Audrey's Choice

Audrey has some free time after dinner tonight. This is how she's choosing to spend it. Dad's heart is warmed.

Audrey actually reads a ton but she seems to associate reading with bedtime. She'll read from the time she gets in bed until we tell her to stop. And then sneak some more reading. It's nice to see her choosing to do it at another time even when electronic options are available.

Part of Audrey's homework currently is to read a chapter of a book and then write a "gist". The other night I asked her to read a couple of pages out loud to me. Then I asked her what it said. I expected a brief summary but she proceeded to recite the entire thing back to me almost word for word. My jaw dropped.

Peabody Essex Museum

Peabody Essex Museum

Salem, Massachusetts is home to the Peabody Essex Museum. The seaports of Massachusetts were hubs of international trade in the sailing era and merchants and sea captains brought back cultural artifacts from all over the world and especially the orient. The PEM holds a huge collection of oriental art and manufactures. The museum even contains a large 18th century Chinese house that was dismantled, transported and reassembled. The collection also includes hundreds of detailed ship models and other maritime art, plus art and textiles from many other parts of the world. There is also a great kids room where the girls always have fun. This visit they made origami.

I saw an ad for the PEM's current special exhibit, Hats, and it looked like something the girls might like. I had never heard of milliner Stephen Jones but the hats looked fanciful and colorful and cool for kids. The exhibit was very cool. Jones' hats over the past couple of decades were intermixed with vintage hats and artistic hats by other designers.

The highlight for the girls was a section with various naked hats and a bunch of materials like pieces of silk, feathers, belts, etc. from which you could construct your own hat design. We ended up spending quite a bit of time there and each girl created several hats and looks. There was also a computer where visitors could try on virtual copies of several hats from the exhibit and save an portrait.

We also visited the Chinese House, called Yin Yu Tang. The audio tour gave us a vivid picture of what life was like in the house and the times.

Coincidentally we chose the weekend before Halloween to visit the PEM. Over the past decade or so Salem has become a big attraction at Halloween with the streets full of vendors and multiple haunted houses and live music. It was fun to walk through the festive atmosphere. Except we forgot to get fried dough!

Happy Birthday, Charlotte!

For her birthday Charlotte wanted breakfast in bed like Mom gets.

For the next two months we have 7 and 8-year-olds.

Happy Birthday, Charlotte! We love you!

Maker Faire 2012

Maker Faire 2012

For the third year in a row Audrey and I traveled to New York for World Maker Faire. Maker Faire celebrates "maker" culture: people who like to learn their own technical, mechanical and electronic skills and bend technology to do things it wasn't designed to do. I like to bring the girls (Charlotte and Carol went last year but Charlotte chose not to this year) so they can see that they can make anything they want if they put their minds to it.

Audrey enjoyed the day very much. She loved all the cool and creative things to see and do, but her favorite part of Maker Faire is the gyro stand.

This year we drove down and back on the same day to save hotel costs and to have all of Sunday back home for projects. When we left Maker Faire at about 6:30 we discovered we had a flat tire. Audrey had the opportunity to see how to change a tire, but the 50 miles per hour maximum speed rating on the spare wasn't going to serve us too well for the 200 mile drive home. In an excellent use case for smart phones I was able to find a Sears auto center not too far away and they agreed to stay open late to help us. They were incredibly efficient and kind and they wouldn't even accept a tip for staying late. 20 minutes after we arrived Audrey and I were heading to the freeway for the drive home. That was the cherry on top of a great day.

Neighborhood Camping Trip

Neighborhood Camping Trip

Last October we joined our next door neighbors for a weekend of camping at Pawtuckaway State Park in New Hampshire. We had such a great time and enjoyed being there in the fall so much that we decided to go again this fall - and to invite a bunch of other neighbors. Six families total were able to join us.

We had sites right on the lake and the water was still warm enough for swimming. The Burtnetts brought a kayak. There were a gaggle of kids who know and like each other. We felt safe letting Audrey wander with the older kids and at one point she went off on a frog hunt with Parker and Ned for a couple of hours.

Both nights had clear skies and we took the girls to the big parking lot by the swimming area to stargaze. We used the awesome phone app Star Walk to identify stars and constellations. I think it was the first time the girls have seen the Milky Way clearly.

On Saturday evening I built a cooking fire and all the families ended up assembling at our campsite for a big semi-impromptu potluck dinner. It was most enjoyable.

Everyone is excited to do it again next September.

Modeling Session

Modeling Session

One night at bedtime Audrey decided to try on my glasses. Then she started striking poses so we had a little photo session. Charlotte got in on the act with a couple of poses of her own.

B Girl

Tonight in the tub Charlotte reenacted a photo from six years ago.

Methot Family Film Festival, Continued

Way back in May I got caught up on family videos but then I went and got behind again! So here, for your enjoyment and exhaustion, is a collection of ten videos covering events since the last big batch. They are in chronological order. Click each image to watch that video. Once you're watching a video on Vimeo, you can see all of my other videos in a strip across the top of the page so you don't need to keep coming back here and clicking Enjoy!

Last spring Audrey completed her first big school project. She had to choose a historical character and perform research on the person's life. The final results were a report, a project and a recitation of what she learned. This video is of Audrey dressed as Susan B. Anthony delivering her report on Ms. Anthony's life.

Our neighbor Parker got a slackline as a gift and they had it strung between two trees in their backyard. We added a handline to help other kids learn how to walk on the line. That inspired me to grab a pulley from my climbing gear and turn the handline into a zip line. Scott even had a disc swing seat that made it easy for the younger kids to ride. Viola! Six months on and the zip line is still in place. Parker was riding it this morning.

This video contains a miscellaneous collection of video from May-August 2012. Some neighborhood activities, family outings, a couple of camping trips, a bit of Tessa, Audrey figure skating and science camp and finally a day at the beach.

We didn't shoot very much video during our Richland and Seattle vacation in July. This video contains the best of what we filmed.

Charlotte likes to grab one of our phones and shoot some video of her own. Her narration is pretty funny. Maybe she's a budding filmmaker!

In early August Audrey attended Girls Rock Camp Boston. The culmination of a week of learning an instrument, forming a band, and writing and rehearsing a song was the showcase. Twelve bands from camp performed. This video shows the highlights of the event and the complete performance of Audrey's band "One More Minute". The song is "One More Minute [of Summer!]".

The weekend after school started in September we headed to norther New Hampshire to revisit Santa's Village. I only shot a little bit of video, but it's fun.

For the third year in a row Audrey and I went to New York for World Maker Faire. Maker Faire is all about do-it-yourself technology, art, invention - what have you. There's always tons of interesting things to see and do. It's part of my plan to make sure my daughters know they can be geeks if they want to.

Come November the trees shed their leaves. We have one large oak and one large maple and we get plenty of leaves from neighboring trees as well. It's become tradition for dad to make a large leaf pile and then the girls have a blast jumping in to it and burying themselves in it.

One of our favorite places in Massachusetts is the Ipswich River Audubon Sanctuary, and one of our favorite things about it is that in the fall and winter the birds there will land right on your hand for food. Audrey and Charlotte are fascinated by it. We were there for a couple of hours today and they told Carol at bedtime that they want to go back tomorrow. We might have to do it!

Charlotte's Second Tooth

Charlotte's second lower front tooth has been loose for weeks. It had become a problem to the point that this morning she wouldn't eat anything we offered. We knew the tooth was hanging by a thread. Carol asked if she could check it. When Charlotte agreed, Carol pulled the thing out (it was indeed barely attached). A couple of tears and then Charlotte was relieved. As were the rest of us!

A little while later on my way to work Carol texted me this:

My horoscope says: Don't put up with anyone who is overreacting to a situation that needs to be dealt with swiftly.

In the background you can see our mutant giant goldfish.

Indoor Skydiving

iFly Indoor Skydiving

Back in July while in Seattle we visited iFly Indoor Skydiving. I recently came across the USB stick containing the photos taken by the wind tunnel operator with the built-in camera. They came out a lot better than the ones taken with our phones.

Brace yourself, I finally have a couple hundred photos from July until now organized and they're almost ready to publish.