I can't believe it's a month since my last update! Time has flown and we have been so busy. We are in the countdown now to our return to the UK - we fly home 7 weeks from today. We all have very mixed feelings. Whilst we are really looking forward to seeing all our family and friends again and to returning to our large house with a garden, barbecue and multiple bathrooms, we will miss all of our new friends here in Boston and will miss the city and the New England region. We are trying to make the most of our time left by making sure we visit the various places we had hoped to get to during our year.

So, what have we been up to in the past month? Barry returned from his European trip having had an enjoyable and interesting time. He found Sweden fascinating and would love to go back, and of course Paris in the spring was very pleasant. Of course, as soon as he returned to Boston our spring-like weather disappeared and we were back to winter coats and chilly temperatures again. The girls named April "Sprinter" in honour of the winter-like spring.

Jude, Ian, Matthew and Madeline (my sister, brother-in-law, nephew and niece) arrived to stay with us the Tuesday before Easter after spending a few days in New York. They arrived from New York with sun burn and woke up the next morning in Boston to find a dusting of snow outside! They got over their shock at the weather and we had a great time getting out and about. We visited the New England Aquarium and everyone enjoyed walking around the Great Ocean Tank and watching the seal pup play in the seal enclosure. We did a Duck Tour around Boston and both Matthew and Madeline had a go at steering the Duck on the Charles River. We drove down to Cape Cod and stayed overnight in a hotel near East Sandwich. We had a quick wander around Sandwich, which is the oldest village on Cape Cod, walked along a couple of spectacular beaches and visited Hyannis, the commercial hub of the Cape. We drove back via the Plimouth Plantation which is a living history museum recording the lives of the early European settlers and the Native Americans who lived in the area. The Wampanoag Homesite recreated the crafts and skills of the 17th century Wampanoag tribe. The modern-day Wampanoags were fascinating and illuminating, talking about their relationship with nature and with the trees and how the settlers and their descendants disrupted their lives by cutting down great swathes of forests. The 17th century English village recreated the small farming and maritime community built by the Pilgrims and had actors playing the parts of various original settlers. It was great fun as the actors had to stay in character, whatever questions they were asked, and they all spoke in an interesting variety of presumably old English accents. The Mayflower II, a full-size replica of the original boat, was a few miles away from the Plantation at Plymouth harbour. There were actors on board there too, playing the parts of crew members, all with stories to tell. Our main impression was that the boat wasn't very big, bearing in mind how many passengers it carried and the length of the voyage.

Easter Monday was a bank holiday, although it is called Patriots Day in the USA, and it was Boston Marathon day. As you can imagine, there had been a huge build up to this year's marathon with the whole city showing the "Boston Strong" spirit and wanting to support the runners. The marathon route went through Brookline and we walked up to Coolidge Corner, about 15 minutes walk from where we live, to see the runners. They were about three and a half miles from the finish line at this point so were spread out and looking rather tired but the huge cheers from the crowds seem to perk them up. All seemed to go well on the day and I think there was a feeling of relief and of closure at the end of the day.

Jude and Ian were keen to see Salem, further north up the coast from Boston. It is best known for the witch trials but is also an important historic maritime port and a very pretty town. We enjoyed wandering around the harbour and visiting the Witch Museum. We visited Cambridge and showed Jude and co Harvard Yard, the centre of Harvard University, and the Appleton Chapel, and on their final day with us the kids and the husbands went to the Museum of Science while Jude and I went shopping for my birthday present from Jude. We had a lovely time!

The New England Aquarium - trying to look fish-like!

The seal pup

Lunch in the North End - Boston's Italian district

Paul Revere's house in the North End - he of the midnight ride to warn that the British were coming!

Statue marking Paul Revere's ride, still in the North End

Matthew in charge of the steering wheel on the Duck Tour, supervised by our driver and guide, Captain Blackeye Mack

Madeline had a go too!

On the beach at Cape Cod

Hyannis harbour, Cape Cod

At the Wampanoag Homestead at Plimouth Plantation

The 17th Century Village at Plimouth Plantation

In Plymouth itself, en route to the Mayflower II

Sign marking Plymouth Rock, the landing place of the Pilgrims

The Mayflower II

On board the Mayflower II

Watching the Boston Marathon at Coolidge Corner, Brookline

Dinner at the Village Steak House, funded by Mum and Dad!

Salem - the Bewitched statue. Readers of a certain age with remember Samantha the witch and the TV programme Bewitched

Salem Harbour

If it was good enough for the witches ...

On the Freedom Trail, with the Massachusetts State House in the background

Faneuil Hall, a historic meeting place

Suffering from the ill effects of a nasty cold and vomiting!

The weekend after they left we met up with Jo Ann from the IHI and her daughter Justine to go to the Mapparium, a huge glass globe in the Mary Baker Eddy Library at the Christian Science Centre. You walk through the globe on a narrow bridge through the centre and various parts of the globe are lit up as you listen to a presentation about the creation of the globe and how the world's geography has changed since its creation in 1935. Sadly we were not allowed to take photos in the globe but you can get an idea of what it looks like at http://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/exhibits/mapparium. We had a wander around the Mary Baker Eddy exhibition afterwards which charts the life and beliefs of the creator of the Christian Science religion.

At the Mary Baker Eddy exhibition with Justine

Lunch at the Cheesecake Factory afterwards with Justine and Jo Ann

It was back to school then for the girls, their final term before we return home. Life continues to be busy with school, homework, play dates, birthday parties, sleepovers, dances, music practice, basketball training and tournaments - and that's just the girls! However, there are some events which stand out from the routine and will be memorable times from this year. One of these is the Walk for Hunger, an annual fund raising walk organised by the food charity Project Bread. More than 40,000 people take part each year, walking 20 miles around Boston and the surrounding towns and cities. Pierce School, the girls' school, organises a team each year of 7th and 8th graders and any teachers and former pupils who want to join them. The teacher who spearheads it all is Isabel's social studies teacher, Ms Yadoff, who has an enormous amount of energy for this sort of thing and is a woman to be admired (as well as being an excellent teacher). Isabel joined the Pierce team walking this year and managed to walk all 20 miles, an amazing achievement. We are very proud of her for not giving up when she felt tired and making it all the way to the end. I think, in a masochistic kind of way, she enjoyed it. She was rather stiff and achy for a few days afterwards, as were all her classmates, but it was all worth it as the Pierce team raised more than $30,000 in total for Project Bread. Wicked awesome, as they say in Boston!

Izzy and her friend Maisie waiting for the train to take them to the walk

I think this was the finish line

The walk started next to the Boston Public Gardens so Barry, Dougal and I went for a walk after dropping Izzy and Maisie off

The tulips were out in force - it was a beautiful display

The Ducklings - one of Boston's most famous statues. So famous there is even a children's book based on it. The Mother Duck and ducklings were still wearing their yellow and blue Boston Marathon attire.

Rachel had another basketball tournament at the weekend, too

The baseball season started at the end of March so we have been following the progress of the Red Sox again. They seem to be suffering from the after effects of their World Series-winning season last year and have started the season with a mixed bag of results. We managed to get to Fenway Park early this week to watch the Red Sox play against the Cincinnati Reds. They were 3-1 up when I left at about 9.30pm in the middle of the 7th innings with a tired Isabel and with Rachel's friend Sydney, leaving Barry and Rachel, who wanted to stay until the end. Unfortunately, the 3-1 lead went to 3-3 in the 9th innings, usually the final innings. As the Americans don't seem to be able to cope with a draw as a result (it's the same in all the other major sports too) the innings continued until one team could secure a lead. Finally, at the bottom of the 12th innings, the Red Sox scored a run to give them the victory. Barry and Rachel arrived home at 11.30pm, tired but happy, particularly as they had found seats very close to the front as the innings went on and a lot of people went home and Rachel found herself centre stage on the big screen in the stadium at one point! There were at least three other children from her school at the game who all told her the next day that they had seen her on the screen, much to her embarrassment!

The Red Sox at Fenway Park

The Red Sox dug out

Watching!

The Red Sox bull pen, where the pitchers warm up

David Ortiz, nickname Big Papi. A Red Sox legend and the World Series MVP

Mike Napoli - one of my two favourite players!

Barry left very early the following morning to fly to Pittsburgh for a quick visit, staying there one night. He learned a lot from the visits to various hospitals and health centres and, as usual, managed a bit of sight seeing, visiting the Heinz Museum (yes, Heinz the food company started in Pittsburgh). Pittsburgh has a reputation for being an industrial, steel city but Barry said the bits that he saw looked very attractive and he was impressed.

So, nearly up to date. Rachel has another basketball tournament tomorrow and then Sunday is Mother's Day here in the US. We are being taken out for the day by our friends Peggy and Deon and family, who have been determined to take us to their favourite place, a little seaside town on Cape Ann, north of Boston, called Rockport. It's supposed to be very pretty and they have booked a table outside at their favourite restaurant for lunch. The weather forecast is great, mid 20sC, so should be a lovely day!

It's now another week later - I didn't get around the posting the above so I shall add to it and post all at once.

Rockport was wonderful. The weather was perfect - blue sky, sunshine, hot but not too hot. The town and harbour were extremely pretty if a little crowded with tourists, not that we can complain as we were adding to the numbers. It was very artsy craftsy with lots of interesting little shops and nice restaurants with great views onto the harbour and along the coast. Peggy and Deon treated us to lunch which was delicious and very relaxing. It didn't seem to matter that the service was very slow as we were quite happy enjoying the company and the views.

Deon - "what perfect weather"

Izzy and Rachel with Megan

Deon with the harbour in the background

Peggy and Jacob

The Appletons!

Pretty houses and views

The harbour. The red shed covered with buoys is a well known local landmark

I spent most of last week trying to get to grips with sorting out cars to buy ready for our return and trying to get quotes for air freighting or shipping home our excess baggage. Progress has been made on both counts, which is good. We are at the stage now where there always seems to be a series of e-mails to send and reply to, to try to make all the arrangements for coming home. It is starting to hit us now that we have only a few weeks left in Brookline (well, five and a half weeks). Whilst we are all excited about coming home we are all very sad to be leaving behind our life here and all the wonderful people we have met.

Anyway, another weekend, another basketball tournament. This time it was the State Tournament, with the winning team qualifying for the national finals in Florida next month. All the girls had got themselves into a frenzy of excitement at the thought of a trip to Florida whilst all the parents were wondering how they were going to pay for flights and accommodation and fit it into their busy schedules! At first it looked like Rachel was going to miss out as only the Mass Commanders Elite girls team had qualified for the state tournament, and Rachel plays in the "Blue" or development team. However, Coach Keith said he wanted to take Rachel as well as an extra in the Elite squad as she had been playing so well so Rachel was thrilled. After our usual early start on the Saturday morning to drive 40 minutes out of Boston for a match starting at 8.30am, the girls managed to win their first match but lost the second later in the day by just one point, thanks to a basket scored by the opposing team in the dying seconds of the match. They finished second in their pool of three teams, with each team having won one match, but found out the following morning before their play-off match that thanks to some strange jiggery pokery which was never explained they had been demoted to third place, despite having a better points difference than the now second-placed team, which left them with a tougher play-off draw. Needless to say, they lost the play-off match so their dream of going to Florida came to an abrupt end. Thankfully neither of the other two teams in their pool progressed any further either. They played well though, including Rachel, and Rachel enjoyed playing in a better and more experienced team.

After Saturday's two basketball matches we drove to Quincy on Boston's South Shore for a party at the house of Pete and Libby - Pete is one of Barry's IHI fellow Fellows. After 24 hours of heavy rainfall the sun came out for the afternoon and we had a lovely relaxing few hours sitting out in the garden and on the beach.

Today, Monday, Rachel was competing in the Brookline schools 5th and 6th grade athletics meet, representing her school at the javelin. Five 5th and 6th graders from her school qualified to take part in the meet, with Rachel going through in second place. I don't think either her or Barry and I had any idea that she could throw a javelin! Unfortunately, she and the rest of her Pierce school javelin throwers didn't get through the heats this morning but Rachel was happy with her performance. She said only about six children in total, from all the schools, made it through to the final and she said she was nearer the top than the bottom on the scoreboard so it was a pretty good show. Well done Rach!