To the Berkshires we went...

On Sunday, our little family took a mini roadtrip up to one of our favorite places-- beautiful Look Park in the Northampton/Amherst area.  Look Park has lots of pretty, secluded spots, as well as a zoo, train, splash park and pedal boats.  We spent the morning there, had a picnic and headed up to walk through Amherst-- home to the University of Massachusetts/ Amherst, Amherst College and Hampshire College.  It was nice to hang out in a cool college town and see the variety of ethnic restaurants (sigh...that is one thing I really miss living where we do).  After, we drove up to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain-- underwhelming to Westerners with its elevation of just under 700 feet, but it still afforded us great views of the classic New England countryside.  It was a great little trip to our favorite part of the state!

Resting on the ride West

Carefully avoiding the water.  This is the third year in a row that the girls have refused to play in the splash park.

Happy girl on a hot day

Dancing through the meadow

Co-captain on the pedal boat

Enjoying a yummy smoothie in Amherst

View from the top of Sugarloaf Mtn

The Connecticut River

Enjoying the view

Saturday at the Farmer's Market

Another beautiful day!  We mostly worked on taking care of errands before our little road trip tomorrow.  We took a little time out to enjoy our first trip of the year to our town's farmer's market, though.

Town Square with market at the far side.

 

Excited by the selection of perennials.

Groovin' to the music

The girls watching a cute performance of high school orchestra members with Willow's friend (and her sister).

Sunshine

After a long and soggy Spring, we have suddenly come into an extended period of amazing weather!  Today was in the 80's, so the girls and I headed to one of the several lakes with beaches in town-- Lake Cochituate State Park.  We are lucky to have such a pretty spot just 10 minutes from our house.  The park is made up of three pretty lakes (often dotted with sailboats), lots of picnic tables and a big grassy area for running.  We never make it past the lake, with its sandy beach, lifeguard towers and shallow wading area.

We have a fun little road trip planned for the long,hot weekend and lots of outside time.  Hope your holiday weekend is looking sunny, too!

Sunshine

It finally looks like warmth and sunshine will be hanging around for awhile (or at least the next seven days)!  Yesterday was close to 80 degrees but a bit overcast-- a perfect day to get out and soak up the warmth!


We first attended Willow's "Portfolio Day", a little celebration of Willow's last year of preschool and a moving up ceremony as she and her classmates head off to Kindergarten (sniff).

The kids were given little gift bags, leis and folders full of memories from the year.

Dancing in the gazebo at the park

 Then we were off to the park...

Willow modeling the dress I appliqued with little poppies for her.

 Then back home for homemade rocket pops (filled with frozen smoothie) , art and play.

Willow and I did leaf rubbings with crayons.  The kids like watching the leaf magically appear as they rub the crayon on the paper and they are so pretty posted all over the house.

Sunday at Purgatory Chasm

After what seems like weeks of rain, this weekend turned out to be beautiful.  We celebrated by heading up to Purgatory Chasm, a beautiful State Park about 45 minutes West of us.  We were here once before, not long after we moved to the area and have wanted to return ever since.  It was so much more fun (and easier) now that the girls are 5 and 2, rather than 2 and an infant!  The Chasm is a narrow pathway between granite walls and strewn with large boulders and secret caves. The trail is somewhat difficult to negotiate because of the terrain but the length is short, enabling the us to take our time and enjoy the views while the kids practiced their climbing skills.  A little picnic capped a great little adventure!

Hiking down into the chasm

Willow loved climbing the tree roots that laced the rocks

So did Indigo!

Rainy Day at the Farm

After days and days of rain, a brief break allowed the girls and I to spend a lot of time playing at our little local farm.

Color

A year or so ago, Jay and I made these color theory sticks for the girls out of a long piece of oak, paint chip samples and Mod Podge.  They didn't use them much at the time but Indigo has recently started exploring them.  She first lined them up by color.  This gave us a chance to talk about shades and tones.

She next decided to make a sun out of them.  There are so many possible activities with these simple little toys.  I need to reintroduce them to Willow and see what she comes up with!

Just a cute picture of Willow after school on Thursday.  I am so glad she still loves to wear the skirt that she painted and I sewed.  It really is a little work of art!  When the weather improves we will do this project again!

Happy Birthday to Willow!

Today Willow turned 5!!  She had a wonderful, simple birthday full of activities that mean a lot to her-- bike riding, lunch with Mommy, special time with Daddy (who took the day off work) and "late" night movie watching.  She expects so little at this age and is so easily pleased.  Such a sweet, smart, funny girl!

Lunch at Mo's-- a new restaurant in Natick.  It serves healthy Mexican-- something I have SO missed from Oregon.  I was surprised to see so many options that were clearly marked vegetarian.  You don't see that kind of thing around here very often.

Happy girl

Inside of the cake.  I was attempting to make a vegan, gluten free rainbow cake but was thwarted by my refusal to use artificial food coloring.  The natural stuff just isn't as bright.  It still tasted awesome, though!

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day to the moms out there!  Jay gave me the greatest gift-- time to myself!  He took the girls to the Ecotarium, a museum a half hour West in Worcester, while I stayed home to sew and bake a cake for Willow's 5th birthday tomorrow (!!!).  Pictures to come of her big day...

The girls on the train that circles the grounds of the museum.

Rainy Days

Is there anything more fun than bare feet and a rainbow umbrella during a spring thunderstorm?

Dancing in the rain

Hopkinton State Park

Today was gorgeous, so we met up with our friends for a morning at the lake in Hopkinton State Park.

Spring color!  Notice all the grape hyacinths that have taken over the lawn.  They are just too pretty to mow down.