Kent, Connecticut (CT)

The house where we stayed (not in the entire house, just some rooms converted into a suite)

I wanted to take this tree home.

We are on a big trip to New England to see the Fall, Only problem is, we're a bit early. So we're on a holiday anyway.
Kent, Connecticut - a little boutique town with a boutique private school out on the edge of town. Lots of money around here, but not many apparent local jobs. Then we worked out it is about 90 mins from NYC, so maybe people have second homes here?
Beautiful mature trees that have just been left to grow all over the place. Extremely expensive dining (except for local pizza place), lots of coffee shops, and quite a few really well kept Victorian (?) houses, generally with artsy sorts of shops. People come for drives to hang out. On Sunday it was bustling. We have decided we need a big backyard to plant an oak tree in. I have decided I would love to buy a Victorian house and pour money into it and renovate...
Back in the real world -
We stayed in a little 'suite' in a yellow Victorian house, not one of the best kept, which was lovely, but by the end, the pokey antique furniture (not particularly good) and the stress of keeping the kids quiet every morning, not knowing how sound was travelling or where the other bedrooms were was sending me bonkers. The steep set of stairs accessing it, and about four sets of doors didn't help either.
Walked up Cobble Mt in Macedonia State National Park - bit of a scramble with the kids, and we took all morning to do about 2 miles, but beautiful view. Then we wandered around Kent, admiring houses and trees, and stopping for tea at one place and feeling completely like my parents...Because, there is something so completely restorative about a quiet cup of tea, even one where the kids are whingeing because they didn't get anything (with the ice cream still staining their mouths from the earlier ice cream).

Presidential preliminaries - explanation

At the moment, we are in the Preliminary/Primary phase of voting. everyone from the Democrats or the Republicans who wants to run for president puts their hat in the ring, and then they travel the country raising money (lots required) and holding rallies, and trying to impress. There are about 15 Republican candidates, I'm not sure on the democrats. You can only vote in the Primary round of voting if you are a registered member of one of the two main parties. Then, the two winners of that round go up against each other, as well as any independent candidates that may have declared, and everyone votes again.
This is roughly how I understand it works.
Australian way - the party (or party membership and the party, if you're labour) deciding who is the leader of the party, and then people voting for their party, and the party with the most seats winning government, and the leader of that party being the Prime Minister/leader of the country.
American way - way for party members across the US to vote for who is going to be the best (or who has spent the most money, and therefore looks like the best) person of the two main parties to progress through to to the final round of presidential vote. The presidential vote is separate to the voting for representation in the congress. The president does not have to win a seat in congress. They are one of the three branches of federal government, the other two being the people in congress and the judiciary.

Pick-ur-own - Raspberries!!

Went on an adventure, intending to pick apples with friends. We arrived at the farm to find the apples were picked over, and there weren't apples to pick just yet (we're in the lull between summer apples and fall apples). But joy of joy, there were raspberries! I have never seen raspberry bushes. They are a bit tricky to pick, the baby soon realised that it was easier to 'share' the punnet with mum, and towards the end his eating accelerated to about 2 for every 5-6 I put in, so I felt under pressure to find those berries so I could get some home! Wasn't sure of the price but was willing to pay whatever... turned out to be $4.99 per lb.
Big exhausting day, but worth it completely for the time out of the house, and the raspberries on the cereal this morning.

Brownie cookie marshmallow cake

This was a special (mum made) birthday cake shared by the recipient at work recently. Bottom four layers - alternating brownies and crumbled biscuits plus choc chips, top layer marshmallows and chocolate decoration. Layers held together by melted marshmallow. It is the most extravagant cake I have ever seen, including the chocolate and peanut butter cream cake. I cut myself a piece about half the size of a normal slice of cake, missing two of the bottom layers, and still got a sugar headache from about three mouthfuls.

Whitehall Plantation

The original party rooms.

Because when you're at an historic home, you have to investigate the spiders...

A privately owned old house was open for viewing this summer, through Historic Annapolis. We managed not to find babysitting (not for lack of trying!) and took the boys, figuring that hubby could hang out in the grounds with the boys while I saw the inside of the house. But the volunteers were so lovely and encouraging, and gave us a ticket to a later tour so we could both see inside the house! We ended up wishing we had got there earlier to enjoy the large garden more fully.

Whitehall was built by Governor Horatio Sharpe, sent from England to be governor. It was simply a party house - three rooms (plus presumably kitchen somewhere) in which people could have gatherings, away from Annapolis. The front of the house faces the bay, where people came by boat. When he was done out of his Governor job by the brother-in-law of Lord Baltimore (who started Maryland), he opted to live there rather than return to England. It was a full working farm of 1000 acres.
When the American Revolution finished, he sold his property instead of swearing allegience to America. It was bought by his ex-secretary John Ridout. It was in the Ridout family until 1896, but then had checkered fortunes until in 1947 Charles Scarlett bought it and made it his life's work to restore it, including tearing down a second story added by the Ridouts.

Baseball - Orioles vs Kansas City Royals

We knew it was going to be wet, but we were also keen to get some time with Mr 6, and at the end of the day, it would all be an adventure...
We had really good seats! But it rained! Baseball is like tennis or cricket, they cover the pitch while it is raining and nothing happened. After two hours they announced they would try to start at 4pm (game officially started at 1pm) and we made the official decision to head for home, because if they did start at 4, it would require hanging around the stadium for another hour, then probably leaving after an hour to get home in time for the babysitter.
Kansas went on to beat the Orioles 14-6, so it would have been an interesting game to watch (in that, there was a score bigger than 3)
Had it been just us two, with no kids, I think we would have hung around... our seats were really good... but maybe next time.

N, S, E, W - remembering the points of the compass

Never Eat Soggy Weetbix, right? But what does everyone else do, when they don't eat Weetbix?!
Mr 6 has learnt it in class like this:
Never Eat Squishy Worms!
Amazing.