New England Mamas

After School Activities

My older son (OS) turned 5 at the beginning of this month.  However, here the cutoff is September 1 meaning he is in pre-kindergarten this year instead of kindergarten.  Before you start to tell me that it's really such a shame or perhaps I should consider private kindergarten, let me say that we think it's great.  I was thrilled not to have to make the decision as to whether to hold him back.  Honestly I do think it's for the best.  After all, everyone in my family including myself just missed the cutoff too. 

This means though that OS is old enough to do some after school activities that are normally reserved for kindergartners.  One of them is Tae Kwon Do.  The studio that we selected requires kids to be 5.   When we went for the first class, I wasn't sure what to expect much less what to tell OS.   I ended up very pleased.  First of all, unlike some of the other activities OS has done like swim lessons, (and this is being said as a former swim instructor), the kids are moving the entire time.  In swimming, the kids have their turn and then wait at the wall.  In OS's class, they ran around the room darting through cones.  When they reached the instructor they did their kick.  After doing that for a while, they would move onto another activity where the kids would move around even more.  OS was sweaty by the end.  I was also pleased that we don't have to commit to a particular day.  We pay per week and then can just show up at any of the times his level is offered.  I've been told constant activitity and flexible scheduling are common with martial arts.

Both OS and I have been happy with his experience with Tae Kwon Do so far.  Of course that did lead me to a new parenting dilemna:  how do my husband and I manage to make dinner when his level meets right around dinner time?  I guess it's time to pull the crock pot back out so we don't have to do what I did last week:  order a pizza from the studio to pick up on the way home!  I overheard another mom doing it.   

Speaking of time management and organizing activities, I am looking for bloggers to do reviews for a company called Jooners on my personal blog Formula Fed and Flexible Parenting.  I have opportunties for both bloggers and readers to win prizes. 

A Good Beach for Little Kids

Almost exactly five years, my playgroup decided to go on a beach outing.  I was a little nervous because my older son was just about to turn a year and I was picturing an ocean with roaring waves. Sure pre-kids that would have sounded like a blast, but  chasing after a baby near roaring waves just didn't sound like a relaxing day at the beach.   I was reassured that we were going to a kid friendly beach, and sure enough it was.  It was at Hopkinton State Park. 

No, this isn't the beach that you would want to go to if you didn't have little kids.  In fact, if your kids are in elementary school they would probably be bored with it.  However, for little tykes it's great.  There are two beaches, the Main beach and the Upper beach.  We always go straight to the Upper beach because it tends to not be very crowded.  There are bathrooms up there, picnic tables, grills and plenty of parking, not to mention the ice cream truck.  In fact yesterday there was an ice cream truck and a guy with an ice cream cart.  Talk about options!  What could be better? 

Beyond the amenities, I like it because it is a very calm lake.  The water is pretty shallow, so my five year old was able to wade out into the lake.  Also, because the water is shallow it was fairly warm.  During the beach season they have lifeguards too.  Plus it's only $5 per car, if your library doesn't have a state park pass that will cover it.  There were signs for boat rentals, and we saw plenty of people fishing in non-swimming areas.

The one trick is that apparently only the entrance to the park is in Hopkinton.  According to the police officer whom our older son grilled at length about his job, most of the rest of the park is actually in Ashland.

New England Triathlons

I'm finishing up my triathlon season.  After the first year of triathlons, I will no longer be considered a newbie.  In what has been almost a year of training, I've noticed a couple of things.  First, I get a fair amount of hits on my blog each week from people searching for triathlons and second, you really don't have to be a super buff person to do them.  Seriously, people of all shapes and sizes participate.

Just like triathletes come in all shapes and sizes, so do triathlons.  I have found each of my triathlons to be better than the last.  However, if you're looking for a really good New England triathlon for newbies, I would recommend Max Performance, Title 9 Women's  Triathlon in Hopkinton State Park. 

Ever since signing up, I've received several outstanding informational emails and offers from the company.  I was invited to a free open water swim workshop, and an escorted "tour" of the full triathlon course.  They also have a hotline for newbies if I have any questions, and they offer to partner each newbie with a veteran triathlete buddy to answer any questions and provide support and guidance. The best thing that I got was an email with a 15 page brochure explaining exactly what would happen on triathlon day and the order of events.  I emailed it to my husband and parents who will be attending the triathlon so they could see exactly how it worked.  It is probably more useful for my parents, since they have never been to a triathlon before.  My husband considers himself a veteran and likes to brag that he and the boys always  get to the finish line before me.  Of course, they don't swim, bike, or run; they walk right to the finish line and stay in the audience.  The brochure suggests that Max Performance has planned the triathlon as thoroughly as they did the preparation.  They have an "Inspiration Station" where your friends and family can make posters and signs to cheer you on, and they give each triathlete a free cow bell to add sound to the signs of those cheering.  Perhaps more impressively, this is apparently typical of all of their triathlons.  I wish I had known about this for my first few triathlons.

No, I don't work for Max Performance and I'm not getting anything for doing this post.  I know there are some New England Mama contributers who do triathlons, so I thought I would just pass this info along to them.  Did I mention you get a cowbell? 

A New England Transplant

I've always had a hard time answering the question "Where are you from?"  To clarify, I don't have any trouble when talking to other parents in my child's preschool class where the correct answer is my current hometown.  When I am on vacation, I am torn between being honest and admitting to being from "a galaxy far, far away," saying I am from where I grew up, Chicago, or describing where I now live in New England.  At what point do you become "from" the state that's different from where you grew up?  Is it when you've lived in that state for longer than you lived in your original home state? 

When I first moved to MA, I used to dress nicely while running errands because I knew no one and in some weird subconscious way I think I wanted to make a good impression.  You never know who's going to turn around in a grocery store and invite you to a family BBQ.  Alright, that might be a little creepy, and for the record it never happened.  After a while, particularly once I became a mom, I no longer cared if my hair needed to be brushed when I went to the grocery store.  I just went as I was.  Then I began to notice a surprising correlation between the amount of spit-up on my shirt and the likelihood that that I would encounter someone I knew.

Because I was meeting a friend today, I was actually dressed somewhat nicely when I went to drop my son off at camp.  It was the first day of the session.  I didn't think I knew anyone who was sending their kids to this camp.  I was therefore surprised to find that I knew half the parents from a number of different groups and activities.  So again, when I am officially from MA? 

Secret Spaces: Flour Bakery

Earlier this year, my kids and I went with a friend of mine and her kids to the Boston Children's Museum.  As we were walking back to the parking lot after a fun day, my friend excitedly pointed to  something down the street.  I followed her finger to see what was so important.  Nothing appeared out of the ordinary.   In fact, the street was empty.   "No, look!" she emphasized.  "It's that bakery!" 

It turns out she was pointing to Flour Bakery which is located directly across from the parking lot of the Children's Museum.   The owner of Flour bakery, Joanne, competed with Bobby Flay to see who had the best tasting sticky buns.  My friend saw it on Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Network.  Here's the really interesting part and the reason it's my secret space:  Joanne is not trained the way you would expect of most bakers.  She is actually a math genius with a degree from Harvard.  My friend told me that Joanne developed a mathematical formula not just for a good sticky bun, but for the best tasting sticky buns...and she won.  How cool is that?   You can learn more about the story from the website.

Unfortunately, Flour was closed by the time we left.  However, we went again a few weeks ago.  On the advice of someone, we went to Flour bakery before we went to the museum because apparently the sticky buns go fast.  We picked out our treats and had them boxed to go.  The kids played in the museum until lunch time.  Then we were able to enjoy a nice outdoor lunch at the museum complete with some fabulous sticky buns.   It was an extra special twist to an already fun day. 

Would You Tell Me?

I was never great at relating to friends with bad boyfriends in high school and college.  The friend would inevitably ask me what I thought of her boyfriend after he did something like, let's just say for a random example,  forget to call her on her birthday because he was looking at porn on the internet all evening.  Sure that type of thing happens all the time.  Well at least for that friend it happened once.  I would answer her honestly.  I tended to be pretty blunt, but my insights suggested that "He's not a winner." When they inevitably got back together and the friend shared my actual words with the boyfriend, he would insist that she end her friendship with me. After losing a couple friendships the same way (well almost the same way, since internet porn was only a factor once), I decided that neither honesty nor spending a lot of time  with friends with creepy significant others is the best policy.  Maybe it would just be better to not say anything at all or to say something like "What I think doesn't matter. It's what you think."  Then I would silently mutter "I can't believe you are still considering dating him."  Fortunately I haven't been in this situation since college.

A couple of years ago I went out to the Cheesecake Factory with my moms group.  I was a fairly new member.  While we were there, several members recognized another member's husband who was there with another woman.  Her husband was supposed to be living in another state.  He had just been transferred there, and his wife was getting the house together to put it on the market.  People were debating whether or not they should say something to this member.  No one believed it was innocent, but accusations of infidelity aren't something to just throw around.  Fortunately, I didn't know any of the people involved, which was quite a relief.

On Thursday I will be attending BlogHer in San Francisco.  (I pause to let that sink in...I can't wait.)  I've been talking about it for a while, so all of my local friends know that I'll be across the country.  Coincidentally, a female friend of my husband's from high school will be in MA for the weekend and will pay a visit.  I consider her a friend as well, and I am certainly OK with the visit, but I haven't mentioned it to anyone else (except those of you who read this blog.) because I just keep forgetting.  I'm curious as to whether any of my friends will run into them.  If they do, I wonder what they will think and whether they will tell me about it.

If you saw your friend's husband out with another woman, would you say anything?

Cross posted at Formula Fed and Flexible Parenting

If It's Free It Might Mean That It Costs Time

My older son is almost 5 years old.  During every summer since his birth, I have heard about the free movies that Regal Cinemas offers for kids.  Basically they're offered twice a week at 10 am (at least out here) and the movies rotate.  Sometimes the movies have been released within the year, and sometimes they're older movies like Clifford the Big Red Dog or Veggie Tales. 

I've been interested in going, but I honestly didn't understand exactly how it worked.  I also wasn't sure if my kids were even old enough to enjoy going.  Some people told me that the kids had to fulfill obligations such as writing a book report to be able to see the free movie.   My guess is that the requirements depend on the movie theater. 

Yesterday morning a friend of mine called me up and asked if the boys and I would like to join her and her sons at the showing of The Bee Movie.  It was  hot and humid, and the thought of central AC was quite appealing.   We met my friend at the theater right after my older son's swim lesson.  Fortunately she had gotten there ahead of time, because she got us the last tickets.  The theater was so crowded that there weren't enough seats in the movie theater.  Apparently 4 vans worth of campers from a particular camp got tickets ahead of time which I honestly think is a good idea for a camp.  However, it was not so helpful to those of us who are not part of the camp.  I'm thinking that there was a miscount of tickets because we had to sit on the steps of the theater.  I believe that this is against the fire code.  I would have turned around and gone home, but we had already bought popcorn for the kids to share and told them that they were going to see the movie. 

Fortunately for us, something drove people to begin leaving the theater early.  I suspect it was either the length of the movie or the fact that the crowd overtaxed the AC.  Regardless, my friend and I were able to snatch nearby seats and enjoy the second half of the movie.  For the record, the kids all really enjoyed the whole movie. 

My advice is to go early.  That way you'll not only get tickets, but hopefully a seat as well. 

The Webster Triathlon Course

What a week!  I realize that I'm posting this a little later today than I normally do.  It's been a crazy week starting with a triathlon I did on Sunday.  I thought I would write about it because it's the same course being used for the Danskin Women's Triathlon next month in Webster MA or so I've been told.  Definitely check it out on-line for yourself though!  It's a pretty big deal out here in New England, and I know a couple of New England Mamas who plan on being in the race.  I won't name names just in case you've changed your mind, though! 

Honestly, I had been pretty worried about this course.  I take that back.  I had been specifically worried about one part of the course:  the biking.  It seems like people who didn't even know what sports are in a triathlon knew one thing about the Webster triathlon:  the hill in the biking.  I kept hearing about the dread hill.  It sounded like cycling up this hill should be a sport of its own.  I was so nervous about this hill that my hands were shaking the night before the triathlon when I was pumping my tires and I let out all of my pride and self-confidence the air in my front tire.  There  may be some rumors that I then freaked out because I thought I had a flat.  I have no idea what that was all about, and since my husband was out of town for most of this week, he is also not in a position to confirm the rumor even if it were true.

Back to this hill, I am breaking from the pack, as it were, and writing this post to tell you not to worry about it.  Really, it was not that bad. I was picturing something like Mt. Everest so honestly I didn't even know I had gone over it.  When I looked back (figuratively) I know which hill it must have been, but at the time I didn't think it was The hill.   Good luck and have a great time.  It really is a fun course and I loved the swimming part. 

Biking Up a Wall

For a while now I've been hearing how scary the bike course is for the triathlon I'm doing on Sunday.  For all you New Englanders, this is the Webster course aka the course used for the Danskin women's triathlon in MA.   I have to admit, I've been getting a little nervous about it. In spinning, the instructor had us similate this course since she's done it herself quite a few times. I wasn't thrilled about it by any means, but then again it did seem doable. However, in spinning class, each person sets the resistance of their own bike (there are no numbers are anything to mark how much you have added) and I worried that perhaps the "hill" that I created by tightening the resistance was more of a bump.

Because time has been flying faster than I can pedal, I just haven't had time to go practice this course. After yet another conversation about the hill with another veteran of the course, I came to one conclusion: it must be like riding a bike up a wall. I needed to go see the course for myself. As I told my husband, I wasn't worried about getting hurt; I was worried about hurting my pride when I fell off my back at .1 mile an hour because of the steepness of the hill and my clipless pedals.

This evening all both boys, my husband and I piled into the car and went to look at the course. So it's not as bad as a wall, but it definitely is steep. Plus it's on a busy road. I've been told it will be like the other triathlon and they will have the police there to manage traffic. The only thing scarier to me than stopping is going downhill on a busy road with a traffic light.

Hot but Friendly Days of Spring?

Yes, I know.  Who hasn't complained about the weather?  It's been incredibly hot, and it's not even officially summer yet.  I happen to know that because my younger son is a summer solstice baby meaning he was born on June 21 which is the first day of summer. 

We did our best this weekend not to let the heat get the best of us.  My older son had a birthday party at the Southwick Zoo, so he and my husband spent a good portion of the afternoon walking around the zoo.  I had my college reunion, so my younger son and I spent the entire day outside.  Fortunately we also got to swim in the lake. 

Today though, I had just had it.  We have window ACs which are nice, but not as good as central AC.  It was still hot, and the last thing I felt like doing was turning on the oven.  Plus it's that time of the month.  I decided we could go to Friendly's as a special treat.  My husband seemed to like that plan as well.  A nice cool restaurant along with a meal I wasn't responsible for and that neither my husband nor I had to clean up afterwards.  Plus we could get ice cream. 

Unfortunately, when we got inside Friendly's it was really hot in there.  It turns out that the AC was broken.  There was also a ten minute wait to get a table.   The new last thing I wanted to do (even compared to turning on the oven in my house) was wait in a hot restaurant to get a table so I could spend the next hour sweating over my meal.  I could do that at home for free!  Fortunately, Friendly's are almost as ubiquitiouis as Dunkin Donuts and so we went to another one.  Not the one on the same side of Route 9 that is 15 minutes away, but the one on the other side of Route 9 that is 10 minutes away.  I think a lot of people must have had the same idea about eating out in a nice, cool place.  The restaurant was definitely packed.  Packed, but cool though.   My ice cream was fabulous.