What a cutie!

On Thursday night, as we were packing our things for an overnight in Amherst on Friday, Caden crawled into Mama’s suitcase, looked at himself in the mirror, and announced, “What a cutie!” We couldn’t agree more.

Spring has arrived in New England, with trees flowering, daffodils blooming, and warmer weather enticing us outside. Last weekend, we went for our first hike in Lynn Woods—the 2nd largest city park in the country—which is a 20-minute drive from our house. The trail meandered along the shore of a reservoir, and we stopped at a small picnic area for snacks by the water. We had so much fun eating and playing outside that we walked down to the beach for a picnic the following day. Caden had lots of fun playing with his new sand toys and watching the doggies splash in the ocean.

Mama and Dada also spent a fun morning at Caden’s school, doing a tidepool show-and-tell. We brought in lots of friendly animals—seastars, crabs, urchins, and even a moon snail—and seaweeds for the toddlers and preschoolers to touch. We even taught the preschool kids to make algal presses!

On Friday, we ventured to western Massachusetts, where Dada gave a seminar at UMass Amherst. Mama and Caden had fun exploring the town while Dada was on campus. The following day, we had a yummy breakfast at a café in Amherst, then, while walking across the green to check out some shops, realized that they were giving bucket (cherry picker) rides to kids in celebration of Arbor Day. Caden loves cranes, so we talked the operator into giving Dada and Caden a ride. Yay! After a bit of shopping, we went to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, which is just outside Amherst. Eric Carle’s books are some of Caden’s favorites, and he really enjoyed seeing the brightly colored pictures, playing with the toys in the lobby, and playing and reading books in the library.

Today, we ventured into Boston, where a boutique selling some of Mama’s crafts was having a grand opening celebration. Caden got to ride on the blue train, the bus, and the green street tram to get to Newbury Street! We checked out the swan boats at the public gardens, then stopped at a fun playground and a tasty lunch spot before going to the shop opening.

A moon snail introduction

On the lakeshore in Lynn Woods

Happy Spring!