Tag: mothers

Fun with friends

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, family, italian, local fun, restaurants, tweens

What could be better than a great day spent doing fun things with your friends?  Not much; especially if it involves good food. 

friends

 

This past weekend, my daughter and I did just that. We started off at The Good Table, a wonderful restaurant in Cape Elizabeth.  Sunday brunch is the day to go; that is the day that you can have a cinnamon bun that’s (almost as) big as your head. Even if that’s the only thing you have, you will be very happy you went. 

Of course, it’s not the only thing that we had. Among us, we ordered an Italian Villa (an egg dish, not a house), blueberry crepes…home fries, toast, eggs, bacon were all present and accounted for. We had plenty left over; too bad I forgot it in my friend’s car! (yes, she saved them for me…). 🙂 

Next, being happily filled up with an abundance of excellent food, we stopped at Two Lights. We got out, walked around, took pictures of our kids and ourselves. Then we headed over to Fort Williams Park for a drive through…we didn’t have time to get out and walk around because the girls were anxious to get to the Maine Rock Gym. If you are bringing your tween to climb, please note that if they are under 12 then they will need someone to belay for them, so be prepared. About an hour is how long we (my 11 year old and I) usually last at rock climbing. 

climbing rock wall

 

The girls had been wanting to go to Coastal Maine Popcorn in the Old Port. This is a great place to take your kids. They have up to 30 different popcorn flavors, both savory and sweet. Some recent offerings are black licorice, buffalo wing, salt and vinegar, watermelon, Maine maple. You are welcome to try any flavors before you buy them. We tried, then we bought for others. 

After that, the girls (and of course, the moms!) needed a treat for ourselves. We had an “ice cream vs gelato” debate, and in the end, ice cream won. We headed to the new location of Mt. Desert Island Ice Cream in the Old Port. If you are an adventurous ice cream eater, this is the place for you. Like Coastal Maine Popcorn, they will happily let you “try before you buy”  (lavender? avocado? jack daniels? all these ice cream flavors and many more), like all good businesses do. 

This concluded our outing. We were tired, but happy. Consider your own “Fun with Friends” day in your own or nearby town.

The Man with the Ginormous Head

by Karen, posted in family, local fun, Someone's gotta say it, tweens

I was very excited to go see my daughter in a show at the Ogunquit Playhouse. I bought a ticket for 2 of the 3 shows in advance;  I had not been planning to attend the first show on Saturday. When I saw my daughter’s face as I told her this (“You mean you’re not going??”) , I had a change of heart and bought a ticket for that one as well.

Needless to say, I did not get a front row seat for my last-minute efforts. Now, there really aren’t many bad seats at the Playhouse, so I wasn’t too worried…I got there early. I found my seat. I waited with anticipation for the show to start. All was well, until…enter, the Man with the Ginormous Head.  Oh no! How could this happen?

If you ever find yourself in this position, what would you do? Here are some coping tips from my recent experience:

  1. Reposition yourself frequently. Otherwise, you will have a very large crick in your neck after an hour of tipping your head to the left without a break.
  2. Try not to think too much about how annoying you might be to the people sitting behind you (what with the frequent repositioning and all).
  3. Resist the urge to bludgeon big fat head with the $3 bottle of water you purchased at the concession stand when you arrived.
  4. Entertain the thought of pitching “height requirement for ticket sales” idea to the Playhouse management…under my plan, people 5’2″ (example: me) and under get would get preferential (read: up close) seating.
  5. Decide to be grateful that I am seeing the show two more times, one of which will be from the front row. When all is said and done, I will miss nothing.
  6. Wonder how, when 90% of the audience is under 3 feet tall (read: children), was I so fortunate as to wind up sitting behind the Man with the Ginormous Head.
  7. Pause briefly to further wonder why 4’8″ daughter is positioned behind the 5’8″ cast member wearing the 6″ tall headpiece on the stage…(but I digress).

Above all, remain calm, I reminded myself. Panicking helps no one. Breathe. He keeps moving around; there is no safe place! Now he is gesticulating with his hands (which are also ginormous!) effectively obliterating my tiny window of visibility to the stage!

And just when I think it can’t get any worse…well, it doesn’t. It gets better. The person who was sitting next to me doesn’t return after the intermission. The person sitting in front of her was a very small child who had migrated to his mother’s lap. The view is now completely unobstructed.  Life is good; the show goes on, and…I remember the most important thing:

I am so proud of my daughter. 🙂

Saying goodbye to a friend

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, fitness, good grief, health, tweens

My daughter’s friend delivered some unexpected news last week. Without preamble, she sent a one line email declaring that she was moving. To California. Like, soon. 

Chocolate chip cookies

 

Well. It’s not the first time that one of her close friends have moved away; it’s the third time, actually. It seems to be hitting her in a different way this time, however, which I imagine is due to her developmental stage. She is feeling it more, so of course, I am feeling it more as well. She was visibly sad, and was telling anyone in the family who would listen about how her friend was moving and how much she was going to miss her. 

Then a funny thing happened: as I was busily trying to think of a way to help her to feel better, she was busily figuring it put for herself. This is what she did: 

  1. She took construction paper and crayons and made a book for her friend. The book’s title? “Things I like about (name of friend)”.
  2. She asked me if we could bake some chocolate chip cookies for her friend, having ascertained beforehand that these were her favorite kind of cookies (note: date stamp on photo is incorrect; it’s a new camera and I’ve yet to set the date!).
  3. She obtained her friend’s new phone number in California, and in addition to placing it in a safe place, she made sure I had saved it in my cell phone as a safety measure.
  4. She hunted down a gift bag (purple! purple is her friend’s favorite color!) that was big enough to hold the construction paper book without folding it, the container of cookies, and an “I’m going to miss you!” greeting card, then assembled the gift.

So, she did all of these things just by instinct. She thought she was putting together a nice present for her friend and making sure they could stay in touch. I realized that she was processing her grief, and doing it by instinct, and in a healthy way. 

Then, she put it all aside and went out in the yard to hula hoop for an hour. 

 

Isn’t it amazing how much our children teach us about life (see note about picture date stamp, #2 above)?

trust your instincts

by Karen, posted in family, fitness, tweens

well. my daughter has been riding at the new barn (http://home.comcast.net/~goodrich-puffer/index.html) for a while now, and loves it here. she is learning things like “posting”, “diagonals”, and “emergency dismounts”…oh my! more importantly, i am not experiencing that vague feeling of uneasiness that never left me at the other barn…the “i can’t put my finger on it, but something doesn’t seem quite right” feeling that mothers (and others) sometimes feel. i don’t feel like that at all when she is riding here. plus, this instructor taught her more in an hour than the prior one did in a month. this instruction makes the other look like…pony rides. expensive pony rides.

have any of you ever had a “gut feeling” about something that turned out to be true? did you follow your instinct right away, or wait awhile first?