Boston and Northampton

From NYC, we packed up the family truckster and headed to Boston. Seth went to school in Boston and has wanted to take me there and show me around his old stomping grounds. So, we pinned that city too when we planned the trip. And it was a short and merciful drive from NYC. At this point, the boys were overstimulated, underslept and surly. As was their mother.

All my boys in front of Kirkland House at Harvard. Don't the kids looked thrilled? This is how they looked the entire time we were in Boston. It was only the very public nature of touring that kept me from knocking their heads together and giving them each a "Free to a Good Home" sign. Geez.

In the courtyard of Kirkland House. Seth and I decided this was more of a fact-finding vacation--deciding where to go should we ever get the chance to vacation without small children hanging off our limbs and sucking all the good cheer from our bones.

This is the tower at Lowell House (supposedly). It's also possibly the tower at Quincy House. My husband is unsure now and bristling at me to look it up. I will not. This is some tower in Cambridge. So there.

This is Harry. We are waiting outside J.P. Licks for Brice & Seth to get us ice cream. We broke every parenting rule on this vacation--deny them sleep, let them OD on dvds, and give them sugar at any inappropriate time. Here we are having ice cream before we take them to a small Thai restaurant and feed them food we know they will hate. They will then whine and make a scene and we will sneer at them and start discussing boarding school options (people--we are not bad parents. Not all the time. We love our kids. Really. )

This is Seth, finally having a lobster roll in Quincy Market. The kids are next to him eating bagels. I am taking this picture while holding a glass of white wine (my lunch) in my other hand. Poor Seth loves seafood and I hate it. Really hate it. It drives him crazy. He is very inflexible about flexibility and it kills him that I don't like shrimp or lobster or anything tasting of the sea.

Harry and Brice (but mostly Brice) decorating Harry's cupcakes. Harry turned 4 while we were in Northampton with Uncle Tim, Aunt Debbie and the cousins. 

Harry got a Thomas the Train! He really really loves trains. It's so sweet. Brice doesn't really play with anything unless he's actively learning (seriously, even as a baby, he had no interest in toys and needed constant engagement from me. I'm still tired from those days). I also got Harry the coolest doodling book, hoping to awaken some artistic interest--sadly no.

This is the whole gang after having chinese food in Northampton. The family took us here so they could all hear Seth speak Mandarin. He happily obliged and entertained us all. 

This is Brice posing with a bear in Easthampton. I think it was like the cow thing that Chicago did years ago. Remember? 

Happy Birthday Harry! You're four!! You delight us and astound us and we can't imagine life with you!!