First Flower Garden

So, my fantastically talented mother and mother-in-law, both long-time gardeners, have always been great examples of what "could be" if I was at all inclinded towards gardening. They have been remarkably patient and non-judgemental about my lack of a green thumb. I am happy to report that Oliver's new enthusiasm about how plants grow has rubbed off on me, and together we planted our very first flower garden!!! We took a trip together to a local garden center (Fullerton's, what a great place!!) and chose the flowers, taking special care to find some that the dozens of roaming deer here won't be interested in, then got to work. As you can see, it is a very small garden, indeed! But I'm very, very proud of it, and so is Oliver, who enjoyed every minute of the process. He has since finished off this great project by repainting the entire mailbox post and flowerbox, with his daddy's help. We both enjoy watering the flowers, and it's extra nice getting the mail now. :-)

Royal Wedding Tea Party!

The wedding of the century - what better ocassion to have a party??! I decided a few weeks back that it would be fun to get together with friends to ooh and ahh at everything together, drink tea and nibble scones... I just prayed for good weather so the kids could play outside and leave the moms to wedding-watching! Of course, the kids mostly wanted to be exactly where we all were, so that didn't work too well... but they were fine. Andy had decided (on his own!) to throw a little celebration for his employees that day as well, so he set off in the morning with a fully stocked tea and scone tray and a big Union Jack to hang up. The night before, we made raisin scones together (his mom's recipe), and I made two other kinds as well - cranberry almond and blueberry. Yum! I put up a few festive photos and a flag, and we all had sooo much fun watching the day unfold. I had recorded the wedding from 3am onwards, so we mostly watched the actual wedding itself, and a bit of the events afterwards.

Ok, the dress.... because Kate is so sleek and stylish, I really expected to be just knocked off my seat by her dress, but I kind of thought it was just nice. She looked lovely, I think I just expected something a bit more modern and dramatic. Anyway, the wedding was glorious, and it didn't even rain - amazing! What stole the show were the HATS! Beautiful, crazy, amazing English hats... the English just know how to do "fancy," don't they? I think my very favorite part of the wedding was the moment when they were pronounced husband and wife - the cameras were in quite close on them, but they also picked up clearlly the crashing swell of cheers and shouts from the crowd of thousands just outside the church and across the city... and Will and Kate clearly heard it too, and smiled. I loved that. It was a great day, and I was "feelin' the love," for my favorite city in the world, for England, and for the "commoner" I love sooooo much.

Sweet Bunny Birthday Girl

Well, my sweet girl, you turned two today... mommy and daddy can't quite believe it. It seems like not very long ago that you arrived in our lives - 9 days early and 9 lbs, 12 ounces of loveliness - and now you have magically transformed from our little baby to a little girl. This happened quite stealthily, I have to say. Today I'll write down everything I can remember from this special day, so you'll be able to look back and remember the day you turned TWO! A while back, I decided you might like a bunny cake for your birthday, since your stuffed bunnies ("hop-bums," as you like to say) are some of your favorite toys. More recently, I asked you if a bunny cake sounded good, and you said "Ya!" Ever since then, whenever we said anything about your approaching birthday, you would shout "hop-bum!!" enthusiastically. When we practiced the "happy birthday" song together, you would wait till it was over and clap your hands and say, "yay!!!!!" Yesterday, it was time to embark on the cake... a big project! I used the same recipe as for Ollie's cake, doubling it to fill a big cake pan, and let it cool overnight... Today began with a private rendition of "Happy Birthday To You!" sung to you by mommy and daddy in bed, which received the customary rousing applause. Then you came downstairs to discover a big new playhouse waiting for you, complete with a doorbell, toy phone, and working shutters! A great find by mommy on Craigslist; your dad and Granddaddy put it together the night before, which was very lucky as Daddy gets stabbing chest pains when he does that sort of thing on his own. We all had a delicious birthday breakfast with Grandma and Granddaddy, Ian and Suz, featuring scrambled eggs and Taylor Ham, which you gobbled up like there was no tomorrow. After breakfast we got right to work on the cake again. I had drawn out the shapes of the bunny, ears, and tail on paper, then cut them out so I could put them on the cake and know where to cut. Then we assebled and started frosting it, using a star-tip to make the bunny look a bit furry (?) - I ended up needing a quadruple batch of buttercream frosting! It came out great, and you loved it to bits.

The best thing about your birthday this year is that so many family members were able to come -- Grandma and Granddaddy from Maine, Ian and Suz, Ronnie and Diana, Rachel and Beth and Saul, and Milt and Rae, who pretty much count as family. It was a big celebration day for Suzanne, too, since you share the same birthday! Your party was a 2pm, and a few of your best buddies came with their moms and dads (yes, all the dads came!) - Addie & Ryan, Brooke & Mady, Claire, Carys & Lowri. Toby came from CT, as well as Steve and Maureen from next door, and everyone stayed for hours. You were a bit clingy during the party, but I wasn't surprised, with so many people here and so much activity! We were lucky it was a lovely day, so you and your friends could spend a lot of time playing on the deck, dashing around on the riding toys, squeezing all together into the playhouse, etc. Around 3ish we all gathered in the dining room to sing you "Happy Birthday," which you responded to with clapping hands and a big shout of "Yay!" forcing us with your utterly relentless cuteness to sing it a second time. A good 3/4 of the cake was consumed at the party... and it was a big cake!

By the end of the day, you were pretty well spent. We had a booked a big table down the road at Blossom, a great "Asian Bistro," to complete the day with a bit more grown up celebrating for Suzanne, but by the time you got there you were pretty much just screaming, probably trying in your two-year-old way to say, "Are you kidding? Can I PLEASE just go to bed? Or at least have some peace and quiet?!" Your nice daddy obliged, foregoing his yummy dinner in order to take you home, give you a snack, and tuck you into bed.

You, my lovely Madeline, are becoming in your advancing years both dazzlingly beautiful and fabulously silly. You add new words almost every day to your creative vocabulary, including some of our recent favorites - "ba-del" (bagel) and "tow-ee-o" (cheerio). You are blessed to have such a fantastic big brother; he keeps an eye on you, laughs with me at your crazy antics, and is your general partner in crime, especially when the crime is being illegally cute. We love you so very much, Maddie-boo - Happy Birthday to our baby girl.

Bring on the Fun!

What's better than having your grandparents come and visit? Not much! Grandma Patty and Granddad Richie have come to visit for over a week, the first weekend packed with birthday events (see next post!), and the second weekend coinciding with Ian's big NYC book fair. I was worried about how we would fill the time in between, but of course - poof - it just disappeared in the blink of an eye. Uncle Ian and Aunt Suzanne stayed with us for much of the time as well, just adding to the fun, especially with lots of rolicking games on the Xbox Kinect. Suz joined us for a day at the park towards the end of the stay, an unusually beautiful early April day - see last photo!

I'm not sure Maddie really knew Grandma and Granddaddy were coming, but Ollie was SO excited for their arrival. When they finally did come, he dashed around the house showing them a multitude of exciting things -- his newest drawings from school, his favorite Tuskegee airplane, how he can hop from one end of the house to the other on one foot... all the important stuff. Then he came to me and asked to whisper something in my ear, very intent and excited. "I don't know who to play with first!!" That pretty much sums it up... just too much happiness.

After the birthday weekend, which also included a fantastic bagel brunch on Sunday (a favorite family tradition) featuring an entire side of home-smoked salmon care of Granddad Richie, it was a fairly quiet week. Ollie went to school as usual on Tuesday and Thursday, and we all went down to the pool to cheer him on during his weekly swimming lesson. Grandma Patty wasn't feeling 100%, so we didn't venture into NYC together, although Granddaddy did go in for a day to help Ian set up for the book fair. We all just had fun doing regular things together, and the big event of the week was a trip to the Liberty Science Center (first two photos from this post were taken there). Ollie loved the ball-throwing machine best of all - I think he could have played there for hours. Maddie loved the fish and the rice bin. We were all exhausted when the day was done!

Now I do have an answer to "What's better than having your grandparents come and visit?" Answer: having BOTH pairs of grandparents! For two weeks in July, Andy's parents will be visiting us up in Maine, so ALL the grandparents will be on hand! Along with cousins Aidan and Eli... too much happiness all over again.

March Recap

March is nearly over and I have only had one post, which doesn't really count as my NY trip was actually at the end of February! Thankfully, March was a pretty low-key month, marked mostly by strange weather. A week ago on Friday, we had 70 degree temperatures, and it was soooo much fun playing at the playground for a super long time. After that a cold front came in, and the weekend was mostly sunny but very cold. Then - bam! Sunday night and all through Monday, it snowed like a bugger, and we got 6 or 8 inches of heavy snow. Just as we all dug out, Wednesday it snowed again. Maybe the coast is clear now... let's hope so. It is nearly April, after all! Ollie's been busy with school and swimming, and in a few weeks he'll try soccer for the first time, once a week. Of course, his favorite thing is hanging out with his best buddies. Same for Maddie, whose closest pals are Addie and Maddie. My big job now is planning for her 2nd birthday party, which is only six days away! It's mostly family and just a couple of friends... more on that to come. All of a sudden, Maddie's just such a big girl, but I can't get it out of my head that she's my baby. Witness the shot of her sleeping in "basic meatloaf position," a holdover from babydom that's sure to disappear pretty soon. I had to get this shot while I still could...

Two big things to report today. First - we got rid of our hot tub! We weren't using it (came with the house), and the deck wasn't built to support that much weight (previous owners apparently didn't care), so we just were not inspired. Not to mention I just don't care enough to deal with all the hassle. So it's been an eyesore for 3.5 years, and we put it on Craigslist for free... got 35 inquiries in under five hours! Same week - gone! Lovely. Second - Ollie had a terrible night last night. We've really never had a night like this. Ollie was sick at 9:30pm, then a few times more, and from 10:30pm through 6:30am, he had to be sick about every 10-15 minutes, though almost nothing came up. Poor guy!!! He was with me in bed, so all night long we pretty much didn't sleep - he might doze for 10 minutes at a time, but that's it. He's a lot better today, but completely not himself; he just needs to rest (see photo, awwww). He's only drinking Pedialite today ("yummy juice!"). [Update: night 2 was without incident, a good long sleep, and he's starting to eat today, no signs of distress. Yay!] Meanwhile, Maddie seems intent on being extra cute and trying to cheer up her big brother. She always likes watching "Tun-tun" (Chuggington, her new favorite) with him, and has started talking excitedly about her "hop-bum" birthday cake.

Wicked Fun!

I'm still glowing from my weekend in NYC with my good friend, Carol... one night and two days with nothing to do but have girly fun! With our husbands at the helm and not at all daunted by the prospect of a whole weekend alone with the kids :-), we set off for our much anticipated adventure. We took the bus in on Saturday morning - so convenient as the bus station (at the train station) is only a couple of miles from our house. The trip in went so quickly - we spent much of time on our phones searching for cool brunch spots. Even though we were both severely coffee deprived, we decided to wait till we got to the restaurant to have any, which was a good call since it didn't take too long to get there. Mind you, if you ever want to go to NYC, choose as your travel companion someone who lived in the city for ten years!! Man, Carol is a walking map and city guide!! She was amazing. :-) So, we got to our chosen brunch spot, a fabulous restaurant called Balthazar, a French bistro so perfectly perfect in every way -- a 20 foot high tin ceiling, huge antique mirrors, monsterous bouquets of flowers, an entire wall of wine bottles, smiling, gracious, efficient waiters who refill your coffee at every perfect moment, glittery, sophisticated people at nearby tables, chatting happily in different languages, stupidly expensive eggs benedict (of course!), and a bathroom with a cheerful attendant and a strange assortment of lotions, perfumes, and the like. A perfect start to our weekend.
Completely sated, we headed out into the crisp day and decided that we'd like to spend loads of time just wandering aimlessly in and out of shops, something we so rarely get to do. Our kids were never far from our minds, and right away we had to stop at a street vendor's table and browse his wares -- a zillion different hand-knitted finger puppets, all so cute. We each chose a great assortment to bring home to the kids - mine were a penguin, camel, pig with a vest on, monkey in green overalls. giraffe, and a yellow spotted one that could be an alligator or a dinosaur, not sure exactly. We headed towards 5th Avenue for shopping, although the majority of our purchases were at fancy chocolate shops... we kind of created our own "chocolate tour." Our highest recommendation goes to Michel Cluizel's - just stunningly delicious.
We were amazed again at how quickly the time flew by, and before we knew it we were headed for dinner at Nobu, a gorgeous Japanese restaurant whose sexy atmosphere didn't disappoint! We did struggle with the menu a bit, and our waiter didn't work too hard to help us out, but we enjoyed the sushi and tempura. After dinner we had to practically run about 9 blocks to the theater so we wouldn't be late for Wicked! If you're trying to choose which show to see in NYC, you can't go wrong with Wicked, especially if you've read the book first. It was fantastic, top marks all around. It was nearly 11pm when we got out of the theater, but we were still in high spirits when we walked a few blocks to Times Square (see last photo) and admired all the flashy lights before heading back to the hotel for a deep sleep until 8:30am, an unheard of hour for us! The hotel was only a block from Times Square, but it was surprisingly quiet at night.
We had a leisurely morning after our late wake-up, and made our way to Chinatown for dimsum, OF COURSE! Glorious. We had a few hours after that to continue our aimless wandering before our 3pm massage appointment at Bliss. We did push the limits of our girly getaway to the extreme, didn't we?! Thanks, Carol, for being my awesome friend and fantastic travel companion! I'm already looking forward to next time, and we might just have to bring some more friends with us!

Ollie's First Homework Ever!

On Tuesday of this week, Ollie came home with his first homework assignment EVER!! It was to practice writing his name, once that evening, and then three times today (Wednesday). Instead of writing it just once on each line, he decided to write it twice. Each time we talked about the letters and how he could try writing them differently (making the "i" shorter than the "l," looping the "e" around, etc.). He was a bit distracted this afternoon and not very careful, but this evening - bam! His last two "Olivers" are incredible!! He was sooooo proud of himself, as you can see from his big, beaming smile. I'm sure he can't wait to bring it back to school tomorrow and give it to his teachers. Our big boy!!!