A Candy Date

 It was Anna's turn . . .

. . . for a Mama date today.

She asked to visit this old house that has been turned into a big candy shop.

After much deliberation, we opted to buy some mint malt balls, a few maple sugar leaves, and a little chocolate sampler.  The sampler contained the best non-See's chocolates I've had on the East Coast.  At least, so far. :)

We saw this cool-looking Ferrari on the drive back (Anna snapped the photo).

After we arrived home, Daddy used some of the mint malt balls to make a delicious milk shake.  That was even better than seeing a Ferrari!

The Butterfly Place

I used to take one of my children on a date each week before the pandemic, and we recently decided to revive that fun tradition.  It was Daniel's turn today, and he asked to go to The Butterfly Place.

Ironically, the first winged creature we saw in the greenhouse was this gal.  I only counted four limbs, so I'm pretty sure that's not a butterfly.

That is, though! Daniel and I were enchanted by the colorful butterflies fluttering and perching all around us.

Some, like this little Doris butterfly, were very active . . .

. . . while this big Owl Butterfly (whose wing was about the size of my hand) spent most of its time just chilling (or eating a banana).

The funniest part of our visit was when this butterfly landed on my phone and blocked part of my camera.  It's against the rules to hold a butterfly on your hand, but I guess the butterflies can perch on your phone if they want to. :)

Dusting Off My Mask

 When we arrived at the grocery store today . . .

. . . Anna put on her mask . . .

. . . and I put mine on too.  

It was really nice to set it aside for a while, but now the Delta variant is driving COVID case numbers back up again (we had over 1000 new cases in our little state today).  I'm not concerned for my own safety, since COVID symptoms tend to be mild if you are fully vaccinated, but I know a lot of immunocompromised people, and I don't want to put them at risk if I can help it.

If wearing a mask to the store helps keep them and others a little safer, then I feel that's a small price to pay.

Chess Is Easier than Pie

There was a giant chess board at the Youth Week day camp last week . . .

. . . which rekindled Joy's interest in the game (which then fueled everyone else's interest too).  Joy has even started taking chess lessons on chess.com . . .

. . . so she wins most of the time . . .

. . . but not always.

Anna has joined the chess craze too . . .

. . . when she isn't helping me with a pie.  Which reminds me--why do people say "easy as pie"?  Pies are hard to make!  Half the time my pies either don't set up or they fall apart when I serve them (like this one did).  Oh well--at least it was yummy. :P

Smoky Skies

I noticed something kind of odd today.

The sunlight shining on our deck and through our windows looked orange.  The only times I've ever seen that before were back in drought-ridden California, when wildfires were filling the air with brown smoke.

Could there possibly be a wildfire somewhere in green Massachusetts, even though we've gotten so much extra rain this summer that funky mushrooms are popping up in our lawn?

Nope!  I later learned that smoke from some massive West Coast wildfires had drifted all the way across North America to tint our sunlight and fill me with a little reflexive dread.  I thought we left smoky skies behind when we moved east, and it feels kind of surreal to see them again, even though the fires themselves are on the other side of a continent.

Cool Ship, Underwhelming Rock

After the Cliff Walk yesterday morning, we and the Andersons left Rhode Island . . .

. . . and returned to good old Massachusetts to tour Plymouth.  Although the Ocean State had been hot and sunny . . .

. . . the Bay State decided to cloud up and rain on us.  That's New England weather for you.

We checked out Plymouth Rock (or what's left of it) . . .

. . . the Mayflower II (a reproduction of the Pilgrims' ship) . . .

. . . and the Pilgrim Mother fountain, honoring the courageous Pilgrim women who braved the unknown in order to stay true to their faith.

As the sun started going down, we made our own little pilgrimage to Ocho Cafe, to have dinner with our friends before they resumed their cross-country road trip.

And yes, Mike was very happy to receive all of the root beer we purchased on his behalf.

The Rhode Island Cliff Walk

This morning we took a drive . . .

. . . to our next-door neighbor Rhode Island . . .

. . . to meet our friends the Andersons at the Cliff Walk trail in Newport.

The trail took us past cool Gilded Age mansions . . .

. . and a beach full of cairns stacked by past hikers . . .

. . . but all Joy wanted to do was get off the trail and climb on some rocks.  Of course, as soon as she started doing that, all of the other kids wanted to do it too.

Moms: "Um, I don't think letting eight kids climb on a bunch of big, slippery rocks sounds very safe."

Dads: "Sounds fun to me!  Let's go!"

Moms (torn between fostering fond family memories and keeping their offspring alive until adulthood): "OK, fine.  It's fine.  I'm sure everybody will be fine."

And they were.