Tot Lot

We took a trip to the Tot Lot in Cold Spring today to visit with Maggie and Will.  And I finally brought my camera with me.  I'm not sure entirely what's been going on with me and my camera lately.  I haven't been satisfied with my pictures, and I think I've been using her bulk as an excuse not to bust her out, because I've been frustrated.  But I need to get over it. So I'm promising to take more pictures and not to rely on my iPhone all the time.  The iPhone is great and all, but the pictures rarely make it out of my phone, and when they do it's just to Facebook and then the poor blog gets neglected.

Gabe, where are your hands?!

Oh, there they are!

Ellie, riding around like a big kid.

She drew a heart in the sand and then asked me to take a picture of it.  Gladly, kid.  Gladly.

Singing Happy Birthday with a cake made out of sand.

Snail! No, Gabe, it's a worm.

The family across the street had a party last week, and I ended up talking with a neighbor who's garden I greatly admire.  Incredibly, she offered to come over the next morning and help me make some sense of our overgrown front yard.  Her rules?  She'll give advice, and help prune and pull stuff out, but she won't clean up.  Sounds fair to me!

She spent several hours working with me, and taught me that what I thought was honeysuckle sweetly entwined with our butterfly bush was actually a noxious choke-weed slowly suffocating one of my favorite plants.  Oops!  She also encouraged me to go ahead and pull some hostas that I just wasn't fond of.  No offense to hostas in general, but they often leave me with an "overly manicured industrial park" kind of feeling.  Plus these particular hostas just weren't doing well in this location.  I had often thought of pulling them, but couldn't quite pull the trigger.  Now, though?  Those hostas are gone.  And replaced with some black-eyed susans, pink cone flowers, and something else I can't pronounce.  I've still got a long way to go making the garden my own, but we're off to a start.

New Friends

"Can Ellie come out to play?"

This is Ellie and her new friend, L.  L lives at the end of the block, but somehow we didn't get to meet her and her family until recently.  But now her and E are thick as thieves.  This photo captures the very first time someone has come over to see if Ellie can come out to play.  The suburbs are awesome.

Holding Hands

The kids still like to hold hands in their car seats and it absolutely kills me every time.

Uncle Mike the Rock Star

As soon as Uncle Mike picked up the guitar Ellie sat herself down and declared "I'm the audience."  She's such a little groupie.

Product Placement

My iPhone died the other day, which, ok, whatever.  It's annoying and all that, but at least it wasn't the car again.  Which, did I mention that?  Our car died.  Approximately six weeks after I joked about how I would start foaming at the mouth if our car died.  Remind me not to joke about my emotional reactions to the zombie apocalypse.  So we have a new car, which is great and all.  I actually like the new car better than the old car but the old car didn't have a car payment, so there's that.  Rant over.

So my iPhone died.  Which meant I needed to get a new phone and ooooooooh!  It came with stickers!  Ellie was so excited.  She stuck that sticker on her leg and refuses to take it off and says it's going to stay there forever and ever until she's grown up.  So I'm thinking Apple should be willing to pay a little for her advertising efforts, right?  College fund here we come!

4 Letter Word for Awwwww

I'm not sure how much Gabe actually helped Grandma with her crossword puzzle, but it sure was cute to see him try.

Goggles

Because you never know what's gonna come at you at the breakfast table.

A Very Useful Girl

Any Thomas the Train fans out there?  On the Island of Sodor the highest possible praise for a train is to be called a "very useful engine."  Leaving beside all the issues about Sodor obviously being some sort of communist Utopian fantasy where individual aspirations must be thoroughly suppressed for the good of the common train traveler, Brian enjoys pointing out whenever one of the children have proven themselves to be particularly useful.  And here's Ellie doing her best to be a very "useful child."

Truths from Gabe

Gabe's standing in the kitchen, blinking.

"I can't hear my eyes."

Blink, blink, blink.

"They not talking."

True, Gabe.  Very true.

Almost Human

In just another sign that Ellie is growing up by leaps and bounds....her pictures are starting to look like, well, pictures.

This is "Daddy and Ellie and Gabe."  

And this one is "Mommy."  

Important things to note:  Ellie and Gabe appear to be protozoa.  Daddy has a nose and mommy doesn't.  And Ellie thinks I wear too much lipstick.

Happy Fourth!

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!  We celebrated with a backyard dinner and some of our favorite people.  Brian's crowning moment of genius was creating the "kiddie pool table."  His work here is done.

Sometimes...

Sometimes it's hot and humid, and your parents haven't installed the air conditioners yet, and you woke up from your nap maybe a little before you should have, and you just want to crawl onto your dad's lap with your silkie and relax.  Sometimes...

For the Record...

...Ellie still doesn't approve of my cooking.

Camper-Girl

Ellie on her first day of summer camp.  She LOVED it.  I may have teared up a little when I dropped her off, but I survived.  

Summer

Well, summer is finally here...with barbecues and kiddie pools, and even sometimes a bouncy house.  We went to a friend's birthday party on Saturday and it was totally tricked out.  The kids had a ridiculously good time and I had a ton of fun with my camera.

Today Ellie starts summer camp, and I've been up since four in the morning having a total anxiety attack.  I know it's an epic over-reaction, but I just can't help myself.  Change is hard (even such a silly, positive change as Ellie starting camp) and I'm going to miss her.  

Third Friday

Our town does this lovely thing where every third Friday of the month there's a little festival on Main Street. Nothing huge, but a band is always playing, and there are kid crafts and cupcakes and the like.  I guess the bars and restaurants run specials but we're always home to bed too early to take advantage.  And apparently if you loiter around the fire house long enough they'll let you go on the trucks.  So, you know, just another day driving a firetruck.

Chief!  And at such a young age!

There was a pirate at the fair promoting an upcoming festival, and he asked Ellie if he could have her cupcake.  He's lucky he didn't lose a limb.

Adorable photobomb by Penn.

Rainbow cupcakes rock.

Ellie doing some hippy sand art project.  Now we have a bottle of multicolored sand on our mantel that says "LOVE."  How groovy.

Perched

Our dear friend Rob wrote a hilarious book called "My Unofficial (2nd to Last) Will & Testament" (it's available on Amazon, seriously, check it out!) and this is where I found Ellie when I got out of the shower the other day.   It actually looks like she's courting death perched there on top of all those suitcases.  Plus, I'm pretty sure some of the jokes in that book are, um, inappropriate.  

Awwww

I'm going to forget about all the screaming, bickering, not-eating, hollering, toy-grabbing, screaming, pushing, door-slamming, testing, snack-demanding, and screaming (did I mention the screaming?), and just focus on this.

My Big Kid

Last week Brian noticed that Ellie was hunching over her tricycle, so he adjusted the seat and lengthened the distance to the pedals.  He also removed the pole that we used to push her around Brooklyn before her feet could reach the pedals.  Yesterday she begged me to push the seat back again because she's "still growing" and is a "big kid" now.  And it's true, next week she starts summer camp and then school in the fall.  She really is a big kid.  But slow down, darling!  You didn't grow that much in a week!  Let me take a deep breath and try to catch up.

Father's Day

We're only half way through Father's Day, but so far it's a keeper.  To start with, Brian returned yesterday from a 5-night business trip in California...So really we were all just so darned happy to see him it was bound to be a good day.

We let him sleep in (as one should on Father's Day) but then he made the pancakes because I totally fail at making breakfast.  It's true.  I make some pretty amazing oatmeal, but other than that it's cold cereal and bananas.  Want something warm, comforting, and drowning in maple syrup?  Talk to Brian.

After breakfast we explored a local park, and now Bri and Ellie are off visiting animals at the Nature Center while Gabe naps and I put my feet up after a long week of single parenting.  Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there.  You're doing great.

Time Flies

Just a boy and an inchworm...Gabe was totally fascinated by this little guy crawling across our blanket at Croton Point Park.

And I'm amused by these two shots of Gabe...taken two days shy of exactly a year apart, at the same park and with the same friends.  How much has changed in a year...But Gabe still enjoys his snacks, and has the most rockingest hair ever.

A Little Light Reading

This went up on Facebook earlier, but I just can't help myself. Don't worry, Gabe...I've never quite finished it either.

Something's Lurking in My Pantry

Scenes from a Random Sunday

Right after my Dad and Kathy headed home following their weekend visit, and a couple hours before our sewer line backed up and flooded the basement (#ohthejoysofhomeownership, #whygodwhy) we enjoyed a couple peaceful hours in the backyard...

Street Fair!

Brian and I are huge street fair people.  Every year in Brooklyn we'd invite a slew of people to take in the Fifth Avenue Fair and then barbecue in our teeny tiny yard.  It was awesome.  While nowhere near the size, the our local Street Fair is still super fun.  Really, anytime the streets are blocked off and you can buy a spiked lemonade curbside should be a national holiday.

The best part of this year is that we convinced my Bklyn-Sister-Wife to come stay with us Saturday night and hit the street fair on Sunday.  Ellie was thrilled to have Paul here, and Gabe even shared his trains.

We started the weekend at the Boat Club.  Brian and Kiowa spent the whole time fantasizing about buying boats while the kids threw their hotdog buns in the water for the geese.  I really, really love the Boat Club, but need to remember to check their live music schedule before heading down.  It's a much calmer scene for the kids when a band isn't rocking the joint.

Gabe was absolutely beside himself that he could actually GO ON A FIRETRUCK at the street fair.  Thanks, Firemen.  You really know how to make a kid's day.

And last, but not least, there were pony rides!According to Ellie, she had the fastest horse.  Yeah, he really looks like a speed-demon.