The Days of Our Lives (September, Part 1)

I was thinking that although I have long picture posts dedicated to certain activities that we do during the week, I really want to remember the flow of our daily lives during this year... without the burden of trying to photograph and/or document every little thing in its own post (because that would never happen anyway!).  Besides, the children's museum pictures would start getting boring since we've been there every week for the last three (four? five?) weeks.  So I started writing our daily activities on my calendar, but then realized that it was unlikely that I would ever dig it back out to reminisce even if I end up keeping the calendar forever.  So, of course, the blog came to the rescue!  I've decided that since I can't keep up with scrapbooks or picture albums or journals or anything else right now, this has to be my one-stop-shop for all memories.  Plus I wanted to keep track somewhere of all the yummy food we eat at restaurants or even what I'm cooking at home (I'm just like Grandmother in that food is an important part of the memory!) 

But now that we finished September and I've decided that I should dump the random photos from my phone into this post as well, it got forever long.  So I decided to break September into two installments and going forward try to post every week?  Or two?  Optimistic much?  It will also take care of the situation of when we're talking to family on the phone and we say something like, "Yeah, a few days ago we went to the Public Gardens and saw the Make Way for Duckings Statues and swan boats" while in my head I'm thinking, "You didn't know that because it will be weeks if ever before the pictures are posted to the blog!"

I was also working on a post of what I could reconstruct of our activities from July and August.  Unfortunately I think I left it as an untitled draft and accidentally deleted it the other day, so its now going on my to-do list to reassemble that information.  *Sigh*

So this post is more for myself then everyone else, but here's what we did this past month.

Week 1, Sept 1 - 7

• Sunday - Church and small groups at the Spoerings
• Monday - Brian was off of work for Labor Day so the family went to the Harvard Museum of Natural History in the morning.  Saw lots of skeletons, preserved animals and a great rock collection.  Ate a  picnic lunch at "the Plaza" on the Harvard campus.
• Tuesday - Brian's first day of CT (cardiothoracic surgery rotation).  The kids and I ran errands and did grocery shopping in the morning then hit up the library in the afternoon.
• Wednesday - Children's Museum in the morning.
• Thursday - Rainy day at home, by afternoon it had cleared some and we blew bubbles on the front stoop.
• Friday - Adventure day - Got off the T at Copley Place and tried to see Catie Copley (a dog who lives at The Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel) but she hadn't come in for the day.  Then we wandered around and found a pretty little plaza with huge cool fountains.  Then we wandered some more and found our way to the Public Gardens and watched the ducks and Swan Boats and climbed on "Make Way for Ducklings" statues (picture post to come).  We picnicked next to the duck statues then after lunch we walked through Prudential Center Mall before heading home for naps.  Daddy home early from work - yay!  So we went back into town for dinner at McCormic and Schmitz, pricy but yummy (excellent calamari, scallops for K, fish and chips for B, mac and cheese for kids)

• Saturday - Brian on home call.  Spent early morning at home then Brian got called into hospital mid-morning.  I took some little buckets outside for the kids to collect some "nature" (acorns, leaves) from the yard next door.  I started feeling sick mid-morning, but since Brian was home by mid-afternoon we went downtown to Haymarket Produce Market, played at the fountains and ate North End pizza (cheese, pepperoni, chicken and ricotta).

Week 2, Sept 8-14

• Sunday - K woke up sick, sick, sick and Sarah also had yucky symptoms so we all skipped church.  K slept all day, B took kids to park in the afternoon.
• Monday - K still under the weather, so spent the morning at home just surviving.  Took an afternoon trip to Emerson Garden park. 
• Tuesday -  B call day, he didn't get home until 11:30 pm.  K still feeling bad so we spent the morning at home cleaning and doing laundry.  Took an afternoon trip to library and afterward the kids played on the lawn in front of Brookline Town Hall.
• Wednesday - B home in the AM post call, but still had to go into work at 9:00.  Super hot day, so the kids and I went to Castle Island Beach and playground.  Got an ice cream treat with kids at Sullivan's, which turned disastrous in 90 degree heat!  Brian home early and took a nap while K and kids went to convenience store for milk then blew bubbles on front stoop.  Brian made 10:00 run to car to retrieve my cell phone out of the car - oops!
• Thursday - Errands to TJ Maxx and Trader Joe's in morning with the kids.  After we got back to our parking spot I discovered a flat tire due to screw and texted pic to Brian.  Nathan tried to "fix" the tire for me.  Brian home late at 9:00 pm, then he walked down to the car at 9:30pm to put the spare tire on the car.  He got caught in a downpour on the walk home so he arrived soaking wet! 

The kids watching for the T trains in the back corner of our parking lot.

This is how Sarah always decorates herself after getting stickers from Trader Joe's.

Nathan "fixing" the screw in our tire.

• Friday - Morning trip to Children's Museum with side trip to tour South Station and get a chai latte for K (a little treat since I was still feeling sick).  We were chatted up by nice gentleman named Luise from Puerto Rico while walking to the museum.  In the museum a lady from MIT tried to get Nathan to participate in a study for 3 and 4 year olds, but he wasn't interested in cooperating at all.  The kids went to the art room and decorated some papers that then got "shot" across the room through this long tube with pressurized air.  The kids loved it so much we ran back to decorate more papers to do it again (actually Nathan kept his second paper - we didn't realize that we wouldn't get our drawings back at the other end).  We had lunch outside overlooking the river but our usual table was wet so had to sit at a different one.  That afternoon we attempted a trip to Emerson Garden park but it started raining hard half way there so got wet as we walked/triked home.  Brian got off early and got caught in the same downpour on the way home.  After we all changed into dry clothes we had dinner at Bottega di Capri (lobster ravoli with alfredo for K, lasagna for B, spaghetti with tomato sauce for kids).

Our typical "parade" to the park - right before we got caught in the downpour!

• Saturday - In the morning Brian and Nathan took the flat tire to get patched, then they changed the tire in our parking lot.  K still sick so I went down for an early nap and Brian took the kids out for lunch to the Village Pizza house.  That afternoon we all watched the Tennessee vs. Oregon game and had homemade pizza for dinner (too much pizza = not possible!).