Two of our Favorite Places

Phylis visited us this last week. We had beautiful weather so we did what we like to do best--a little exploring. We hiked around a few new places and revisited two of our favorite places. Noanet Woodlands is one of our favorite places to hike. We walked up to Noanet Peak and had a great view of Boston on one side and the Foxborough stadium on the other.

Then we kept walking to the old mill site.

As you look down you can see the deep wheel pit. There used to be a 36 foot wheel that powered the mill here.

I can't count the number of times we have happily come back to this site. A little peace in our otherwise hectic life.

And now for our second favorite place. The Bradley Estate in Canton.

Here is the main house complete with formal gardens and a great view looking out from the house as well.




In addition to the formal gardens they have a rhododendron walk, a kitchen garden, a sunken greenhouse for citrus trees, and chickens.

If one of my kids decide they want their wedding reception here--I do believe I would gladly foot the bill. (Just don't quote me on that.) A lovely place.

Signs of Spring

We finally have some beautiful spring weather here in New England. Here's Reagan and some of the flowers in our front yard.

We also had a little visitor on our kitchen window . This little bird seemed to like perching on the screen and had no problem posing for pictures. Our guess is that it's a warbler.

Plimoth Plantation

I had so much fun creating the last video I decided to try it again for our trip to the Mayflower II and Plimoth Plantation. Everyone really enjoyed this trip. The kids and I were much better at asking questions this time. The actors answer you as if you were visiting their village in 1627. We learned about their voyage here, how they farmed, how they cooked, what their homes were made of and all about their plans for the future.

The Museum of Natural History

We LOVE Harvard's Museum of Natural History. It is a classic museum and has a little bit of everything. Bones, rocks and minerals, stuffed animals and birds, insects, glass flowers, models, the list goes on and on. Watch the video to see a few of the things we saw.

Symphony Hall

Rachael celebrated her 12th birthday by . . .

Singing in Symphony HallRachael and Geoffrey are in Treble Choir at school. This is a special choir that meets twice a week after school. They received Gold at their last festival and had the privilege of singing in Boston's Symphony Hall.

Definitely an impressive building.

Geoffrey coming on stage.
Rachael entering the stage.

Here is a short video of one of their songs. They sounded great!

Elm Bank Children's Garden

Every year we go to the Elm Bank Herb sale. It was usually raining when we went so we hadn't explored the property. But two years ago we discovered the Children's Garden. Gorgeous flowers and several gardens, one of which is made for children. Reagan and I went with the grandparents, Sharon and Charles.
Reagan in the over sized red chair.
It's a really BIG chair--enough room for lots of friends. The gals are in the tower. Rapunzel, Rapunzel. . .

Reagan is the bird in this nest. I'm sure she can't wait for mama bird to bring her a nice juicy worm.

Easter

We were sick for the week (or two) preceding Easter. The whole family ended up sleeping all day on Saturday and missed both the Primary Easter Egg hunt and our family Easter egg hunt. Thankfully by Easter Sunday we were feeling well enough to go up to Bonnie and Jason's for Easter Dinner. Although we traditionally do the egg hunt on Saturday we had ours on Sunday this time.

Reagan got the hang of the search pretty quickly. She even managed to sweet talk Jeremy into giving her some candy. (Actually Jeremy was just being kind.)

Here's Lilly followed closely by Karin.

Rachael and Geoffrey are still not too old for egg hunts--not when there's candy involved!