Day 1

Our first full day of vacation was rainy, so we spent our morning at the Mount Washington Valley Children's Museum.  Julia and I got all historical, putting together a series of tiles with dates of historical events in chronological order.  It's almost as if the activity had been custom-made for Julia; among the dated events were the years in which each American Girl lived.  Madeleine and Julia also got to embrace their love for imaginary play in the housekeeping room, climb around in a tree house, and explore in the space and Under the Sea rooms.

After the museum, we took advantage of a break in the rain to ride aboard the Conway Scenic Railroad.  The train is a refurbished Boston-Maine train from the 1800s, so Julia was delighted.  I tried to engage Madeleine in one of her own obsessions as we rode through the woods, but she was NOT GAME to my foolishness.

ME: Oh my gosh, do you think the Hocus Pocus witches are in these woods??
MADELEINE: Uh, no.
ME: But I thought I just saw a witch claw!
MADELEINE: Well Mama.  It was probably just...a BIRD.
ME: But I think the witches are gonna try and find us!  Save me, Emily Binx!
MADELEINE: Mama!  Don't CALL me that!

Hocus Pocus EPIC FAIL.

After the railway ride, the rain returned, so we holed up in the hotel room for awhile, reading, watching TV, and coloring.  Madeleine's TV show got interrupted a million times with severe weather alerts.  We decided to wait out the storm before going out to dinner.

ME: Madeleine, we're just waiting for the thou derstorm to pass through before we go to the restaurant.
MADELEINE: And Mama.  It's SRAVERE!  Yeah.  They said it's deadly lightning blowing like FIFTEEN TIMES!

She's a wise one.

Luckily, the storm finally calmed, and we enjoyed a delicious dinner at the Margarita Grill.

And today: off to Story Land!