Aquarium Birthday

Henry's good friend Lila is turning 4 this weekend. In addition to her birthday party this weekend (which we will sadly miss) she also wanted to take a trip to the aquarium with some of her closest friends. So, this afternooon we joined Lila and Meredith for an aquarium birthday celebration.





The kids had a great time watching the fish and penguins. Sharks were the favorite - every time one would swim by in the center tank they would all simultaneously scream "SHARK!!! SHAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRK!!!!!":

Afterwards we had a picnic dinner on the harbor:

Of course with cupcakes:

Happy Birthday Lila!

Hurricane Irene

It was much hyped here in Boston, but we ended up escaping the brunt of Irene (just a tropical storm by the time it hit us). Although our weather forecasters predicted much gloom and doom, we got away with a whole lot of rain, and winds of about 50 mph. Not too bad. We also lucked out and kept our power the whole time.

Since we had to hunker down all day Sunday with our outdoor furniture moved inside, amongst many flashlights, bottles of water, and hurricane rations, we spent most of our time...

Playing play-doh:


Burning off some energy with indoor scooting:


Finding novel ways to enjoy our hurricane flashlights:




And watching the movie "Cars" more times that I care to admit:



And after all that....this was about the extent of the damage on our street:




(I exaggerate slightly - a huge tree actually fell at Henry's school just down the road and just missed the building. Plus, hundered of other trees all around town are down and a lot of people still without power. We got lucky!)

Story Land and Mt. Washington

We took a trip to New Hampshire this weekend with Jake and his family to visit Story Land - a medium sized amusement park that is supposedly a big hit with the preschool crowd. I was a little worried because Henry kept being confused and calling it "Toy Story Land" in the weeks leading up to our trip, and I was concereed he would be disappointed when Buzz and Woody weren't there to great him. I was wrong, though, and he and Jake had a great time:





Loading onto a roller coaster:


On the log ride:





Competing:



The flying fish:




Shooting water cannons at the pirate ship:




Playing with the talking tree:






This morning we took a brief hike to a place called Diana's Bath, where they had a little waterfall and a place for the kids to wade:






After that, the familes split up and we took our little train lover to Mount Washington to ride the cog railway - the oldest cog train in the United States:




The track leading up from the base station:


The train goes about 6 miles per hour up to the summit of Mount WAshington - it is the 2nd steepest mountain train in the world, and the only one built entirely on a trestle. You can kind of get a feel for the grade in some of the pictures:





There was great weather at the top:





Mount Washington is known for having some of the worst weather in the world:




And only sees about 60 clear days a year, so we lucked out!

Before heading back down we explored the Mount Washington museum and Henry rock climbed his way to the summit - the highest point in the northeast:





(I climbed Mount Washington as a hiker a few years ago, and let me tell you - the cog railway is definitely the way to go!)

It was a great little weekend away!

Pool

Earlier this summer a group of us bought a package of dsiscounted passes to a local swimming pool (a great deal - a regular summer family membership for it is $900 - holy smokes!!!!) and this weekend was the first time that we were able to bring Henry.

The pool was a little oasis in the middle of the hot city:



(right by Mass General and the Museum of Science, for those familiar with Boston)

Henry threw on his water wings, grabbed some noodles, and dove right in.







We have been slacking on the swim lessons lately - we definitely need to get him back in them. He loves the water!

Mad Scientist