New York Stringhams

Sliding

2011-12-17T19:57:00.000-08:00

Just thought you'd like to see an adorable video of L learning to slide.

Don't Laugh

2011-12-17T19:52:00.000-08:00

I'm taking an online art classes where I'm learning to draw and paint whimsical faces. Here are my first two attempts:

Before you judge me too harshly here are some pictures of art the teacher has produced. As I said, "WHIMSICAL"

Writing doesn't get much better than this

2011-12-17T19:47:00.000-08:00

I got to attend parent teacher night and the teachers had samples of the students' work outside the doors. The particular assignments I was reading over were brain dumps where the children were given a topic and had to write everything they could about the subject. Most kids had a paragraph or two. A had pages and pages. I couldn't help but take a few pictures of A's writing. Let me share some of my favorite quotes from this page:

"Some nature lives inside other nature. Like owls live in trees. Juice lives in fruit." He, he, he. Juice lives in fruit.
"Sometimes nature helps peple. If you fall you might catch yourself on a tree and clim down."

"There are many different types of animals, some you may like. (yay!) Others you may won't. (Boo.)
Some animals are stuffed. All you do is find an animal you like, make a skin, and stuff it."

Guess who

2011-12-17T19:36:00.001-08:00

...got to try cake after dinner.

Long Days

2011-12-17T19:35:00.000-08:00

A will be in "The King and I" soon and has been practicing a couple of days a week after school. Unfortunately by the time she finishes play practice and we ride the subway home it's almost seven. Everyone is pretty tired by that time and there is still dinner and homework to get done. The play should be worth it though, her parts are sounding really great so far.

A field trip to the zoo

2011-12-17T19:33:00.000-08:00

You can't dis beautiful days in the fall.
They need to be enjoyed out with friends.

What could be more fun than surrounding and chasing a poor duck up and down the ramp in the aviary?

Not much, my friend. Not much.

Artisan Bread? Yes, please.

2011-12-17T19:27:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago I bought the book "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day" (or some such titled book) along with two non-stick bread pans. The book delivered all that it promised. Since the purchase we have had homemade bread, without any hard labor, many, many nights this fall. The missionaries thought it was so tasty that they ate two whole loaves (well, we had a little) while they were here. Oh bread, you and I need to put a little distance between ourselves. My middle seems to believe you need a permanent home around my waist. Muffin top? Ha! Bread loaf top is more like it. I think I'm drooling.

Mom and H, Random Blurry Pictures

2011-12-17T19:22:00.000-08:00

Just some random stuff for your viewing pleasure.

When you're stuck at home with Mom all day there are plenty of opportunities for her to take your picture on her crappy phone camera.

She'll take pictures of you with your drawings

She'll take pictures of you giggling in your new dress by the door

She'll take pictures of you holding up the reduced fries box at McDonalds

She'll take pictures of you having sack races in a plastic bag,

and wearing her glasses,

and playing with water and pots and pans,

and riding the horse while out shopping,

and she'll even take pictures of you building block towers. Don't worry, you only have another year of this before school. The pictures have to stop sometime, right?

Uhm...

2011-12-17T18:54:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of November H came out with this get-up on. Do I need to be worried?

Trick or Treat

2011-12-17T18:52:00.000-08:00

This year we went trick-or-treating with our dear friends, the Vogelmanns. We decided to start on Metropolitan Ave but found that to be insane with two adults and 10 kids. For those who don't know, in NYC the shops give out candy to the kids on Halloween. It can be very fun, but very busy! We walked about four blocks in the downtown area and then decided to turn into the neighborhoods to finish off. What a relief it was to be on the quieter streets! It was also soooo.... nice to have E, J, and W there to help with the little ones.

Ballerina

Snoopy

Pumpkin

Butterfly Fairy?

Flower

Elizabeth managing to keep her head on straight

Tigger

E helping Tigger down the stairs (a great way for E to get some candy too!)

A very grumpy strawberry

Coming into and going out of the stores

Candy!

Candy?!

Adorable!

This Storm Trooper made his costume from scratch! So awesome!

Stop taking my picture

The crowds

Pumpkin intermission

A turn onto easy street

A visibly happier strawberry--candy will do that.

Honestly, STOP with the pictures!

I think we might be done. Yipee!

Ward Halloween Party 2011

2011-12-17T18:27:00.000-08:00

Still playing catch-up here with the blogging. The Primary, and consequently me as the Primary President, was in charge of the Ward Halloween Party this year. We decided to do a carnival and recruited people to do: a cupcake decorating table, face painting, relay races, eating donuts off a string, board games, bobbing for apples (didn't really think through how disgusting that would be!), etc... Cindy Russell (my former 1st counselor) made beautiful paintings for the wall and we had a pie contest and a drawing for a picture of President Monson. I think it turned out well. For those who are in the ward and are interested in seeing if we have photos of you--we might. I don't think many ward members read this blog so I'll mainly post pictures of my family since that's what the Grandparents will be most interested in.

Can you tell what each member of my family went as? Need some clues? How about I just tell you.
E was the invisible man
A was a ballerina
H was a strawberry
J was Charlie Brown
(can you guess the rest of the family now? no?)
L was Snoopy
Rob was Linus
and I was....Marci :) from the Peanuts cartoons :) Get it now?

Hurray for the Park

2011-12-17T18:15:00.000-08:00

These photos were back at the end of October but I just couldn't resist posting them. Be prepared for baby overload...I cannot get over how joyful L looks in them. Tell me you don't just want to eat her up. Go on, tell me.

Super Girl

2011-12-17T18:05:00.000-08:00

So for one of A's best friend's birthdays we made her a cape and mask (A and N play Super N and Weight Girl almost everyday at school). Before we packed it away to give to N we took some photos of A wearing it.

Good heavens! I just barely noticed a spot on the cape, and we gave it to her friend like that! Eeeeek! I guess that's what happens when you have lots of kids running around your handmade projects.

Cold-hearted Snake

2011-12-17T17:53:00.000-08:00

Today Rob was scanning some old papers and stumbled on this gem that A wrote. We couldn't believe how self-centered the main character was!

Speaking of other projects

2011-10-21T17:40:00.000-07:00

I spend way too much time on Pinterest. In my defense, I do end up making many of the projects that I see on there. Here are a few things I've been working on over the past few months:

(A seashell wreath)

(A picture I painted for my sister based on those made by Ashmae coupled with a painting of the Salt Lake Temple that I bought from her.)

(This wreath was made using foam from the hardware store. It was too big to support the weight of the decorations so I've learned my lesson for next time.)

Name Plates

2011-10-21T16:22:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of Lil Blue Boo? If you haven't, you're missing out! I consider her to be one of the best crafters around and she has inspired me to try numerous different projects. One of the things she inspired me to do was to start painting name plates to give as gifts. She has some excellent tutorials that you can find on her site here:http://www.lilblueboo.com/artwork-and-journalingI thought you might like to see some of the ones I've been making. If not, too bad because here they come:

(This one was framed but I can't find the picture I took of it for the life of me. I'll keep looking.)

(If you look closely you can see an albino peacock behind the lettering)

I realize that I need to lighten some of the pictures but that'll have to be on another day.

Back to School

2011-10-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

Hmmm... school started over a month ago but it seems I never posted anything about our back-to-school activities. So, without further adieu, here is our back to school evening & special dinner (with homemade pizza) and the first day of school photos. Oh, and notice our new IKEA table that we have to use and take down each day since a $200 craigslist baby grand piano takes up our entire living room!

(braids for curly hair on the first day!)

(not going to school quite yet, but ready just in case)

(the fruits of her braids)

(not yet, baby, not yet)

The US Open

2011-08-28T18:12:00.000-07:00

Recently my friend Elizabeth asked if I would like to go to the free US Open tennis matches with her and her children (the before the official start practice rounds). I was a bit trepidatious...10 children with only two adults to manage them? In the end I agreed because you should never turn down a chance to go to the Us Open. We ended up parking at the Hall of Science and hiking over but found that our route there was on a very busy road (we took a different route on the way home). We got through the baggage check and went into the first court we found. It turned out to be Vincent Millot playing against Zach Fleishman. For all my concern the kids were actually really well behaved. The older kids were interested in the match and I had a white board and some coloring books for the younger kids. When H and L were thoroughly done I took them outside with their friend, M, and waited by the fountains until the rest of the kids and Elizabeth came to join us. I am really glad she suggested we go; what a great memory that will be. (I think Millot won.)

Swinging at the park

2011-08-28T18:00:00.001-07:00

Guess Who Can Almost Crawl

2011-08-28T17:59:00.000-07:00

Crayon Painting

2011-08-15T10:09:00.000-07:00

Turns out Pinterest is as addictive as everyone online is saying and one of the pictures making the rounds is of a canvas with melted crayons dripping down it. I love the look but it was $75 on etsy! Eeek! So, it was time to make our own. We used a $5 canvas, two packs of $1 crayons, some hot glue sticks, and a blow dryer. We hot glue-gunned the crayons to the canvas and then melted them with the hairdryer. A was aghast that we were using "perfectly good crayons" in such a cruel manner, but I love the end result. I think it will make a perfect piece of art for the girls' room.

The Beach and some Rockets

2011-08-14T19:28:00.000-07:00

O.k., really, what could be cooler than a day at the beach with friends coupled with setting off some rockets? We have some wonderful friends we know from A's first grade class who have been so dear to make the effort to come out to our area and play. Last Saturday N and her Dad drove out to spend the day with us at the beach. Carl knows everything about rockets and helped the kids build their own paper rockets before we left. It was overcast so we were a little iffy about the beach but we went up to Orchard Beach and it ended up being great.

The kids dug holes, swam in the surf, and L ate the sand (boy did she LOVE the sand!).

Carl was so kind to go out in the water with my kids while I stayed on shore with the baby.

We finally wrapped up our beaching and went out in the middle of the parking lot to set off the rockets. I was a little nervous and asked Carl if he ever had the cops stop him to find out what he was doing and he reassured me that if they came by he would deal with them. The rockets were amazing!

Poor Carl had to pump up all the air in between flights and I felt like he was a real trooper to keep doing that so the kids could have their fun.

Each child got to push the button to launch their rocket and I was amazed at how high each rocket went in the air.

After doing 5 or 6 launches who should appear but the cops! Eeeek!

They drove up, asked what we were doing, and then said something to the effect of, "Wow, that sounds so cool. Can we watch?" What a relief. They watched us launch a few and then drove off to find something else to look at.

It was such a fun day and we feel so blessed to have such good friends. (And they brought me "Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians" which I have been dying to get my hands on for three or four years now. Hurray!)

Tripping

2011-08-14T14:19:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else's child have a problem with tripping? H trips every single day of her life, I kid you not. Not only does she trip and cut herself, but she complains about it for weeks afterwards--refusing to get completely healed scars wet, refusing to sleep without a bandaid, and generally causing mayhem over her "ouchies". This one, though, was legit. Poor thing. She decided to walk on a brick wall without holding my hand; I turned to talk to a friend and then heard a scream. Ugh.

The Pageant III

2011-08-14T14:09:00.000-07:00

Everyone had so much fun that evening. I actually skipped ahead in the last post because upon getting back to the campground we actually decided to go swimming before dinner. That was so fun for everyone!

After swimming I gave the little girls showers and then we cooked up some hot dogs and smores. The little girls ran around between our campground and another one with some little kids, Rob told the kids ghost stories about their grandparents (to the great amusement of the boys), and the little girls went to bed while the boys stayed up watching part of National Treasure in the car and I read for a little while.

The next morning I decided we were between a rock and a hard place and took the little girls out (both screaming) before everyone else woke up to get some milk for breakfast. We followed the GPS instructions to three different stores before we finally found one that was open.

After breakfast we started packing up the campsite when Rob tried to fix one of the tent poles (connected by a band) that one of the boys had put away wrong. It snapped back at him and hit him across his eye, leaving a huge blood blister above his eye and narrowly missing his actual eyeball. I had him lay down with ice while we tried to finish things up, and then we drove home.

Rob ended up having to go to the eye doctor since he couldn't see anything but a glaring spot on the bottom of his field of vision, but luckily he recuperated and can still see. Yeah!

I'm so glad we had the chance to spend some time together as a family. Maybe next year I'll have recuperated enough to try it again.

The Pageant Part Deux

2011-08-13T20:53:00.000-07:00

With everyone floating on a sugary cloud of happiness we went off to find the Martin Harris farm. Martin Harris mortgaged his farm to help fund the publication of the Book of Mormon. It turns out that his house no longer stands and you aren't allowed in the house that is currently there (Rob thinks the "private residence" sign probably means the Mission Presidents for the area live there) so the best we could do was stand outside and take pictures.

At this point I was running on very little sleep, no one had had a proper lunch, I was probably coming off a sugar high, the two little girls were crabby, and I had been fielding a lot of negative comments about why children were being dragged to various places. So, I'm afraid I got a bit grumpy and told everyone that I was through deciding where we were going to go next. After about a 10 minute wait to make sure I wasn't going to change my mind Rob decided to take everyone to a fun outdoor sprinkler park.

We made a last minute detour at Joseph Smith's house and the sacred grove (how could we not stop there?) but I ended up having to stay in the car For Ev Er nursing the baby and trying to get her to take a short nap.

Turns out much of the wait was because Rob ran into our old home teacher, Greg Rowe, and had a nice chat with him. I was hoping to see Kelli but we drove around the parking lot with no luck.

After that it was out to the water park where we spent a steaming half hour in the car trying to get everyone changed into swimsuits and trying to get the motivation up to go outside. Once we got to the park Rob layed down to doze off, E refused to go in and held L, and I was left with a grumpy H, and J and A to go into the park. We were there for a grand total of 10 minutes before someone came on a loud speaker to say that parents must stay with children and all young children needed on plastic pants over their swim diapers. Then they closed the park for a half hour. Ugh.

H wanted to go to the beach but it was about 30 feet wide and all 3,000 people (or so it seemed) left the park to go to the beach. So, we packed everyone back into the car and headed to the grocery store for some hot dogs and smores materials.

We got to the campground just in time to whip up a tasty dinner.

"The" Pageant

2011-08-13T20:32:00.000-07:00

I was pretty insitent this year that Rob take a day off work and that we head up to the Hill Cumorah Pageant. (For those who don't know the Hill Cumorah Pageant is a play our Church puts on every year chronicling the history of the Book of Mormon--one of our books of scripture). Rob obliged and we took off for a little holiday. We decided to camp and I was actually excited about the prospect. We got to the camp ground pretty late but we were able to set up our tents before we took off for the Pageant.

I don't know why but as soon as we drove into the pageant grounds I started to sniffle. I don't know if it's the good memories I have from doing this as a teenager or the testimony I have our the authenticity of the Book of Mormon but whatever the case I always get a little weepy at the Pageant. While we were waiting for everything to begin we bumped into the Stake President of the Manhattan Stake (Buckner) and his family. Then we ran into some Hispanic Sisters from the Inwood 2nd Ward. Then Rob saw the sister of one of his best friends from high school in Utah! What a small world.

Look at this little doll!

The production was as wonderful as ever, although H got bored half-way through and I had to keep her occupied by talking to her about every detail on the stage, in the sky, or on the ground that I could think of. L was exhausted but held on like a trooper until the very end.

The kids were a bit disturbed by the anti-Mormons who stood outside shouting that we were all brainwashed and asked quite a number of questions.

Eventually we got back to the tents and everyone fell asleep immediately.

The next morning we had some breakfast and went to a little playground in tthe campground. After hearing some girls in the showers talking about what sights they were going to see I decided we should hustle over to see what we were interested in before it got too crowded.

We started with the place where the Book of Mormon was printed. Amazingly we got there right as a little Spanish speaking group needed a translator so I tried to shephard the five kids along as Rob acted as guide and translator for the other group.

Can you tell how excited E was to be posing for pictures? :)

J asked some questions about the masking that happened during the printing process.

At about the third floor it became too much for me to try and deal with the cranky little girls so I handed the older ones off to Rob and took the two younger ones out to the car. H watched a movie and ate a bagel while I nursed L and tried to keep cool. Pretty soon Daddy came out with the older kids and took all of us to a corner candy store where he bought everyone milk shakes, slushies, fudge, truffles, and candy and for a few minutes life was good again. Really good!

Track

2011-08-13T19:34:00.000-07:00

J and A have been running track this summer and so two days a week we head out to brave the sun and wait for the kids to finish. We spend the first hour under the trees at the far end of the track with friends and then finish up the next hour-and-a-half at the playground in the sprinklers. Here is the kids' favorite tree.

A Miracle?

2011-08-13T19:30:00.000-07:00

About a month ago we got quite serious about getting a piano in the house. Rob has missed playing and when we had the opportunity to get a free one from a meetinghouse that was about to be demolished we jumped at the chance. Unfortunately the piano was three floors up and the stairs were quite rickety so the cost to move the piano was going to be $800. Ugh! Rob was browsing on Craigslist and came across a baby grand. We weren't too serious about it but we thought it would be fun to look at. So, after church one Sunday we drove up to see it.

Rob played it. We liked it. We bought it! And then, miracle of miracles, this happened on the way home.

All five kids asleep in the car at the same time? I still can hardly believe it!

Here is our new purchase:

It takes up most of the living room, but boy, you should hear Robbie play!

At the Park

2011-08-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

Before summer got into full swing we were lucky enough to have Heide and Z come out to play at the park with us. A and Z had a wonderful time together and especially loved making chalk paint. Here are some pictures from the day.

Queens Zoo

2011-08-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

When school let out we thought it would be fun to go with the Vogelmanns to the Queens Zoo. It was a beautiful day and we had so much fun spending time with them. Of course, I forgot my camera, so the pictures are less than ideal.

One of the first stops was looking at the alligators and feeding the ducks. I had some quarters we used to feed the ducks but the kids were quite intrepid and spent some time scouting the ground for stray food that had fallen. We ended up spending quite a bit of time on that stretch of bridge ;)

Here is E trying to get a good angle for picture taking.

There was a mother heron? with an egg out in the middle of the pond and many of the mothers wanted to know why she had to sit out in the hot sun while the father was hanging out under the trees.

This was a typical scene as the kids ran from exhibit to exhibit.

These were typical expressions from the happiest baby we have ever had.

Here's a whole slew of group shots (be forewarned--it's a SLEW)

We saw some beautiful flowers near the aviary and got some "I'll smile, but I'm not going to like it" shots.

We ended the day at the petting zoo, which was where H wanted to be all day. They used the last of my quarters to feed the goats and then we went out and E treated everyone to slushies. Yum! What a wonderful day with friends!

Last Day of School

2011-08-10T11:33:00.000-07:00

A with Katherine

J with Josh

Guess who cut her hair

2011-08-10T11:30:00.000-07:00

This was after a hair cutting incident in April, right before family pictures. There was a stern talking to then so I was amazed when we had the same problem. I told H that she absolutely was not allowed to cut her own hair and then she answered, "But Mom, Mulan cut her own hair. And she's a big girl, and her Daddy didn't see her do it."

Well that led to a whole conversation about how naughty Mulan was and how she shouldn't have cut her own hair OR run away from her Daddy. It also led to a short ban on watching the show.

Should I be concerned that two weeks ago H came to me to tell me that she was going to go shopping and all she needed was her helmet, her backpack, and her scooter and not to worry because she had some money in her back pocket and she would be back soon?

Rubik Cube

2011-08-10T11:26:00.000-07:00

Wow, I'm further behind than I realized. O.k., this past semester J had a Rubik cube cluster where he learned how to solve it. At the final celebration the teacher surprised everyone by bringing in the 4 square world champion (I hope I got that right). He answered a few questions and then solved a bunch of Rubiks cubes for everyone. He did the smallest one in seven seconds! I'm really regretting how crappy my pictures turned out but here you go, it's the best I could do:

L and T

2011-08-10T11:19:00.000-07:00

L has a little friend at church who is two months younger but I think has surpassed her in size. Here they are two months ago hanging out on the couch.

Now-a-days L rolls over to T and tries to eat his face. Ah, friendship.

Just because

2011-08-10T11:16:00.000-07:00

I was trying a couple of months ago to get a good picture of L but she always has a double chin when I try to hold her with one hand. Oh well. Take a good look at how dark her hair was--it's almost completely blond now!

Church Time

2011-08-10T11:12:00.000-07:00

Just a few blurry "going to church" pictures for your viewing pleasure (darn that low lighting and cell phone camera).

*Notice L's "deer in the headlights" pose in every picture. The blinking light before each photo really concerns her :)

The Velodrome

2011-08-10T11:06:00.000-07:00

I know I have an older post about the Velodrome but I thought we could explore the subject more fully. I also know you could look this all up on your own but, being the lovely person I am, I've decided to do all the work for you. You're welcome.

What is a velodrome?

A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights. The straights transition to the circular turn through a moderate easement curve.

Why do we care about a velodrome?

Because my boys are currently in a biking program and using the velodrome at Kissena park. And, they are starting to win all the races during practice. Sometimes by a lot. Using strategies. Like, letting the three front runners battle it out and get really tired and then coming up from behind during the last lap and dusting them all. Can you tell I'm proud?

What does the Kissena Park Velodrome look like?

I'm so glad you asked! Here are some pictures of the girls wandering around the outside of the track.

(View of the side of the track from the bleachers)

(The starting line)

What do you do while the boys are biking?

Well, the hour and a half is mainly filled with walking on a little path, around fallen trees, and over to a small park with sprinklers in it. The girls play on the playground, swing, and run through the sprinklers, and sometimes we make it back in time to see the boys finishing up their races.

I hope you have enjoyed our foray into the Velodrome. See you next post!

Catching Up...

2011-08-10T07:57:00.000-07:00

I just forced my dear hubby to help me upload all of my phone photos so now I can catch up on all our goings on over the past few months. First...traveling. We most often use the car these days but we still occasionally ride the subway. Here are some photos of H and L for your viewing pleasure:

A Pioneer Experience

2011-07-24T18:18:00.000-07:00

So, today was pioneer day; the day on which we Mormons fondly and tearfully recall all the sacrifice and hardship our ancestors endured to build Zion in the West. Honestly, I love my family's pioneer stories and I get weepy when I hear my favorite song, "Come, Come Ye Saints."

This week we had our own pioneer experience. On Friday at 9:00 pm Hubby and I were watching SYTYCD when the power went out. Apparently our area is low on the totem pole of power priorities because this has happened a few times before. We weren't too worried and went about our lives with flashlights. When we called ConEd to report the outage we were assured that the power would be back on by 3 am. Oh, what a miserable night that was. The heat was at 96 on Friday and on Saturday I heard reports of the heat ranging from 100-105 degrees. The little girls were roasting in their room and H kept waking up and screaming. Every time she did, L would start screaming as well. I would get them both quiet and L would start screaming and wake H up. It was a vicious cycle and by 5 am I was ready to clobber someone at ConEd. Where was our power?! The new quote ended up being 11 am. Rob ran out to get ice and buy coolers and we spent part of the morning packing coolers with items from our fridge.

The boys had to go to the Velodrome so we whizzed over there and finally got L to sleep in the cool air in the car. We didn't dare go home after biking so we went to Wendy's to try and stay cool. We finally decided Star might be in trouble and went home to check on our dog. Luckily she was o.k. and the power started coming back on in fits and spurts. It was "grey" power that seemed to be only 1/4 of the strength we normally have and it would only last 10 minutes at a time. Finally, in the afternoon, it came on downstairs and in the girls' room. I managed to get L down for a good nap before the power went off for a good hour and she woke up roasting. Rob was so hot that he took a cold, cold shower and then went out to run errands. The kids were doing o.k. downstairs and I stayed upstairs reading so I could hear if L woke up.

At 8 pm I heard some trucks pull up outside and went out to see ConEd in front of our place. I talked with the men, thanking them for finally getting our power back on, and then asked what had happened. I guess some power lines underground had a problem so they had spent the day rewiring the lines above ground. I was a bit bitter that our half of the apartment complex lost power while the other half of the building had power the entire time. Grrrr... H and A went across the street and met a little neighbor girl and played hopscotch for awhile. L and I just enjoyed standing around in the breeze. The power finally came on at 8:40 pm and we retreated inside to sit in front of the air conditioner. It's been a full day and the temp in the house is finally getting under 80 degrees.

As we ate dinner by flashlight, on the rug, in the cooler basement last night I talked with the kids about our pioneer ancestors and how this was the way the lived all of the time. We talked about how they didn't even have the luxury of flashlights and nice beds to sleep on, their beds were the hard ground under a wagon and their light was the moonlight or torches.

How grateful I am for their sacrifice and how grateful I am to live in a time where we have electricity. I hope we never have to go through that again.

I don't have any pioneer day pictures from today but A wore her bonnet and apron we made for the church pioneer day party last year.

d

Oh, at church today I teamed up with Elizabeth and we did a fun Sharing/Singing time for the kids. Elizabeth made a campfire out of a cardboard box, paper, and a lantern in the middle of the room and she made footprints for each child to sit on. We turned off all the lights and
decorated the room with pictures of pioneers and covered wagons. Then we took turns with me telling pioneer stories (including Mary Fielding Smith and the sick oxen, the Sweetwater crossing, and the ship Brooklyn among others) and she had the kids sing various pioneer songs. We mixed in a cake walk where the kids walked on the footsteps and got candy, a walk through buckets of icewater to see what the Saints dealt with at the Sweetwater river, and making butter and eating it on rolls. At the end I gave each kid a marshmallow as well--not pioneery but they all gathered around the fake fire and pretended to roast them. It was a bit of prep work; more for Elizabeth than for me, but I think the kids had a good time.

A Mystery Birthday Party

2011-06-26T20:10:00.000-07:00

We finally had A's seventh birthday party! She had been planning a mystery birthday party for months and we had a great time with the end result. A dressed up like Nancy Drew which meant coloring her hair red. I could not believe how much hair that girl has! We sprayed it with red spray but the spray ended up rubbing off on her dress. Hmmmm...

When her friends arrived we gave everyone a detective kit which my dear friend Sarah made. They were classified folders, hand-stamped with a classified stamp and hand-carved Nancy Drew, footsteps, and a robber on the inside. The folders came with magnifying glasses, a dossier about the different suspects who stole the goodie bags, and a code breaker.

After they received their kits they showed that they were good detectives by identifying various sounds that E played for them.

Then they had animals taped to their backs and had to ask questions to find out what the animals were. E was an amazing help and not only helped set everything up and clean for the party but he also came up with the clues for the mystery and changed all the clues so they had to decipher what the robber said in each clue. What a great kid!

A and her friends finally found the goodie bags and the bags contained: a Sher"lock" Holmes (can you find the key to the mystery) key necklace, a Nancy "Drew" pen, and a "Murder She Wrote" notebook.

The girls gave A beautiful gifts--a hand-made drawing pad with markers, and a cute thumb print book with ink and markers.

Party in the park

2011-06-26T19:20:00.000-07:00

Just a quick view of H's party with her friends in the park:

Sweet Girl

2011-06-25T21:31:00.000-07:00

Take a look at this sweet girl

Celebrating Birthdays

2011-06-25T21:13:00.000-07:00

For H's third birthday we decided to have a party in the park with her church friends. Amazingly Margaret, Ro'ya, and Alana all had birthdays within a month of each other so we ended up having a huge party for all four girls. We made some owl and butterfly cupcakes (super easy so H could help make them) and we put together some goodie bags for the kids. The bags had water guns, chalk, bubbles, and gummy monkeys and the kids had a blast shooting each other with water. Here are the girls getting ready to go to the park:

Grandma and Grandpa Stringham come

2011-06-25T21:03:00.000-07:00

This May we were so fortunate to have a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Stringham. It had been a couple of years since we last saw them so were were thrilled to be able to spend time with them again. Beth and Bryant are truly inspirations to us and were so sweet to bring the children some fun little gifts. J was missing but here are the rest of the kids with their grandparents:

We have a Three Year Old

2011-06-25T20:51:00.000-07:00

Last month H had her third birthday; how time flies! It was such a hot day that we went to Boston Market for a special birthday dinner and then got an icecream cake to celebrate.

She had a wonderful time opening her presents and got a cookie monster play dough set, a brand new kitchen, and a shopping cart.

H is such an adorable, yet intrepid little person. This week she cut her own hair, a huge fist full including three inch pieces from all around her head. When we had a big chat about it she told me that, "Mulan cut her hair with a sword, and her daddy didn't see her, and she was a big girl." Despite all the exciting times she brings to our family she is such a little sweetheart with her little sister and will bend over backwards to help L. She is extremely bright and speaks better than most children who are a year or two older. We are so happy to have her in our family; happy birthday little girl.

Velodrome

2011-06-25T20:26:00.001-07:00

Things are going to be a little out of order as I catch up on some things so bear with me. The boys were extremely lucky this past spring to get to learn how to bike on the Velodrome. For those who don't know the Velodrome is a banked track where you ride bikes. Last Saturday was the final celebration. E got a trophy for coming in second place in his race and J got an award for having perfect attendance.

There is an olympic hopeful who came to talk to them. He is a young man from Cuba who lost his arms and most of his face when he was a young teenager trying to rescue a kite off a power line with a metal rod. His message to the kids was to listen to their parents (apparently his parents told him to stay away from power lines).

Here is a picture of Damian Lopez Alfonso:

Here is J with his medal:

Can you spot the boys in the picture?

School Celebrations

2011-06-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

O.k., I've had enough trouble with Wordpress that I'm going to write here for awhile and then I'll transfer everything over at some other point.

On to end of the year school celebrations. We survived! It was an intense hour trying to keep the little two happy but it was so fun to see the older kids and all they've accomplished over the past few months. We started in J's classroom and got to watch him talk about the American Revolution:

J did such a good job this year. He even got the citizenship award which is only given to one boy and one girl in the classroom!

After watching J we ran over to A's classroom where they were having a Kevin Henkis celebration. A was dressed up as Wemberly and got to do so many fun things associated with the author and his books.

H's favorite part was probably doing the stickers that I brought along:

L was thrilled with the action but was quite worn out by the time we were done.

Great job kids!

Our Blog has Moved

2008-06-01T00:56:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note that we have moved our blog and can now be read at http://blog.stringham.name We hope to see you there!

Alexa turns Four

2008-05-15T11:26:00.001-07:00

On May 4th my little Alexa turned four years old. I cannot believe how much she is growing up! She went through every variation on what she wanted for a birthday party theme and finally decided she wanted a ladybug party.

I don't know where Rob loaded all the photos so I will have to talk to him and put some more up later. I'll post what I have for now and tell you what we did for the party.

When the kids showed up we started by coloring pictures of ladybugs and Tinker Bell. Alexa had decided last minute to dress up like Snow White and a few of her friends were quite disgruntled that they hadn't been told that they could dress like princesses as well. The problem was solved when they remembered Alexa's dress-up box and immediately changed into their own dresses.

After coloring we made ladybug hats. Each child got a visor and we glued on black spots and eyes and I attached little black antennas. We also made ladybug necklaces out of black and red beads. Poor Alexa dropped her beads so many times! Then we played "pin the ladybug on the leaf" and finished off with cake and icecream.

The cake was interesting because we invited a little girl who can't eat milk or eggs. I found a cake recipe with no milk and I read online that I could substitute a can of soda for the water, oil, and eggs. Well, the cake and cupcakes rose but they were so sticky and they fell apart really easily. So, I did my best to frost them but huge chunks of cake kept coming off every time I moved the knife. It was a bit of a disaster but Rose was so excited that she got to eat the same thing as everyone else. It was worth it just to see her little eyes light up! We had sorbet instead of ice cream so Rose could eat that as well and I think the kids were all happy and satisfied.

After cake and icecream we opened presents. Alexa got a Littlest Pet Shop set from Katie, a Princess Magnet game from Lexi, Barbie walkie talkies from Loretta, a Belle poly pocket type thing from Sarah, and a Cooties game from Rose. Alexa was so pleased with her party and her haul of presents.

Family Comes to Visit part deux

2008-05-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

Friday I had to teach an art class so we decided to divide and conquer. Mom took my kids to Bennett Park; Rob, Trace, and Eric went for a bike ride to New Jersey; and Cesia came with me and helped with the art class. Oh it was Heavenly to have Cesia help me with the class!

Afterwards we met up with mom at the park and then came home to eat and watch the kids play the Wii with Trace. We finally rallied a bit more energy and decided to visit the zoo. Since it was Spring Break apparently every other family had decided to visit the zoo as well (my friends have horror stories of going to free Wednesday and actually finding the zoo door closed from too many people). When we realized that the line reached almost back to the gates I decided that it wouldn't be worth going in for the last two hours before the zoo closed. We called Rob and tried desperately to brainstorm ideas on other places to go.

We ended up driving past what was supposed to be Edgar Allen Poe's cabin but it was a cabin that belonged to someone during a war. We ended up, after lots of wandering, going up to Wave Hill and walking around the gardens. They were beautiful and mom even treated me to a lime drink and made me sit down so I wouldn't work too hard.

That night we watched a movie and I think it was the night that mom and Cesia helped me sew barbie clothes for Alexa's birthday present.

Saturday I was feeling quite tired. We ended up dropping Eric off at the Ring garden for a cub scout activity and we took Mom, Trace, and Jonah to the Cloisters to look around. That left Rob, me, Cesia, and Alexa to go with Star to the dog park. Cesia and Alexa were hilarious and played a making up stories game followed by a game where one person made music and the other one had to dance. I was thoroughly entertained! We had just enough time after the dog park to run to New Jersey and go grocery shopping before going back to pick up everyone else.

After lunch Elizabeth Larsen came over to babysit and Mom treated Rob, Trace, Cesia, and me to a Broadway Show--Wicked! On the way there a man was trying to get people to take his bus tour and looked at my pregnant belly and said, "You really need to get in and rest." Then once we got inside a lady looked at my stomach and said, "Your seats are upstairs, do you need to use the bathroom." Obviously people are very concerned about my welfare.

The show was really fun although not one of us was sitting by another person in the group. I was on one side of a pillar, Rob was on the other side, and Cesia was on the other side of another pillar across the aisle. Mom was in front of me and Trace was off in the boonies by himself. We were up so high that they really pumped the music to make sure we could hear it. It ended up being so loud that I couldn't understand all of the singing and ended up making up my own lyrics during the show. "Sweeping the floor is WICKED...Everyone of us is feeling WICKED..." Rob was thrilled with the show and I agreed that it was a fun performance. Thanks for taking us mom!

Sunday we all went to church and then we spent a quiet afternoon at home. Trace and Cesia agreed to play Dutch blitz with me and then we played a rousing round of Settler's of Catan.

Monday they had to leave--which of course was devastating! We loved having them here to visit and can't wait for mom to come again when the baby is born.

Family Comes to Visit!

2008-05-15T10:11:00.001-07:00

Mom, Trace, and Cesia decided to come for a visit!!! Hurray! They arrived at some ridiculous time of night at the Newark airport on Rob's birthday, but I was so excited to see them that I didn't mind driving out at that time of night to pick them up. On Thursday, April 24th, we decided to visit a bunch of museums. Of course all three of them are in terrific shape so we decided to walk from our house to each of these places. Our first stop was the Track and Field Hall of Fame (since Trace and Cesia are both runners). Mom and I decided that the entrance fee was too high; it should have been $1/piece rather than $5/piece but we can now say we've been there. They had all kinds of problems getting the video rolling but we managed to entertain ourselves none-the-less. The kids could not have been more thrilled to be with their Aunt and Uncle and Grandma!

After the Track and Field Hall of Fame we walked over to the Morris-Jumel Mansion. Once again, a pretty steep entry fee when you consider that it is a self-guided tour! The grounds were beautiful though and it was really interesting to learn about where George Washington stayed.

After the mansion we headed across town to the Spanish American Historical society. At this point my camera died so I only have a few pictures of the statues. The man there kept following us around as if he didn't trust my three young children to not touch anything. Hmph! By the time we got home we were all pretty tired; except for our visitors. Mom ended up taking the kids to see a movie, Trace and Rob rented a bike for Trace and went for a bike ride, and I walked over to the "Little Dominican Republic" with Cesia where we bought Rob some t-shirts and a hat for his birthday and got stuff for dinner. When we got home we made a cake and then Rob and I went out to Cinco de Mayo in New Jersey for his birthday dinner while mom entertained my kids at home.

When Rob and I got back we had a little birthday party for him with cake and presents.

It was a very fun day, but I think I wore myself out!

Holy Cow!

2008-05-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

Tell me this isn't the biggest blueberry you have ever seen! What, are they dousing our fruit with growth hormones now?!

Washing the Dog

2008-05-15T09:55:00.001-07:00

O.k., Star only seems to like bath time when I am washing her. Most of the time she looks as upset as can be about getting a bath but the other day when I called Alexa over to take a bath, Star came running and jumped right in. Her favorite part is getting out and being clean--then she runs through the apartment, as fast as she can, back and forth and around in circles. The entire time her tail is wagging full force. The kids decided to bathe her the other day and you can see how much fun Star had...

A Tribute to Darth Vader

2008-05-15T08:42:00.001-07:00

Rob found this clip this morning and we got such a kick out of it that I thought I would share it.

Only in New York?

2008-04-16T13:02:00.000-07:00

Sunblock Man
There is a man who lives in our neighborhood and who I occasionally see walking around the streets. It's best to see him when spring or summer is here and the weather is warm. Today it is 64 degrees (? I think) and I saw Sunblock Man. I guess it's warm enough that he's started his ritual of slathering his face with sunblock. I'm not kidding when I say that he cakes it on and walks around with a completely white face. He has curly red hair up above and tends to wear a long brown coat. I think it's fantastic but I have seen him in the grocery store and have overheard the cashiers laughing at him in Spanish. Too bad they can't enjoy his eccentricity.

Explorer Man
One of my favorite sightings in New York was last year when Rob and I were driving in the car together. As we came down 181st we saw an older Chinese man (60ish?) with an explorer hat, khaki shirt and shorts, khaki vest with pockets, and hiking boots on. He was carrying a pick axe and a crow bar. For our lives we could not figure out where he was going to be excavating. It would have been great to know!

Beep Man
There is the greatest old man who wanders around the neighborhood. When you get right close to him he yells, "BEEP!" at the kids. The first time he did it the kids laughed and laughed. Then we ran into him again another time and he yelled, "Beep" a couple of times. One of the last times we passed him he yelled, "Mitzy, Mitzy." Hee, hee.

Unique things in our neighborhood
Having to yell, "Watch the poo," every few steps.

Being able to go to one of three different grocery stores, all within 1/2 a block of each other.

Being able to furnish your entire house just by picking up discarded items off the sidewalk.

Having a historic park one block from our house with a huge, fenced area for kids to play. The fenced area hasn't been open (except for the Harvest Festival and one or two other times) in 2 or 3 years because they are "reseeding" and don't want the kids' feet to ruin the grass; even though they don't have sprinklers and the hand-watering obviously isn't working and the children can't resist the urge to go in there and the grass will probably never grow. A waste of space in my mind!

Subway Begging

2008-03-31T17:07:00.001-07:00

Someone finally did it! Enjoy the video.

Pinewood Derby 2008

2008-03-24T17:45:00.000-07:00

Oh yes; it's that time of year again. I have to admit I have mixed feelings about the Pinewood Derby. I am awful at helping the kids to do well on this but the kids love making the cars and painting them. This year Rob spent a lot of time carving the cars out and putting the weights inside. It didn't work for our local race and the cars did not win any major prizes (although Hannah was great and each kid, siblings included, got a medal!). Rob then modified Eric's car and put one wheel up higher to reduce friction. The problem was that he put it too high and the balance was off--the car kept flipping off the track! Because Rob wasn't there to fix it (he was tutoring for 6 hours that day), and I didn't know how to fix it, Eric didn't win any races at the stake level either. Oh well! We are learning lessons and Jonah's cars should be brilliant by the time he's in scouts. I've included a picture of Alexa and her friend Katie right after they went to a princess party and we were waiting in the subway to go up to the derby.

Jonah's Star Wars Birthday Party

2008-03-24T17:39:00.000-07:00

This year Jonah really wanted a Star Wars birthday party and Rob did a great job of planning one for him. The kids started with a craft where they made a star wars scene and then they had to encase each other (like Hans Solo) in toilet paper. After they had to levitate like a Jedi as they walked across bubble wrap (they were trying to see who could make it across without popping anything) and then they played pin the laser gun on Princess Leah. I had made noodle light sabers and Rob printed off different Star Wars masks and the kids played keep the balloons off the floor with the light sabers for awhile. Jonah and Alexa helped me make a Death Star pinata and the kids had a blast trying to break that thing. Then we had cake and ice cream and opened presents. Happy birthday Jonah!

Relief Society Birthday Party

2008-03-24T16:54:00.001-07:00

Since I am the Enrichment Counselor in the Relief Society (a position in the Presidency of the women's organization at Church) I was highly involved in this year's celebration of the founding of the organization. I found a play online about the past Relief Society Presidents and I edited it to make it shorter and also added in our current President's information. Then I found people to read the skit. I also got the blue and yellow balloons, blue and yellow candles (one for each lady to take home), made a game where the women sent in baby pictures and people had to guess which lady was which, made a three tiered cake for the event, and showed up early and stayed late for set-up and clean-up. Linda did a terrific job planning the pasta bar and the women each brought their favorite pasta sauce, salad, or bread to contribute.

I think the evening went really well and am so thankful for the people who helped get this event pulled together. I'm also really grateful for Natasha for taking such great photos for me (mine are the bad group shots)! (Especially of my cake!!) The women seemed really impressed that there were three flavors of cake that they could choose from. Hurray for the Relief Society!

Jonah Turns Seven

2008-03-24T16:40:00.000-07:00

Well this year, on March 7th, Jonah turned 7 years old. When I woke him up and wished him a Happy Birthday he told me that it wasn't his birthday yet because he was born at 1:18 in the afternoon. I finally convinced him that his birthday was for the whole day, but it took a bunch of explaining. For his birthday he got Socker Boppers, a really cool transformer set that turns from ChewBacca and Hans Solo into the Millennium Falcon, and a Star Wars Lego Wii game. He LOVED his gifts!

Baby Shower Cake

2008-03-24T16:33:00.000-07:00

I had a woman call me at the beginning of February asking me to make a baby shower cake for her daughter (for the 1st of March). They said they wanted it for 80 people and then gave me a picture of a cake that could feed a few hundred. Anyway, I decided to make what I saw in the picture and this was the result:

I could hardly lift the darn thing and they had to have two strong men come to take it to the car. Luckily they loved it; but darn it that thing was a lot of work!

New Games

2008-03-24T14:31:00.000-07:00

Today Rob needed to tutor a student downtown and since we needed to move the car for alternate side parking he asked if Alexa and I would drive him downtown. We agreed and as we dropped Rob off Alexa and I started playing, "I spy." One minute later Rob called to say that his student wasn't coming and could we come pick him up again.

Rob got in the car and changed Alexa's "I spy" game from colors to things like, "I spy something bird-like." I told him the game was ridiculous so he started making up his own games. I don't remember what order they came in but I was almost in tears by the time he and Alexa were done and I thought I might have an accident from laughing so hard. Here are some of the games:

The knock-knock joke game. Alexa and Rob went back and forth making up the stupidest knock-knock jokes I've ever heard. Alexa thought they were funny and I guess that's what counts.

"If I had new lips." First person: If I had new lips they would be red. Next person: If I had new lips they would be red and heavy... etc.. (We played this for dinner tonight and this was how it went, "If I had new lips they would be: fuzzy, green, voluptuous, lampish, reptilian, pear-like, hard, loompish, skunky, and dead.")

"The American Flag is almost finished with..." Alexa made up this game and started by saying, "The American flag is almost finished with stickers." Then Rob was supposed to guess why the American flag was almost finished with stickers. He guessed and her answer, "Nope. Guess again." So we went through various different scenarios where the American flag was almost finished with strollers, and cars, etc.."

Then Rob thought it would be fun to play, "My hernia is inflamed because..." You get the gist.

I must have been in a silly mood because at the time the games seemed so ridiculous that I just couldn't stop laughing. It was a fun ride and we made it all the way to New Jersey before mom and dad were done with the games and needed a rest.

Jonah gets clobbered

2008-03-10T18:02:00.000-07:00

This is going back awhile but before our neighbor, Flora, moved she gave us her futon mattress. Seeing as how ours was getting pretty lumpy we were happy to receive her gift. We weren't sure what to do with our old one so for a little while we folded the mattress up on our other couch. Well, one day Alexa and Jonah took it into their little heads to play on top of it. Jonah was sitting on it and Alexa thought it would be funny to push it off the couch with her feet. Suddenly I heard a blood-curdling scream! Jonah had fallen off the mattress and hit his head on a base for lego building blocks. He hit it so hard that it left blood blisters on the back of his head. I don't know how well you can tell from this picture but he has a long row of blood blisters across the back of his head in the exact shape of a lego base.

A Visit to the Anderson's

2008-03-10T17:50:00.000-07:00

While we were on our winter break (a week the kids get off in the middle of February. I know! It doesn't make much sense to me either...why not just get them out a week earlier instead of pushing the school year to the last week in June?) we went to visit the Andersons. They have a great house up North in New York. It was really fun to visit with them again and the kids had a marvelous time running around their HUGE basement. We ended up going with them to the library for a little play about Aladdin and I took some pictures of the kids. Here are the boys:

And here are Lisa and her adorable new baby, Rachel:

Here are Rebekah and Alexa in the basement playing:

A First

2008-03-10T17:47:00.000-07:00

I have tried a few times to do an inverted French braid and it never works. This time I did it and it actually looked o.k.! So, I documented it. Here is my first inverted French braid.

Chinese New Year

2008-03-10T17:12:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a pretty long blog so get ready.

Our Stake puts on a Chinese New Year Celebration every year and this was the first year that our family went. It was great (which is why I am going to chronicle the events in depth)! We started by eating some Chinese food.

While we ate we were entertained by some Chinese musicians.

The kids had their names written in Chinese.

Some lovely older Chinese women entertained us with traditional dancing.

Ned Butikofer and another man performed a song about wanting dumplings.

The missionaries did a great skit about the zodiak animals having a face off. The kids loved the chicken dance and got up to perform it themselves.

Alexa won a fun little prize which she was thrilled about!

Then the lion came out and did a dance and ate lettuce. The kids LOVED that!

Looking back on this I guess I could have made a slide show out of the pictures, but I didn't think of it until just now. Oh well. It was a really fun evening and Rob kept asking what other stake in the world could host an entire Chinese New Year celebration so well (there are very few members of the church in China so we didn't count them). We really enjoyed ourselves.

Michael's Farewell Cake

2008-03-10T17:07:00.000-07:00

Lizzy really wanted to do something special for Michael's missionary farewell so she asked if I could help her with a cake for him. Since he's on his way to Nevada we put a big map of the state on as well as an open missionary bag with shirts, ties, and scriptures falling out everywhere. I was proud of Lizzy's efforts on this cake.

Reagan's Rockin' 80

2008-03-10T16:55:00.001-07:00

A bunch of friends decided to throw Reagan a surprise 80's party for her birthday. Tamara asked me to make the cake and told me that Reagan loves mermaids. So, I tried to incorporate the 80's and a mermaid onto the same cake.

If you notice, the mermaid is wearing bright neon colors and has one side of her shirt off the shoulder. She also has blond, poofy hair, and I put bright orange and pink eyeshadow on her. Oh! And she has Madonna, cut-off black gloves.

This side of the cake shows a green, good luck care bear swimming on the bottom of the ocean.

This side of the cake has a smurf swimming on the bottom of the ocean. The smurf is a bit smarter than the care bear in that he brought his snorkel gear with him!

Art Class

2008-03-10T16:39:00.000-07:00

So, for the past number of months Annette D'Agostini and I have been going on a weekly shopping trip to BJ's, and we preface the trip by taking our girls to an art class at Michaels. We just found out that Michael's has been bought out by another company and they are gong to stop doing the art class! I am sooooo.. disappointed. I did take some pictures a few weeks ago though so I thought I would post them.

Here are the girls cutting out their snowmen.

Here is Annette. Can you tell how happy she is that I am taking her picture?

This is the girl's teacher, Ms. Audrey.

Here is Alexa with her finished snowman. How cute!

And here is Katie with her cute snowman!

Alexa's curly hair

2008-03-10T16:33:00.000-07:00

I know I've been posting a lot about Alexa but--I do spend all day with her alone while the boys are in school! I wanted to put up a picture of her hair after having had braids in it.

Decorating swap

2008-03-10T16:27:00.001-07:00

Last month Elizabeth Larsen suggested that we trade a cake decorating lesson for her and her friend in exchange for babysitting. Of course I jumped at the chance! We decided on a Valentine's Day theme. Here is a picture of the girls with their creations and a picture of the cake that I made:

Alexa's friends come to visit

2008-03-10T16:21:00.000-07:00

Well, it only lasted a couple of weeks but it was fun while it lasted! For a few weeks Alicia, Kendra, and I traded off having the little girls over at our houses. Alexa loved it! Here she is having lunch with Sarah and Alexis.

Star's in Heaven

2008-03-10T15:49:00.002-07:00

Does anyone else have a dog who

1) Gets the luxury of a massage?

2) Loves it and never wants the massage to end?

Do we have a spoiled dog or what!

Darth Vader Visits

2008-03-10T15:41:00.000-07:00

I guess it must be a couple of months ago that the Hodsons gave our kids a bunch of toys. I cannot begin to tell you the delight that the Barbie horses have brought to Alexa and her friends but the hands-down favorite toy for the kids was the Darth Vader Mask. As soon as we got it home Eric dressed Jonah up to look as much like Darth Vader as possible. Then the antics began. Here are some pictures from that night:

Darth Vader squeezes Eric's windpipe. Just like in the movies! They're not even touching!!!

Don't underestimate the power of the Dark Side!

Alexa Pretends Again

2008-03-10T15:34:00.000-07:00

O.k. this was so funny that I had to post it. The other day Alexa had her friend, Sarah, over to play. At one point I found Alexa in the kitchen, wearing a veil, a tutu, and some other paraphernalia, and she was standing at the end of the kitchen by the microwave. She turned and looked left then started walking. Step. Pause. Step. Pause. All the way down the kitchen. She got to the end and turned to look left again and said, "I do."

Then she ran out of the kitchen and found Sarah.

"Sarah, that was my first wedding. I think it went pretty well; I'm sorry you missed it." Where does she get these things? Is she planning on having more than one wedding? Will her real wedding take any more time than the one in our kitchen?

Here are some pictures of her "wedding outfit".

Alexa plays pretend

2008-02-17T08:01:00.000-08:00

O.k. I know I am ridiculously behind in posting a new blog but the whole family came down with the flu--one week at a time. It was ridiculous! Rob and Alexa were super sick the first week and Alexa's fever lasted 6 days and ended with a lingering cough. Then Jonah got sick and threw up one whole day with a fever of 104. Then I came down with it and BOY was I miserable! (Rob's new idea is that I need to write a book called "When Ouch Just Won't Do--a Hypochondriac's Guide to Describing Your Symptoms." Apparently I go overboard when describing how sick I feel.) Then, when we thought Eric had escaped everything, he came down with a very mild version of the flu--basically a bad head ache (we figured maybe he just really wanted it to be his turn so we let him stay home for a day).

Anyway, I have lots of blogs to catch up on and I'm going to try to do that today if I get the time. In the meantime I had a "I'm a horrible mom" moment the other day. We invited Alexa's friend, Hannah, to come and play with us. After lunch I overheard Alexa telling her friend that she wasn't allowed to come out of the bedroom. I decided to mediate and went to find out what was going on. Alexa explained that they were playing a game where she was the mommy and Hannah was the daughter and Hannah had to stay in the bedroom because Alexa had to go to a PA meeting and Hannah had to stay home. Ugh! I know I've been gone a lot lately to the PA meetings but I didn't realize how it was affecting Alexa! I guess one redeeming part of the game was when Alexa decided to let Hannah come to the meeting with her and they passed out cupcakes to everyone.

I think maybe I need to cut back.

Alexa's scripture study

2008-01-03T17:25:00.000-08:00

I was reading the Book of Mormon with my kids the other day and Alexa wanted to read as well. I pointed out the title on the cover and read, "The Book of Mormon." Alexa copied my words and said, "The Book of Mormon. Written by Charlie Brown and read for you by Holly Hunter." There's a girl who's listened to one too many audio books.

Christmas Eve

2008-01-03T17:08:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve we spent a wonderful time with the D'Agostinis at their apartment. Annette cooked a fabulous turkey dinner. Then we visited for awhile and finally (much to the children's delight) we decorated gingerbread houses that I had made and brought. It was so fun to spend the evening with them, we really appreciate their friendship.

Our desperate attempt at a family picture

2008-01-03T16:39:00.000-08:00

I just have to say that things didn't turn out looking too well and so none of you got one of these photos. Oh well, there's always next year.

Jonah's Winter Music Festival

2008-01-03T16:17:00.000-08:00

On December 19th, Jonah had his Winter Music Festival. This year their music teacher, Mr. Jennings, had them do a tribute to America. Jonah practiced singing the songs at the top of his lungs for weeks before hand. Alexa was all geared up in the audience for Jonah's performance:

Jonah finally came down the aisle in his American regalia:

We didn't have a great view of Jonah and it was made even worse by two or three jerks that kept standing up to wave to their children, thus completely blocking our view of our son. We did, however, have a great view of other people's kids doing the actions to the songs.

Jonah had a part in the play and he said his line very well.

We were so proud of him and how hard he worked on this performance.

Music Together

2008-01-03T16:00:00.000-08:00

This semester I've been taking Alexa to a Music Together class. She absolutely adores going and sings and dances all through the week in anticipation of the class. I decided to bring a camera for the last day to capture some of her enthusiasm. She sat with her teacher, Donetta, for most of the class so I could take some pictures.

After the opening song everyone joined in to play the big drums:

Then each kid got to take a turn swinging in the big parachute while we sang "London Bridge is Falling Down"

The kids also got to go under the parachute for a song.

Then it was time to dance with scarves.

and scare Donetta:

After some more songs and fun Donetta ended the class and pulled out the face paints.

And she transformed Alexa into a mermaid...

Winter Creations

2008-01-03T15:54:00.001-08:00

So I decided to make gingerbread houses for the women that I visit teach. Normally I would use the pattern that my mom and I made out of contact paper, but this year I found a great cookie cutter set from Williams and Sonoma that takes all the work out of cutting the dough (it just adds tons of work on the other side to make sure that the pieces all fit together; trim a little here, snip a little there... I have to say, the dough is also a royal pain to work with!). Here is a picture of the finished product:

I also made a cake for my neighbor Flora's boyfriend. He loves to do math and wakes up at 5:30 every morning to do math and keep his skills honed. The cake has a student and a teacher standing in front of a math problem on the board and the student is saying, "Aren't there enough problems in the world already?"

My Dear Jonah

2008-01-03T15:43:00.000-08:00

This boy...

I guess we'll start with his two front teeth falling out. I managed to snap a few pictures of him and the other kids laughing.

Now, you may have noticed from the pictures that Jonah has a new haircut. Let me tell you why he has a new haircut...

I came in one morning and ruffled his hair while he was eating breakfast. Something was not quite right so I took a closer look at his head. I noticed that some hair was shorter back there than I remembered it.

"They didn't cut your hair like this when we took you for a hair cut, did they?"

"Wait a minute...Jonah, what happened to your hair (the whole back crown of his head was sheared right next to his scalp)?!"

"Jonah, what happened to your hair? Did you cut it? Jonah! What did you use to cut your hair!"

Jonah mumbles, "Well, mom, I was sitting at the table with the Ikea scissors in my hand and I was resting my head on that hand. Then I realized that I was cutting my hair and I knew you would want me to even it out."

I wish I had pictures of what he had done to himself. He had to test for his light blue Tae Kwon Do belt with the worst hair cut of his life. Luckily he got the belt.

Rob's comment, "Wish you had waited for family pictures, Jonah."

Hawks vs. Pigeons

2008-01-03T15:39:00.000-08:00

Hawk vs. Pigeon. And the winner is...

I actually wouldn't have noticed the hawk except that two men pointed up to the 3 floor of a building and I noticed feathers falling to the ground. A number of us stood there and watched the hawk devouring his kill.

Daddy's New Suit

2008-01-03T15:34:00.001-08:00

So, Rob was looking through the clearance items for Jos A. Bank and noticed that they had suits on for like $30! Great! Except the smallest suit coat he could find was a size 41 long and the smallest pants were a 44 waist. How hard could it be to alter them and take in the pants? He thought to himself. Ha! He bought them without asking me and the result is a fun play item for our children.

Thanksgiving in Boston

2008-01-03T15:02:00.001-08:00

We are so blessed to have family not too far away. This year Uncle Greg and Aunt Jennifer invited us to their house for Thanksgiving. We got to see Mysti and her husband, Randy, (congrats on the upcoming twins guys!); spend time with Luke and his then fiance; and just generally relax as we were well taken care of. Here the kids play "Bop It" with Rob:

Uncle Greg has a wilderness preserve bordering on his property and Rob, Star--our dog, and the kids, had the time of their lives. Star had to stay in her kennel at night in the garage but I think she thought the lonely hours were worth it with all the running she got to do through the forest.

Alexa found a big rock out by the garage and decided that she was a mermaid on a rock. She then begged Rob to take picture after picture of her.

We did manage to tear the camera away for a couple of snaps of Rob and me.

And here are pictures of Mysti and Uncle Greg:

The boys could hardly tear their eyes off Luke and his friends playing the Wii!

I guess the only downside of the weekend was Eric and Star getting ticks in the woods. Eric got his in the base of his neck and unfortunately, we weren't able to get the ticks' heads out of either of them! Ugh!

Andrea Boerem's Cake

2008-01-03T14:58:00.000-08:00

My dear friend and visiting teachee, Andrea, had a birthday. A perfect opportunity for me to make a cake. Here it is, a frosty wonderland:

Battle of Fort Washington

2008-01-03T14:42:00.001-08:00

Our community is so great! Every year they have a little reenactment of the Battle of Fort Washington. This year the boys and I went together.

They got to make little hats,

watch a blacksmith work,

and watch a reenactment of the battle.

So fun!

Time to pull out the winter clothes

2008-01-03T14:35:00.000-08:00

When the winter clothes came out, Alexa decided to put everything on but long pants. Did I mention that my daughter loves to pose?

I've Adopted a Llama

2007-11-28T18:49:00.000-08:00

His name is Harold. You can find him on the right side of my blog at the bottom. He reminds me of the llamas I used to see when we lived in Colombia; only he is much better behaved. I am trying to teach him to sit, but he only jumps.

Oh, I've also adopted some fish. You can feed them by clicking the mouse in their fish tank. Hopefully they will live longer than all other fish I have adopted and a much shorter time than our turtles.

P.S. You can make Harold very dizzy, if you have a mean streak, by circling his head repeatedly with the mouse.

Time to Retire the Summer Reading List

2007-11-28T18:45:00.000-08:00

Since summer is long gone and winter is in full swing I figured I should retire my list of summer reading books. Here they are for my own future reference:

* Mayflower
* The Perfect Storm
* Harry Potter 7
* Julie & Julia by Julie Powell
* The Prince of the Marshes by Rory Stewart
* The Prize Winner by Terry Ryan
* Three Weeks with My Brother by Nicholas Sparks
* The Innocent Man by John Grisham
* 44 Scottland Street by Alexander McCall Smith
* Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith
* Through A Glass Darkly
* Two Little Girls in Blue by Marry Higgins Clark
* The Shark Net by Robert Drewe
* Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
* My Year in Iraq by Paul Bremer

Eric's New Joke

2007-11-26T17:27:00.000-08:00

Mom: The dog was taking forever today when I took her out for a walk. She stopped to sniff absolutely everything!

Eric: Oh mom, she was just checking her pee-mail!

Jonah Quotables

2007-11-26T17:22:00.000-08:00

Rob: Uds. deben aprender español para que puedan comunicarse con la gente en esta área.

Jonah: No comprendo.

_____________________________

Rob: Do you kids want to watch "The Never Ending Story"?

Jonah: But Dad, will it ever end?

_____________________________

Mom: Kids, we're going to Uncle Greg's for Thanksgiving and we will get to visit with Uncle Greg and Aunt Jennifer, my cousins, and then a bunch of single people from New York.

Jonah: Aren't we single people from New York?

Mom: Yes, but these are people who are a little bit older and go to a singles Ward together.

Jonah: Is that the same place that all the stray kids go?

Mom: The stray kids?!

Jonah: Yes, all the kids with no families.

Alexa Gets Her Face Painted

2007-11-26T17:16:00.000-08:00

Alexa is in a little Music Together Class. She absolutely loves this class and sings and dances for the entire hour each week. Alexa's teacher, Donetta, is delightful and has the additional skill of painting faces. A few weeks ago she brought in her face paints for Halloween and each kid got to be something different. Alexa decided to be a blue bunny, and here are the results:

A Clean Street

2007-11-26T17:11:00.000-08:00

One of the rarest occurrences in New York City is a completely clean sidewalk. The only time I have ever seen this is just after they have poured new concrete. Then there is no spit, gum, dog poo, spilled food, or any other trash and the sidewalk looks beautiful. The photos were taken with my cell phone so they are not great, but I had to share this momentous event. This is our street right after getting brand new concrete poured (getting into and out of the building was a nightmare while it was being poured, but it was worth the pain. Oh, except that Jonah left a bicycle tire track in the newly poured concrete!).

Ward Halloween Party

2007-11-26T17:03:00.000-08:00

After the Day Han party (mentioned in the post below) I packed the kids in the car and we zipped up to the Church to attend the ward Halloween party. The kids got to go Trick-or-Treating around the hallways and then we had a spaghetti dinner, the kids watched movies and played Nintendo games, and they also ran a muck around the gym. We were worn out by the time we got home!

Day Han Halloween Party

2007-11-26T16:32:00.001-08:00

Halloween. The one day of the year we get to dress up like anyone we want to be and it generally isn't ourselves. My children were so excited for Halloween! I had to spend the morning finishing a cake for one of Jonah's friends. I thought it was darn cute, but I may be getting a bit cocky.

Right after dropping off the cake we raced over to New Jersey to the Day Han Martial Arts studio. I don't know if Master O was supposed to be a wizard or a homeless man from New York, but he told the kids a ghost story with lots of gong banging for added emphasis and mystery.

Alexa made a new little friend and they became bosom buddies and ran all over the gym together holding hands (By the way, Jonah and Alexa were wearing costumes from my friend Jenny's company--Little Adventures--and they looked ADORABLE!).

Jonah was wearing a fire fighter costume.

And Eric went as an IRS agent so he could tax people for their candy.

We really enjoy how community oriented this martial arts studio is.

Scout Day Camp--sometime Mid-October

2007-11-26T16:14:00.000-08:00

Since our ward didn't have enough boys around during the summer for a Scout Day camp (imagine--not enough cub scouts in New York City?!)our great leader, Hannah Cox-Peralta, invited us to attend a day-camp in October. I took all of the kids, since Rob teaches every Saturday, and we headed over to enjoy a wild rumpus in the woods with hundreds of little 8-11 year old boys. Will the fun never end?

I'm not going to go into too much detail--they climbed on a ship, shot BB guns, did fighting with huge Q-tip looking sticks, went in a fort, did archery (even Alexa got to do the archery), had some lunch, colored on pumpkins, and played some games.

I think the highlight for me had to be the hay ride. We waited for what seemed like an eternity to get squished into a cart with a huge number of other people. My bottom wouldn't stay on the hay and so I had to wedge my feet into strategic positions to keep from falling off. The best part was when the wagon turned onto a main road and we completely took out the side of a car that was trying to pass us. The kids were staring down into the face of the aghast driver who didn't have any idea how to move forward without having the wagon take off his side mirror and make the gash in the side of the car worse. The kids were not as impressed as I, they seemed to think the fort was a better deal, but I thought the hay ride was just fantastic.

Anyway, here are tons of pictures to keep you going. (You'll also see pictures of the D'Agostinis, Hannah, Tom, and various Scouts) (Oh, and Jonah and Alexa dressed up for a costume contest that we never made it to--just wanted to explain the costumes.)

Niagra Falls--October 15

2007-11-19T15:20:00.001-08:00

Monday morning we woke up and went to a restaurant for breakfast. Then we went to a store and found a new bathing suit for Eric--in his size. Then we went and changed and headed over to the water park. It's an indoor water park with six story slides, a wave pool, and a little kids section. Since it was a Monday in October there weren't that many people around and we were able to go on everything over, and over, and over again. Alexa was too scared to go on much, but she did love some little blue slides and the wave pool. The boys had a blast getting "flushed" down one of the slides and they even got brave enough to go down the really fast, steep slides. Unfortunately our small camera battery died as soon as we got in so we only have two pictures from the experience.

The camera was working though when we left the water park and stopped by Niagra falls. It was an impressive sight and I wish we had had more time to enjoy the view. We were in a rush though and we left around 3:30 to drive home.

We got back to our little apartment at 11:30 that night; and that, my friends, is the end of our Toronto adventure.

Toronto--October 14

2007-11-19T14:53:00.000-08:00

Sunday was an exciting day. We took Rob into the city then came back and packed up the hotel room. Then we drove to a church in Mississauga. I have to say, it was the most diverse ward I have EVER attended! The bishop was from Italy, a woman from Africa stood to bear her testimony, there were people from India, the Philippines, Scotland, South America, Hawaii, Canada, the US, etc.. And the people were amazingly friendly. They all came up to me to introduce themselves and help me find classes for myself and the children and many of them would speak directly to my kids as if they had something important to say (which many adults that I know do not do)! I loved that ward. What a great spirit of fellowshipping. They even invited us to crash their missionary farewell party since we had a few hours to kill before going to pick up Rob.

After the party we went out to the car and gave Alexa a nebulizer treatment. Eric was also having difficulty breathing! Ah, the wonderful life with asthmatics. Anyway, we eventually plugged in our destination into the GPS and headed off to get Rob.

An hour out we were in the middle of some big corn field and the GPS couldn't even find our position. I pulled over to the side of the road and realized that I had put in the coordinates for Queen's Road rather than West Queen's Road. Ahhhh.... We had to turn around and drive another hour back to get to the city center and pick up Rob.

It was definitely an adventure! When we got Rob we drove straight through to Niagra Falls to a hotel right next to a giant water park. Poor Alexa, as we went to get in the elevator she got in first and no one else followed her in. The elevator started going up and all we could hear was her screaming at the top of her lungs. I raced up the stairs, checking every level to see if the doors had opened, until I reached the top floor and saw that the elevator was headed back downstairs. A woman was talking to Alexa in the elevator and trying to figure out where her family was.

Anyway, we got her back and made it to our hotel room. In a central square, that our room looked out onto, they were playing "Happy Feet" so we went to join the fun. Afterward we tried to convince the kids to go to sleep so we could get some shut-eye ourselves.