The Beach

While we were car-sitting for some friends, Ella and I took advantage and went out to the NY Aquarium (at Coney Island).   We took a little time to check out the beach, too.







I brought a bunch of bread crumbs and we fed the seagulls.

Memorial Day 2010

Over the 3-day weekend, we went up to the Finger Lakes region to visit our family.  I don't have many photos because we spent most of our time enjoying ourselves!  Good thing Aunt Allie took some.  Went to Corning to check out Glass Fest.  Visited Aunt Barbara and Uncle Doug at the lake house and got to ride on the boat.  Spent a couple of days with Nanny and Pop-pop and attended the Memorial Day Parade where Pop-pop was one of 4 Grand Marshalls (all survivors of the Battle of Iwo Jima).  Also attended the Memorial Day service at the National Cemetery and saw Pop-pop fire his gun.  Thanks to all who have served and who are serving our country and especially those families who have lost a loved one in the line of duty.  Your sacrifice is appreciated.

Show #1

Boy am I behind.  I guess I'm sort of a binge blogger.  No posts for quite a while, then all of the sudden a barrage of posts.  Followed by a hiatus again.  Sorry folks.  That's just how it is.

So let's go back to the beginning of June.  Alexis had her first of 2 end-of-the-year performances.  This one was with her drama class. They did a show entitled "You Can't Spell A-me-rica without ME."  It was supposed to celebrate how America is made up of all different peoples, cultures, religions- a true melting pot.  While it is a noble subject and one we definitely need to teach our children, the show in general left a little to be desired.  Alexis, of course, did a wonderful job and knew all the words to their song (which didn't really have any choreography to go with it at all).  She's the one on the right dressed as a pizza.




After the performance, we went with Grandma Susan to Friendly's.

Happy Birthday to Ella!

Recently we celebrated the birthday of our little Ella.  She's 3!  How did that happen?  This is the little outfit I made for her:



Here's a little interview I did with her:

Favorite color: Red!
Favorite song: You Are My Sunshine
Favorite food: fruit snacks
Favorite movie/show: Tinkerbell
What do you like to do with your friends? I like to run with my friends.
What do you like about Alexis: I like her and she plays nicely to me.

What do you like about Mom: I like to give hugs to you.
What do you like about Dad: I like to give hugs to him, too.

One of the little things she really loves to do right now is give kisses on the lips and then shout "We kissed on the lips!"  She also loves to play catch.  She is FINALLY working on potty training, because three-year-olds don't wear diapers.  And she's enjoying lots of success, thankfully.  She loves fairies (favorite = Rosetta, one of Tinkerbell's friends) and princesses (favorite = Sleeping Beauty) and loves to dress up.

We had a casual get-together party in the park for some of her friends- the sprinklers were on, so we filled a lot of water balloons.  We did some bubbles, and I brought cupcakes, which she insisted be RED.  So she got red velvet cupcakes with pink frosting (even though she wanted red, she settled for pink with red sprinkles).  The day was quite warm, so my whipped cream frosting didn't keep very well.  Oh well. It still tasted delicious and the 3-year-old certainly didn't mind.










Later that evening, we went to Chuck E Cheese with our family- Aunt Laura was in town, and Aunt Allie and Grandma came with us.  It was a fun time and Ella came away with a couple of good prizes. We had another red velvet cake.

Ella Speaks

After opening a container of berries: "Okay, strawberries. You're gonna be eaten!"

While riding the bus we somehow got on the topic of decorating trees.
E: "You can decorate that one!"
Me: "That one is too big. I can't do that one."
E: "Giraffes can do it!"

At our playgroup class we were learning about shapes. We were singing a song and looking around the room to see if we could spot some circles. Ella pulled up her shirt, pointed to her nipples and said, "These are circles!"

While holding up 4 fingers on each hand: "Look! These 4s are matching! Thumbs!"

Ella dirtied her new Easter dress, and since we didn't have any other clothing with us at Grandma's house I washed it out and dried it with a hairdryer only to hear her say, "Thanks, Mom! It's more than I ever hoped for!"

Ella said something to me repeatedly and I was unable to figure out what it was.  After several attempts I said, "I'm sorry I can't understand you, honey."  To which she replied, "I said I want you to understand what I'm saying!! I'm being a panda bear."  (it was the panda part that I couldn't understand- when I tried to clarify that it was panda, she would just yell at me and say the sentence all over again, so I still don't think it was panda.)

Shades

Lots of fun, sunny days at the park this past week.

Angie Visits

Another recent adventure involved our friend Angie who moved away and was back visiting NYC for a few days.  We were happy to have her stay with us for a night and that we got to spend Saturday adventuring across SoHo, Chinatown and the Lower East Side.





First stop: Jamba Juice.  No, it's not unique to NY, but NYers do actually eat at chains once in a while.  And we had a couple of two-for-one coupons, so decided to start the day with a smoothie.



Next stop: PURL to check out their new space, buy fabric for a new bag for Angie, and enjoy the customer appreciation day festivities.  We entered a couple of drawings, but didn't win while we were there.  Matt was happy to discover a great music store literally next door.  And Alexis was transfixed by the yarn winder (or whatever you knitters would call that thing).


Then: A playground on Spring Street to let the girls get all their wiggles out and for the adults to sit and talk with less interruptions.  While there, Angie gets a call from a friend who happened to be at PURL when Angie's name was called for a prize!  We decide to go back later to pick up her winnings.

Lunch: At Vanessa's Dumplings.  Well, actually, we just picked up our food and then transported it to the middle of Allen St to eat on some benches and watch the tourist buses roll by.

Dessert: An attempt to get doughnuts at the Doughnut Plant, but the line was awfully long.  Instead, Angie introduced us to a new-to-us bakery: Sugar Sweet Sunshine.  The cupcakes are cheaper than any other bakery we've been to, and delicious!  And less than a block away from Economy Candy.  Do you have a favorite candy from your childhood that you can no longer find?  I'll bet you that Economy Candy carries it.  We got some cool Pez dispensers for the kids.









Then we happily stumbled upon Despana- a fabulous little shop that imports all things Spain- including real jamon serrano, colocao, & lovely olive oils.  There is a cafe in back with everything from tapas like Spanish tortilla to delicious pastries like napoletanas!  We'll be back!









Finally: Head back to PURL just in time to enter the last drawing of the day.  Claim Angie's prize from earlier in the day.  Don't win anything, but since I'm standing by the door when others win and decide they don't want the prize, I get handed 2 more gifts!  A darling dress pattern and huge bundle of Windham Fabrics fat quarters.  Angie gifts me her 12 half-yards of Liberty of London fabric.  I'm in sewing-project-planning heaven!

Time to head home.  It's been a really fun day traipsing around our beloved city.

A couple of days later we are lucky to meet up with Angie once more to dine at one of our mutual favorite restaurants, Sosa Borella.

We love you, Angie!

Three .... Twice

I recently had the chance to take both my kids to see the production of THREE (on two separate occasions) at the Marionette Theater in the Swedish Cottage in Central Park.

The first time, I took Ella to a birthday party for her friend, Olive.  It was such fun to see all the little kids transfixed by the puppets.  A fun party in Central Park followed the show.

The very next day, I chaperoned a field trip for Lexi's class to the theater to watch the same show.  It was also very fun to see her and her class interacting with the puppets and getting involved in the performance (as they were encouraged to do so).









For friends who may visit NYC with little kids, this is a great cheap activity- and the theater sits not far from Central Park's Belvedere Castle- and what little kid doesn't like exploring a castle?  Ella certainly did.  She kept looking for the king (who is a boy!) and the queen (who is a girl!).