Friday and adventures in food

At the end of the week, we decided to play the role of tourists in Salem ourselves. Friday was Mayor's Night Out in Salem, when all of the local businesses pass out candy to resident trick-or-treaters and all of the local attractions are free to Salemites. We had wanted to go to the New England Pirate Museum, but it was unfortunately closed by the time David got home from work. (They were apparently participating in strictly the Mayor's Afternoon Out.) So, we decided to visit the Salem Witch Museum, as even though that museum is always free to residents, we have never taken the opportunity to visit.

We have learned through trial and error that except for the Peabody Essex Museum, nothing else in Salem really is a museum, even if it claims so. There are no exhibits and you are not free to walk around at your leisure; all of the Salem attractions are guided tours through recreated scenes from 1692 which are full of 30+ year-old mannequins showing their age. However, the Salem Witch Museum was better than we expected it to be, mainly because we were friends with our tour guides, and because we've been to some of the other "museums" in Salem. (Uncle Dillon once referred to his visit at the Salem Witch Dungeon Museum as being, "the worst $7 he ever spent.") For those of you non-Salemites who come to visit and want to tour a museum, we think we'll stick to the Peabody Essex.


Fridays are Avonlea Jane's favorite day of the week, because that is when she has her morning playgroup. Above, you can see she is bundled up and ready to go play. October has definitely brought a chill in the air, as evidenced by the fact that Avonlea Jane is tolerating a hat on her head.

Mugging for the camera at baby group

Above are three played-out babies on their way to lunch at Rockafella's. The weather warmed up enough to eat outside--probably one of the last chances we'll have this year. Avi enjoyed some of Mommy's sweet potatoes at lunch. She's eating more and more foods and showing clear favorites. To date, out of all of the foods she's tried her absolute favorites are pears, egg yolk, and Pirate's Booty, a puffed rice/corn ball snack covered in powdered spinach. Her love of Pirate's Booty knows no bounds. One day this week we took a covered container full of Pirate's Booty out with us in case there were other babies who would want to share (that's how Avonlea Jane tried it for the first time), but I forgot to take it out. When we got home, I gave Avonlea Jane the container, thinking she would eat a few and then play with the rest. While I was folding laundry, she proceeded to eat the entire container. David also had a similar experience with Avonlea Jane and Pirate's Booty.

Other foods Avonlea Jane has tried:

• banana
  
• avocado
• peach
  
• sweet potato
  
• Swiss chard
  
• rice cakes
  
• apple
  
• applesauce
• yogurt
  
• potato
  
• carrot
• parsnip
• quinoa
• black beans
• green beans