B in Alaska

It was torture to be without a camera while B was away. It was also difficult to be without him. It was a lonely and long week for all of us. I got a good taste of life as a single parent - ew.

We did do some fun things though.

We got a very cool invite to do some swimming with friends in Glastonbury at an awesome spot. (Thanks for the photos, Debbie.)

We spent some time with Nagy Papa. He joined us one night for Chinese food and a Steel Drum Band performance at the Torrington Public Library, which was excellent. The guys who did it not only performed but informed, as well. Great show.

R had tennis lessons every day at 8 am. Yeah, that's 8 am.

We attended three birthday parties, the last of which B joined us for. His flight was delayed for a whole day since they were fogged in, or he could've attended two.

Yes, he had an incredibly amazing time. Check out his photos by clicking on the link on the right. In the meantime, here's a clue:
Two hundred and sixty pounds. Getting that thing in was a group effort, but I understand that Matt did most of the work.

And now I have 100 pounds of halibut in my freezer, a fish which is relatively high in mercury and that we shouldn't eat more than once a month. Whoever you are, next time you see us, expect to get some fish!

Memorial Day Weekend

R is getting into fishing. Or perhaps he just enjoys spending time with his dad. Either way, they went fishing twice this weekend. E joined them only once.

Golf was big this weekend too. B took the boys to hit a bucket at a local range, and another day we all tried out a mini golf course in Prospect. It was way smaller than we would have liked, and we will never go there again, but we had fun being together anyway. It's great when we don't keep score.

One cool thing about this weekend was that there was NO soccer.

We didn't have any picnics to attend, which was kind of a bummer. For the last several years I've had people here and I needed a break this year. I had hoped to get invited over to the homes of one of the people I had invited here over the years, but it didn't work out that way. Oh well.

We enjoyed the Cheshire parade. Nagy Papa joined us under a tree along route 10. It's kind of a bummer that the Cheshire Soccer League doesn't walk, but we saw several people we knew with other organizations. Being a spectator is fun because everyone throws candy to us. And we watch right at the beginning of the parade route, before people realize they need to ration their candy if they want to have enough to make it to the end. So the boys came home with lots of candy to add to their stashes from E's birthday.

B and I got to spend a night out for our anniversary (married 16 years!). Nagy Papa watched the boys while we enjoyed seeing Pirates of the Caribbean (which was lots of corny fun) and having dinner at a place called Manor Inn in Southington. We had been looking for an excuse to try this place. B had gotten a take out menu from there once, and it seemed really expensive. But it turns out the portions are enormous, so it is well worth the price. The atmosphere was not what we had hoped for for an anniversary dinner, but we got over that as soon as we tasted our food. Exceptional. We will definitely be eating there again. It was an excellent anniversary.

Fishing and Playing

B has been anxious to use his fishing license for more than just the day he picked it up for. So this week he and R went to the linear path and fished along the river, where they have seen other people catch fish in the past. Nothing was caught except, as R explained jovially, "a tree".

Not one to waste however much he actually spent on the worms he bought Friday night, B went out again on Sunday afternoon, this time with R and E both. This time they went to Mixville Park. B caught nothing, R caught three fish, and E caught frustration since the pole they have for him is too difficult for him to handle. I'm under instruction that the next time we go someplace which sells them, I'm to get another pole exactly like R's for E. Naturally I'll have to have R with me since I have no idea what any of the darn things look like. Perhaps that can be R's present to E for this birthday, which is on May 26th.

Today we spent some time with friends. Their father is an electrician and recently had a very bad accident. He will have bandages on his hands, and absolutely no use of them, for at least four weeks. His wife, a playgroup friend, asked for volunteers to take her girls this week until she can settle her husband into a routine.

We had playgroup today, which is in their neck of the woods, so I picked them up early and we spent some time in New Haven before playgroup. We went to the Peabody Museum, but I was incredibly overwhelmed by all the school kids on field trips, so we cut out of there PDQ. Luckily we are members, so I hadn't spent anything to get in and wasn't all that frustrated at leaving after just 30 minutes.

So we went further south and parked along the trolley route. The girls had never taken the (free) ride before, so that was something new and fun for them. Of course we have done it many times at this point, but it never seems to get tired. We were disappointed to see that the candy store we loved to visit has disappeared, and has been replaced by some sort of eatery.

After that we parked closer to the green and had a picnic under a big old tree with a huge canopy of shade.

We even had time to run over to BJ's in North Haven for gas before heading to Bassett Park for playgroup.

Playgroup was especially fun today because three new families joined us. I posted the regular event on the Greater New Haven Homeschoolers , and CT Homeschoolers Inclusive calendars of events, and was happy to see the results. One mom had only just moved to Hamden nine days ago. I can remember not too long ago feeling like I would go crazy if I didn't find other kids for my own to connect with, so I was glad to contribute to helping others find us.

Funny, two of the moms already knew me from the photo on my blogs. One of them had read through this blog, and the other one knew me from my other blog. She had heard about it from an unschooling list she is on. Apparently there was a big discussion about my blog regarding Radical Unschooling vs. Self-Directed Learning. It seems that I don't even have to be on the lists to have my "wrong" way of doing things criticized - lol! Anyway a few of us had our own interesting discussion regarding the topic, and I can add more people to the list of those who are afraid to post their real feelings on the lists. They suggested I started my own for those of us who are not comfortable with the extremism.

By the way, I'm moderating comments now. Not interested in providing soap boxes for anyone except myself :-)

A Week in Photos

I uploaded a bunch of photos from my camera today. We've been doing lots of fun stuff!

R made a castle wall out of the candy legos he got for his birthday:

















E finally talked me into giving him the basket full of washing machine treasure I've been collecting for the last six months or so:












We went swimming at the Cheshire Pool with the Greater New Haven Homeschoolers. Happily, our favorite friends from the group showed up:












We visited with a friend's family this weekend. The boys had the opportunity to learn how to ice-skate for real. They had excellent teachers, and made "new" friends,











while the dads ice-fished, or had fun trying:











We all had a really relaxed and fun time. I'm glad my family enjoyed spending time with this family as much as I've always enjoyed spending it with their mom.

R got a giant bruise from a fall he took out on the ice. It's really hurting him but he says it was worth it. He had a great time.












We spent some time working on Valentine's Day cards:












And this evening we are ready and waiting for the 4 to 8 inches being forecast for overnight.
I'm looking forward to actually using the snowpants I finally found to buy.