Although Henry and Vivian do relatively well in restaurants, we don’t dine out that often. For special occasions (Christmas Eve, Mother’s Day) we usually head to Clyde’s. In the summer, before it gets too hot, we sometimes eat on the terrace at Chadwick’s, near the waterfront in Old Town. But our go-to place for an easy weekend meal is Silver Diner. Although styled like a classic 50s diner, the menu is actually a touch more upscale, with lots of locally sourced ingredients and interesting twists on traditional fare, such as bison sliders or challah french toast. They have a great children’s menu and are one of the few places where you can order a bowl of strawberries (not just mixed fruit) for the kids. They also hand out coloring books and origami cars. Each booth comes equipped with a faux jukebox player with classic tunes like Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” or the Scooby-Doo theme song. Best of all, because the place is always bustling, we never worry about the kids disturbing other patrons. More often than not, we end up here after Saturday evening mass. Here we are (below) enjoying some old fashioned milkshakes for dessert.
Halloween got off to a shaky start when Bryant got stuck in heavy traffic and was late picking up the kids (next year we’ll take the afternoon off and avoid the holiday rush). After dashing home and scarfing down dinner, we hit the neighborhood to make up for some lost trick-or-treating ground. Henry went as a dragon/dinosaur (his interpretation of his costume varied from moment to moment) and Vivian went as Ariel (from The Little Mermaid). It didn’t take long before both kids had collected more candy than they needed (we always end up throwing out much of it after one too many sugar highs). Above are the kids dressed and ready to collect their loot.
The next day, the children at St. Mary’s participated in the school’s annual All Saints Day parade through Old Town. This required us to select and design a saint costume for Henry. He went as St. Columba of Scotland, the origin of his middle name Callum (see The Origin of “Callum”). Unlike your run of the mill Halloween getup, designing a saint’s costume requires some work and planning. We ordered a white nativity gown from Amazon as the base and then bought green fabric for the vestment. We used iron-on appliques—a Celtic cross and two doves (Columba means “dove of the church”)—to decorate the front. And since St. Columba is not well known in these parts, we stenciled his name on the back. As a final touch, we added some wooden rosary beads that Elise found at the local costume store. Overall, the end result wasn’t half bad. Several folks commented that Henry looked like a “natural” as a man of the cloth. Above is a picture of our little saint and below is a video of his class’s procession through Old Town.
