Welcome Baby

Baby Elliott joined our family this week.  Born to my cousin, Peter, and his lovely wife Rebecca.  He is named for Peter's mother's family (which is also my mother's family).  He was a whopping 10 pounds 2 ounces.  You are a champ, Rebecca!  We can't wait to meet him.  Just look at those cheeks!



(I think he looks a lot like Peter in this photo)

Reading Time

Alexis is supposed to read aloud for at least 15 minutes each day as part of her homework.  At some point, someone thought it was a good idea for her to read to Ella (maybe it was in my desperation to get them to stop fighting one day) and now it has become one of their favorite things to do together.  No matter how frustrated they may be with each other, if I say it's reading time, they gather together closely and Ella listens intently as Lexi reads.  They don't even argue about what book to read.  It's fabulous!

Biking

Ella got this little bike for her birthday back at the beginning of the summer.  It is a two-wheeler with no training wheels, and is also known as a running bike, or a balance bike.  The idea is to use your feet to power the bike, and it helps kids to learn to balance on a bike making the transition to a bigger bike much faster and smoother.  She loves this bike so much and has become very proficient.  We love it, too!

Sometimes she gets moving a little faster than she can handle, but I guess that's good.  Shows her confidence is growing. 



In her preschool, they had an event called Trike-A-Thon to benefit St. Jude's Hospital.  The kids were allowed to bring their own bikes if they wanted to.  Ella, of course, wanted to bring hers, so I schlepped it on the subway and bus at rush hour because I love her!
 



She also tried out a scooter:

Apple Picking Take 2

2 days after our first apple picking excursion, my mother got an email at work about an apple picking event that Pepsi was hosting at a local farm in Yorktown, NY.  We decided to give it another go, and this day was so much more pleasant!  Hot apple cider, free apples (thanks to Pepsi!), chillier weather and a farm that was not nearly as crowded or commercial.  The leaves were gorgeous and the farm itself was sort of nestled in a valley with rolling hills all around.  Apple picking has redeemed itself!  I now have a large load of apples that need to be used... applesauce, anyone??

Apple Picking Take 1

Our first attempt at apple picking was, shall we say, fruitless.  We went to a farm in Morristown, NJ that had hayrides and mazes and apple picking and lots of seemingly wonderful activities.  It was so commercialized, however, that just to get into the orchard to pick apples you had to pay $11 per group of 5 people.  And since we had 6 people we had to either pay $22 or sit one out.  So Grandma took one for the team and sat out while we went in and picked some fruit just to have to pay for that per pound as well (which we actually expected to do).  The hayride was $7 per person and the mazes were $8 per person, so we ended up skipping all of that since we didn't plan on blowing $100 on what is supposed to be a quintessential New England fall activity.  We were totally disappointed.  We did get some good photos, though. We took a drive through downtown Morristown which was really quite lovely, and then found a playground for the girls to play.  The weather was beautiful, and it was nice to be with Allie & Grandma.

First Day of School

The first day of school! First grade this year. 26 children in her class, many that she already knows from last year.  This year I got very ambitious and decided to make all her uniforms (well, not the blouses).  So we stocked up on navy blue materials from Joann's Fabrics and I made her several skirts and a couple of jumpers.  I did some of it in California while able to use my mother-in-law's serger.  Heaven!  I decided to make her clothes this year because most of the stuff we can buy off the rack does not fit this tall, slender young lady.  I end up having to alter it anyway, so I figured it would be just as easy to make it from scratch.



Ella started preschool 3 mornings a week this year, too.  She does not have to wear uniforms yet.  She loves going to school and is learning so many new things.  She can write her own name and most of the letters of the alphabet without any assistance.  I think that's amazing. 

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.