Birthday

My day. It's a little awkward (for me, anyway) to plan your own party, but somehow things just sort of materialized this day. We had planned all week to go to Chuck E Cheese at some point, and decided to do it with some friends. Turned out the best day also happened to be my birthday, so we asked a few more to join us and voila! A little party. Thanks, Aubrey, for baking some delish cupcakes. And thanks to Kendra (not me, the other one) for the fabulous sewing book by one of my favorite designers, Amy Butler (did I mention it's autographed?) But mostly, thanks for spending time with us!

Stella & Ella riding in a car

Stella, Addie & Ella on a roller coaster

Matt took me out for dinner (Shake Shack!) & a movie (Doubt) in the evening. Thanks to Aunt Allie for babysitting! The next day we headed up to my mother's house where we girls went out for manis & pedis, and had a fabulous dinner & incredible brownie & ice cream cake. And mom bought me a new dress. Watch for it!

Baby Powder

In your face, baby.



(she did this to herself during a diaper change session)

Drawing Lessons at Pepsi

Can't remember exactly when this happened- but we had the chance to go to Pepsi to take a drawing lesson. Subject matter: Pepsi products. You may have noticed by now that Pepsi has a new logo. Many of their product's packaging has changed. The kids could enter their drawings in a contest and the winners were to be featured in the Pepsi Shareholders annual report.

Alexis chose to draw a Sierra Mist can.
Here she is getting some pointers on perspective from the teacher.

Drawing with Grandma looking on.

Ella just sat and patiently ate snacks almost the entire time we were there...

The USS Intrepid

Every February, the public schools get a week off. Legend has it that years ago when it cost so much money to heat the building, the Department of Education decided to close the schools for a week in the middle of the winter in order to save on heating costs. Whatever the reason, it's always nice to have Matt & Alexis home with us! On the first day of the break we went with Aunt Allie to explore the USS Intrepid.

The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum is one of America’s leading historic, cultural and educational institutions. Opened in 1982, the Museum has welcomed more than 10 million visitors. The Museum is centered on the aircraft carrier Intrepid (CVS-11), one of the most successful ships in US history, and now a national historic landmark and one of the most unique attractions in New York City. In 1943, Intrepid was commissioned and served proudly in World War II. She went on to serve as one of the primary recovery vessels for NASA, three tours of duty off Vietnam, and submarine surveillance in the North Atlantic during the Cold War.

It was recently refurbished and they were having Kids Week with extra exciting activities- including a puppet show, face painting, crafts and a visit from Mr. Met (although we only saw him walk by).

Valentines

Lexi and I made some chocolate lollipops to give to all her friends at school for Valentine's Day. We were lucky to get some valentines in Lexi's High Five magazine (a publication from the people behind Highlights), so we paired them together for a cute little treat.





And this is how I found Ella a little while later...

Wacky Week

This week Lexi's school participated in Wacky Week- every day was a different theme and allowed them to be a little wacky.... Luckily, her teacher took many photos and I was able to download some of them for our posterity:

Mon: Pajama Day
Everyone got to wear their pajamas and bring a stuffed animal to school- Lexi chose to wear the nightgown I made her for Christmas.



Tues: Twin Day
The teacher assigned pairs of twins (and 2 sets of triplets) and we got in contact with the other parents to plan out something to wear. I wanted to base it on clothes that we both probably already owned (what a cheapskate I am!), but in the end we opted to peruse Old Navy and found some adorable dresses that the girls fell in love with.




Wed: Professional Day
This was the day to dress up as what you want to be when you grow up. Alexis has been enamoured with the idea of being a paleontologist since she was 3. So, she wore a dinosaur shirt, jeans, and I made her a little utility belt where she stuck her tools- a paintbrush & toothbrush (for sweeping away dirt), a hammer, & a magnifying glass. She also wore one of my sunhats- a khaki gardener's type.



Thurs: Inside Out Day
This was the day to wear your clothes inside out, but Alexis absolutely refused. She thinks that's so weird.

Fri: Friendship Day (wear red for Valentine's Day)
No pictures of this day, either, but Alexis wore a red dress that she got from Grandma Susan a while ago. She loves it and was so happy to have a reason to wear it to school.

And this is the class while getting ready to go home at the end of the day:

Unfortunate Incident

So, last week we had an unfortunate incident. I discovered bedbugs in our sheets as I was throwing them in the laundry. Which, in a nutshell, meant we had to wash & dry everything. We also had to throw out our mattress & bed frame and some of our pillows. We cleaned out our bedroom and vacuumed and washed the floor. It seems that the *outbreak* was pretty small and well contained to just our bedroom, so that's good (knock on wood). Anyway, we're on an air mattress now, but are in the market for a new bed. Our budget is very small (about $500 if possible- thank goodness this happened at tax refund time!).

We're considering this mattress from Costco. But since that's just a top mattress, we'd need to also purchase box springs & a frame, or a platform bed. I'm leaning towards a platform bed, though, because I like the idea of not having box springs. And we think we'll stick with a queen size.

Can you tell me about your experience with a platform bed or that mattress? Do you have any other advice?

Wedding

Brooke & Nathan get married!


We attended the wedding of Nathan & Brooke in the Manhattan Temple. A lovely ceremony followed by a delicious banquet at Il Posto. I made my dress (seen below).


The centerpieces were these fabulous boxes of wheatgrass. We took home several.


Now Nathan & Brooke live only a few blocks from us and we're excited to be neighbors!

Lexi's Birthday Party

I know I've neglected the blog this year (as I type this it's actually March, although I'm dating this post back in January). But I've finally uploaded all the latest pictures and I'll be updating the blog over the next few days.

These are our photos from Lexi's 5th birthday party. You may remember that she is our little New Year's Baby, so since there was no school on her actual birthday (January 1st) we decided to have her party that day. Grandma & Grandpa Cope were here over Christmas and stayed for the celebrations. Grandma Susan also came to help with the kids bash and Aunt Allie joined us later for a family dinner.

Not many photos from the party itself- I was too busy trying to entertain 7 little girls. We went with a polka-dot theme and Lexi and I made some polka-dot garlands a couple of days before the party. We also created a bulls-eye for our pin-the-dot-on-the-bullseye game. I also decorated with my trusty birthday banner (that I made awhile ago out of some fabric scraps I had lying around). We had some streamers and balloons, too. As the guests arrived we had a little craft activity- we had mini-canvas bags that they decorated with fabric pens & all sorts of polka-dot type things- pompom balls, buttons, rhinestones etc. Except for one little mishap with the glue gun (resulting in a burn blister on a thumb) that went pretty well. Then we had some games- pin-the-dot, musical dots, duck-duck-goose, and a relay race with a cotton ball on a spoon. They had a picnic on the floor with some pepperoni pizzas on English muffins, grapes, clementine oranges and cheese balls, and cupcakes (the confetti ones) with sprinkles on top. After eating, Lexi opened her gifts. And then we did some dance games- freeze dance, hokey pokey, bunny hop. All the girls wore some form of polka-dot attire, which was so festive! And Lexi wore a dress that I made for her just for the party out of some polka-dot fabric I had in my stash.

After the girls went home we were able to take a break- Lexi checked out her loot and we cleaned up a bit. When Aunt Allie showed up we had dinner- Lexi's favorite spaghetti & meat sauce, garlic bread & salad (with Italian dressing, b/c that's the only kind she likes according to her). Then more presents! The grandmas organized a scavenger hunt for Lexi- each clue directed her to a location in our apartment and there she would find a gift & another clue. She was in heaven! It made opening gifts a little less crazy- although she may have been more excited about following the next clue than opening the gift she had just found.



All in all, it was a successful day. Unfortunately the night before, our neighbors below us had an enormous party (new year's eve, remember) and were playing their music so loudly that the girls beds were vibrating and they weren't able to sleep. We called the police twice, but nothing was done about it. As we walked around, we could feel our brains vibrating as the beat penetrated through our feet! It was INSANE. So none of us really slept, and I was worried that I would be a cranky mess for Lexi's big important day. Thankfully we made it through without any major power struggles.

Happy Birthday Alexis! We love you.

A few things about Alexis this year:
favorite color: red
favorite food: spaghetti & meat sauce
favorite toys: Littlest Pet Shop & Legos
favorite song: Under The Sea from The Little Mermaid
Alexis can write her name and is beginning to read easy reader books. She loves to go to both school and church and it seems that she is always singing a song. She is taking ballet and enjoys it. She is almost an expert scooter rider and loves to go to the playground after school. She prefers to wear dresses/skirts- even in the dead of winter. She volunteers to pray every day. She is a good helper at home and she is a very good big sister who likes to play with Ella and teach her new things. She is very tolerant of Ella's inquisitiveness and is willing to share just about everything with her.

5 Years Old

All day long it's somebody's birthday
Somebody's birthday is today.
All day long from early morn
This is the day Alexis was born.
Happy birthday!
Happy day of your birthday!
Make a wish and hope it comes true.
Happy birthday!
Happy day of your birthday!
We're so glad that you became you!

(sung by The Jimmies)

The Botanical Gardens

While Grandma & Grandpa Cope were here, we decided to check out the Holiday Train Show at the Botanical Gardens. First stop was the Children's Garden where Lexi learned about the different ingredients in gingerbread and where each ingredient comes from. She filled out an observation journal and put a small sample of each item in the journal.

She also planted some wheatgrass to take home.

After playing & learning at the Children's Garden, we took a tram ride around the gardens and were able to see some amazing plant life. We also saw many of the sculptures of Henry Moore, which the garden is currently exhibiting.

Following the tram ride, we caught a performance of The Little Engine That Could puppet show. It was a cute production where the puppeteers were integrated into the show almost as additional characters. The trains *ran* up and down the stairs next to us and there was a good amount of audience participation.

After the show, the kids were allowed an up close and personal look at the engines....

The Holiday Train Show

The Statue of LibertyEllis Island

Here I will post mostly our photos of the Holiday Train Show at the NY Botanic Garden. Inside the conservatories, there are replicas of various NYC buildings and landmarks, "made entirely from plant parts like berries, mushrooms, pinecones, leaves and twigs," with model trains running around, through and over them. It's really pretty amazing! Warning: this post is picture laden mostly because I thought the constructions were intriguing. I'll label the ones I can remember and/or recognize.

My view as we waited in line (Ella sleeping in the Ergo carrier)

The George Washington Bridge

Close up of GWB with bus crossing

Okay, I ran out of photo space in my google albums account, so I uploaded the rest of the photos to photobucket and created a slideshow.

Bonus

On Saturday, December 27th, we were invited to celebrate Lucas' birthday with him at Chuck E. Cheese's. Alexis & Ella both love Lucas (and we love his parents!), so we were excited to attend. I'm totally sold on having kid's parties at this place. It was so fun (and virtually no planning or clean-up on the parent end).

Matt & I always have so much fun at Chuck E Cheese! Ski-ball is probably our favorite activity. Here Ella is assisting Dad in racking up the points.

He ended up scoring so many points (um, 41,000) that he earned an extra 75 tickets! (Typically people earn from 5-10 tickets for playing this game). It all happened so suddenly- he's just rolling his balls into the point holes and next thing we know bells are ringing and lights are flashing and Chuck E Cheese is singing something like "You are a rockin' bowler!" and tickets are just pouring out of the machine. It took us a minute to realize that it was all because of Matt's mad skillz!

Christmas Day

On Christmas Day this year, our little family was on our own. We chose to stay in the city (instead of traveling upstate to be with my family) because Matt's parents were flying in the day after Christmas. We opened a few gifts on Christmas Day, but ended up saving most for the 26th when the Copes, as well as Grandma Susan and Aunt Allie & Aunt Laura could be with us to celebrate. So, we spent Christmas Day at the Bronx Zoo. It was a beautiful, clear day and not too cold either.

Thanks to Scott & Lisa for this great reusable basket! Ella loved it!