us to about 8.30am, when the driver of the first shuttle took pity on us and dropped us at the beach. The beach was quite empty when we arrived, except for some seal sightings, so we did our thing - built sandcastles, got wet, ate fruit/snacks, got sandy, got wet, got tired, went home for lunch. I am starting to see the advantage of a beach umbrella, because I did sit there under towels and scarf and sunnies and hat and reapplied sunscreen and still felt hot and sandy. By the time we left the beach was getting reasonably full.
It doesn't have the same rocks at low tide that Nauset Light had, which was handy for us trying to keep our footing and hold onto our precious boys. Still not a lot of waves.

Coast Guard beach gets its name because the old Coast Guard station building is there (get it?!)

In the afternoon hubby and Mr 6.87 went for a bike ride while me and Mr 4.5 hung at home, and after dinner we finally went for a walk in the other direction to Great Pond, which is a kettle pond - a deep inland salty pond, apparently left behind after a glacier melted. Despite not having swimmers, because we were just having a look, the boys stripped off to undies and hubby was conveniently wearing board shorts, so we jumped off the dock there for a bit. This was hugely enjoyed by both boys. It was a great way to cool down before bed.

The Bike Path

There used to be a train line up into the Cape, and 22 miles of it has been turned into a bike path called (wait for it) The Cape Cod Rail Trail. Since we had dragged our bikes up on the back of the van, we wanted to try it out. Hubby followed the kids on their bikes, I walked as swiftly as I could behind with the water bottles in a back pack.
I loved admiring the scenery. The uneven talents of our children makes it difficult (Mr 6.5 was keen to go much further than Mr 4), and of course, the presence of lycra clad bike riders who can't apparently slow down when they see wobbly children makes the effort tinged with a touch of stress about keeping the kids on the right side of the road and encouraging them not to do anything sudden.
We all got home exhausted in time for lunch. It was good to remember that the kids are still small, and (especially Mr 4.5), can't go that far on bikes.

Nauset Light Beach, Lobster Rolls, Lighthouses

Our camp, with the amazing chairs. The idea is (for us) arrive early and encourage extensive sand castles so we get left some space when everyone else comes.

View along beach showing huge stairs to beach over eroded sand banks

This morning we pulled our usual trick, arriving at the beach at about 8.30am, before everyone else had (presumably) finished cooking breakfast. Nauset Light Beach is named such for the lighthouse nearby. It seems that the Cape has a bit of an issue with erosion, which can be seen in the second photo. But in terms of sand and sun and sort of surf (low tide this morning, again!), this is definitely getting there. Today we discovered the joys of those short beach chairs that people cart around (so comfy!!). We also saw seals swimming nearby. The Great White Sharks come in after the seals, so you don't swim near the seals... But they look so sleek and amazing in the water.

Lobster rolls - a specialty up this way, very delicious and very expensive.

There are seven lighthouses on Cape Cod, and we made plans to try and see as many as possible...

Highland Lighthouse - oldest and tallest on the Cape. Moved 450 feet inland away from coast line in 1996. Much to Mr 4's disgust, you needed to be 4ft high to climb this one, and he was just under...

Nauset Light - the lighthouse on the Cape Cod Chip packets! Rescued from eroding coast line in 1996 at great expense and moved inland about 300 feet (91m)

Cape Cod Bay

View back to shore

This morning we went to the bay side of the Cape, and discovered a super low tide! Which meant, no swimming, but lots of sand castle building... The moulds that gave towers and walls were care of the cottage.

Dinner included local scallops! Thank you to the internet for directions on how to grill them...They were so tasty.

Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower II

You'll never believe this (maybe you will) but whole buses of tourists show up to look at this rock, which probably isn't the rock that the pilgrims walked on to get onto land when they first set foot on solid ground at Plymouth. Atleast one book has been written on the importance of the symbolism of America having been founded (sort of, maybe) on a rock, even if this rock wasn't the one, completely ignoring the five weeks they spent looking around Cape Cod beforehand (they moved on because they couldn't find a steady water supply). Hint: The 1620 was not put on in 1620. The rock is on the ground sheltered by a sort of mini temple structure, with someone employed by Massachusetts State Parks to stand there all day and make sure people don't climb on the railings, and hopefully answer some questions.

The Mayflower II is a replica of the Mayflower, and was made in London and actually sailed across (although with a proper modern steering wheel, because it was illegal just to have the historically accurate 'whipstaff' thingy). It made you appreciate how cramped the quarters were on board for the original 120 pilgrims and crew (these days they only let 25 people on board at once).
The rest of Plymouth gave me the impression of a small town council overwhelmed by the attention, and not very organised with things like directional signage or consolidated bus and car parking, or ideas on how to channel people from the Rock enclosure up to the sort of pretty main street. But very good at parking meters.

Boston - Tea Party Museum and Frog Pond

The Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum came highly recommended, and we enjoyed it too, although the boys were a touch bemused at times by the participation encouraged (and the concept of actors...). Although they got the hang of throwing the 'tea' into the harbour. I have never seen Americans so interested in, and trying, tea. We cautiously bought some leaf tea too, in decorative canister, and it is very enjoyable. Afterwards we went for a walk  across the harbour to the Barking Crab for lunch, where we had a really nice seafood casserole, among other seafood things, and also shared a Boston cream cake, because that was important to me.

After lunch we went to the Boston Common Frog Pond - a big wading pool in a public park (iceskating rink in winter!), because that is what the boys wanted to do. Unfortunately, the fountain wasn't on, we were a bit disappointed about that, but a good time was had splashing around with dad, and it was plenty hot and humid enough that it was restoring good humours too.

What we didn't get to explore in more detail - was the green belt (The Greenway) that has been created by putting a big elevated road underground (route 93?), in a sweeping curve that follows around the outside of the main city bit of Boston, part of which is pictured. We had walked the children to the limit, so we just admired the bit we walked through to get to the Tea Party Ships and Museum.

Boston - Heritage Trail

Old State House, beautifully hemmed in by modern financial district skyscrapers

The non individual paddle boats (that we went on anyway, and I found it quite enjoyable)

Our big plan in Boston, was to walk the Heritage trail through the old city, and get lots of stamps for our National Park Book, and maybe eat icecream. This had lots of advantages, we thought, number one being, generally, other tourists don't do the walking tours.
Surprise surprise, when we realised that most other tourists apparently do this particular walking tour...coupled with a shakey start (random toilet requests, leaving the National Park Book at the hotel, very hot weather, starting at the 'wrong' end, that we had thought was the 'right' end), and I was sort of worried, but the day turned out ok.
We got clam chowda and lobster bisque for lunch (greek pastry for the kids) and showed very good judgement by also getting a couple of fruit smoothies for us and icecreams for the kids for afters. Hubby got the book and we got stamps. and we got to see a fair bit of Boston.
The paddle boats in the park were a bit disappointing, as we had imagined them to be individual paddle boats (and told the kids thats what we were doing), but it turned out to be a barge paddled by someone.
Boston claims to be the start of the Revolutionary War between America and Britain - as a result of several incidents, I think the last being the famous Boston Tea Parties, the first shots between British Troops and American Revolutionaries were fired at Lexington Common/Lexington Battle Green (a bit out of Boston). It is a long story, I don't quite have it straight right now so I'll try to explain later.

Updated - to correct reference to Civil War to Revolutionary War

To Boston

View from our hotel room - Customs House in Boston

We drove to Boston today, via what we thought was the Garden Parkway, but what was actually route 284 (didn't turn off soon enough for Garden Parkway, whoops), and also via route 95 (missed turn off to route 15, whoops), and a big traffic jam on route 15 once we finally got off 95, because it had big traffic jams too, and then into Boston in time for peak Thursday evening traffic (standstill, literally). The valet at the hotel (no onsite parking! we missed that one when booking) commented "Welcome to Bawston" when I mentioned the traffic in Boston. I honestly think it was worse than Sydney.
But joy of joys, the Tappan Zee Bridge (which we did get to, instead of going through sort of north New York on the George Washington Bridge, which is what Apple maps strongly believes you should take (very hard to convince it otherwise, which is why we're grateful for the Road Map of America book left here by some thoughtful parents, all marked up)) not only was a beautiful bridge, they're building another bridge beside it! So there are cranes, and barges, and all sorts of cool stuff, in the middle of a large river (the Hudson) that you get to drive past.

A huge crane lifting a bit of deck into place!

Things which I think will be part of the new bridge with sort of boxes of scaffolding around the tops, plus more cranes!! Plus the existing bridge!!

Adrenaline junkies

So yeah, turns out in addition to quite enjoying the little path by the swing set, the boys really enjoy the hilly bit at the front of the community...As in, for the last three days or so, hot sweaty days, our mission has been to slather on sunscreen, take the bikes, and ride (mainly down, but also up) the hills and curves on about 75-100 m of path. I have had to ban the littlest from starting at the top of the hill, because his steering is still wobbly, and there is a curve with a tree right where you sail off the path if you miss the curve, but we are gradually by compromise working back up the hill to where big brother starts. 

I have had to install some basic rules about the bikes, as I officially can't keep up or even pretend I'm keeping up anymore:

1. If you hear/think you hear me yell, stop

2. If you realise you're out of sight of me, stop (although this isn't followed much these days)

3. If someone comes along the path, stop and get off and give way

4. If you think you're going to crash, crash into the greenery. not onto the road or into parked cars

5. Stop at the corners and wait for mum to catch up

6. Stop at the pre arranged lines (which are about 1m back from corners, as opposed to right at the gutters) when waiting to cross the roads (ie, waiting for mum to catch up so we can cross the roads)

Egg cups!

Found egg cups! Was searching for a butter dish, because we finally got sick of trying to fit a bread plate with butter into the fridge, and also found some basic, plain white, cheap and nasty egg cups at Bed Bath and Beyond (homewares) store. While buying 1 butter dish and 6 egg cups, also found a little milk jug, so I don't have to haul out the 1 gallon bottle for three cups of tea anymore. Can't wait to try it all out.

Neck cooler

Received in a package from Australia recently, which initially I thought might be one of those useless loving gestures I'd put in a cupboard, but I decided to give it a chance, because it has been hot and humid for around 2 weeks now, and I have been struggling with it all.
And it turned out great!! It really cools your neck! I feel the difference when I take it off!! Apart from the natty floral design, which makes me feel a touch daggy, (ie, not wearing this outside the house, ever), the thing actually works...
My suggestion to the designers - make some in more plain colours. Like blue, or black...
My other comment, is that the claim that I can just hang it up to dry and then travel, probably needs to be expanded to explain that it needs more than two days to dry. When it arrived, it was dry, and weighed practically nothing, but not now.
If anyone is interested - www.bodycooler.com.au