Staycation 1 and 2

Staycation 1 (last Saturday): Esherick Museum and Valley Forge

I don't have any good pictures of the Esherick Museum, but it is an amazing house that a woodworker and sculptor built and lived in from the 1920s through the 1960s, and he made all the interior elements himself. It's so charming and inventive; like an animal's shell, it was perfectly fitted to this single man and his routines and needs. Every stick of furniture or houseware he made himself. Inspiring. It was right next to Valley Forge, so we took our picnic lunch there and then listened to the costumed people tell us about the Revolutionary War. I learned a lot! Including: the Dragoons had the best outfits (esp the pants); they didn't freeze and had plenty to eat at Valley Forge, but they did die of disease a lot; they pitched winter camp there because it was a full day's march from Philadelphia where the British were, and defended all around by ridges and rivers.

The kids did really well, even on the 1.5 hour drive there and back. It is getting so much easier and more fun to get out and do things with them-- more ambitious things. We also stopped into the Crate and Barrel on the way home, because there is a ginormous shopping mall right next to Valley Forge and we are in the market for some "modern" chairs and lamps. Agatha was egging Henry on, and as they got wilder ("Ooh! purple bed!" Agatha squealed, climbing up on it), I decided we needed to evacuate. Just as we were heading for the escalator, a salesman asked how we were doing. "We're having crazy time!" Henry said with manic glee, then bounced over into a handstand before jumping onto the escalator. And then we headed for home.

Staycation 2: Columbia, PA

This is a town on the Susquehanna River about 20 minutes drive from Lancaster. We won a package in the auction to benefit Henry's school that included a kayak rental, overnight in a B&B, and restaurant gift card. So my mom (THANK YOU, MOM!) kept the kids yesterday, taking them to the park and museum in the morning, giving them lunch, and then settling them for nap/quiet time, while Michael and I went out to lunch and then for a paddle in the Susquehanna. It was beautiful, of course. We saw many great blue herons, a couple of egrets, and one bald eagle, plus several juvenile bald eagles-- we thought they were some kind of hawk until the kayak guy told us afterwards that by the description they sounded like the juveniles. Cool! Then Mom drove the kids out to meet us at the inn around 4 pm. Luckily we were the only ones in the place. I was very much on-edge at first, trying to contain two excited kids in a house filled with fragile Victorian knickknacks, but we all went in the excellent hot tub out in the garden and splashed around and mellowed out. Then we went for dinner at the old-time pharmacy around the corner (Mom had recommended it). Agatha ate like a truck driver: a huge plate of eggs, sausage and toast, our side dish of sweet potatoes, plus an entire bowl of rice pudding. Henry had fish and chips (which they called something like "fried fish planks and fries") and Michael and I shared a spinach salad with hot bacon dressing and a platter with four breaded shrimp, a crab cake and a pork chop. And a hot fudge sundae! A nearby couple was so entranced with Agatha that they gave each kid a dollar on their way out. (And these were people who had good use for their hard-earned dollars. They could have used a few more teeth, for example.) So then each kid got to choose a treat from the pharmacy on the way out. Good times.

This morning the kids woke us at 5 am, so we got an early start. We went out to Chickie's Rock, a big outcropping overlooking the river.

It was steep. Then we went to the Susquehanna Glass Factory and had a tour. This place, pretty much unchanged since the 1920s, does all the etching and decorating of glassware for Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma, among other places. Interesting! I was surprised that it was so low-tech and artisanal. There was just one woman standing at an old grinding wheel in a warm, un-air-conditioned second-story loft space, doing her thing. It made me want to order some monogrammed glassware-- which you can do, by the way; just bring anything in and they will etch it for you. By this time it was about 11 am and the kids were melting down, so we headed back home. And in 20 minutes we were back, eating lunch in the kitchen!

Early August

It's been hot. Last week it finally cooled down, so I started my summer canning. I made applesauce for the first time, because my kids like it and it's what people do around here-- special varieties are cultivated just for applesauce. It seemed like a lot of hot, bubbling work for something I can buy for $2 at the supermarket, but of course I discovered the homemade version tastes amazing. I canned 6 pints and 7 quarts of it. Then I did peaches: 12 quarts, each one a peach cobbler in vitro.
Next up will be tomatoes. Here is Agatha with the bag of cherry tomatoes she picked all by herself at our garden plot yesterday. She was so proud to hand me the bag: "Here go, Mommy!"

Pigtails

Here's our big girl in her first hairstyle: pigtails. She looked fabulous but REALLY disliked the process of messing with her hair. She's never gotten a trim in all the days she's been on this planet, and her hair is now quite uneven: the top layers in the back are long and straight, and the hair underneath is shorter and wavy. I suggested a trim to even it out to a little blond bob but her father wouldn't hear of it. "No cut hair!" Agatha agreed. But in this relentless heat, her hair annoys her. So I tried the pigtails. Hmmm. Maybe before the big, momentous First Day of School this fall, I'll tidy it up.

Agatha is looking more and more like Michael to me lately, and in these photos (taken by her creative babysitter, Kendall) you can see the concentration on her art that is also similar to her dad. She paints with Kendall almost every day they are together.
The children are definitely partners in crime a lot of the time. As Agatha gets bigger and more fun, Henry likes to play with her more. She runs around after him and does whatever he's doing, and he likes her anarchic side, the way she calmly and deliberately breaks the rules: "Aggie just dumped all the fishfood in the pond, Mom!" Gales of laughter.

Ends in "ie"

Agatha is like an Aussie: she likes to shorten most words and add "ie" or "y" at the end. So, mitten is "mitny," spoon is "poonie," shoe is "shoey," her friend Lauren is "Lornie," and so on. I take these as her terms of endearment for the world, given that her general attitude toward life is "What great thing is going to happen next?" However, I just discovered that brownie is "brown:" "Aggie ate brown. Need nother brown. Here go, Aggie!"

Sleepover

watching Toy Story before bed...

Tonight our small friend Frances is sleeping over! She's slept over before, but not since she was a toddler happily oblivious in her pack-n-play. Now it's a big deal. We made her a cozy bed inside the pop-up fire truck on the floor in Henry's room, and Henry is beside himself with joy.

We tried to do it last night, but Henry had an ill-timed meltdown and was unable to pull himself together. Sad for everyone. As a result, the possibility of the sleepover happening tonight has been looming all day. In the car on the way to camp, Frances and Henry solemnly vowed to one another to be well-behaved ALL DAY, so they could have the sleepover. By dinnertime, they were anxious with possibility-- will it happen, or won't it? This was one of those times I got a glimpse of what terrible tyrants we are as parents, with ultimate power over their schedules, their pleasures, the fulfillment of their desires. They happily went to bed super-early and were chattering away in the dark, when Henry came out and said to Michael: "thank you, thank you, thank you, for letting us have the sleepover." When I went up to check on them at 8:15, Frances was fast asleep and Henry was shuffling around, making a bed next to her on the floor with his pillow, alligator and clock. "I have everything I need, Mom!" he said.

Staycation

We took this week off from work, day camp, and babysitters with two goals: work on some house projects, and have some fun family outings. We made progress on both, although, of course, not as much as we imagined. It was also a week of a historic heat wave, with at least two days over 100, which very rarely happens here. That nixed bigger outdoor adventures like the Philadelphia zoo, but it made for lots of languid afternoons in the pool.

One afternoon I came outside to see Henry mowing the lawn nude, wearing roller skates and one winter glove. This is the only picture I could get before he escaped. For some reason he didn't want the ensemble memorialized...
Besides that trick, he also learned to climb our fireplace wall using only the mortar cracks. Seriously. He can pull up his body weight using just finger and toe-tips in half-inch cracks. We plan to take him to a rock-climbing place in Reading soon. I'm a little worried that he is in training to become a Navy SEAL.

One afternoon we went to the county park. Why hadn't we gone there before? It is beautiful, with miles of trails and streams and woods, and from the farthest point, where we waded in a creek and found handfuls of shells, it was only 15 minutes drive back home to our door. I guess we have been kinda busy the last five years. We vow to go more often now.

Agatha's new word of the week was "because," or as she says it, "cuz." She talks in a style reminiscent of a 1950s telegram: "I go for walk Gran's house. Cuz. I take baby for walk. Cuz. Baby want some chockie."

Tuesday we took a tourist outing to a pretzel factory, which Henry pointed out was not really a factory tour because they didn't show us any machines and we didn't get to go IN anywhere. But they did show us how to twist a pretzel. Did you know that 80% of the pretzels made in the USA are made in Lancaster County? And that 75% of those are also consumed right here? Oh yes, we learned some things. Then we went to the Choo-Choo Barn, a model train layout in the nearby town of Strasburg, which has several train museums and a real steam train. We also had lunch, but Agatha had no interest remaining in her seat and spent the whole meal on the little Thomas train outside.


I also had a birthday this week. Michael got me a great book on how to make my own dress patterns (copyright 1971), Henry picked out the silver peace earrings I am wearing above ("so everyone will know you like peace, Mom") and Agatha choose some bright yellow marigolds, perhaps my least favorite flower, but of course I loved them. My mom sat with the sleeping kids so Michael and I could go out for dinner. Lovely!
And here's the progress we made on the stairwell: we got pretty far along painting it a beautiful gray (the trim will be the dark gray you see on the crown molding). As I told my brother this morning, I was a little concerned about choosing a frosty gray color on the hottest day of the year-- how will it feel in February?-- but for now I am satisfied with the choice.

Spit take