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You know you haven't blogged in a long time when you can't quite remember how to upload a photo. I just want to get caught up on the last few months and what we've been up to here in New York City.  It was our second Fall in the city and it's really just become one of my favorite seasons here. Lots of days spent in Central Park which is so beautiful that time of year. 
Kate did a workshop with the NY Ballet which was so much fun for her especially because she got to keep the skirt and red feather!  Little Ms. Tess celebrated her 1st birthday on October 10th! 
 We apple picked in upstate New York and ate our weight in apples (Honeycrisp apples for the win!)  We made salted caramel dip and gave them as gifts.  There was no shortage of our favorite apple pie, either! No Fall is complete without spending some time in New England where the foliage just can't be beat. 
Boston will always mean so much to us. We had only been married 18 months when we moved there (and now it's been almost 17 years) and where we had our first baby. Mr. Charlie was student of the week right after school started and then student of the month! So proud of this little guy who has been adjusting so well to Kindergarten and doing great in school. The tree in Rockefeller Center went up in November and so we went to watch it get set up.  I love seeing NY get ready for Christmas. It's so magical! I had heard that you can go to the top of the Mandarin Oriental and get a great view of Central Park so me and Tessy went up,  sipped some spicy hot chocolate and went googley eyed at the view. I mean really??? We then went for a 2 hour walk through the park because that's what you have to do when you've got that gorgeous foliage! We celebrated Charlie turning 5 on November 25th! A few days later we went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade which has been on my bucket list forever! My sister was in town so the husbands left at 5 to ensure we got front row seats! We went to Macy's Santaland again this year. It's so fun to do a santa crawl here- there are so many Santa's in various department stores. 

Halloween in NYC is pretty amazing. Theres a gazillion kids running around, everything is decked out and the streets are shut-down for trick-or-treaters. We popped down to 69th street while it was still light and before the crowds got bad.  Have you ever seen anything like it? These decorations against NYC brownstones are so awesome.  Those giant spiders were my favorite! They were huge! I told Chris we need to move to one of these streets that shuts down for Halloween so we can go all out!  This year Tess went as Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. She's already got the unibrow so…. Charlie didn't want to wear a costume, so he wore his Batman shirt that has a cape:  Kate was one of the 9 million girls who went as Elsa:  And Henry wore the Jedi robe I made him when he was 5! ha ha I can't believe it still even remotely fits. (How about those decorations, right??)
We only trick-or-treated in 1 apartment lobby (we did a lot more last year and we'll have to do more next year) but how about this apartment lobby?  We trick-or-treated in a few shops (Kate's not in any of these because she was a sobbing hot mess because she was hungry). But these boys- I love them so~       Such a great night. Best night of the year!  This was earlier in the day when the unibrow was a little more prominent :)  We love you, New York City! 

XOXO

I'm pretty much thinking that swimming with kids at a lake is the way to go. No waves, smaller crowds, less of a chance of losing this guy: He needs his space to run around and be free without me hanging on to him (who wouldn't?) So I usually camp out in one spot and he runs around and occasionally comes back to me. It works. I can't take my eyes off him for 2 seconds because he is so fast, but it works. Henry's been sick and pukey this week and we'd been housebound up until today. We were all looking forward to getting out and getting some fresh air, low-key style. For the first hour or two, just Kate & Charlie swam. Then Henry finally felt up to joining them.I think it was just what the doctor ordered. He was in heaven.

Then there was this little "Lady of the Lake" ha ha 4 of her top teeth came through at the exact same time. She's been sheer misery. We aren't out of the woods yet, but she's starting to nap more than 20 minutes a day so I consider that a PLUS. When Charlie grows up he wants to be a Lifeguard.  A Lifeguard that catches Charlies.  I mean butterflies. And for the record, I love everything about this: That little guy….swoon. 

And sandy, water logged kids? Double swoon. We spent the whole day there. It was a good day. The only way to bribe them out of the water was ice-cream, naturally. Chocolate, Cookies & Cream and Rainbow Sherbet. Henry was the clear winner here. Charlie & Kate were really wishing they had gone for the sherbet; Henry's no fool :)  Kate thought I was kidding when I told her that the sign behind her read "NOTICE unattended children will be SOLD!" 
Greenwood Lake for the win!

My in-laws were in town last weekend and one afternoon Kate & I decided to take my MIL on a "You've Got Mail" tour since so many of the locations are in our neighborhood. Kate loves that movie, too – I know I'm raising her right when she frequently asks to watch it 🙂 So this wasn't the shot I was hoping for, I mean what is that a 2×4 in my shot?  But people, look what I was dealing with:  So,…yeah. I'll have to go back when ConEd is done 'repairing the electrical system'. Moving right along…. Cafe Lalo where Joe Fox and Kathleen Kelly meet up. I first went here about 15 years ago and have been a handful of times since- it's still the exact same yummy, little cafe. Definitely worth a stop in if you are on the UWS.  You remember Zabars, right? The 'cash only' line. "Now take this credit card and put it through the machine, zip zip!" Zabars sells the most amazing chocolate raspberry brownies. I mean probably one of the best brownies I've ever had- and the combination of 2 of my most favorite flavors, really, if it wasn't 11:15 at night…. Gray's Payaya is where Joe & Kathleen share a hot dog. They sell hot dogs and yummy drinks like pina colada. I listened to the commentary once (you should- it's completely fascinating) and Nora Ephron talked about how they had to pop the glass out of the front so they could film the movie. You're welcome. And wait for it… The "Shop Around the Corner" is now an organic cleaners. It was a cheese shop when the movie was made and now well, moved on to organic greener pastures. And last but not least: The 91st Street Garden in Riverside Park which is so gorgeous and the perfect place to end a movie. Definitely hit some of these places if you are fan of the movie (let's be serious, who's not!) 

New York is pretty amazing. 

XO

Just north of us along the Hudson River, and under the George Washington Bridge,  sits The Little Red Lighthouse. It's been on my bucket list since we moved here and last Sunday, when we were looking for a little outing, we decided to go and scope it out.  It's not the easiest place to get to (we drove, took the 181st pedestrian bridge and then walked the rest) but only about a 20 minute, stroller-friendly, walk away.  Did I mention it's a gorgeous green lush walk to the lighthouse? Well it is.  Within minutes of getting there, Henry found his first-ever 4 leaf clover! Lucky, indeed! Our apartment building is somewhere down there… There's a book called "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge" that we'll need to add to our collection of NYC childrens books. You can read all about the lighthouse here:  All in all, a great way to spend our Sunday afternoon! 1 month of Summer down. 1 more month to go!

Tucked just off the beaten path in the Bronx, are the public gardens known as Wave Hill. We took a little day trip up (it's really only about 15 away minutes by car) a week ago and had a really great time. Wave Hill reminds me so much of the Huntington Library in Pasadena, CA, just on a much smaller scale. It overlooks the Hudson River and that's NJ in the background.  We got there right when it opened and the crowds were relatively small.  Kate brought her friend, Felicity and here they are with a litte "here comes the bride" while they thew pebbles from side to side :)  There were grapes growing overhead which was really fun to see.  As I understand it, Wave Hill actually refers to the home that was built for William Morris and sits at the southern end of the property. 

We brought our lunch and ate on the back patio which had the most amazing views of the George Washington Bridge.  After lunch we headed to another building on the property- I can't remember what it's called, but it's where you are supposed to eat if you brought your lunch (not where we ate which is apparently for people who are buying lunch from the onsite cafe- whoops!) Anyway, they had a photography exhibit on fireflys and a few works of art.  There's a poem called "The Yellow Wallpaper" and the artist based this room off the poem.  Our day ended with a roll down the hill :)  Wave Hill was amazing, it's so beautiful up there! NYC friends, it's definitely worth the trip up. Free on Tuesdays and accessible by the train!

XO