Crank Calls

A couple of years ago I installed an office phone in the cottage. It works over the Internet and acts just like an extension on the NASFT phone system. This way I can do work from the cottage.

It didn't take long for the girls to figure out how to use the phone. All they need to do is push one button and it rings my desk in the office.

That's ok with me. But it has resulted in about a million phone calls per summer from Stella and Marni. Sometimes they reach me. Sometimes I'm away from my desk and they get voicemail. Stella has a good grasp on the voicemail concept and she often leaves me cute messages. Marni, on the other hand, doesn't always understand that it's not me on the phone... it's a machine.

Here's a voicemail message I received from the girls this week.

Transcript:

STELLA: Hi daddy. Just to let you know, we just came back and, uh, from downtown. And we had an ice cream. It was a long day, now we're getting ready to sleep. Bye bye.

Daddy... no. Mama, Marni and me love you! Bye bye.

MARNI: Hi daddy! Daddy? He's not talking. Daddy?

STELLA: It's the other phone. Marni, it's the other phone. (Meaning, I think, that it's voicemail and not me).


(This post contains video that can only be viewed from the website.)

Girl Power in OOB

Week 1 in OOB started off with a bang as the Imhoff gurlz (plus 1) joined us for fun in the sun.

We pulled out of Brooklyn on Saturday headed for an overnight stay in Natick. On Sunday we headed up to Maine with Nana and Papa in tow. After a brief stop at the New Hampshire State Liquor store (for mommy and daddy's happy juice) we all pulled in to the cottage by late morning.

The weather was nearly perfect all week with the exception of a gloomy day that sent us up to the Lobster Festival in Rockland and the Stefanoff/Imhoff tribe out to the movies.

Stella and Marni immediately got back into the beach groove and were thrilled when their favorite pink bedroom took shape again.

The 7 girls were great together on the beach and in the cottage. They built sand castles, jumped in the waves, played with their skate boards (what Marni calls boogie boards) and searched for sand worms.

On lobster night, Stella was particularly thrilled to mercilessly chase Jessie and Lauren around with a lobster claw. They don't like seafood.

Speaking about seafood, week 1 was quite a wildlife learning experience for the Shepard girls.

First, they witnessed a strange battle between sea worm and snail. The snail seemed to be the winner as it attacked and took a chunk out of the worm as they hung out together in a beach bucket. Who knew?

A couple of days later I suddenly found a live and large surf clam at my feet in the waves. We placed the 6" clam in a beach pail with sand and water and were fascinated all afternoon as it dug its way down into the sand to hide. Once the tide started coming in we took "Clammy Davis Jr." down to the water and buried him in the sand for safety.

Our marine biologist daughters continued their education at the Lobster Festival at a "touching tank". The tank is only about a foot deep and low to the ground allowing kids to reach in and touch the inhabitants. Stella and Marni were super brave as they held live muscles, star fish, snails, scallops, clams and lobsters. They would not touch the sea urchin though.

On the last day of the Stefanoff/Imhoff stay, we ventured into Portland to take a duck boat tour. Unfortunately, a missing wallet incident caused 5 of the group to miss the tour, but Jenna and Jasmine made the trip because they were riding in our car.

Things got a bit quiet after the 5 girls left town, but cousins Becca and Lily took over and kept Stella and Marni occupied (along with cousins Alex, Janet, and Elise).

Saturday night was "downtown" night. Froggie ride. Other rides. Ice cream at Dairy Queen.

Daddy flew back to NYC at dawn on Monday. Now I get about fifty million phone calls a day from the girls via the office phone in the cottage. Yesterday I was in tears laughing so hard during a call with Marni.

That girl cracks me up.

(This post contains video that can only be viewed from the website.)

The Maine Event

Here we go again!

Another summer at Old Orchard Beach is underway. Festivities started on August 1st with Nana and Papa Shepard in tow. Also in attendance was the Stefanoff/Imhoff clan staying for the week at a rental apartment across East Grand Street.

Only two days in and the bonding process between the girls is well underway.Stella has always had a crush on Jasmine, but now Jenna is getting into the act a bit more and things are working out fine.

They're having fun at the beach, fun at meals, and today they had fun at Two Lights State Park where Stella and Marni earned their full mountain goat badges.

How much fun are they having? So much fun that Marni told Papa Art this evening "today was a great day".

Poof. Done.

At the expense of repeating myself... where did the time go? Wasn't it just yesterday that I was blogging about the trials and tribulations of dropping the girls off at summer camp?

Well, somehow it's all over. Poof. Done. Five weeks of matching t-shirts, summertime adventures, and marching songs.

I debriefed the girls in the tub Thursday on their final thoughts about Park Slope Day Camp. They're not big talkers, when you want them to be. Overall impression... good. It was fun. Now can we stop talking about this daddy and let us play with the squirt bottles?

When I told the girls (as I teared up) I was sad that we wouldn't have our morning routine of walking to camp together, Stella reassured me. "That's ok daddy, you can still walk us to school every day when summer is over."