Martha’s Vineyard, Part III

Later in the day after hitting the beach, we went up to Menemsha, to grab some seafood and watch the sunset.

The next morning we drove up to Aquinnah (Gay Head) to see the lighthouse and the cliffs. 

Ashley and Leah loved running through the windy field near the parking area at the lighthouse:

After moving the cars down to a different lot, it was a long walk to the beach.  (On the walk down we figured out where to drop passengers off before you park your car.)

It got rainy later in the week, so the photos weren’t as frequent—but there is still a fourth part to come.

Martha’s Vineyard, Part II

Ashley and Leah were up pretty early all week, so they got some time to play quietly and eat breakfast together each morning.
Ashley, first thing when she got downstairs, always wanted to watch Leah’s Mickey Mouse (and “Mickey Bird”, as Ashley calls Donald Duck) iPad app.  Leah was a good sport, even though she’d probably had enough of it:

(Sorry for that one C.)
Ashley taught Leah her unfortunate, but funny habit of chanting “ALL DONE (yell), all done (whisper), ALL DONE, all done, ALL DONE, all done" when she was finished eating.
After breakfast on our second full day, we picked up some zucchini bread (the first of many loaves) at Morning Glory Farm, and headed over to State Beach for a picnic.  It was crazy windy, but empty and beautiful.  The kids enjoyed playing in the sand and we got a little kite-flying in:






More to come…

Martha’s Vineyard, Part I

(Sorry for the lack of photos the last six months or so—hopefully this post will get the ball rolling for me and I’ll fill in the gap.)

We spent the last week of September in Martha’s Vineyard with Nancy’s cousin D, her hubby C, and their kids Leah and Norah.  Our first time there, and we had a really nice time.

After both booking the 3:45 ferry, we coincidentally ended up on an earlier boat together.  I somehow took only one (horrible) photo of the view from the ferry, but I feel like I should post something showing our journey over there, so here it is:

Ashley and Sutton were great on the drive and boat ride over there:

After arriving at the house we were renting and having some dinner, it was time to get the kids ready for bed.  Ashley and Leah started an (almost) nightly tradition-- brushing their teeth together in a corner behind a dresser:

And the kids all had storytime together:

The next morning, we headed up to Oak Bluffs.

Oak Bluffs has a large passenger ferry dock, and is probably the tackiest-looking place on the island.  Still, it’s pretty nice, in the offseason at least:

We walked down to the Trinity Park Tabernacle, an open-air church surrounded by a few hundred cute little gothic-style cottages, like these ones:

Not sure what these guys were talking about here, but knowing them, it was probably snack-sharing related:

After going home for naps and dinner, we went out for ice cream.  Ashley had her first own ice cream cone.  She handled it shockingly well.

That brings us up to the end of the first full day there.  Part two tomorrow.

Lyrics to “Cat in the Window”

How much is that cat, she in the window.
Meow Meow [up to 5 times]
I want to catch a mouse,
and leave my poor cats at home.
If he has a cat he won't want to catch a mouse
and the cat will have a good (home in her) cage.

The “home in her” in the last line is optional. 

I wish I could get video of her singing, but if we bring out a phone or camera she stops.

Calm Down Time

Ashley has a backpack full of books out from the library.  It contains six of the “Toddler Tools” series of nine books, with titles like “Manners Time,” “Sharing Time,” etc.  On the back of each book are pictures of the covers of a bunch of the other books in the series.

One day last week, I took Ashley downstairs in the morning and as we were getting ready for breakfast she told me that we’d returned her backpack to the library and that mommy had taken out a new book.  I wasn’t sure what she meant, as although we’d returned a book the night before, we still had Ashley’s backpack out.

After breakfast she saw the backpack, and said, “Oh, sorry, it’s still here.”  Then she opened and dumped it on the floor and started going through all the books.  She took one particular book out, and looking at the back of it said, “that’s a good one!” as she pointed to the picture of one of the books she didn’t have in front of her.  I told her that the one she was pointing to was called “Calm Down Time,” and she asked where it was.  I explained to her that we didn’t have that one, but that the library might.

Fast forward to today, when Ashley asked if we could go for a walk to the library to get Calm Down Time.  Nancy checked the library catalogue online, saw that it was in, and said we could walk to the library and get it.  Then Nancy picked up the phone to call the car dealership to make an appointment for an oil change, and I went to the next room to do something.  About a minute later I heard Ashley yelling, “Ask about Calm Down Time.  ASK ABOUT CALM DOWN TIME.  ASK ABOUT CALM DOWN TIME!  ASK ABOUT CALM DOWN TIME!!!”   I walked in to see Nancy, still on the phone with the car dealership, laughing and covering Ashley’s mouth… she had obviously thought that her mommy was calling the library.  The irony of yelling about Calm Down Time was lost on her…

First Easter-egg hunt

Ashley had her first Easter-egg hunt this Easter, and predictably, it was a huge hit with her.  She was all business, but was really into it.  The eggs are just plastic hollow eggs, most of which contained stickers, while others contained chocolate chips.  The Easter bunny also left us a basket with some toys and treats. Some pictures and a video of the beginning of her hunt are below.  She had Easter-themed PJs for her to wear (the yellow ones in the photos), but she’d actually worn Christmas-themed ones to bed the night before (“reindeer pants”, her favorite pajamas) and we didn’t think to change her before we took her downstairs.

Beginning of Ashley’s first Easter egg hunt