Mike's Birthday

We did something fun and different as part of Mike's birthday weekend - a drive through safari by six flags! It was even better than I would have expected! The kids and adults loved seeing all the animals. It was a full 1.5 hour drive through, so we felt like it was well worth it! Fun to see African, some Asian, and even Australian animals there.

Here is our gourmet parfait for Mike's breakfast in bed. Terhune granola. Fresh berries. Coconut milk yogurt from Brick Farm. And mint from our garden.

The muffins have quite the story.
I first made our favorite morning glory muffins for Mike's healthy birthday dessert. I actually made a triple batch, so we had muffins coming out our ears. But, they had a weird after taste. We chatted about it, and then looked at our ingredients. Turns out, the little bit of coconut oil I had added was actually...GARLIC coconut oil!!! So, those were a no go.

Then I thought I'd make no-sugar blueberry muffins for our no-sugar Dad using our Terhune blueberries. The batter tasted great, but when they were baked up, they didn't have much flavor.
Sigh.
At least I tried!

Just a few, little prezzies for the birthday boy.
Then we had the Bahrs and Bagleys over for a birthday barbecue and fireworks in the evening. It was a fun night!

Getting out just slightly

Lewis and David are often crafting or building buddies. They had fun making some masks together and putting on a little show.

We went blueberry picking at Terhune and brought home a ton of beautiful, delicious blueberries!

I took David and Beau out for haircuts. David struggled a bit with wearing a mask that got hair in it, but he made it!

Trip to Nantucket

After RI, we got to visit Hilary in Nantucket! What a treat!
She just bought her house there during the winter, and we were her first guests. It is a beautiful home, and the boys felt really comfortable there as they, of course, love her.

David especially loved the ferry ride over.

Her home backs up onto a small nature preserve and the famous Nantucket Old Mill.

Gareth didn't mind sharing his Jeep and letting Mike drive the kids to the beach. They loved that! We went to Cisco beach the first evening and had some great waves and fun jumping off the dunes.

 The next day we rented bikes and rode out to Sconset. It was delightful!!! The kids loved biking, and it was so adorable out there.

The next morning, just our family walked into town from Hilary's house. Our goal was to find a birthday present for Hilary and enjoy exploring. Beau had the best ideas. He marched right into a local book shop and asked if they had any books on the history of Nantucket (something he knew Hilary wanted to learn about), and books on gardening in Nantucket. We found one of each, and bought them for her birthday. 

 That evening we went to the beach at Madaket and had a really fun time in the waves. Afterwards we ate outside at a great little restaurant nearby, and then celebrated with cake and presents for Hilary back at her house in the evening.

Even Mike got some boogie boarding in!

Beau was sometimes up for the water and sometimes not. He always made the most of it though and had a great frisbee game with Hilary.

 Here is the birthday celebration!

And one last, enjoyable trip on the ferry to go home.

David strapped his bear in on the little bus back to the car.

We ought to have gone straight home, but I had promised David as a bribe for riding a tandem bike with Mike rather than his own bike, that we would get him this shark lollipop holder he had been eyeing. We couldn't find one in Nantucket, so we went back to Little Compton to pick one up. On the way we stopped at a cute little general store in Westport for sandwiches, and then also went to Barrington for the Daily Scoop. A delightful end!