Snapshots of Life: Food and Family: Beaver Brook Reservation, Houghton's Pond, Ducky Potty, Tougas Farm, and Lots More!

Here's another big photo dump installment of summer fun!! It wasn't a terribly hot summer, but it was definitely warm enough to have fun splashing around.
Since I didn't feel like schlepping to the beach, I packed the kids in the car, and we drove about 15 minutes to Beaver Brook Reservation. I tried taking the boys last year, but unfortunately got there when they no longer had their water on. So, I decided to strike when the iron was hot and check this place out. :-)

The boys had a blast, filling up their buckets
with water and dumping them.

Oh my goodness!! LOL!! Check out William's
expression! Love it :-)

The boys having fun in the water.

More water fun at Beaver Brook Reservation

Even walking through the reservation is beautiful!
They have this gorgeous and calming brook
running throughout the reservation. So lovely.

There was so much going on, that the boys had to take a moment
to take it all in before they started splashing around.

There they go!

William loved getting completely soaked.

He was all about filling up his bucket and
then dumping it. Over and over again.

I love it when they play so well together.

This kid marches to the beat of his own drum. Love it. :-)

Tunnel fun at the playground

William "helped" in walking Oscar that morning.

This poor guy had his first wipe out (of many, I'm sure)
on his bike and wiped out. Thank goodness he had
his helmet on or it would've been much worse.
At least the big guy could smile with a nice
case of road rash on his face. :-/

Annnnnnd he still had a sense of humor!

Awww! Look at our darling old man Oscar.
He's starting to turn a little frosty, but definitely
has a LOT of fight in him still. He's so stinkin' cute.

He tucks himself in underneath covers, too.
He's a really funny dog.
(Seriously, I didn't do this...he did it himself.)

Here's another one of our visits to Houghton's Pond. The boys really loved this place this summer.

Unfortunately it was overrun with Canadian geese
that day. I had to watch our picnic lunch very closely
because they were very busy digging through peoples'
beach bags.

William loves playing with the sand.

Here's our little heart breaker playing in the sand as well. :-)

He loved Houghton's Pond.

On August 5, we decided to dust off the little practice potties and leave them in our bathrooms "just in case." William had been showing interest and we thought we might give it a go at potty training this guy.
Sure enough, he went to the bathroom in it right away!! We were very excited at his success with the potty and it being the first time.

William on the ducky potty.

He was SO proud of himself for using it.
(Unfortunately it was a fluke, and we're still
working on it, but he's not even 2 yet, so it's all good.)

I asked Alex where he wanted to go one day. He told me the zoo, but wanted to go to a different zoo. So, I packed the kiddos in the car and we visited Stone Zoo that morning.

Here's the boys petting a very docile and sweet goat.

Train ride time!

William kept saying that he wanted to ride "Thomas!"

Train ride fun!

Alex, our little flamingo.

I got the boys some icy treats while we were
waiting for the bird show to start.

They loved them! (This was the first time
for both of them to have these treats.)

Family selfie before the bird show started.

There was this awesome crow that they taught to
take donations and put them in a donation box. Too cute!

Yay! Daddy's home! Let's play!

William and Joseph playing the piano together.

Awww :-)

So sweet.

It's not very often, but once in a while,
William wants to flex his "independent" muscle
and wants to drink his milk in the chair by himself,
rather than in my lap.

He likes to show me that he's a "big boy"
sometimes.

In mid-August, we got a babysitter and joined some friends at this awesome place that's right down the street from us called Hopster's. It's a make-your-own craft beer brewery! You look through a menu of recipes for beers that they have available, choose one, and make it yourself!
We were there celebrating our friend Gaurav's birthday party and were invited by his darling wife, Shikha. Joseph was in one group making one beer, and I was in another group making another kind of beer. My group made a Vanilla Bourbon Barrel Ale. We had so much fun with our friends and the beer and food at this place were pretty exceptional, too.

Akshita, measuring out the grains.

Liz, measuring out the hops.

Akshita, Liz, and Monica showing our brew. :-)

Here's where we "cooked" our beer that day.

All sorts of other ingredients for our craft beer.

Liz and Monica, working hard.

Team awesome!! Me, Monica, Liz, and Akshita posing by our barrel.

Now that it's cooked, we put it into a barrel, added
some smoked bourbon barrel chips, and let it do its magic for 2 weeks.
After 2 weeks, Liz went back and bottled all of our beers for us.
Thanks SOOOO much, Liz!! Our beer turned out delish!

Here's our friend Sid posing by a picture
of Aziz Ansari (a comedian) because we
claimed that he was his doppelganger.

Me and Jojo at the after party :-)

They had beer by the yard at this place!!
Each yard had a little dispenser at the end...
I didn't mind at all to helping myself.

(As you can see, I don't get out much.)

That next day, Alex had a birthday party to go to at a local park. I took Alex by myself and Joseph stayed home with William that morning.

Alex playing around with his friend.

They're so sweet together.

Ariel the mermaid was super awesome!
She made balloon animals, sang songs,
and did face painting, too. Alex loved all of it.

After the party, Alex and I stopped by the house,
picked up Joseph, William, and Oscar,
and had a lovely picnic in a local park.

Since it was mildly hot this summer,
William almost always had his sippy cup with him.

Here's us at one of our favorite places for dinner! It's a restaurant called Edamame that does teppanyaki cooking (where they cook in front of you). The boys love the food, but we enjoy it because it's a free show that keeps the kids entertained.

Alex always asks for fire. This cook definitely gave it to him!
I love the look on his face in the far left corner of the picture.

The cook tried to throw some food into Alex's mouth.
Joseph was steadying Alex's head so he could catch it.

The chef took a baby bottle full of water and squirted
it into Alex's mouth.

Then he did it to William, too.

Then he took a different bottle and squirted
Sake (Japanese rice wine) into Joseph's mouth.
As you can see....we had a great time that night :-)

Two happy boys and a balloon dragon.

Donatello Ninja Turtle accompanied me in the
car one day while I was driving the boys to school. :-p

Little William, singing to himself.

I tried doing without a diaper one day.
He was quite proud of himself.

Come at me, bro!

Alex didn't know what to do with this
"new found independence" that William had that morning.

William insisting on being a big boy again.

Joseph got home from an overnight one afternoon and came home to sleep. I put William down for a nap and took Alex out on a "Mommy and Alex date."

We went to Pinkberry and he got his favorite
ice cream: Chocolate with sprinkles, gummi bears,
and chocolate cookies.
He, and his minion, were very happy.

Then, we got this big boy his first watch
and a nice tray from J.Crew to put it in
on his night stand. We also got an outfit
for his first day of school in Pre-K.
He felt like such a big boy that day.
He was so proud. :-)

Fun times at Tougas Farm!! Our friend Erika joined me and the boys to go pick peaches and blueberries at Tougas Farm. We had so much fun picking fruit and having lunch together that day. It was the perfect summer day and the donut peaches were out of this world delicious! Thanks so much for joining us, Auntie Erika :-)

Erika and the boys on the train ride to the orchards.

Alex was ready to pick some peaches :-)

William was all about picking the low-hanging fruit.

William loved the peaches!

So did this big guy :-)

William took this gigantic peach around with
him throughout the orchards. He was munching
on it almost the entire time.

Erika was the brave bearer of the gigantic
box of fruit that we were picking.
Thanks Erika!!

The boys were more focused on eating
the fruit, than picking it.

These peaches were absolutely amazing.

I totally cleaned out this branch.
The boys brought some peaches to their friends
and teachers at school the next day.

Jub Jub loves picking fruit.

After picking peaches, we checked out the
goats at the farm.

The boys loved seeing the animals.

William enjoyed riding the "tack-tor."

The boys were taking turns nicely on the tractor.

Blueberry picking time!

William loved this as well, because all of
the fruit was low to the ground.

It was so sweet that they started feeding each other.

The boys would fill up their little buckets
and then dump them into my larger bucket.

We did a great job that day!

Auntie Erika was so good with the boys. :-)

More spoils from our garden and our first beefsteak heirloom tomato!!
(We only got about 6 this year.)

After I picked the boys up from school one day, I took them to the Brookline Reservoir and walked around for a little bit. It was just too beautiful of a day to rush home.

He's such a big boy now!

One morning, Joseph was trying to get a bit of extra sleep, so I had the kids go down to the basement to have "picnic breakfast" as I like to call it. The boys cozied themselves up to their play table and had breakfast. I told William that he couldn't play until he finished his banana.

Here was his solution....what a cheeky little guy, huh??

Alex was QUITE tickled and amused by William's antics.

Alex and Oscar snuggle time!
It's been so nice that Alex had started to show interest
in Oscar. We keep telling him that Oscar is his brother
and that he should show him as much love as he shows to William.

William slept in one morning, so Alex
enjoyed a cup of tea, and I enjoyed
a cup of coffee on the snuggle couch
together.

Alex flying a kite in a nearby field.

I love walking around the corner and seeing this sight.

On August 17, our dear friends Ai-ris and Ian who live in California with their beautiful daughters Yoshimi and Koharu visited. Ai-ris was here interviewing to see if they could move back to Boston and thankfully, she got a position!! We're so excited that they're going to be moving back soon.