Picnic On A Slide

Happenstance

My plan this morning was to put Charlie on the bus and then head over to Harvard Square to meet Katie and Kyla at the playground there, but since the fog was slow to burn off this morning making it downright chilly we decided to meet at the Childrens Museum instead.

At South Station I rode the elevator up to the concourse with a woman and her baby, and we struck up a conversation. It turned out that she also lives in Quincy and was heading to the museum as well. We had time to kill since we were an hour early for the museum opening so we grabbed a table together and got to know each other a little bit.. It turns out that she does not drive either, having grown up in European cities where nobody drives? I don't know ;-) She also has a membership to every Boston institution and then some, including the Aquarium, zoo, Science Museum, Isabelle Stewart Gardner museum, Museum of Fine Arts, etc, and religiously takes her 7 month old (whom she adopted) to all of them. We exchanged numbers and are going to the zoo on Monday, which I have heretofore avoided since it involves taking a bus and I have never been sure about managing the stroller on a bus, but she is meeting me beforehand so we can go together; it is great to meet someone who is actually more adventurous than I am regarding taking kids on public transportation ;-) She also lives in the Marina Bay section of Quincy which is beautiful during the summer and she has a pool and has already invited us over when the weather gets warmer.

So as you can tell I am excited to have randomly met a new friend today!

Hiking

This afternoon we took the kids hiking in Blue Hills, a large state park that stretches from Quincy into Braintree and Milton, has many hiking trails and also has the dubious distinction of being a protected habitat for rattlesnakes.

Charlie brought along one of his birthday presents from us -- a rock hunting kit which included a rock hammer, goggles, field guide, magnifying glass, etc all in a handy backpack.

It wouldn't be a hike with Charlie of course, without the requisite snake spotting -- a black racer which Mike found by the side of the trail eating a frog, and which both boys went barreling into the underbrush after!

Here are some pictures from the afternoon, including one of the snake if you can spot it in the underbrush:

Charlie's Birthday Menagerie

Charlie had a great time at his birthday party this afternoon -- he thoroughly enjoyed the hour long animal show which included 2 snakes, a chinchilla, 2 tree frogs, a hedgehog, a tortoise, 2 Madagascar hissing cockroaches, a bearded dragon and a baby alligator. Amelia on the other hand, watched most of the show from the safety of the stairs. Here are some pictures of the afternoon, with birthday video to follow.

Play Ball!

I got to watch Charlie's baseball game this morning -- he was 3 for 3 at bat and got 2 outs (although they won't actually start counting the outs for another week or two.) I got one of his hits on video but the kids somehow managed to delete it so here are a couple pics instead.

Birthday Dinner

At The Cheesecake Factory, yum!

Happy Birthday Charlie!!

(Notice how it is Amelia who is holding the balloons and saying cheese :-P)