Snippets from Falmouth & the Canal

The Falmouth Road Race.

Rich ran Falmouth again this year.  Someone decided that the race should begin an hour earlier, which meant that we had to leave the house an hour earlier, which meant that we had to wake up the kids in order to leave on time, which meant that someone (or two) may have been a bit grumpy.  Rich started rallying the troops around 6:15, which is about 45 minutes to an hour earlier than normal for Emily and Allie.  Anna is our early bird so she wasn't too fazed.  But man, those kids were grumpy.  That was probably the toughest day I've had with them in a long time.  I felt defeated by 9:00 that morning - it was that rough.

Thankfully, I had Grammy along so logistically speaking, things were easier than if I had been alone.  For example, I didn't have to drag three kids into the bathroom with me.  After we dropped Rich off at the bus line, we headed over to the public restrooms in Falmouth Center and then to Dunkin Donuts to pick up breakfast.  Then we set up camp along the race route.



With Grammy there, I was able to bring Anna back to the van to cath her.  When we returned, Allie was in a naughty mood and I lost it within two minutes.  I finally brought her back to the van with me to get the forgotten cow bells.  I sometimes find that removing her from the situation helps.  And it did, except that she started crying, saying that I was mad at her and didn't like her.  That's their new thing now - if I'm mad, it must mean that I don't like them.  So we had the whole conversation again about how I love her no matter what, even when I'm mad, and then I said, "Let's just forget it ever happened, okay?  We'll start fresh."  She was happy with that.  Later, she overheard me telling Rich what had happened and she called out, "Hey, I thought you said we were going to pretend it never happened."







Allie moved her chair back because the runners were smelly.  I'm surprised she's smiling here.  I must have heard "When can we go?" 56 times before Rich ran by us.



That's Emily after touching Daddy's sweaty running hat.

So after we saw Rich, Grammy and I packed up camp and brought the girls to the playground in the center of town.  They were okay for awhile and thankfully, Rich showed up shortly after the grumpiness appeared yet again.  How can one be grumpy at a playground?  Apparently, Allie doesn't like when people swing.  Since when?







We wanted to stop somewhere for lunch but knew that loitering around Falmouth would most likely mean sitting in more traffic later so we headed over the bridge, back to the mainland and stopped at a seafood shack place for take-out, which we brought across the street to a picnic area next to the Canal.  The girls actually enjoyed walking along the bike path, taking in the sights.  Anna even stated that she wanted to walk to the end.











One of my favorites...