E, G, and a Wooly Bear

Rainy Day Drawing

Birthday Roundup

Someone's SIX!

...and someone else pulled off a Hello Kitty Birthday Cake,

 which may have been my accomplishment of the month...

Mira and I got to stop by her school and read to her class.  It was strangely intimidating, but awesome.

And the whole gang at the party!  Hi, Uncle Todd!

Ch..ch...ch...changes!

I've noticed the blog goes dark whenever we're dealing with some emotional issues over here.  Moving out of the city?  I barely posted for months.  Going back to work?  Crickets on the blog.  Leaving work and staying home again?  We've been dark for almost three weeks.  Wait, what's that?  Yep, I left my job.  After all the upheaval of getting a job, finding a nanny, and working for seven months, we came to the decision that it just wasn't working for our family.  Financially it was a wash - "hello!  politicians!  let's do something about the cost of childcare!" - which would have been okay if the job had made me happy, or I had felt like it was furthering my career.  But ultimately neither of those things was happening, so I chose not to continue.  I have mixed feelings about it, really.  I am THRILLED to be back with the kids, but disappointed that a position I thought would be a good thing for our family didn't work out that way.  Who knows, hopefully in the future I'll find something I like better, maybe it will be a little closer, maybe it will be part-time, maybe it won't happen until M is in school and we don't have to hand over my entire salary to pay someone else to watch her.  But for right now, I'm back home and loving it.

So here's to re-commencing regular blog posts!

Let's start with this...Ellie's first race!  I am so proud of her, she ran a whole mile with only a couple walking breaks.  I really hope this is the first of many races together.  This also may be one of my favorite pictures ever.  Just look at her.  She's so proud of herself.

The Gang

Hitting the mean streets.

Look Who's Walking

This has been going on for a little while now, but look at her go!

Big Sister

Mira is so lucky...

Five!

Our new tradition is a family picture after services on Rosh Hashanah.

Shana Tova!  We had a great day.  Services, followed by yummy dinner with friends.  The kids were up far too late, as it should be.  And someday we're going to make it through services without having to threaten them with bodily harm.  It's hard to feel contemplative when you want to throttle your children.

Mira Bira

Her eyes remain a total mystery to me...

First Day of First Grade!

Outside before she left.

And dropped of by Dad at the school.

"Do Not Book" Weekend

Sometimes, our life can be a little, um, over-scheduled.  Not in terms of the kids flitting from class to class or anything like that (I'm sure that's coming), but just in terms of our weekend plans.  Especially in the summer, it can feel like we're never just home, doing nothing.  So when we found ourselves with an unexpectedly free weekend we marked it as "DO NOT BOOK" in the family calendar.  Which left us free to book some chill last minute plans, and even do laundry.  It was great.  I think from now on we need at least one "DO NOT BOOK" weekend per month.

Saturday we popped in to the city to check out Sri's new apartment, and roofdeck, and lounge, and playroom, etc.  Essentially we're moving in.  Though Ellie couldn't understand why all the people on the roof were wearing bathing suits since there wasn't a pool.  Essentially, I want to live on Sri's pull-out sofa.  We hit the Intrepid too.

"No, Uncle Sri, this is how you drive a helicopter."

How cool that we got to see the Enterprise?

Sunday, I literally did laundry all day.  And then we put on a little impromptu shadow puppet show before bed.  A dinosaur rendition of "Are You My Mother?"  I have to say, it was pretty cool.

Summer Park Night

Summer's almost over, so let's wring every last bit of awesome out of it.  Brian's out of town on business, but tonight was our last chance to enjoy music at the river park.  So away we went.  Because sometimes you have to live a little and keep the kids up too late, even though you're seriously outnumbered.  And it was great, until it was time to go home - and one kid started screaming about wanting Italian Ice, and the other complained that we didn't stay long enough, and "everyone in the whole world is still there."  God love them.  I'm focusing on Gabe showing me his "new moves" and dancing his little heart out, Mira ALMOST walking, and Ellie running around like a mad-woman with a friend from school.  Good times.

Still Dutch Wonderful

In 2012 we went to Dutch Wonderland with Mike and Sari and had an awesome time.  We said "let's do it again next year!"  Well, it took a few more years than that, but we finally pulled it off.  And it was just as great as I remembered.

Seriously, she's enormous.  (And ready to walk any day....shall we take bets?  I say next Thursday)

Daddy, Uncle Mike, and Mira - riding a gondola, as you do.

The "Whip" ride was a huge favorite.

The (still) excruciatingly slow bulldozer ride.

And just for comparison...the same ride three years ago.

Other things that happened....I may have been the coward that made a CHILDREN'S RIDE stop so I could get off, but in my defense, I swear Ellie didn't like it either.  Sure, she said she wanted to go on again, but "with daddy this time" but she was just putting on a show of being brave, really.  Also, I got called out by the teenage girl running the Super Slide for being afraid of heights...but what does she know about what a mother will do for her children.  Oy.  Amusement parks aren't really my thing.  Here's hoping the kids are happy with Dutch Wonderland until they're 15.

Hudson Little Fish

Just another day swimming in the Hudson...there's a chance the boat may not be with us next year, and that is gonna make for some cranky water-babies.

Snoozing on the Boat

Sometimes a girl's just gotta sleep.

Post-nap with some buddies.  Don't they look like Charlie's Angels?

Florida Part Two

Just the girls.

Five!

Florida Part One

Oops!  We went to Florida and I forgot to post pictures!

Look at them, just rearing to go.  Our flight was at 6am so we didn't bother getting dressed.  And we STILL almost didn't make it.

Family selfie on the way to the pool!

Mommom took the bigs to Butterfly World, so Mira got to go to lunch at Houston's.  I want to go back.  Always, and forever.

And then this happened at Butterfly World.  Nice picture, Mommom!

And Mira went to the beach for the first time!  She approves.

Date Night!

Brian and I were able to get out on the town while my mom was visiting.  

Of course, "on the town" means playing beer pong in the parking lot of the JCC.

Gotta love it.

Phone Photo Cache

Sometimes, you just have to empty out the pictures from your phone without any rhyme or reason.

Someone turned 40!  And it wasn't Ellie.  But we spent the day in Brooklyn celebrating anyway.

I can't help it....I just LOVE this little white denim jacket.

How many kids does it take to spin a salad?

The Boat! She Runs!

After a terrific start to the season, the boat broke down again...But look!  She's back!

We celebrated with a really fun day with the Walkers.  

Down the Harlem River (much more fun on the boat than on our daily train commute) and then up to Sleepy Hollow for a little beach action.  All hail Buddy the Boat!

Swimming in the Hudson?  Sure!  Just don't think too hard about it.