The Sandbox Project

The sandbox at our local park has been empty for a long long time- over a year at least.  Many parents have expressed an interest in refilling it, but the park department budget does not cover new sand (that's my understanding, anyway).  Most parks in the city have non-profit organizations that raise money for things like this.  So, after some calls, I took on the responsibility of organizing the effort.  A generous donor gave us the money for this filling and so I ordered the sand and arranged for delivery and several families came out to help us fill the sandbox.  It was a successful venture and the kids have been enjoying the sand every day. 

You can see more photos from the day at the Friends of J. Hood Wright website. Hopefully we'll be able to get a "Donate" button on the site so you can donate to the funds for future refillings of the sand.  We're still working out the logistics of that.

The Larchars

My dear friend from high school, Heidi, was in town for about 6 hours, so we hopped on the subway and headed down to Central Park to the sailboat pond and to play on the Alice in Wonderland statue.  She has recently read Stuart Little with her kids and they wanted to see the boat pond where Stuart sails his sailboat.  Then they headed over to Times Square to see where "The Cricket In Times Square" lives and do a little sightseeing while I headed back uptown to pick up Lexi from school.  Then they came back to our house to play while the adults visited and eat some dinner before driving upstate to the family farm.  I don't get to see Heidi very often- every few years or so- and I was reminded of what a wonderful person she is again.  So so good to see her and her sweet family.  Love you!

My Mother, the Graduate

My mother has been working on finishing her bachelor degree for some time now.  And this was the year!  Not only did she finish her degree, she finished it with a 4.03 GPA.  Summa Cum Laude.  While working full time and being an active mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, and aunt.  And she received an academic award for all her hard work, presented to her at a special reception that we (her daughters) were able to attend.  So proud of her!

A few random photos

Ella at our local park with a butterfly on her shirt

A few photos of the kids and the family at the annual stake tag sale

A photo taken by Aunt Allie of Ella

Out with some of the young women taking a food tour of our neighborhood. Here we are at the bakery eating Dominican coquitos. Yum!

Baby Shower

Jessica has been a friend of mine since we were teenagers... so naturally, I wanted to celebrate her first daughter (third child) with her and lots of her friends. It was a lovely party and I'm grateful for the help of the other women that contributed to the party. So excited for Jess and her little girl!!

We chose a pinwheel theme and Abbie wowed us all with her multitude of pinwheels.  So pretty!

Here's the food spread- we also had some pinwheel sandwich wraps which are not pictured.

The beautiful and delicious cake that Jen made.

Pink pink pink!!

Here is the quilt I made for the baby.  Can't wait to see her using it!

Run For The Wild

For a few years I've been wanting to run in a 5K race at the Bronx Zoo, but for various reasons haven't been able to.  This year the stars aligned and I was able to run the 5K with my sister Allie by my side.  It is a fundraising fun run and I raised almost $300 thanks to some very generous friends and family.  Allie raised over $600.  All that money goes to the Wildlife Conservation Society and specifically to helping preserve the lions in Africa whose population numbers have decreased by 80%.  It was a pretty chilly morning, but the atmosphere was festive and there were more than 5000 people there.  The course zig-zagged through the zoo- we ran past deer and zebras and giraffes and birds and bears and monkeys and sea lions.  It was a lot of fun.  Allie ran her stopwatch and recorded our run time as 31:02.  Which is the fastest I have run 3.1 miles.  It was exhilarating and unbelievable and validating.  Now if only the post-baby weight would respond to my exercise regimen. 

We stuck around for a couple of hours after and saw some more animals.  And ate a bunch of energizing food.  And got some free stuff.  It was a wonderful event!

And now, the photos....