Flag Day At Clifford Marshall

Apparently the kid who was supposed to read the poem at this morning's Flag Day festivities at Charlie's school chickened out, so Charlie volunteered himself for the job! Here he is :

Cashed Out

After days of being pestered about it I finally took Charlie to Star Market this afternoon to cash in the contents of his piggy bank at their Coin Star machine. I was expecting him to get in the neighborhood of $40 but he actually had $105, and netted $95.13 after Coin Star's fee. And what does he plan to do with the money you might ask? Why, he's saving for another snake, of course! 

Here he is with his coins and then flush with cash :-)

More New Hampshire Wildlife

We had a fun trip to New Hampshire today which included lots of wildlife -- we stopped just before we got to Grammy & Grampy's to remove a large snapping turtle from the road -- who I must say, was not particularly appreciative of the rescue effort! Unlike the tiny baby we found last time, adult snapping turtles definitely live up to their ornery reputation! 

We also fed a family of ducks on the lake and Charlie and Mike had a successful afternoon fishing. Grammy and Amelia fed the birds and squirrels, watered Grammy's baby trees and planted a little flower bush that Mike's cousin gave to Amelia this morning. 

We also had a delicious barbecue lunch -- all in all a great Sunday!

Here are pictures!

The Scooper Bowl

I picked the kids up this afternoon and we took the train downtown to the Scooper Bowl, an annual event to benefit the Jimmy Fund, which involves about 30 flavors of all you can eat ice cream from a bunch of vendors including Ben & Jerry's, Friendly's, Baskin Robbins and Breyers to name a few. Charlie took the "all you can eat" to new heights, and Amelia generally ate about a third of each cup and then handed it to me so I was eating double portions of all-you-can-eat. Here are a few pictures of the kids in various stages of sugar high:

Blue Stripe!

The Massachusetts Herpetological Atlas

Yesterday while dutifully searching the Internet for types of salamanders native to Massachusetts at Charlie's request, I came across the Massachusetts Herpetological Atlas website (which I would put a link to if I wasn't blogging from my iPad) which is a collaboration between UMass Amherst and The Audubon Society to document the range of all of Massachusetts' native reptile and amphibian species. To this end it relies on volunteers to photograph native species, fill out an online form and submit it so that it can then be reviewed, documented as a confirmed sighting and added to an interactive map which shows the range of each species in Massachusetts. 

This is, as you might have guessed, extremely right up Charlie's alley. He submitted his first photograph today, of a salamander he found under our neighbor's trash can, which has already been confirmed as an Eastern Red-backed salamander and added to the database. 

I have a feeling we'll be photographing quite a few critters this summer! And that "volunteer for the MA Herpetological Atlas project" will be going on Charlie's college application forms, ha ;-)

Basil Chicken Stir Fry With Fresh Basil From The Garden!*

*Ok, 90% of the basil was from the store, we would have needed a whole field of basil for the amount called for in this recipe...