As I’ve said before, the only person who makes easter special around
here is Liz. She took the lead on the baskets… “lead” isn’t really
the right word. She bought the baskets and put them together. She’s the
one who talked up the event to the kids and explained what they should
expect. She also came up with this great idea for hunting for easter
eggs.
We woke up this morning and could hear that the kids had already
gone downstairs and discovered the easter baskets sitting on the coffee
table in the playroom. After a short while I got up and made sure
anyone who still needed to be fed got some proper breakfast.
After Liz got up we read some newspaper and the kids ran around
enjoying their new candy and a couple of small toys — like McToys.
Then Liz packed a picnic lunch — she makes great BLT’s! and off we we
went to Long Hill.
In most seasons its a beautiful place with carefully maintained
gardens. This time of year most everything is covered in snow.
Nonetheless, the weather was so wonderful that we decided to go up
to this mansion and its gardens for an egg-hunt. We dropped Liz off at
the mansion and we drove off to the parking lot. While we waited I
taught the kids the fine art of thumb-twiddling. Even Gracie was able
to do it. In a short while we got a call from Liz saying she was ready.
The kids had a super time hunting high and low for the eggs. I’ll make sure I post the photos.
We had our lunch and the kids took turns hiding the eggs for each
other. We found some deer poo. There was much curiosity over this.
Eventually Grace started getting crabby and Chloe’s shoe had snow in
it. So we went home.
After a while of sitting around I decided
I couldn’t let a day of fifty degrees and bright blue sky go slip by
without enjoying it some more.I took my bike out! I
put on some shorts and a sweatshirt and took off riding north on Main
St. I stayed on Main St all the way through Melrose and in to
Wakefield. At the north end of Wakefield is Lake Quannapowitt. There’s a playground there where we sometimes take the kids. In fact we saw Nancy Kerrigan
there once! Well, I rode my bike all the way up there. It turns out its
four point three miles there. It sure felt like a lot more than that. I
got up there in about 25 minutes and made it home in 27 minutes.
While I was taking a breather and enjoying the scenery, I saw a man
lying in the parking lot twisting his hips in a funny way. In fact, he
was kind squirming. When I saw his cane lying nearby I realized he had
fallen and couldn’t get up. I’m not sure why nobody else was doing
anything for this man, but I came over and offered my assistance which
he gladly accepted. We chit chatted briefly about the weather and I was
on my way. I was very happy to have had an opportunity to do my good
deed for the day.
In the end I very thoroughly enjoyed my ride and look forward to doing it again.
After I got back I took Grace out to learn how to ride her tricycle.
Ben rode his bike around the block and Gabriel followed in his new
roller blades. He’s really much faster now that he has his new skates.
When the weather warms up some more we’ll get back to teaching him and
Chloe how to ride two-wheelers. But for today, Chloe helped me teach
Grace the “ins” and “outs” of steering and pedaling. You would think
there isn’t too much to go wrong with riding a tricycle, but if you’ve
never pedaled and never steered anything I think it could be quite a
trick.
We had a good time.
Liz cooked a marvelous supper.
On Saturday afternoon while we were in the backyard Gabriel
discovered a little brown garter snake. It was only about eight inches
long and clearly not large enough to do anyone any harm, but Gabriel
about jumped out of his skin when he found that critter! I picked it up
and we watched it for a while on the picnic table and eventually
decided that we would keep it for a few days so Chloe could take it for
Show-and-tell.
I’m sure her teacher would have appreciated it!
But this evening while I was taking out the garbage, Gabriel ran
outside shrieking like a banshee that the snake had escaped! In fact,
it was sitting on the heater in the playroom!! So I ran inside to see
what I could do — the last thing I need is a teeny-tiny snake on the
loose. It turns out snakes don’t run away very well on hardwood floors.
It just kind of squirmmed and wriggled in place. I picked it up by the
tail and dropped it in the box from which it had so recently escaped.
Then I took it outside and set it loose.
This made Chloe very sad. She came downstairs in tears because she
had wanted to say “goodbye”. So me and my two girls went out back and
found the vicinity in which I thought he was probably lurking and Chloe
got a chance to say a few words. And all was well.
Really its been quite a busy day and I’m ready for some downtime.
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