In September we celebrated J's 7th birthday!
She got to take a couple of friends to see the ballet Cinderella.
We didn't do much with the garden in September. It's pretty much an overgrown mess, save for some kale, mustard greens, sweet potatoes that are still growing, and the remnants of some watermelon vines. We haven't had as much time to clean it all up, so it's quite weedy. It's also still been very hot in Nashville - regularly above 90F°. I'm very much hoping for a cool-down in October. The heat means the grass still grows like crazy and the weeds still hide our worst enemy - chiggers.
We went to our first Mini-Maker Faire. Nashville's is a "mini" in that it's not as big as the ones you might see in Atlanta or NYC, but it was still great to see locals show off their handy-work. C was fascinated by all of the people dressed up as Star Wars characters. One woman was dressed a green Twi'lek and C went right up to her and asked, "Did you paint yourself green?"
"No," she replied with a straight face. "I was born this way."
C was still skeptical, "But I see some places on your neck that you missed."
"No," said the Twi'lek without missing a beat. "That's where I started to paint myself to look like you, but I ran out of paint."
C paused for a moment before letting out a little, "Oh." Then she moved on to the next booth.
J got to see a bunch of robots that were very proudly demonstrated by a 10 year old. He demonstrated Lego robots that stayed inside a line drawn on the table (it had little cameras), little cleaning robots (small motors attached to a toothbrush head and a larger cleaning brush so they appeared to walk across a flat surface). C was very captivated by a model of a Useless Box. She kept flicking the switch and watching the "little man" inside switch it back off, over and over until her eyes glazed over and I had to drag her to something different.
Once we start building kits together, I will definitely have to get her one of those.
We also went for a nice long bike ride at Edwin Warner Park. J rode the 4.5 miles on her own bike, the farthest she's done yet. She is determined to working up to a 10 mile ride so she can pedal herself for the next Tour De Nash. R and C rode in a trailer, but I can imagine that it won't be long before C will be pedaling herself, too.
Lastly, we took a week-long trip to Boston, from which I am writing this. The trip has been a blast. We got to visit with three different families in the area.
Our Lowell friends (whom we have known for almost two decades now!) visited the New England Aquarium with us. We followed it with an excellent lunch at Quincy Market.
There was some added excitement when a poor woman tripped on the cobblestones and smacked it pretty hard with her face. Our friend, Cassie, is a nurse, so she went into full-on "I'm helping this person" mode while we stood and helplessly gawped.
We also rode the train out to Lowell to visit them. Lowell is a really neat little town that seems to do some really great work promoting local businesses, artists, and craftsmen.
It was pretty cool to see our kids (approximately the same ages) hanging out, given that we all met each other when we were high school-aged.
We also drove up to Portland, ME to visit friends from our time in NYC. They have whole-heartedly embraced the farm lifestyle, with a multitude of plants and animals that the kids enjoyed seeing. James had just slaughtered and butchered a 300lb pig the day before, which I found fascinating. I've killed and butchered animals before, but nothing bigger than a deer or a goat. That's a lot of meat!
We also visited a family in Boston that used to live in Nashville. It was neat to hear about how they have embraced the city life and adapted to the colder winters. Nashville doesn't have much in the way of winter sports, but in Boston there is sledding, ice skating, and more. They also have beaches for the summer, which seems pretty nice.
When we drove out to Plimoth Plantation for the day, we did get to briefly enjoy one of those beaches.
It was too cold to swim, of course, but it was still nice being out on the water. It's a bit difficult to replicate that in a land-locked state.
I enjoyed the coastal nature of Boston. If we had more time, I would have liked to see more of the nearby islands. As it was, we had to content ourselves with the Charlestown Ferry.
We got to walk in Boston a lot - in good weather and bad. The kids were troopers, for the most part. Mark and Cassie lent us a stroller, which aided the adventures considerably.
All said, I think it was a fun week and I could definitely see us coming back to Boston.