The Atlantic Ocean

The Mayflower II. A full-scale reproduction of the original; complete with constumed and period-specific interpreters.

Miss Katie

Henry was in love with this model at Plimoth Plantation

Plimoth Plantation

I didn't realize Golf was that old?

The 1627 Settlement that is a reproduction of what life would have been like six years after the Pilgrims landed; everyone is in period dress, and has knowledge only of what's happened up to that time. It's a pretty fun way to have a concrete example of how life has changed in the last 4 centuries!

What a difference two years makes! Henry had a ball asking questions and getting involved with the actors.

This man took time out from building a fence to teach Henry how to play a stone throwing game. He built a small castle that was built by a gian that shrinks children. In order to free the children, you have to break the castle. Henry loved it!

at the Wompanoag Homesite, the people are dressed traditionally, but speak from a modern point-of-view in order to create a greater understanding. Here, each mound of dirt has three herring buried underground in order to fertilize the soil before planting.

This bark and stick created hut would house 10-12 people. Inside there were tables linind the perimeter that were covered in pelts. Henry got to hold tomohawks and other tools and was told that the tomohawks were used for 'conking animals over the head after they'd been shot with a bow and arrow, so they wouldn't suffer'. Yeah, I didn't have to talk with him about that. At. All.

Plymouth Rock

Even though it's not as big as you'd expected, it's still amazing to me to see a real piece of our history!

The big 3-5

It's My Dad's Party and I'll Cry If I Want To

Silly me, I thought it would be dangerous to put fire next to a baby!

A Painted House

Progress! It's nice to see that it turned out how I hoped it would :) The front door is going to be painted a bright red.

The back of the house...the part sticking out the farthest is the dining nook with a slider and steps going out to the patio. Sod still needs to go in, but everything else is looking good!

Blowing out his candles and his wish already came true...beer is boiling in the background.

Birthday Cake

For Jared's birthday, I got a bunch of his classmates and their spouses together at Deja Brew, which is a brew on premise facility where people who would like to home-brew, but don't have either the space or the time, or just want to try it out, can brew there and come back two weeks later to carbonate and bottle their yield. It was a great time, so I figured a chocolate stout cake would be a good companion for the night :) Of course, I forgot my camera, so all you'll see is the before and after of the cake, not the actual process of brewing, which was really cool. I'll have to make sure and take the camera when we go back to bottle it. This chocolate stout cake from Epicurious was SO good, and had over 300 reviews, so it was easy to see it was a winner. If I made it again, I'd halve the recipe because it made the two rounds for a layer cake plus TWO DOZEN cupcakes! It was even better the next day :)

The beer, butter and cocoa simmered and whisked together...

A great tip for cupcakes; put the batter in a ziplock bag and snip the corner to fill the cups without the mess!

The cake easily served all twelve guests with room to spare, and a good time was had by all!

It's hard to catch Charlie in the act anymore because whenever he sees the camera, he jumps up and runs over to say...

"Cheeeese!"

"Cheese!"

"Cheese!"