My Beauty, Stella - 2012

Official 3rd grade photo...

My Beauty, Marni - 2012

The official 1st grade photo...

The Eight Days (Nights) of Hanukkah

Artwork by Stella Shepard

Down East Thanksgiving

Iron Chef Glenn

History was made this Thanksgiving when the Shepard family (along with the Brenner cousins) celebrated the holiday at The Cottage v2.0.

We started our journey from Brooklyn over various rivers and through various woods at 9:30 am on Wednesday. By 4:30 we arrived at The Cottage where Nana and Papa Shepard greeted us. We said hello to the beach and the girls biked around the eerily deserted neighborhood.

A little later Brody and Macy arrived with Karen and Glenn in tow and, within moments of his arrival, chef Glenn was busy at work.

The next morning we awoke to wonderful smells wafting out of the kitchen.

Stella and Marni and their dog cousins spent most of the day playing outside in the 60-degree weather as the magic continued in the kitchen.

By 5 pm the Shepards, Brenners (and a Kennedy) were seated and dinner was served.

Delicious!

And as the sun set on a fantastic Thanksgiving, the L-tryptophan stupor set in and everyone drifted off into sleepy-land.

On Friday Karen and Glenn headed home with the hounds and Lisa and I took the girls to see The Rise of the Guardians at our favorite restaurant/move theater.

Daddy gets his clams!

On Saturday Nana and Papa headed home and we took the girls candle pin bowling. After a delicious fried clam lunch at Bailey's, we bid The Cottage a final farewell for 2012 and headed to Natick.

On Sunday we returned to Brooklyn.

So, on a scale of 1 to 10, I rate this Thanksgiving holiday a solid 11. The wonderful cottage, awesome cooking, great weather and loving family made this the best Thanksgiving ever (in my opinion). I think we have a winner here. A new tradition.

I vote for a down east Thanksgiving every year!

Papa hanging out with 2 wild animals on Thursday morning.

Dog

My beauties... and a dog.

I'm camping out here until they open again!

Stella watches the master.

 

Stella's Idea of a Love Note

Stella handed this note to Marni today. If you can't read it, it says "I love you Marni just because I hit you a lot."

Well, it's a start.

Halloween 2012

Just in case you were wondering, here's what the girls were dressed as this year for Halloween. Bad witch. Good witch. You decide which witch is which.

And here's us. Boo!

"Extreme Weather" Chicks

So far, Stella and Marni have made it through Hurricane Irene and the Park Slope tornado (which Marni likes to call the Park Slope Tomato).

This past weekend the girls experienced the awesome power of Hurricane Sandy.

It all started on Sunday night as the winds and rain began to kick up. We hunkered down and prepared for the worse. We brought out the candles and flashlights, filled the tub with water, and made more ice cubes. Then I put the ice cubes in the tub and Lisa yelled at me!

The next morning things were still pretty mild, so I headed out for supplies to host a last-minute building-wide movie party for the kids in the building.

With our new friend, Chloe.

At 2:00 the party began with various kids and parents coming and going all afternoon. It was quite a fun time for all. The wind and rain lashed Brooklyn all day but we luckily sustained no damage and we never lost power.

On Tuesday it all began to wind down. We ventured outside for the first time to get some exercise and fresh air and to survey the situation. The girls were fascinated by a fallen tree that crushed a BMW. Later, I entertained the kids by letting them give me a haircut.

Wednesday was Halloween. Daddy drove into an eerily powerless Manhattan to go to work while the girls had play dates. Even though the Park Slope Halloween Parade was cancelled, the kids of Park Slope had a blast trick-or-treating throughout the neighborhood. Marni went out with about 10 of her 1st grade friends. Stella went out with friend Uma and her family. We eventually met up near the end of the night and went home to look over all the loot that was collected.

On Thursday Daddy went to work again while the girls had more play dates. We even had an unexpected sleep-over with Stella's new friend, Lucy. Very cute stuff.

Meanwhile, there hasn't been school all week.

Hopefully power will be restored to Manhattan over the weekend and the subways will start running as usual. And hopefully school will reopen Monday.

The kids have had a blast this week, but it's time to get back to normal.

We were very lucky this time. Others have not been so lucky. And our hearts go out to them.

Marni gives Daddy a haircut. What else is there to do?

Stella's turn

Marni trick-or-treats with a downed tree in the background.

Marni and Maeve et al trick-or-treating

Marni's trick-or-treating posse.

Happy New Year

Tis the season to dress the family up and take pictures. Here are some keepers from the Rosh Hashanah weekend.

Born Free... Part 2 (and 3)

Our family increased by 9 over the summer.

7 butterflies and 2 hermit crabs.

The butterflies were part of a live butterfly kit that Stella got for her birthday. 10 caterpillars showed up at the cottage in August via UPS. Within a week 7 had turned into chrysalises. They survived a car trip back to Brooklyn and, on the first day of school, began to hatch into beautiful butterflies. Within a couple of days all 7 had hatched.

Meanwhile, while at Old Orchard Beach we managed to be gifted two hermit crabs (purchased from a nearby store). The girls loved them and enjoyed having them crawl all over them (which really creeped me out). But keeping hermit crabs is not easy. One had even escaped for the better part of a day and was eventually found hiding behind a large chair. After that, I convinced Stella and Marni that letting them go free was the nicest thing they could do.

So today was "Back to Nature" day.

First we released the butterflies in a flower garden across the street. It was very sweet.

Next we drove to Coney Island and released Crawly and Baby into the surf near a rock jetty. A little less sweet, but they are now in a better place (and I got to have some Nathan's hot dogs and the girls got to ride some rides).

A win-win-win situation.

Afterwards the girls were a little sad, and Stella was giving me the evil eye. She was a little pissed off that I keep making them get rid of their pets. I promised her that when we get a cat or dog, I won't insist that they let it go into the wild after a few weeks.

I think she bought it.

Back to School 2012

Our new 1st grader and our new 3rd grader headed back to PS 39 on September 6th, equipped with stylish haircuts, new lunchboxes, and just the right amount of attitude.

Stella was psyched because she had just learned a few days before that her teacher was changed to the awesome Ms. Pisino (who she had for part of her kindergarten year). Stella disappeared into the school without a moments hesitation.

We then took Marni to Camp Friendship (the gym in a nearby building) where 1st and 2nd graders were assembling. Marni's teacher was new to PS 39 (Ms. Ambrose). We greeted old kindergarten friends as we waited for everyone to march across the street and into the school. There was a slight hesitation from Marni, but she went into the school with a smile and no tears.

The results from day 1... Stella said that 3rd grade was awesome. Marni has indicated that the jury is still out.

179 more days to go.

The Maine Event 2012: Final Wrap-up

Marni appears to want to eat the chrysalis

This week Nana and Papa picked me up at the airport on Friday and whisked me off to JC Penny where Stella and Marni were getting their free haircuts with Lisa. Luckily, they were ecstatic with the results and Lisa was removed from haircut probation.

When we got back to the cottage it was time to work on our science experiment... Stella's live butterfly kit. For the past week we had been watching the caterpillars crawl around in their houses and, eventually, turn into chrysalis. Now I needed to transfer the chrysalis into the enclosure where they would soon emerge as beautiful butterflies.

After we finished with science time, we needed to figure out what to do with the rest of the day... a day that really wasn't much of a beach day. The girls and I took a vote and movie won over bowling. So off we went to see "Paranorman" (which was not quite as good as daddy had hoped).

Saturday ended up being a great (final) beach day and we took full advantage of it. We even got Nana Bev and Cousin Beverly onto the beach. Marni continued to amaze us with her new found love for the waves as she body surfed and boogie boarded like a champ. In the evening, Lisa and I headed to a lovely dinner with our cousins Elise, David, Beverly, Jim, and Janet. Meanwhile, Stella and Marni were testing the babysitting chops of cousin Lily and her friend Emily. Somehow we ended up with two live hermit crabs by the end of the night (purchased by Lily for the girls).

Sunday was a dreary packing day. Stella and Marni hung out with Lily and Emily as we packed up the car and cleaned up the cottage. We had our last meal at Ken's, said goodbye to the beach and family and friends, and headed for Natick. Coincidentally, dinner was also at Ken's... but Ken's Steak House in Framingham with Toots and Glenn.

Planting the rose

On Monday we planted another rose plant in Nana and Papa's back yard (joining last year's thriving rose plant) and then jumped into the car for a speedy and uneventful drive back to Brooklyn. Just the 13 of us (3 humans, 1 Marni, 2 hermit crabs, and 7 butterfly chrysalis).

The kids were genuinely happy to be back home. Stella commented how happy she was to be back in the nice air conditioned air. Marni mentioned how happy she was not to have to smell the stinky, salty sea air.

What can I say? They're weird. 

So what were the highlights of the 2012 season at OOB?

• Beautiful weather. Only 1 or 2 rainy days.
• Biking kids. Both girls can now ride their bikes with mom and dad. They even did a 5 mile bike ride!
• Independence. Both girls shower themselves, dress themselves and generally take care of their selves without much input from mom and dad.
• Too much independence! By the end of the summer Stella and Marni were making the trek between the cottage and the beach, and between our cottage and Beverly's cottage by themselves. Not sure how I feel about that.
• Swimming. Stella and Marni are well on their way to become great swimmers.
• Lobster! Stella's new favorite meal... twin lobsters.
• New fire pit. Great for s'mores.
• New sofa and new rug.

Now another great summer at OOB comes to an end. Thanks to all our great visitors for bringing even more joy into the house. Thanks to Lisa for taking care of everything. Thanks to Linda for all her hard work beautifying the grounds of "The Compound". And thanks to Nana and Papa who make this all possible.

And before we know it we'll be packing up Goldie and doing it all over again next summer. Can't wait!

The final dig

Hermit crab

Stella at the beach

The Maine Event 2012: August 18 to 26

The big metal bird flew daddy back to Maine on Saturday the 18th. It was a full house with Carol and Norman joining Audrey at the Supovitz Compound.

On Saturday and Sunday we decided to break up the usual beach monotony of swimming and digging in the sand with some swimming and digging in the sand.

On Monday we began our annual "Vacation From Vacation" festivities with another trip to the Mount Washington Hotel. The girls made it crystal clear that they did not want to go up to the top of the mountain like they did last year (too cold and windy, don't ya know). Instead, all they wanted to do was check into the hotel and swim in the pools. So that's what we did. All day.

Stella and Marni were very eager to show us how much they learned at swimming lessons by splashing around without ever using their swimmies.

After swimming the girls were ready for their other favorite Mount Washington Hotel event... hot chocolate on the back veranda.

Dancing at the Mt. Washington Hotel

That night we all cleaned up and headed to dinner in the main dining room. In between courses, the four of us danced to the band. Some better than others.

On Tuesday we did some more swimming before checkout and then hiked The Flume again. Lots of fun. Just a little bit of whining.

On our drive back to OOB we stumbled upon Loon Mountain Aerial Forest Adventure Park. We slammed on the brakes and headed in for a bit of spontaneous fun.

Marni makes sure her bungee cord is okay

The kids were too small to ride the zip line. But mom and dad weren't. So Lisa and I got tickets for our first zip line rides and Stella and Marni had to settle for bungee jumping. The bungee jump operator was especially taken with Stella's laugh which he compared to Butthead's in "Beavis and Butthead". As for Marni... he compared her laugh to a hyena in The Lion King. It was enough cuteness to get them both an extra turn on the ride.

Wednesday was another beach day with a bike ride to Rising Tide for dinner. At some point during our Maine adventure, Stella decided she liked lobster... a lot! Now, everywhere we go, Stella's meal of choice is twin lobsters. She loves the claws and the legs, but thinks the tail is yuck (she's an idiot). Little does she realize that her days of twin lobsters comes to an end once we leave Maine. It just ain't gonna happen in New York City.

On Thursday the cousins arrived and the beach fun got even funner.

Shark tournament

Brian and Jill headed to Portland on Friday for a well-deserved overnight stay at the swanky Portland Harbor Hotel (a gift from us to thank them for taking care of the girls during camp). We piled the four kids into the car and took them crabbing and to the Maine Shark Tournament.  While at the Tournament the kids got to be up close and personal as each caught shark got gutted and cut up into pieces. Yum.

Saturday we took the four kids on a walk downtown for pizza lunch and then (finally!) to Palace Playland. This year we smartened up and bought each kid a day pass. Then we sat back and watched as they went wild and rode every ride possible... multiple times. Tyler even rode the adult roller coaster all by himself (because we're such responsible caretakers). Later that evening Lisa and Brian took the four kids back to Palace Playland to do it all over again and maximize the value of our full-day passes.

On Sunday we made pancakes, smashed geodes, went to the beach, and ate lots of lobsters.

And on Monday daddy got back on the big metal bird and flew home to NYC.

Digging with Cousin Lilly

Checking into the Mt. Washington Hotel

Stella takes the plunge.

Marni takes a dive.

Hanging on the veranda at the Mt. Washington Hotel.

Hot chocolate time.

Stella and Lisa at dinner.

Marni and daddy at dinner.

From the wrong side of the tracks.

Cousins arrive.

Biggest hole of the summer.

Looking for China.

Brother and sister.

Getting ready to hike.

Marni surrounded by crabs.

Stella on the bungee.

Tyler casts out a crab net.

Stella and her new friend.

Getting ready to zip line.

Touching a freshly hacked-off shark fin.

Pancake time.

Geode smashing time.

The yearly photo.

Shucking the corn.

Brian shows Stella how to do it.

 

S'mores time at the new fire pit.

The tide attacks.

Marni and friends.

Delia and friend.

The fire pit.

Hell's Nudniks.