Here we are, decked out in our “50s” getups for Uncle Tom’s “Happy Days” themed birthday party.

We already owned most of our costume pieces, I only had to buy my white kicks and Peter’s sweater vest. Sewing the Pinky on Esme’s jacket was a bit fiddly, but not too awful to do in the long run.

It was a beautiful day here in Pennsylvania. Friends, family, cute kids, great DJ, costumes and lots of fun!

“Saturday, what a day, groovin’ all week with you(s)!”*

*The local version, based on the speech habits of our lunch waitress 🙂

On the airport bus…to our rental car! Almost as exciting as if we were taking a plane.

This started out as a really good picture. Catherine and two new friends posing in their newly built nest at the park. All three kids looked adorable and proud and a bit messy. It was a great moment.

At the end of the day, I zoomed in to take a look at Catherine and was pleasantly surprised at what I saw in the close up. A sweet, smiling Catherine showing off her random display of teeth, her My Little Pony love and the newest acquisition for her owl collection, while smiling and sitting in the dirt. In short, a true to life snapshot of Catherine at nine.

It is not that I don’t love her sneaky expressions or her faces or her attempts to escape the camera lens’ reach, but I am so glad to have this lovely portrait to remember her passions and temperament and style at this particular point in time.

I love how kids mimic what they see. Earlier today she was ‘knitting’ with me and tonight she was playing cello.

Because, even as small as she is at 6, she won’t be small enough for this forever.

A cross section model of the Car Rental Center at Logan Airport.

This was, quite literally, the best car renting experience I have ever had. The price, the service at Hertz, and the super cute car made it great, but I especially loved the location. It was a mini airport, just for rental cars! Check in counters, escalators, those fancy bathrooms with the labyrinth halls instead of doors and a huge garage full of cars. I felt like I was zipping away on a luxury vacation! That will definitely be one of the main goals in life for me, I have always dreamed of having many sport cars, I’d have to get a new car key for every one of them but I wouldn’t mind, of course that I’d have to be rich first but there is something about cars that has always caught my attention. For now, I’ll just stick to my mini van.

(note: I love airports in general, anyway, so a rental car pickup that is styled like an airport just takes the cake for me!)

(second note: For my birthday one year, Peter took me on a terminal tour from A-E at Logan. Not an official one, just us poking around. It was great. Just an example to show that I love airports. 🙂 )

Mama-to-be peruses her shower gifts after returning home from the party.

I had booked the smallest size car that Hertz had available for my weekend trip away. The woman at the counter listed off several car makes and models and asked which one I would like. I was only half listening because I didn’t really have a preference, until I heard Beetle. Yes, please. I’ll take that one!

Ringo and I had a lovely afternoon and evening drive. He’s a zippy little car and is far newer and nicer than my own, making for a very comfortable and quiet ride.

A Beetle isn’t quite the right car for our family’s needs at the moment, but I have been enjoying driving a fun little car for a change!

Today on the beach, Esme and I came across an interesting item. I had reached into a tide pool to pick up what I thought was a penny, but turned out to be a mussel shell filled with silicon (?). Inside the plasticky mussel was a button battery. Both the silicon and the battery had a capital H written in sharpie.

Does anyone know what this might be? We have tried coming up with theories, some more outlandish that others, but haven’t really though of anything truly plausible.

Here are the details:

Found on the rocky beach at the end of Front St in Marblehead, Ma on 5/29/15. Battery inside of silicon inside of a mussel shell inside of a soft rock/clay.

And here are a couple other photos. Feel free to share if you know of anyone who might know what’s this is all about!

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