Raising Maine

Fairy leaping, fried Oreos and hopes for the Dogs

We have some friends visiting from out of town and since they read my blog, they had a few requests, including a trip to Mackworth Island to build fairy houses. So yesterday we visited the island and thoroughly enjoyed the picture perfect hiking weather.

The comment of the day was, "Wow, this fairy village is much bigger than I realized." Yeah, my camera has never really caught the size or many interesting details of the village. And in case you were wondering if the kids enjoyed themselves, I think this picture says it all.

Today we headed to the Topsham Fair since it was one-ticket ride day. The kids also wanted to see their projects in the exhibit hall. They were pleased with their ribbon placements but much more eager to go on the rides and get some fried dough and french fries. And the adults in our group were just as eager to eat our way through the fair.

Our usual treats were tasty but we felt the need to expand our horizons and try our first deep fried Twinkee and Oreos. You know, we don't like enough greasy, heart-clogging food already.

The Oreos were the hands-down favorite. The Twinkees' cream melted into the cake and the chocolate and whipped cream was just over the top for us.

The fried Twinkees were served with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. They really know how to add caloric intake with these.

We decided to play our Seen Team role and took lots of photos around the fairgrounds.

Tomorrow we're headed to the Sea Dogs game and we're really hoping they break
their losing streak.

Fun on Mackworth

Yesterday it was such a nice day that we decided we had to go hiking. We chose Mackworth Island because it had a short trail and we didn't have a lot of daylight left.

While on the trail, we discovered a couple of new things that we hadn't noticed during our hikes there last summer.

The kids enjoyed the crushed stone maze.

The swinging bench was fun too.

G. likes to stop at the pet cemetery so she can read the stone markers there. She's our animal-lover so we took a few minutes to make the stop.

Then we arrived at the fairy village and walked around to admire all the houses before we set out to make our own. And I warned L. that we would not be planning any elaborate houses since she's notorious for getting carried away with her construction plans.

We all really liked this one.

After about 20 minutes in the village, I told the girls it was time to head home. And true to form, L. balked. She said she wasn't "quite done" with her second fairy house. But since we didn't have any time to spare, I told her we'd come back again soon.

We're headed to NYC for the holiday weekend and I'm sure it will be an interesting urban adventure for us. I'll be back online next week.

Fairy Houses on Mackworth Island

It's all about fairy houses at our house.

Read more about our adventure on Mackworth Island building fairy houses.

Update 8/16/07

Fairy Village on Mackworth Island

A little white lie

We met up with some friends yesterday afternoon at Old Orchard Beach. The day was sunny but temperatures were a little cool for swimming. That didn't stop the kids from getting into their bathing suits and jumping in the water. Clearly the kids are products of their Maine upbringing when frolicking in 55 degree water is fun.

As with all our beach trips, the kids collect shells. L. always seems to have a fairy house construction project going in our backyard and needs shells. Old Orchard had plenty of shells as well as a couple of other random items. The large, very human-like bone G. found was creepy. That didn't make it into the bag - I buried that in the sand when the kids weren't looking. But the broken pocketbook handle was re-found and brought home. What they plan to do with that I have no idea.

After examining the finds on the kitchen table last night, G. noticed the bone was missing. Oops, I said, it must have fallen out.

We all need our little white lies.....