Published

I was published in Real Simple Magazine's October Issue in the "My Words" section.  The question was "What is the best financial advice you've received?"  (My answer is top right corner on page 32).

Using a weekly budget has been groundbreaking for our family. I won't go into details here, I will just say that I finally feel like our budget, although tight and very small, is actually under control. And it is a liberating feeling!

Chili Cookoff 2010

We once again attended the Ward Chili Cookoff.  I won the Popular Vote.  The judges choice turned out to be an entrant's medley of canned chilis.  What does that tell you about the state of affairs in the world?

PepFest 2010

Once back in NYC, we still had 2 weeks of summer before school began again. One of the highlights was attending PepFest (the annual party for Pepsi employees). This year it was held at Rye Playland and was so so so much fun. Everything, and I mean everthing (food, rides, games, food, food, food) was FREE. It was so much fun. Did I say that already? It was so fun, that we forgot to take the camera out to document it all. But did manage to get a shot of the girls on a roller coaster in Kiddie Land and Ella with her first candied apple (which she ended up dropping, shattering it to pieces and crying about the loss of her apple lollipop).

And a photo from one of the Pepsi photogs of Chris and Alexis on the log flume. They rode it 4 times.

Summer Trip Part 4: Other SoCal Adventures

 Here are the photos of our other highlights in So Cal.  We felt like the time flew by and we didn't get to do all we wanted to do or see everyone we wanted to see.  But of course we plan to be be back next year!

We always love to visit the Skirball Musuem for their awesome Noah's Ark exhibit.  We also got to do a little art project which the girls, and Grandma, loved.


Inspired by the artistic creativity of the Skirball Noah's Ark exhibit, Grandpa constructed a lioness of various items around the house.  During this trip, Alexis fell in love with Nala (from the Lion King) and was thrilled when Grandpa presented this to her.


We also visited the J Paul Getty Museum and roamed the grounds, listened to a family concert series, ate a picnic lunch, spent time with our Angie friend, and also did a family workshop.


The workshop involved visiting the galleries and observing these Chinese urns that were further adorned with gold by European craftsmen.  We were to sketch the urns and then were able to create our own vessels adorned with gold.






We followed all that up with a trip to Yummy Cupcakes in Santa Monica.  The bakery is aptly named.  They sure were yummy.  Ella got red velvet and Alexis got vanilla/vanilla.  I love that they had this kid-size table available!


We went swimming with friends and enjoyed some of California Pools best work. 




We spent some down time at Grandpa & Grandma's house.... building with blocks & playing in the backyard.


Ella went to the salon to get a haircut.






Laguna Beach with Uncle Vince (and Becca, although I don't have a photo to prove it).








And then, before we knew it, it was time to head back to the Big Apple.  We had a 4 hour layover in Dallas, which turned into a 6 hour layover due to delays.  Thank goodness for the train around the airport (we rode the entire route a few times), and the Pepsi Junior Flyers Club which provided this playspace in the terminal. 

Lexi Swims

Here's a video of Lexi "swimming"

Summer Trip Part 3: DisneyLand

During our time in Southern California this year, we managed to make it to Disneyland three (yes, three!) times. We were able to meet many many characters, including most of the princesses that Ella is fascinated with right now. Our dear friend Angie came to spend a weekend with us and went with us the first day we went to Disney.  Grandma Cope joined us for our second day at California Adventure.  And our friends Jason & Tiffany and their boys spent some time with us on our third day. 

This was a really fun year to do Disney.  Both of the girls were tall enough for nearly every ride.  And they both bravely rode every ride we wanted to do.  Some of the rides elicited comments like, "That was too scary!  I don't want to do that again!" (Tower of Terror, Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain), but they were amazingly good sports and we only had one small meltdown in 3 days at the parks. 

First roller coaster of the day.  



That's Ella with her hands up ready to ride!


Just a shot of Toon Town.  That blue sky is REAL sky.  The amazing thing about Toon Town is that Interstate 5 is right on the other side of that backdrop, but you would never know.




The Mad Hatter and Alice.


It was HOT while we were there- this marble ball rotated and spilled water down the sides. 


My chauffeur.


We were so lucky to get our turn with Rosetta (one of Tinkerbell's fairy friends) just at the time when Silvermist came out to take her place.  The girls got this photo with their favorite fairies.  And in fact, the souvenir they chose to take home from Disney (with their own money) were plush dolls of these 2 fairies.


Alexis was kind of fickle about being in photos with some of the characters.  She would act scared of some of them and hide behind me. So either I or Ella had to stand in first (here I am with TinkerBell and Terrence) before Alexis would warm up.  Unexpected behavior from her, but I guess Disney can be a little overwhelming?








Fireworks at DisneyLand.  Tinkerbell and Dumbo fly over the castle during the evening show.  Very exciting!






















The third day we went, we were joined by our friends Jason&Tiffany and their boys Trevor&Dylan.  Here are kids are all paired up- hand in hand.  Alexis & Trevor and Dylan & Ella.


Alexis rode in the front seat on Splash Mountain.  She got drenched!








Sleeping Beauty is Ella's favorite princess.  She also happened to be the very first one we saw on our first day there.






The teacups make me sick, but Angie and the girls took a spin.