Kids Chowing Down on the Garden's Goods

Fazal and his Corn - this first one is one of my all-time favorite photos of him. It shows total satisfaction...

Tesina and her tomato

(This is Fazal's bike - b'day present from kuka and nana)

A Beautiful Sweater

A big thank you to Christina's cousin Caryl, who knit this Beautiful sweater for Tesina. I promised to show you photos of her in it (since she was asleep when you saw her!) and here they are. There are already some evenings that are cool enough for her to wear it. Also, the letter you sent explaining the meaning of the name you both share is invaluable, and she will cherish it, I'm sure, when she gets older.

Next stop: The North End, aka. Little Italy, where I lived for one year after graduating from high school and doing City Year. It is a fun little neighborhood with a LOT of personality. It is even better now because they've torn down the highway and replaced it with green space and places to sit and water fountains. Big improvement. Anyway, it was the day before Fazal's 2nd birthday, so we let him pick out a dessert at an Italian bakery, one with berries on top (which could fool you into thinking it was a healthy choice) but which turned out to be in a chocolate bowl filled with creamy filling. After a long day being dragged from one end of the city to another, Fazal was on cloud 9. Can you tell?

The restaurant I worked at that year. I lived across the street from it. The street has changed a little bit, but not this place. If I've never told you stories from that time, come and sit sometime...

We were all happy to sit for a while.

Next Stop: the so-called Frog Pond on the Boston Common. Boston is just the best city in the world in the summertime. I can't speak so positively about it in the wintertime, but June through September, it can't be beat. The park (which is huge if you've never been there) has a pool area in the middle - it is an ice skating rink in the winter and a wading pool in the summer. It was perfect for us and we'd brought Fazal's swim shorts along, so on that hot, sunny day, it was perfect place to rest for a while and cool down.

Can you see Jafred and Fazal in the middle by the fountain?

Our Weekend Adventures

First stop: the Boston Duck Tours. I had been wanting to go on this tourist attraction for 10 (!) years and finally had my opportunity. It is a humorous tour to important sites around Boston, riding in a WWII amphibious supply vehicle, so the excitement is that the tour is given in the water as well as on land. Our "con-duck-tor" drove the vehicle around the streets of the city first, telling us all kinds of history, and then drove right into the Charles River and it becomes a boat for about 30 minutes, and then drives out of the river and back on the streets. Very cool. Fazal agreed it was pretty neat and now says "Big! Boat!" wherever we go.

We learned that Boston is a city of firsts in the whole USA: the first public school, the first public library, the first American chocolate company (you see what stands out in my mind), the street where Benjamin Franklin was born, the longest continually operating hotel, the oldest churches, and much more, plus more modern sites like the sites where many movies and tv shows have been filmed, etc. The con-duck-tor especially had fun telling us about the Puritans, and as someone born in Massachusetts, it was really interesting. Fazal would have thought it was even more fun if we'd let him jump overboard into the river, but that didn't happen.

Thanks, Lydia

You knew exactly what this 2 Year old boy would want for his birthday! He walked around with them like this, arms outsrteched for an hour or two. (Then they went back on the paper to be used again).

More photos from our long weekend that took us to Boston, Providence, and Goose Rocks Beach, later!