Inspired by Thornton Burgess' "borrowing" of Peter Rabbit from Beatrix Potter, Clare did her own borrowing this morning. Since I am unlikely to be able to provide a Cape Cod update today (we have a late night planned), I am giving you Clare's Tale of Peter and Flopsy instead.

There were two little bunnies named Peter and Flopsy. They lived in the woods in a big fir tree. Mr. McGregor went to their house to steal their carrots. The End.

Today was a rainy day on Cape Cod. It was a perfect day for me to run into Coffee Obsession--a favorite spot in Falmouth for many years. I enjoyed a chai latte made with almond milk. Later in the morning we headed to Sandwich.

Sandwich is one of the oldest towns on Cape Cod and one of the most charming. Our main purpose in going there was to visit the Green Briar Nature Center, which now houses much of the old Thornton Burgess Museum.

Thornton Burgess was a naturalist and children's writer in the early twentieth century. Being such huge Beatrix Potter fans I was a bit conflicted about our family's visit. While Burgess and Potter held similar passions, it must be acknowledged that Burgess "borrowed" Peter Rabbit for his stories. Still, Clare (our most devoted Beatrix Potter fan) was thrilled to go anywhere with so many rabbits. There was a rabbit on the nature center sign, a rabbit on the weathervane at the top of the house, ceramic rabbits throughout the complex and two real rabbits.

Oh, and there were these cute little rabbits.

An added treat at the nature center is a jam kitchen in which women are busy making jam as you walk through. The jam is sold in the gift shop and it is possible we came home with a little bit of jam. (It is also possible we tasted a few jam samples in the shop). After a brief walk through the wildflower garden at the nature center, we left Sandwich to pick up my repaired car in Hyannis.

Tomorrow promises beautiful weather and some exciting adventures.

We are in Cape Cod. We are here after too many potty breaks to count, hours of listening to a screaming baby (Anne really hates the car seat), a child puking in a swimming pool, and--this one really is the best--a failed transmission. Yep, our minivan is currently vacationing in Hyannis while it receives a new transmission. We are getting around thanks to a loaner car. That is, we are getting around after I called to find out how to turn the loaner car on. Apparently you don't use the key. You use the key FOB. Who knew?

Despite all these obstacles I am so glad we are here spending the week with my parents. We've been coming periodically to the same cabin in Falmouth since I was a child. There are so many memories here. I finished Gone With the Wind in this cabin late one night when I was twelve. There's a rock at the local beach that I sat on and read Evan Thomas' biography of Robert Kennedy as the tide came in around me. There's a children's bookstore--Eight Cousins--that we've been coming to for years and yesterday I was able to take my children to a story time at that bookstore.

We've taken it easy since we've been here. We've taken the girls to the beach. We grilled one night (steak, cod and chicken) and finished the meal with s'mores. We had a tea party of sorts at Molly's Tea Room in Falmouth. We've taken long walks and the girls have played and played at the playground by our cabin.

Today we took an Oceanquest Hands On Discovery Cruise out of Woods Hole. This was our boat.

We were very lucky to have a wonderful naturalist to lead our group. The girls were able to hold spider crabs and horseshoe crabs. They helped bring in a lobster trap. They conducted an experiment to illustrate the usefulness of the horseshoe crab's blue blood. They checked the temperature of the ocean water and we were able to get a good look at the Elizabeth Islands. This trip was a fantastic experience.

We have more fun things planned for the week. But mostly we are just enjoying being here.

All Spring I have promised Meg and Clare we would go strawberry picking. We missed berry picking last year because I was pregnant and it was very hot. So we were definitely due a strawberry picking outing.  But during the best part of strawberry season this year, the girls were finishing up preschool and then we were hit by stomach viruses and migraines. I suddenly realized It was the last week of strawberry season and if we were going to go we had to go now even if it was hotter than would be ideal.

Happily we went to the orchard on Monday when the temperature was closer to 90 than 100. We dressed cooly, put on the girls' sun hats and covered ourselves in sunblock. We were fortunate that some friends were willing to come with us which made the outing extra fun for Meg and Clare (and for me since I had a nice conversation with another mom on the long drive to the orchard and back).


We went to Homestead Farm in Poolesville, Maryland. It is a nice, manageable, walkable orchard. There were a few other families there but it was far from crowded. Since the girls are much older than the last time we went berry picking, we were able to give them a little freedom to move around the fields and find the best strawberries. It is important to the girls that they have the opportunity to explore on their own so I am trying to keep an eye on them while not hovering.

Meg and Clare were very proud of all the berries they picked.

When we came home, we washed the strawberries and made a salad of strawberries, lettuce (bought at the farm), walnuts and grilled chicken. We used an apple cider vinaigrette (also purchased at the farm) and ate quite the healthy dinner. Clare is not a fan of strawberries or most other fruit, but Meg has been faithfully topping her cereal each morning with strawberries. The girls are making plans to pick more berries later in the summer (as the various berries come into season) and I am fully supporting their plans. I love that we are becoming more aware of seasons and when fruits are best harvested. With our ability to get fruits and vegetables any time of the year and our tendency to keep our homes the same temperature regardless of what it feels like outside, anything I can do to make my children more aware of the seasons is a good thing. Berry picking is definitely a worthwhile outing.

On Saturday morning, two of our favorite activities came together. The children's librarians from the Arlington County Library joined Long Branch Nature Center for Trail Tales. The basic idea of Trail Tales is that story boards have been put up along the nature trail so can read as you walk. Currently Woodlice by Sian Smith is posted. One of the naturalist told me that they planned to change the stories with the seasons to keep the story relevant to what the kids can find at the nature center.

To celebrate Trail Tales, there were many activities Saturday morning. The librarian who regularly leads a fantastic story time at the library's main branch brought her books, songs, rhymes and puppets to the nature center's mini-amphitheater and led a wonderful story time in the woods about insects. One of the naturalists had leaves and dirt in which the children could find insects and then look at them under various microscopes and magnifying glasses.

There were also fantastic crafts for the kids. Both Meg and Clare made adorable bookmarks. And to the girls' great excitement, there was face painting. I was quite impressed that the artists matched the girls' dresses with their artwork.

It was a very fun morning. We hope the nature center and library will continue working together on events like this one.

A few months ago, while randomly searching the Mystery shelf at our local library branch, I discovered the Dame Frevisse Medieval Mystery series by Margaret Frazer. Set in Fifteenth Century England with a nun, who has a family connection to Geoffrey Chaucer, as the detective, I thought I'd give the series a try. I am so glad I did because these books have become my new go-to when I need a fun mystery to read. I am reading the books completely out of order--just as I find them in the library--and currently I'm reading The Sempster's Tale (because of that Chaucer tie, all the books are titled "The [fill in the blank] Tale" in an homage to The Canterbury Tales). This book in the series is set in London and tells the tale of a widowed seamstress/embroiderer, who makes Church vestments. A portion of the book I read yesterday described the long and narrow garden that sat behind the widow's house and was separated by a fence from her neighbors gardens. It immediately made me think of our own garden.

Our shared front yard and far back yard are where the girls run and play. Our fenced in patio is where we garden. A few months ago I shared my hope that our beautiful hydrangea bush was finally returning to life after our bleak winter. This is what the hydrangea looked like at that time.

This is how it looks this morning. I love those tiny little purple flowers.

The widow's garden in The Sempster's Tale is made up of mostly herbs and vegetables. We love our flowers, but have our share of vegetables as well. Our pumpkins are doing phenomenally well and in the picture below you can see our peas growing nicely too.

I think I've previously mentioned the pinwheel flowers pictured above. They were a gift from Grammy to the girls and include a light in the middle of the flower. Just after dark, our garden is lit by these little flowers and fairy lights on the fence (the solar powered fairy lights are all the rage in our neighborhood these days).

This week we've had lots of rain, Meg has had a migraine and Baby Anne and I have been recovering from the worst stomach virus ever. We haven't spent much time in our garden, but I've enjoyed looking out into the garden and watching the flowers and plants grow. Of course, I'm simultaneously noting the weeding and sweeping that need to be done, but mostly I'm enjoying the cozy beauty of having a back garden.

As I have mentioned several times, the girls and I have been reading books from the Little House series at bedtime over the past few months. However, as we read On the Banks of Plum Creek, I could see their interest waning. This was not a surprise for me. I heard from other families with children of similar ages that their kids also began losing interest at this point in the series. Some families chose to push ahead. Others chose to put the Little House books away for awhile. I chose the latter course because I wanted the girls to know that chapter books are more than just books about pioneers. Chapter books can be about fairies, gardens, sisters having adventures and so many things.

I began to make suggestions to the girls about other books we could read, but Meg had already made up her mind. "I want to read the Lion book," she said. The Lion book is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In addition to having individual copies of each book in the Narnia series, we have the Narnia books collected into one large volume with a lion on the spine of the book. Meg has been intrigued by that book since she was two years old. We have told her bits and pieces of the story, but she very much wants to know that Lion's whole story.

I hesitated to introduce The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe so early. They are not going to understand the allegorical elements of the story. But then I realized that was just one layer. C.S. Lewis intended the Narnia series to be a fantasy story for children, not just Christian allegory for college students to return to after they've read Mere Christianity. I didn't read the Narnia series until I was in college. I never had the experience that I've heard from others of sitting in my closet hoping desperately that it would open into Narnia. I've never enjoyed the Narnia series on the fantasy level. And if my kids are good at anything, it is fantasy. Not only do they have over-the-top imaginations, they have a great understanding of the fairy and elf world. If anyone can appreciate a faun, it is Meg and Clare.

So, I decided to start reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to the girls. They've enjoyed it so far. If it becomes apparent they aren't ready for it, we'll stop. The day after we began reading it, we coincidentally had a nature class about beavers, which nicely prepared the girls for the characters of Mr. and Mrs. Beaver in the book. The nature teacher brought a beaver skin to allow the students to feel the beaver's fur (see picture below). Meg asked how the beaver had died. The teacher replied she didn't know. Meg responded, "He looks very flat now. I think a tree fell on him." See, quite the imagination.

In the last few days Baby Anne and I have been walloped by a stomach virus that included a high fever for both of us. Just as I thought we were done with it, she began vomiting again yesterday but seems to have stopped again. Now I am eyeing everyone in my family suspiciously, wondering who will be the next victim, but so far no signs of illness.

During this time we have done a few things. We made a cake for Pentecost. The shape of the cake is a butterfly because we happened to have a butterfly pan. The drawing on top is supposed to be a dove to represent the Holy Spirit.

Meg sang Happy Birthday to the Church and enjoyed the cake. Clare, unfortunately, did not get to enjoy the cake because she decided to go to her room and paint her arms and legs blue. Oh, she also decided her bedroom floor should be blue and began painting that. We scrubbed her legs and arms, but she still looks like a smurf. The floor cleaned up much better than she did. I am all about encouraging her artistic expression, but there are limits.

I've also spent this time of illness reading children's chapter books. Now that the girls are slowly moving from picture books to chapter books for bedtime reading, I wanted to expand my knowledge of what was out there. While I loved books as a child and had some great favorites, there were a lot of wonderful children's books I just never read or never even heard about. After all, at that time we couldn't google "top 25 children's books your 8-year-old should read." If my parents, teachers or librarian didn't recommend it, I probably didn't know of its existence.

So this past weekend I finished the last Penderwick novel (which, of course, wasn't around when I was a child) and read Elizabeth Enright's The Saturdays (which was written long before I was born but I only recently heard about it). The Saturdays is an absolutely charming book about siblings who live in an old New York brownstone and decide to pool their allowances so they can each take a Saturday to go on an extraordinary adventure. How did I miss this book as a child! No matter how old you are everyone must go read this book right now.

I have a stack of children's books to read, but I've also found a few books intended for my own age which I should probably throw into the mix. Summer is meant for reading. Even Meg and Clare agree. They've been practicing their own reading with an unusual enthusiasm and excitedly signed up for the summer reading program at the Arlington County Library yesterday. Expect a few book reviews in the coming weeks.

Did I ever drop the ball this week. We had one of those fantastic kid moments and I couldn't find my camera. Still, I can tell you about it.

Meg and Clare decided they wanted to head back to Green Springs Garden--the site of our recent Peter Rabbit birthday party. Clare packed her art supplies in her backpack and we headed to the garden. The girls had a plan. When we arrived, they walked the paths until they found the perfect spot. In this spot, there were comfortable benches and flowers all around us. While I sat on one bench with Baby Anne (who was fussy at this point and ready for a nap), Meg and Clare unloaded their art supplies on another bench. They had paper, colored pencils and watercolors. Taking in the inspiration all around them, they began to paint. So, there we were in a beautiful garden. I was rocking a baby and the girls were painting. It all felt very Victorian. It felt like a Mary Cassatt painting.

I was disappointed not to have my phone or camera with me to capture the moment, but in a way, that would have ruined it. What was so amazing about this moment was how we slowed down and were truly in the moment. We were not distracted by the constant stream of information always available on the phone. We were not distracted by anything. I do have Meg and Clare's artwork to remember this moment.

As you can see, Meg is currently purely a watercolorist.

Clare, on the other hand, blends watercolors and colored pencils.

What a lovely, quiet moment in our week. I am looking forward to taking the girls to the Cassatt/Degas exhibit currently at the National Gallery of Art. Mary Cassatt is one of the girls' favorite artists, which is not unexpected since she painted sisters, redheads and wonderful family scenes. Degas is another favorite because he painted ballerinas. The girls will love their artwork. I will love it too, but not as much as I love the paintings above.

Tuesday it was time for the exterminator to come and protect our house from the onslaught of summer insects here in the swampland of Virginia. So that meant I had to get my little bug squad out of the house for the afternoon. At the request of the girls, we headed to Frying Pan Farm Park--a long time favorite of ours though we haven't been there in a few months.

The animals were fun. There were a bunch of little ducklings that Meg and Clare enjoyed looking at and decided to name. Names included Flopsy, Cottontail, Jemima and I Love Lucy (that's right, not Lucy but I Love Lucy).

We were rather taken by a friendly goat who enjoyed posing for pictures. Here's a profile shot.

And then he decided to look at the camera

What a handsome little thing. We were also fond of a turkey who reminded us very much of William from Emma Thompson's The Christmas Tale of Peter Rabbit. If Mr. McGregor ever plans to eat this turkey for Christmas dinner we are definitely coming to his rescue just like Peter and Benjamin.

We were so happy that the carousel was up and running again. We have so many lovely carousels in this area. Frying Pan Farm doesn't have the fanciest carousel but it has a great historic look to it.

I put Baby Anne on the carousel for the first time and she found it quite enjoyable. She even posed for my new favorite picture of her.

So all in all not a bad way to pass the time while the exterminator was spraying the house.