Mothers day is getting confusing.  When I went to pick out cards I wasn’t sure how Gaga factored in, whether she was to receive a card from Sarah and myself or one from the grandkids as well.  Hallmark of course had cards from the grandkid, but none from the grandkids as there is little market for such people as they don’t have time to go buy cards.  I am not sure what I ended up doing but Phoebe and Ellie got a nice present for their mom.   The weather was fantastic and I took the kids out to watch the road race in the morning.  We got to see a bunch of races because they have a kid race, a toddler race, and a regular 5K and all of them run by the house twice in what is the most convoluted route ever designed.  During the previous year the kids race was badly marked and the leader went the wrong way and they ended up doing double the distance.  This year there was a rabbit leading them with a flag and plenty of gates and cones.  The toddler race was great as there was very little straight line running.  The kids really enjoyed it with the exception of a young girl way in the back who was running with a very fit mom who happened to have her right lower leg in a hard cast.  The mom was determined not to be last and the little girl did not seem to have quite the drive that her gimping mom did.   After the race Puppa and Gaga showed up after spending 40 minutes stuck in Sagamore construction and we toured the boat, opened gifts, and had pancakes.  After lunch we walked to the boatyard and played on the docks and then went to the lighthouse.  I don’t think the weather could have been any nicer.  Above:  Puppa is more or less reproducing how I’ll have to drive the boat this summer.  Going to be very interesting.  I might as well start drinking now.  Below:  Ellie is too busy with her crumbles to notice that nobody pays any attention to her.  Or, she is plotting revenge. Above: Somehow Puppa always ends up holding Ellie.  It might be a second child sympathy thing.  Luckily she held back tears for the most part.  Below:  Gaga with the girls. Below:  I am not sure what Puppa is discussing with Phoebe but there is a 99.76% chance that the main topic is boats. 

Ellie’s hair was back to its old self this morning.  It is a weird mix of dark and long original hair from birth and light colored hair that has since grown in.  Her main concern isn’t hair though, it is eating.  She can sit in that chair and pretty much eat all day.  That makes for reasonable preparation for a job like mine.

It is some kind of rite of passage that children have tea parties.  I find this interesting because that means there is a roughly 80 year lull before which they might find themselves in the midst of a another tea party trying to remember exactly what they were supposed to do. Phoebe’s tea parties are a little bit more modern as she drinks from bowls (soon to be hip) to save time and warms her tea in the microwave.  At some point near the 2:50 mark Phoebe catches a glimpse of herself on the iphone screen (I was using the front facing camera) and her demeanor changes completely.  She definitely enjoys being on film.   The video is rather long so if you get bored, please view this gem from youtube.

We finally got to spend some time on the boat today.  Phoebe went up and down the companionway ladder about 232 times and only smashed her head on the steering wheel about seven times.  We tried to have lunch on the boat but she was distracted and the only result was that we had crushed blueberries all over the cabin sole.  Phoebe was also distracted at dinner.  After singing some “baa baa black sheep” she seemed to rally which I was very pleased about because I was looking forward to walking to the Creamery to get some ice cream.  However, the momentum was brought to a halt when Ellie reached over and grabbed Phoebe by the hair.  We finally made it out for ice cream and I ordered Phoebe chocolate and got myself oreo and after an extended comparison test during which I realized she had eaten much of both cups she settled on the oreo.   Soon the “summer rush” will be here and that will mean no more trips to the Creamery.  The rush is mostly a joke in Mattapoisett.  Actually it is entirely a joke with the exception of the Creamery on sundays.  It is mobbed.