Link it: Project Wild Thing

Since I've been feeling a bit under the weather with the first cold of the season (yay, back to school germs) I have been taking Oliver to school then coming home taking Luna (our dog) for a walk and then settling in with a cup of Tazo Refresh Mint tea (my fave) and either reading or popping on the telly. I love documentaries. I love all types of documentaries. Historical. Social. Science and Nature. All of it. So I tend to try to browse through the documentary section of Netflix when I have the time to watch a program all for myself. And the documentary that I found to watch was interesting enough to share here called, Project Wild Thing.


The basic premise of the documentary is about a normal Dad from London, David Bond who appoints himself as the Marketing Director of Mother Nature because he sees that his children are watching too much telly and are not playing outside as much as they should. Bond goes to various marketing gurus and creates a lovely manifesto that implores people of all ages to go outside and explore and embrace their childhood:
"The Wild Network exists to champion and support connection with nature and 
wildness in children and young people.
The Wild Network mission is to support children, parents and guardians 
of children to roam free, play wild and connect with nature.
We believe all children should have the right to access the outdoors for play, 
learning, expression and development of healthy mind and body.
We encourage, provoke, nudge, support, innovate and campaign for children, 
kids and young folk to get up and outside."

Even though we live in the city we do try to get Oliver outside as much as possible. We go to our neighbohood park daily (weather permitting) and we go hiking in the surrounding reservations and we also go to Drumlin Farm to see animals but we still do exist in our daily life in a city setting and I do hope that Oliver can foster a love and respect for Mother Nature. I hope that we as parents can remember to let go a bit and embrace the saying coined by Lady Allen of Hurtwood a landscape architect; "Better a broken bone than a broken spirit."


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Now that Oliver is back at school and loving playing with all of his friends we decided why not rock the boat a wee bit more and move him from his toddler bed into a bigger bed and by bigger I mean we put him into a full bed! He loves it and got to pick out sheets at Target. He went with the Avengers so he now rests with Thor, Captain America, Hulk and Iron Man, not too bad for a 3 1/2 year old! The first night I went in after he was asleep to peek on him an oh my did he look so small in that big bed but he is loving it and it has made his room look much more spacious. So now he can get on with playing Dr. Oliver and taking care of his fuzzy friends, maybe even he will learn to play upstairs on his own for more than two minutes before he desperately needs me for something, anything

waiting for lunch. (with a sweet before?!) 

watching the trucks. 

Love it: Apple Picking

Over the weekend we went on our first apple picking excursion of the year. We went to a favourtite spot in Stow, MA called Honey Pot Hill Orchard. They have vast orchards and if you walk a bit deeper than the other people, suddenly you have an entire beautiful row of apple trees all to yourself. The other main reason for going to Honey Pot Hill are the doughnuts! Oh my goodness, they are amazing! And if you are lucky when you get your 1/2 dozen (yup, 1/2 dozen is the smallest order) you will squeal with delight to find that they are warm! So continue reading for a mass of photos of use galavanting through the orchard!

Friday.

Today is a warm, early fall day and after I took Oliver to school this morning I got the day off. And I'm not talking a few hours before I had to go pick up the bug, I mean the whole day! Matt picked Oliver up from school and I got to go out and run some errands, treat myself to a tasty lunch at Sweet Green. And currently I am lounging in the sunshine at Wellesley College until I get to meet up with one of my dearest friends, Liz for dinner! Booyah Friday! I certainly hope everyone else's weekend starts out as glorious as mine. 






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this year Mondays are my day with Oliver. So this week we struck out to the main library in Cambridge and walked by plenty of doe eyed freshman en route to their morning classes. It was a beautiful day so we took our time ambling along the storied Harvard paths chatting and searching for all of the "red" items that we could spot as we walked.

Once at the library we were greeted by familiar faces, the librarians who work at the main library are amazing and asked Oliver all about his summer. Even though we had to bail on the sing a long due to some cranky factor it was such a beautiful day that we continued on to get lunch in Harvard Sq. at Oliver's choice, Shake Shack. After our bellies were full we took the train home. Oliver has been a bundle of emotions and even when the days are full of really tough moments,  I love that I can look back through the silly pictures I snapped on our adventures and smile.  

watching the world go by in the "treehouse" children's section of the library.

loves the train and he was a bit disappointed that we were only taking it one stop.

pretending to drive the Mexico?! Sometimes I wish I could crawl inside of his brain to see where these schemes and ideas come to fruition. 

reading books after school while ignoring my pleas to pack up his lunch box.




Michigan redux 2014

Here is a large chunk of pictures from our time in Michigan. I cannot really put into words how special this place is to me and it truly makes my heart sing that both Oliver and Matt have embraced the shores of Lake Michigan as much as I have. It is one of the highlights of our summer and we look forward to our excursion out to the Midwest every summer. The Little Cottage has been in my family for centuries and I hope to continue to eat ice cream, enjoy sunsets, cook simple dinners, and swim in the lake until I am old and grey just like my grandparents did.  

First day of school: 2014

here we go! another year of preschool for my boy. he is in the green room this year and I do believe he would have walked himself to school if we let him! i love that he is so happy at his school and it makes is so much easier to walk away knowing that he is having a ton of fun with buddies. I cannot get over how big he has gotten and overall we had a fabulous summer filled with trips and time at the beach and lots of sunshine. 

such a hambone.

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the lake was high and the weather was touch and go and so foggy on some occasions that it felt more like San Francisco than Michigan but we still swam a lot and even though we did not have the stunning sunsets that we have come to expect the crickets and crashing waves kept us company at night.

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a bit blurry and I swear they were all having a wonderful time! one of my closest college roommates, Liz who now resides outside of Detroit drove with her two wonderful kiddos, Ainslie and Declan to play and eat popsicles and splash in the water and generally run around with Oliver like the three crazy kiddos that I love. It was so wonderful to see them and my gosh do I wish that we lived closer. 

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early morning chats and playing before breakfast and beach...that is pretty much the routine at the Cottage. tough life, I know. 

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breezy and brisk mornings at the Little Cottage. 
After a long hiatus to the lovely shores of Lake Michigan. We are back, well we have been home for about 10 days now but we are slowly getting back into the swing of things and soaking in some rather hot days before Oliver heads off to his first day of preschool for the year! so these first few posts are just playing catch up with the fabulous 52 project.

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