It's tradition.

The annual preschool field trip to the apple farm!


We get a wagon ride, picking a few apples, picking a small pumpkin, having a snack, and we're done. W1 spent a lot of time picking his pumpkin and ended up with the greenest, most lopsided one there was.




What I didn't take pictures of (and should have) was the ice cream place we visited after the field trip.

The GIGANTIC ice cream cones that W1 and L1 polished off.
The excessive mess that was H1's face, hands, shirt.
The long (and delicious) list of flavors.

Apparently, we need to go back there about 197 times to try them all.

I'm not complaining.

Dear New York City,

Thank you for hosting a patriotic race that gave me (and 7 of my friends) an excuse to visit.
Thank you for the street vendors and how incredible their food smells.
Thank you for being home to Max Brenner with it's decadent white hot chocolate.


Thank you for crazy, tiny hole-in-the-wall shops.
Thank you for having every restaurant you could possibly imagine.
Thank you for Broadway. And musicals.


Thank you for your Scholastic store with books for my kids.
Thank you for my first ever manicure/pedicure.
Thank you for cab drivers who will give you the ride of your life, and eat lunch at the same time.


Thank you for pizza, glorious pizza.
Thank you for random street fairs.
Thank you for being close enough to Rochester for weekend visits.

Hope to see you again soon.

First week of school celebration

Tonight we celebrated the first week of school/end of summer with an ice cream sundae fest. A new tradition that shouldn't be too hard to uphold.

The children wore crowns: W1 with K for kindergarten, L1 with P for preschool, and H1 with an H for home, or hungry, or helpless, or happy...





H1 wins the prize in the movie for the best answers. "Cookie." and "Cookie." aaand "Cookie!" And for wearing the most ice cream on her face (that's nothing new).

The day L1 microwaved his PB&J for 30 minutes, or W1's first day of Kindergarten

It's a big day here.



A new era has begun in our family, the era of school-aged children. (As I count the years... this is going to be a loooong era.)



W1 is starting out with a fabulous teacher, class with one of his best friends, loads of excitement, and a smidgen of nervousness.


When we left him there in his classroom today, he was cool, confident, and only a little shell-shocked.

And then we came back to our house that smells like smoke from the charred-beyond-recognition-peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich.

It's going to be a wonderful year!

New York State Fair

We admit it. We go for the food.

The fresh, cold, creamy chocolate milk at the Rainbow Milk Bar:


The delicious maple ice cream at the NY Maple booth:


and the gyros we ate too fast to photograph.

While we digest, we wander around and look at the ducks, chickens, rabbits, cows, pigs and horses.

It's our end-of-summer tradition.

Why Grandma and Grandpa's house is the coolest, part 3

Why Grandma and Grandpa's house is the coolest, part 2

This year, we graduated from playing in the sand and watching the waves to playing in the sand and the waves.
W1 and L1 were in up to their waists, and H1 wasn't too far behind.
Swimming lessons gave them the confidence they needed.

W1 was very serious about his sand castles, holes, bridges, and tunnels.
L1 and H1 were very serious about destruction.

I'm glad they are growing up loving the beach.
And I'm glad we have these pictures to look at on frosty winter days.