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Well schools been out for about a month now- the children are actually anxious for it to start back up in September if you can believe it! We are trying to get out and enjoy this amazing weather NYC is giving us, so today we went upstate to the Hudson Valley to pick some blueberries and visit the farm.  Theres a million pick-your-own farms around and I think we hit the jackpot with this one. It wasn't too crowded, it had a lovely store, animals and lots of room to run around. Oh and they had this:  a little outdoor stand where you could order burgers and dogs and the most delicious corn. It looked so good, but our first order of business was the blueberries:  I realized that I hadn't actually ever picked blueberries before. We've done strawberries & raspberries but no blueberries. So we picked,  while others couldn't be bothered: We picked a good amount (confession: I love those little blue containers just as much as the fruit that fill them!) of blueberries then pulled up a picnic table and ordered a burger and corn which was delish! Then we explored the farm. There were chickens,    and bunnies (I wish you could see the big grin on Charlie's face!),  and lots of room to run around and be crazy.  

There was flower picking,  and more flower picking  ("Mom, this flower smells so good, kinda like corn")

There was lounging under gorgeous trees,  and pic's of my biggest holding my smallest,  and pic's of my smallest, who was visiting a farm for the very first time What a ham. I think she liked it. 

Summer can be pretty awesome. 

XO

Hey there! Just wanted to pop in and share some photo's from the 4th of July. It was so great here in the city. And by here in the city, I mean just over the river in New Jersey.   We spent the afternoon at the Liberty Science Center and then drove over to the Liberty State Park for a picnic while we waited for the fireworks to start.  This was the only pic I got all day of this little nugget. Our evening picnic by the water meant she needed another layer of clothing so no red, white or blue for her, unlike her big sis, ha! :)  Waiting to get this party started. Oh wait, there's still time? How about some shenanigans: Tess was on my lap when I was trying to take this picture and then made a mad dash for a fried chicken leg which made Henry laugh hysterically.  That 9 month old baby is SO SNEAKY! How incredible is this view though. I mean, really?  The Birthday Girl in all her glory. Henry teaching Charlie all about Lady Liberty. And our sweet little Charlie who wore his Papa out by making him run after him for a solid 3 hours.  I love all my little monkeys. Our spot made us able to see the Macy's fireworks on the right by the Brooklyn Bridge and the NJ fireworks on the left, which were shot off above the Hudson River. 

It was a great first 4th of July in New York. Hope you had a good one, too!

XOXO

A few weeks ago we drove up to Boston for this years marathon. I promised the children after last years marathon that we would absolutely be back this year.  Theres just nothing like it, we were so happy to be there and cheer on the runners. And did I mention how inspiring it is? I mean, really???? What'd you do today? Run a marathon, with one leg? I couldn't run it with 2 legs! Amazing. I love the look of the man in the suit in the background. We all felt the exact same: total amazement.  Go cheer on the runners if you ever have the chance. It's incredible. And only in MA do you make a wrong turn and see this charging at you:

Naturally.

I love Boston.

I loaded up the children on Tuesday for an after-school field trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to see the cherry blossoms (which were amazing). It reminds me so much of the Huntington Library that we used to go to all the time when we lived in LA. The kids kicked off their shoes and ran around like crazy people (success). My kind of fieldtrip- where there wear themselves out!

We spent a lot of time at the water fountain throwing pennies in and making wishes. Charlie also enjoyed digging up other peoples wishes. Ha! This photo is still making me laugh:  A woman taking a selfie and a complete stranger taking pictures of Charlie and me taking a picture of the both of them.

This is the ONLY picture I have of 3 of the 4 kids. Love that I caught Henry in the middle of losing his glasses. Hahaha!
XO

I signed up to chaperone Kate's kindergarten class to the MoMA yesterday. In all my years that we visited NYC and since we've lived here, I had never been! We saw some amazing works of art: Picasso, Warhol, Lichtenstein. These kids, I tell ya, they get to go on some pretty incredible fieldtrips!  I don't know if modern art is Kate's thing. More than once she said to me "they call that ART?!?!" (not the Picasso- the more subtle art- the strip of red painted wood hanging on the wall). There is a Van Gogh that Henry has been dying to see so we'll have to use the free family pass they gave us and check it out on our next visit.  This is Kate's partner at school. That means they get to hold hands when they walk in the hallway or go on a fieldtrip. He really is such a sweet boy. Kate was crying at the Halloween party and he put his arm around her and gave her a little squeeze. Today she leaned over on him and stayed there- I said, "Kate, why don't you sit up" and he said, "I don't mind : )"  I let them play on my phone on the bus ride back to school. He's moving in a few weeks and I think Kate will be really sad. For now, we are happy they get to be friends. 

I'm sure you've heard that it's World Autism Awareness Day today! I talked a little bit about it on my Instagram account this morning but I just wanted to say that we are so grateful to have Charlie in our family. Our family would not be complete without him. I'm grateful for the many teachers & therapists who work their tails off everyday to ensure that Charlie is given the resources and education he deserves and needs. It's not always easy to have a child who is autistic but I'm grateful that it's manageable. He is learning & growing so much. He started full time school 5 days a week the day he turned 3 and the results are nothing short of a miracle. The education & therapy is working and for that I am grateful.
We love you, Charlie. XOXO

I did it. I dusted off the camera and took it out tonight on my date with Kate. I just downloaded over 350 pictures. I haven't done a dump of photo's in almost a year. There were pic's of Henry's baptism, our summer vacation, Kate being born, Christmas pic's, etc.,. I'll have to share those soon. But for now, I wanted to share some photo's from my date night with Kate! We took the train down to Grand Central Terminal (I always want to call it Grand Central Station but that's not technically what it's called). It's pretty incredible here. I used to to take the Amtrak from Boston to NYC back in my working days  and always came through here. It's vast and grand and the architecture is jaw dropping. Anyway, this wasn't our final destination, just somewhere that we were passing through. We hopped off the subway and walked a few blocks down to The Morgan Library & Museum.  You should know this about me: The Little Prince is my all-time favorite children's book. I read it for the first time about 25 years ago (that makes me sound really old) as an early teenager and then ended up reading anything by Antoine de Saint-Exupery that I could get my hands on. My brother-in-law brought me back a french version of the book back in 1997 which I cherish so much (not that I can read French). When I heard there was going to be original manuscripts and early illustrations for the book at the library I knew I had to go. No pictures were allowed in the exhibit (I only have this really bad one I took with my phone right before we went in) but I have to tell you one of the most amazing things I saw was actually nothing by Antoine de Saint-Exupery but rather the original screenplay by Orson Welles from the early 40's. As a 27 year old, he had just finished Citizen Kane and wanted to make "The Little Prince" into his 3rd movie. They reached out to Walt Disney for a collaboration and from what I gather the two of them butted heads and the movie was never made. It was seriously so fascinating. Anyway, I've never read this book to my children (all my various copies are in our storage unit) but I think I'm going to check it out from the library this week. The book has so many sweet and tender messages in it, I know they'd love it. The exhibit is free on Friday nights from 7-9 for any of you locals who want to check it out (you really should check it out).We walked back to Grand Central and thank goodness Shake Shack was still open because I promised Kate some ice-cream for our date night! A strawberry shake and cheese fries was the perfect ending to our date 🙂 Kate doesn't usually ride in the stroller much these days but I knew we'd be home late and she'd be exhausted. The second the express 3 train left Times Square, she was out like a light.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. It's going to be in the 60's here so we'll most definitely be outside! (One of these days I'll start taking pics with a real camera again and not my super old iPhone 3! ha ha!) 

On my way to the bus stop this morning, I passed the sweetest little flower shop. I've passed it many times before but today they actually had heaps of flowers out on the steps. My fellow New Yorkers will probably want to kill me when I say that this winter was totally doable (maybe because I was cooped up & in the house for a majority of it!) Last winter was such a beast in central Mass. We FROZE to death and got ridiculous amounts of snow. I mostly feel grateful that our heat was/is free and we stayed toasty warm! My tulip bulbs have bloomed, and I'm not going to lie- I'm so glad 'winter' is behind us. Now, if the rest of the city would start blooming, then we'd be golden. Here's to warmer, brighter (in more ways than one!) days ahead!

xoxo

I've got some bread in the oven, a sleeping baby and a frosty bevy by my side so I thought it'd be a great time to pop in and say hello and upload a few photos. Tess turned 5 months on the 10th. She's growing and is adored by her brothers & sister.  She is definitely a 4th baby. I've fallen victim to the fourth child (or 2nd or 3rd!) syndrome of pretty much not properly documenting any milestone in her life. We've been thinking about starting her on solids. She's ready. There was no camera set up, no bib put on, oh no, this mama just grabbed a bag of some squeezable fruit in a panic when said baby was crying in the aisle of Target and spooged some into her mouth. It worked. She liked it. And stopped crying. She bought me an extra 15 minutes to checkout. Badda-boom badda-bing. Classy act right here. (Chris, if you are reading this, I started Tess on solids). Henry had his first Blue & Gold Banquet in scouts which was really fun. It takes a lot of work to run scouts and I'm grateful for all the leaders involved. Henrys now working on his car for the upcoming Pinewood Derby which will be happening end of April.  I think their badges are pretty cool, too!  The children wanted to make a cake so we made one and sang "Happy Birthday" to Daylight Savings Time. Henry said he's 'tired' of chocolate cake (how can that be humanly possible??) and requested vanilla with vanilla frosting. Loving longer days. I think the worst of winter is behind us. Fingers crossed. 
We had the most gorgeous day of warm weather recently which also coincided with the children getting out early for parent teacher conferences so we went to our favorite slide in Central Park. We had a hoot here last Summer and could not wait to get back. Today is officially the last day of Winter. Wow.  There are 21 playgrounds in Central Park and by golly we are going to hit every single one of them if it kills us! I had no plans for St. Patrick's Day but last minute we made some little shamrock pins for the children to wear and to give to their teachers. Remember when I made them for Henry's class? Each.And.Every.Child? I was koo-koo!! The Empire State Building was all lit up with green, of course. New York is amazing. Really amazing.  Tess is starting to stir & I've got little ones to get from school soon. Hope you are all doing well! xoxox

P.s. Still in a splint-6 weeks later. Oy.