From Ithaca, we headed south to New Jersey. We dropped Sarah at a train station so that she could head into New York for a weekend of fun with Alli and Pam. Griffin, Maggie, and I continued south to Lawrenceville where the Seliquinis generously shared their home with us. This was a happy surprise because I wasn’t able to get in touch with Aaron ahead of time, so we only connected a few days in advance.

Highlights

Going to the local ice cream parlor, The Purple Cow. Griffin ordered moose tracks: “It was yummy!” Maggie had cotton candy (which she likes to call “rainbow”) and it was “YUMMMM!” I don’t remember what I had because I was distracted by the cascades of ice cream pouring onto my children’s hands and clothing.

Griffin and Maggie both loved playing with Anna, Camille, and Sophia. They introduced us to a number of new board games including, Trouble, Connect Four, and Gravity Maze. (According to Griffin, they were “awesome!” He double-checked to make sure I included that.)

Lots of outside play. I love it that the Seliquini girls were so eager to run around outside. Griffin described one activity this way: “We went up to the end of the driveway and the very very end of the street, by ourselves. We played spies and when we were playing spies we did the cash register and then we did house numbers on the cash register so that no one could ever know what the house numbers were. Camille rode her unicycle.” Maggie added, “And I rode on a tiny tiny tiny tiny wagon!”

Reading together. Maggie fell in love with Where the Wild Things Are. (We have read it before, and have a copy at home, but something clicked for her during this visit. She loved it, and wanted to read it over and over again.) Camille was the preferred reader, but I was acceptable if she was otherwise occupied.

Making a huge pannakukken for breakfast on Sunday. We were very excited to introduce the Seliquinis to our favorite special breakfast, and the doubled recipe vanished in no time.

For me, of course, the highlight was catching up with Aaron and Marian, and getting to know their wonderful children. I hope we can do this more often in the future.