Day 2.189: Do with a view

What goes around, comes around. Today Exile #2 was out from 9-5 at a MOPS committee planning meeting and I was therefore in sole custody of the kids.

The morning was pleasantly interrupted by us all helping load up a pick-up truck with a load of equipment that had been stored here while the church has been homeless for the last few weeks. At around lunchtime we had a birthday party (one of Exile #4's classmates) to go to. The weather was changeable, but managed to smile on the party which was mostly spent in bathing suits in and out of paddling pools and on and off an impressive swing-set/club-house-on-stilts structure.

The house was a new one on a fairly young development - a fairly common pattern in these parts, but it did have a spectacular view out towards the Berkshires across the Massachusetts border.

After we were reunited, we went for an evening walk at Five Rivers, saw a beaver (almost certainly) and the girls unintentionally and ill-advisedly offered their fingers to a snapping turtle. After Exile #3 had probably sparked its interest, Exile #4 followed her sister's lead and dipped her finger in the pond. She immediately spotted the large head looking up at her from just below the surface. She retracted herself rapidly from the snapping zone and we enjoyed a safer but still fairly close encounter with the giant creature before continuing our walk.