Ann moved to the South Shore three years ago and resides in Marshfield with her husband, three year old daughter, Lauren and one year old daughter, Emily. She is expecting a third girl, due in February!
What is your favorite thing about living on the South Shore?
We love how we’re so close to the ocean!
What do you love to do with your kids around town?
With young kids who still nap, we’re pretty simple. We love to go to the library for Music & Storytime, as well as Read, Sing, Play, check out local playgrounds, visit the cows at Hornstra Farm, throw rocks into the water at the Green Harbor Lobster Pound, see the owls and chickens at the South Shore Natural Science Center, get together at friends’ houses to play and go to the grocery store. As for the “bigger” things, I have an idea list that I continually add to on my phone for when the girls get a little bit bigger.
What is your favorite local fall activity?
Since Hornstra Farm makes apple cider donuts in the fall, that is definitely an incentive to get there more often! We enjoy apple picking, but are still looking for a great orchard. We’ve tried CN Smith and would like to head west to Honey Pot this fall.
Favorite family friendly restaurant in the area?
The girls and I go out to breakfast solo about once a week. We love going to Strawberry Fair in Norwell (mainly because we hit up Homegoods after a delicious meal) or The Foodsmith in Duxbury (the owner, Laura, is extremely friendly). For dinner when Dad comes with us, we enjoy dining in at Galley Kitchen in Scituate or Legal C Bar at Derby St. For take-out, we like Fire and Stone Trattoria or finagling how to get Chinese food or Indian food from some of our pre-baby favorite place in the South End of Boston, where we used to live!
Do you have a favorite kid friendly / family favorite recipe?
We cook a lot, and the girls always help, whether it’s pancakes, pumpkin bread, pizza, pasta, or cookies!
I’ll share two recipes:
(1) My oldest daughter loves Daniel Tiger. He made Banana Slurry on his show and we like to whip up a fresh batch when we think of it. (Peel the bananas and cut them into small pieces. (You need about one banana per bowl of “ice cream”.) Put them in the freezer for a few hours in a plastic bag or on a plate. Blend, continuously scraping down the sides when they stick, until the mash turns into ice cream! If you have trouble blending, you can add a little bit of milk to the mixture to help it along. You can even experiment by adding cocoa powder, coconut flakes, vanilla extract, honey, or my daughters’ favorite- sprinkles!
(2) Hidden Healthy Pancakes- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 3 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 1 Tbs granulated sugar, 1 1/4 cups milk (I do half whole milk and half coconut milk), 1 egg, and 3Tbs butter. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk (both kinds), egg, and melted butter. Mix until smooth. This is the fun part where we add in whatever we feel like, such as shredded zucchini, shredded carrot, wheat germ, cinnamon, nutmeg!
Do you have a favorite local store, fitness class or restaurant and why?
We love going to Green Light mid-morning to have a delicious smoothie! It’s so beautiful inside their Duxbury shop with succulents hanging in the window and the colorful chalkboard listing their smoothie choices and fresh additions to the menu. It feels like a treat or an indulgence to go there because it’s not an everyday thing!
What is your favorite moment/memory as a mom to date?
Gosh, this is hard. There are SO many. Something that is truly unbeatable is now that my older daughter, Lauren, can think for herself and formulate her own thoughts to say (which is both hysterical and scary sometimes) she will, out of the blue, look me right in the eye and with a warm smile say, “Mom, I love you so much.” My heart melts and no matter what’s going on, it helps to bring me back to the simplicity of loving my children and to let the minutia of the day which can inundate my sanity all go.
What is the toughest part about being a mom?
The juggling act of being the caretaker, unconditional lover, disciplinarian. playmate, teacher, chef/cook.
What is the best advice you have received as a mom?
Someone once told me to listen to other’s stories (successes and failures) and to keep them all on the back burner because you never know what dilemma you’ll find yourself in and how it expectedly or most unexpectedly may be extremely helpful. And just because something worked for one of your children, don’t expect it to work for another; for they’re each so different!
What is the best advice you would like to give to a new mom?
Trust your gut. You know your child best.
Thanks Ann!
