snow scene

 

pizza time

Little House on the Prairie

There’s just something about these books that Finn loves. The story is simple but engaging and the pictures are visually interesting but not overly complicated. The ones about Almanzo (Laura’s future husband) have the farm element which is a big plus. I actually checked out one of the originals from the Library the other day so I could read it again. I can remember reading the whole series and loving every minute of it. What I can actually remember is having a “race” with the girl down the street to see who could read them faster. Every morning on the school bus we would compare what page we had gotten to.  Here Finn reads from “A Little House Brithday.”  He’s becoming very conscious of the camera and keeps asking me to turn it off – so the video is a little spliced. I’ll have to try and figure out how to set it up to record video so he doesn’t realize it is on. My favorite – his enunciation of Wisconsin. 

Fun in the snow

Just when we thought we were done, another huge snowfall. 

Finn has developed a dislike of my camera. So today I was trying to sneak a few shots by telling him we had to take pictures of the snow to share with Nana because she doesn’t get snow like this in Ireland. That set him off on a whole long inquiry about why it doesn’t snow in Ireland. Here he is showing Nana what it is like when it snows.

 

Weekend away

Allan and I just returned from our first weekend away without Finn. We had each left him overnight before, but never together. What a novelty! We stayed in this great bed and breakfast in Camden, Maine called the Hartstone Inn. Beautiful rooms and amazing food. The inn is owned by a couple with years of hotel experience, and they run a top-notch retreat with a gourmet kitchen.  Mum and Dad stay there with friends once a year and Dad and Al attend the cooking class run by chef Michael Salmon.  The food (and the cocktails) were amazing. Breakfast Saturday was a granny-smith apple tart followed by cumin-spiced bacon and banana walnut pancakes. Dinner Saturday night was a set menu, five course affair. The starter was oven roasted beets with scallops wrapped in smoked salmon and a tiger shrimp, then a green salad with feta cheese followed by blueberry sorbet. The main course was salmon nicoise (grilled salmon served over green beans and purple Peruvian potatoes with olives, a hard-boiled egg, and a grilled tomato all drizzled with just the right amount of a whole grain mustard sauce). Dessert was an almond souffle with amaretto cream sauce. The souffles came in individual dishes and they creaked the top and poured the sauce in at the table. As Finn would say – scrumptious! This morning we were treated to a fruit salad over lemon mousse with poppyseed bread followed by eggs benedict. We enjoyed Camden – spent Saturday afternoon in the toy store shopping for a certain someone – even in the cold air of February it is a beautiful spot. There are two great bookshops and even two great yarn shops.  We also enjoyed our stop in Bath, Maine on the drive up. Definitely somewhere we would like to spend more time. 

Finn, on the other hand, fully exhausted his Grandma and Grandpa and by all accounts had a wonderful weekend. When we called Acton Friday night to see how everything was going Dad told me that Finn had announced he was going to stand by his bed all night long so as to be up for the morning. Hmmm. Apparently Saturday night’s bedtime was a little easier! They enjoyed a train show at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington and two trips to the swimming pool. I asked him this evening what his favorite thing was about the weekend and he responded “Grandma.” I then asked him what his second favorite thing was and he responded “Grandpa.”  Can’t get better than that!

In preparation for his get-away weekend Finn wanted to pack his own suitcase. Over the past two weeks Finn has developed a rather strong affinity for his stuffed animals (aka the guys). He decided he would like to bring most of them to Grandma’s and hey, who were we to disagree? This required the largest of all the Godley-Murphy’s suitcases. 

 Some of the guys, eagerly waiting to see if they will be some of the chosen multitude to be packed.

 

I know I can fit them all in here somehow…

 

They do all fit! 

 

Yup. It really was a big suitcase.

A great weekend was had by all. Special thanks to Mum and Dad (Grandma and Grandpa) for making it all happen. 

 The other great news from the weekend is I passed the MTEL Communication and Literacy reading and writing exam I took back in January. I guess all that studying paid off! 

 

Sunday Adventure in Salem

Finn is on a bit of a train kick at the moment so we decided to take the “mummy train” to Salem. Although disappointed that Mike was not our conductor, (“But why doesn’t he work on Sundays Mummy?”) we had a great train ride.

 

Here is conductor Finn waiting for the train (all decked out in his engineer hat, overalls, and even train socks). 

 

 

What is it about downtown Salem? For starters, we got off the train and headed for the main street only to be detoured around a bomb threat at the Salem Courthouse. You may be thinking, why was there a bomb threat at a Courthouse on a Sunday morning? Beats me, but I’ll certainly be checking the Salem Evening News tomorrow to see what it was all about.  Walking around the main streets this morning the place felt deserted.  There are definitely some great shops, and you can tell that the feel of the place is starting to change. But on the whole, sometimes it feels like a pretty desolate downtown. You wonder what it will take to make it more of a Newburyport/Portsmouth type place. But even in the four or so years since we lived there, it seems to slowly be moving forward with the addition of places like Crunchy Granola Baby, Cornerstones Bookstore, and Seed Stich, just to name a few. 

Every February around Valentine’s Day Salem has an “Salem’s So Sweet” Chocolate and Ice Sculpture Festival. Finn and I walked around admiring the sculptures. It’s too bad they had kind of a crappy weekend weather wise, but then again hosting an event in the middle of February does set you up for that.

Finn checked out the teddy bear sculpture and astutely decided it was “cold”. 

Our favorite sculpture by far was the witch in front of the Salem Witch Museum.  

 

It was pretty hard not to say “Help, I’m melting…”  

The favorite part of our trip was our visit to A & J King Bakery. You would think saying to a young child “You can have whatever you want” would be a real treat, but in fact I think it’s one of the worst things you can say. I mean, how on earth are they suppose to decide? It’s overwhelming. So after starting (and drooling) at his multitude of choices for what seemed like eons I finally sent Finn to the table telling him I would choose two things and we could share. He was game.

He looked a little skeptical when I arrived with a sticky bun. He decided to go for a taste test. Finn and blueberry muffin

  Finn meets a sticky bun:

A man after my own heart, the sticky bun won and he proudly announced it was all for him. No sharing this time Mummy! The blueberry muffin got a bag for the trip home.

Sticky bun = sticky fingers. 

 Cool tree shadow on the wall of the Yin Yu Tang Chinese House at the PEM.

Despite a rather rainy finish, we had a great morning.   

bear with me

I’m playing around with new formats for the blog so please bear with me while I try and settle on a format. I’m trying to use the blog for more than just pictures of Finn (although I’m sure that will continue to be the biggest draw!).Check out some of the new links, and as always please leave comments and suggestions!thanks,Steph 

vote (for Obama)

 

Hair Cut!

Before (last week, snowplowing a small flour disaster)  And after, yes he has ears! His Munster Rugby Face (although in his Liverpool jersey) 

sock puppets

Finn and Dad had fun making sock puppets today. Allan’s is called “sock-a-locka” and Finn’s is called “Johnny Popper.”