For my cousin

I got a loving e-mail today, reminding me gently that I haven't blogged and haven't e-mailed.  Was everything all right?  Yes, it is.
The weekend was go go go.  Friday I didn't have to pick up small children, so I went to Jo-Ann's and indulged in fabric.  And ran right to a Pampered Chef party and enjoyed myself.  (Pampered Chef, for those who don't know, is a home-party selling kitchen gadgets - http://www.pamperedchef.com/).  A bunch of women - what a blast!
Saturday started early with my friend asking me to come along to the Chester Craft Fair with her and her sister.  I want a sister!  It was so much fun to watch those two!

And I saw my first fall tree while walking through Chester.  The craft fair was fun, although everything seemed expensive.  Which I understand, one has to live in this country, and everything needs to be paid for.... so....

 and a skeleton  for Halloween:

Anyway, we got lots of ideas, since our budgets didn't allow purchases.  We had lunch, we wandered the rest of the craft fair, and it got later then I thought, because I then had a dinner invitation from Erika, Jim, Matthew and Jessica.
When I got there, I found out, that Linda, who works with me, condemned my daughters to make a fuss over me, after all it was Grandparents Day on Sunday!  Yes, she did.  Told them what to do - have a dinner, get me a card, make me feel special, would you believe?
I had picked up the game 'bananarama' and we played that with the kids for hours.  Special?  Yes.,

And yesterday I was invited to go apple picking with Nicole and her family. 

Early, early in the morning, since it was supposed to (and did) rain.  And it was wonderful.  Instead of going to the great apple picking orchard we've been going to in the past, which is terrific, but very, very crowded and very, very commercial, we went to a family owned and run orchard in Warwick, NY.  We were the only ones there, we had the entire orchard to ourselves, and all the trees were full of apples.

Jackson got to jump in the blow-up castle at the end of our successful roam all over the orchard, with the owner's twin daughters. 

that's how excited Evan was with our apple picking idea.  But then he got fed, and all was good.

Getting home I ran to Joann's again with my friend who had gone to the craft fair to get supplies to start in on our ideas.

And that was the weekend! 
I'm back watching small children - love it!

Finish

This is it - last post about the mini-vacation.
Here are a few photos of us in the rain, first one Erika and I running toward the house

then one of us splashing in the rain in the water.  The temperature was great - there really wasn't a difference between the ocean and the air, which made it very pleasant.

what fun, and what a great memory.

and the boys all wet, having ridden their bikes in the rain.

In the meantime, we're back, Matthew and Jessica have started school, it's very exciting, and I pick them up after school, standing by the school with all the other moms, grandmas, dads, and grandpas, waiting until the teacher pairs each child with his/her relative/pick-upper.
Weird for my European readers, right?  Yeah, I think so too.

Today it's actually 'cool'.  Cool meaning 21 C in the house, a little less outside.  Still sandals and shorts.  Okay, I wore leggings for my morning walk, but shorts would have been fine.  I'm good with that!
The weekend?  No idea.  I should get going on my kitchen renovation, maybe I'll get going with that....

Block and Shelter Island

More Block Island photos - it was just so gorgeous there, and we so lucked out with the weather.  The ferry was going to be closed/not running the next day, since that was the hurricane day.
So we enjoyed our very fast, and somewhat choppy ride back to the dock where the fishing boats were lined up for the night already:

A wonderful day, we went home and had dinner and went to bed wondering about the next day.

Which had a beautiful start:

Truly amazing. 

Then it got cloudy, and more clouds started piling in.  Not raining yet, so we decided to pull out the bikes and go for a ride.  We got pretty far considering a three-year old was pedaling with us, we went to the boat yard and watched them pull boats out of the water.
Then it started drizzling.  And then, as we were on the way back to the house, pouring.  Jessica was screaming, she hated being in the rain, and Erika and she took off.  I hung back to give moral support to Jackson, but Greg sent me on.  When he got back, just a few minutes later, he was laughing, and saying that Jackson aimed for the puddles, pulled up his feet and rode yelling 'wiiiiii' through the puddles.
Well, then it was back inside, playing games - Scrabble for the adults - Wii for the boys, with rain off and on.

At some point in the afternoon, when the hurricane was a possibility, and we had received a call from the town to be prepared for winds, etc., we decided to just go outside.  It wasn't very windy, not raining hard, and it wasn't cold.  The kids and I tried the water, and before we knew it, all of us except the moms were in the water swimming in the rain.  It was fabulous!  No, no pictures,  not from me, I was to happy having fun.

Yes, we were lucky we were spared the storm.

The next day we had one of those perfect, washed clean days, blue, blue skies, cool, dry air, windy but not cold, perfect.  And far windier than in the announced hurricane that wasn't.
This is my sunrise that day:

Do you see the moon?

We 'walked' the ferry to Greenport

More tomorrow!

Unofficial Summer's Finish

And I was without Internet access for four days.  And I didn't miss it.

What did we do?

We went out to Shelter Island on Wednesday and arrived in time to go to the picnic at the Pridwin, that Erika wanted to try for years.  We weren't the only ones, and enjoyed it:

Jessica is wearing one of the dresses I made her

The kids had fun playing by the water after:

The next morning we left early to go to Montauk and catch the boat to Block Island, RI

and we saw the Montauk lighthouse in the distance

And one of the lighthouses on Block Island

If that doesn't look New England....

This guy had the best time running in and out of the waves, screaming with fun

 And after the kids were done playing in the water, they ran up and down the dune until all were tired.

and more photos tomorrow....

Quick update

The weekend was great - and we made it through what was supposed to be a hurricane.

Didn't happen.
It was windier yesterday and today then during the hurricane warning.
We did swim while it was pouring and it was terrific!

The weather was perfect all around, Block Island is very New-Englandy, very much Rhode Island.
The kids had fun.
I loved every minute of it.