Spring 2025

SPRING 2025

Spring has traditionally been festival season. Charlotte’s getting a bit bigger, a bit heavier to carry around at festivals – she’s outgrown the child carrier backpack which made festival events easier to navigate. Dad was also busy fixing up the Manayunk place - lots of painting, installing new blinds, and other fun rental property activities. Goddard School classmate birthday parties filled the void. It seemed, and for a few weeks in row for sure, we were attending a classmate's birthday. It was another busy season in a string of busy seasons.

Living in Conshohocken, our unofficial start to spring seems to be the Borough’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. The weather wasn’t as perfect as last year, however, that didn’t stop us from spending nearly two hours at the parade. I thought we’d head up to Fayette Street, see a bit of the parade, then head down to the bar area for a Guiness or two before heading home. Turns out Charlotte was captivated by the parade. Candy. Beaded necklaces. Fire trucks. School marking bands. Lots for a three-year-old to digest.

I've been told that my favorite childhood book was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I remember Corduroy Bear along with the Mercer Mayer and Richard Scarry series my clearly. Charlotte likes these books too but she loves, to the point of a strange obsession, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. She's read this book cover to cover several times. She'll spot in on my dresser, nightstand, bookcase, anywhere, grab the book and start reading it again. She'll read it before going to bed, in the car on the way to school, or when she has a moment of free time.

The highlight of our spring, and possibly, for the year, was Charlotte’s cousins Sophia and Samantha visiting. We had a crazy busy trip, spending the first few days hitting up all the major sites in New York City, then spending a busy day in Washington, D.C. The final days were spent seeing Philadelphia and the surrounding area including a day trip out to Lancaster. For Charlotte, the highlights were spending time with her cousins. More details here:

Cousins Visit – Spring 2025.

Charlotte’s First Haircut!!! Charlotte has accompanied Dad numerous times to watch him get his hair washed and cut at the salon. Now it’s her turn – and she was a bit overdue. Her hair was soooo long. The salon treated her like a star. First, she got her hair washed.

Then over to the stylist’s chair. Charlotte was well behaved during her haircut. She moved her head a few times, moreso to observe her surroundings and see a few noisy cars passing outside the window, but otherwise kept her head still for a nice and even cut.

We were thrilled with the results – she looks so grown up now.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again “no town does community events better than Conshohocken”. We were late to signup for the Easter Egg Hunt last year so Dad was ready to spring into action this year, registering Charlotte as soon as the event was listed on Conshohocken’s community events page. Great event. It wasn't just an egg hunt but a whole massive spring event. Before the egg hunt we checked out the animal zoo. Charlotte didn't hesitate to jump inside the pen to pet and feed the animals.

The Easter Egg Hunt was more of a scramble...or a sprint. A couple hundred eggs were scattered in a small section in Mary Wood Park. On the count of three every kid in Charlotte's age group was off to collect as many eggs as they could. Charlotte took an analytical approach to the egg scramble. She shaked each egg a few times to ascertain what prize may be inside and if she didn't like the test, the egg went back on the ground. She passed over many eggs until she found the ones she liked. By my estimate, she could have easily wound up with double the eggs, but her quality control process still yielded quite the bounty.

The balloon line was only two kids deep, which still means a five-minute wait, but compared to the lines at the Halloween and Christmas events where the line is twenty kids deep, Dad decided to start the post Easter Egg scramble activities here. Once the balloon ears were atop Charlotte's head we made our way inside the Community Center for a chocolate bunny and photos with the Easter Bunny. A wonderful event and Dad will do everything he can to ensure we sign up early next year.

On Easter Sunday it didn't take Charlotte too long to find her basket - it was beside the tricycle which we immediately took outside to ride without even bothering to change out of pajamas first.

Easter Sunday was spent at Lola and Papa's. There was a proper Easter Egg hunt although Charlotte continued to deploy her "shake and evaluate" strategy to determine whether or not to keep an egg she found.

Lola and Papa's 50th Wedding Anniversary Dinner.

Dad has a few secrets to make the week go by quicker. Dave and Busters offers a mid-week deal where for $20 you get a meal and $20 worth of game credits. It's a good way for an exciting Wednesday night and makes the rest of the week fly past.

Cinco de Mayo weekend started with a stroll down Main Street in Manayunk, then lunch at Coyote Crossing, then just for the fun of it we shot over to Sesame Place in the afternoon.

Lola purchased Mexican-inspired dress for Charlotte to wear on Cinco de Mayo.

Then on Seis de Mayo we went to La Baja in Ambler before driving to Newark to pick up Lola, Papa, and Uncle Pete at the airport.

Two back-to-back party weekends. The first for one of mom's friends where Charlotte demonstrated her badminton skills.

The second party was for a family friend's first Holy Communion.

We closed out the Spring season with a busy Memorial Day weekend - which given the cold and rainy weather we'd been having didn't quite feel like the unofficial start of Summer this year. The trick to enjoying New Hope is to arrive early before the crowds.

Although everyone, or at least all the kids under five, seemed to be at The Bucks County Children's Museum. Dad described this place at a light version of Philadelphia's Please Touch Musuem. The exhibits are science-based but as much about having fun as they are about learning. From an earthquake simulator to a pretend marketplace we kept ourselves busy.

There was also a medical area where you could pretend to be a doctor, a farm section where you could feed horses and cows, and also a rock-climbing wall.

We wrapped up the Central Bucks trip in Doylestown with lunch at Sputino's Pizza and dessert at Nina's Waffles.

Memorial Day Sunday was just as busy. Dad had been wanting to check out the John James Audobon Center for a while now and wasn't sure what to expect before arriving. What an amazing museum. The building has an absolutely spectacular modern design yet blends in effortlessly with the surrounding nature. In addition to being a museum, the space hosts various events, such as weddings - most of the Google photos are of wedding-type events not the museum itself. The interior of the museum and its exhibits are equally impressive. Half of the museum discusses John Audobon, his life and painting approach, the other half focuses on bird life in our area and ongoing conservation efforts.

Not done yet. That afternoon we went over to Chestnut Hill to play at Jenks Playground, dinner at Iron Hill Brewing, and frozen yogurt for dessert. Chestnut Hill is quiet but just as enjoyable between Memorial Day and Labor Day.