Author: Nichole S.

Pick #1:  Motif No. 1 Day

Saturday, May 19th 9:00-5:00 throughout downtown Rockport

READ MORE HERE

The Motif No.1 Day Festival celebrates Rockport across the arts!

M1D honors the fishing shack, artist’s studio, and tourist attraction that started it all: an old building right on one of Rockport’s historic wharves, a building painted so often by artists at the turn of the last century that it was given the nickname Motif No.1.

Featuring film, poetry, dance, music, art-making activities, historical presentations and more, along with the Motif No.1 Day 5k and Fun Run, (organized by the Rockport Public Schools’ WELL team), M1D is a festival with something for everyone. M1D focuses on honoring Rockport’s heritage of the arts, along with showcasing the arts in today’s Rockport.

Pick #2:  Safe Boating Day at the Coast Guard Station

Pick #3:  Snakes Alive! Snake Hunt and Live Snake Show

Sunday, May 20th 1:00 – 3:00

Preregistration required:  REGISTER HERE

Member Adult: $15;
Member Child: $9;
Nonmember Adult: $25;
Nonmember Child: $15;

READ MORE HERE

An afternoon designed to make every herpetologist happy! We’ll start with a hunt for local snake species around the Crane Estate, looking under logs and around the stone walls that lace the property. Capture will be strictly catch and release! We’ll then make our way to the Barn where Rick Roth, founder and executive director of the Cape Ann Vernal Pond Team and local snake expert, will present “Snakes of New England and the World.” Rick cares for over 100 snakes of all different species — even if we don’t find any slithering friends on our hunt, there will be plenty of snakes to see and learn about during the show!

Pre-registration required. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

As always for a comprehensive list of family activities, please visit our friends at North Shore Kid

This looks like a great event to support an even greater cause.

May 20th 2:00-8:00, 6 bands, $10 at the door, Breakaway (the Old Village Green in Danvers).

We participated in Cape Ann’s Wreaths Across America event several months ago and it was a wonderful event.

Northshore Wreaths Across America is sponsoring Rock for Wreaths: Remember Heroes.

Heading out to the Dry Tortugas for a day of snorkeling and am struck by the pile of boat wreck debris from Hurricane Irma to one side and the gorgeous Sunset Key to the other.

”Off Island” this week with a group of great girlfriends enjoying some time in Key West.  I’m calling the trip “Key West or Bust, Happy Mother’s Day to us” and despite arriving last night at 7:30 and still not having any luggage we’re off to a fun start.  I should note that we are all flying home to be with our kids before actual Mother’s Day.

Thatch took this photo Saturday afternoon.  Not bad for a 10 year old. Makes me happy.

We had to turn around and capture this sunset before the opportunity was gone.  I love that Thatcher likes to capture “the right” shot almost as much as I do.

Responsible recycling for a good cause!  Saturday, May 5th from 8:00 am – Noon.

Time for some spring cleaning.  If you have any electronics cluttering your basement, garage, closets, or living room that you’d like to recycle responsibly, Harborlight Montessori up in Beverly is hosting a large electronics drive to help send their Middle School’s Destination Imagination team off to the Global Finals in Knoxville, Tennessee in May!

Congratulations to them for advancing to the finals and good luck raising funds while getting ready to compete at the University of Tennessee!

Read about the Middle School Destination Imagination team here

https://patch.com/massachusetts/beverly/harborlight-montessori-students-compete-global-finals-event

Harborlight is located at 243 Essex Street in Beverly….just about one mile off of Route 128 and Exit 18.

I so badly wanted to pull over and take several shots of this, but there were cars behind me and we were running late for Thatch to meet up with his group to walk in the Pride Stride.  Some days I have time, some days I don’t.

Pick #1:  Gloucester Pride Stride

Visit their website here for all information

The Directors of Gloucester Pride Stride are committed to the residents of Cape Ann to assist non-profits and community groups in their fundraising efforts.

All members of the community are invited to get involved by choosing and walking in support of a local non-profit or community/school group. Tax-deductible pledge donations are collected by each walker in advance of the walk using the pledge sheet or online giving system.

The 2 mile walk begins and ends at Gloucester’s iconic Stage Fort Park at noon on Sunday, April 29, 2018. Donation checks are then disbursed to all non-profits and groups at the Awards Party in June 2018 (exact date/location TBA).

In addition, Gloucester Pride Stride awards two annual scholarships, the Lynne “Lani” Vachon Memorial Scholarship and the Gloucester Pride Stride Scholarship to two individual Cape Ann graduating seniors.

Pick #2: Build a Lighthouse

An Essex Heritage event at NPS Visitor Center in Salem.

Essex Heritage invites visitors (ages 4+) to come and build their very own model lighthouse using every day materials! Special guest instructor and children’s book illustrator, Katy Bratun, will be leading this family friendly craft starting at 1:00 pm at the National Park Serice Visitor Center in Salem. This event is FREE and all craft materials will be provided.

Since 2014, Essex Heritage has been taking visitors to see the lighthouse on Bakers Island, but now we want you to your hand at building one!

*Pre-registration strongly suggested for this FREE event!

REGISTER AND READ MORE HERE

Pick #3: Art in Bloom at the MFA

What a wonderful way to spend a beautiful spring day with your family.

READ MORE ABOUT THIS ANNUAL MULTI-DAY EVENT HERE

Celebrate the return of spring with Art in Bloom, the Museum’s annual festival of fine art and flowers.

Enjoy exquisite art from across the MFA’s collection paired with magnificent floral interpretations created by New England-area garden clubs. Professional designers delight with creative designs in Museum entrances and walkways.

Art in Bloom launches with an Evening Preview of freshly installed arrangements on Friday, April 27, from 5 to 10 pm. Daily events include tours of flower arrangements throughout the galleries; demonstrations of floral arranging for your home; casual dining among masterpieces; and outdoor walking tours. Browse the new MFA Art in Bloom Market and expanded Garden Cart for unique gifts and treasures.

The popular Member Night is Saturday, April 28, and Community Day with children’s activities is Sunday, April 29. Free Ikebana demonstrations on Saturday from 3 to 4 pm in Remis Auditorium.

As always, for a comprehensive list of family activities, please visit our friends at North Shore Kid.  

While we didn’t venture inside…and I’ve honestly never even heard of this place before…we got a kick out of driving by the Wonderworks building in Orlando last week.

I was curious to know what they do inside so I checked them out online and now I kind of wish we had found time to visit!  Has anyone ever been?

WonderWorks is an amusement park for the mind with 35,000 square feet of “edu-tainment”. The attraction combines education and entertainment with more than 100 hands on exhibits that challenge the mind and spark the imagination.

This once top-secret laboratory was located in the Bermuda triangle. An experiment gone awry lifted the laboratory carrying it to International Drive in Orlando, Florida where it landed upside down. Luckily all of the exhibits remained intact and available for guests to explore.

Check them out here

This bugger totally drew blood on my finger while trying to steal a fish out of my hand.

Cape Ann Youth Hockey Girls Travel Teams are hosting an open house for players wishing to learn more about the opportunity to play!

So this is the year that Finn hit 54″…..which just happens to be the magic number when wanting to ride the biggest of the rollercoasters in the Orlando parks.  So, with that milestone under his belt he asked me to promise to ride all of the rollercoasters with him.  I don’t actually mind rollercoasters….but I am frantic about my boys riding rollercoasters when they’re like a hair over the minimum height requirement.

So, imagine my anxiety when we walked into SeaWorld to see that the Manta Flying Roller Coaster had just malfunctioned and the riders were being forced to disembark…ummm… at the top of a hill….and walk down to safety.  In retrospect, I actually would have liked to see how they got out of those harnesses.

What in the world?!

Finn wasn’t letting up, however, and the fearless little bugger still made me stick to my promise….and a couple of hours later I found myself strapped in, face down, in the front row of the Manta Coaster.  Sigh.

CHECK OUT THE MANTA HERE

https://seaworld.com/orlando/roller-coasters/manta/

I love when the horizon looks like this early in the morning.  This was Pigeon Cove Harbor at about 7:30 this morning….a fine line.  In contrast, he next photo shows Mill River just 10 minutes later….all fogged in.

A simple photograph, but so much that makes me smile ….   Straitsmouth Light, a lone lobster boat, the beach, the town of Rockport, and a family of ducks.   Life is good.