Lillie and Shoes

Lillie has been a little obsessed the past day or so with Elliott's shoes. She has spent hours sitting in the middle of the floor trying to get them on her feet. She is never frustrated, just working hard to put them on.

Happy Birthday Mary!

Happy Birthday Mary!

Lydia made Mary this lovely cake.

"Can we have a party for Mary every afternoon? This snack sure beats what we normally get."

My First Building Project

I found this blog, Knock Off Wood, a few months ago. This girl who lives in Alaska finds furniture in stores like Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Restoration Hardware, etc, that would cost a lot of money and draws up plans for the furniture for people to build on their own. Not only does it save money, but there is great satisfaction in making it on your own.

Anyway, if you know me this is right up my alley! I don't claim to be good at it, I just like doing it. So I saw this plan for some bookshelves that would go perfect in the kids bedroom. I've been wanting to build them for months, just could not find the right time to do it. So with Jack in TN for a few weeks and with Mary and Lydia's help with Lillie and Elliott the time was right! I went to Home Depot (I go to the HD in the Bronx, they were playing country music, it made me smile) on Wednesday bought the wood and by Thursday night I was finished.

Enjoy the process...

All the wood

Sides and Shelves

Side Legs

Front Legs and Top Supports

My little guy with his face smashed on the window watching Mommy.

The trim for the shelves and the top on and holes patched.

Primed

Painted Navy

(there was a smudge on my camera lens that I didn't notice till the picture uploaded)

Finished Product!

I'm really proud of my first building project. I had 2 goals. One that everything would be level and straight and two it would be sturdy. It is very sturdy and everything is level and square. Oh and one more thing, my little cordless drill wasn't very helpful for this job so I went down to our superintendents "room" and found his power drill. My drill bits fit it so I borrowed it. He doesn't know, but this would not have been possible with out it! I may have to make a purchase of my own in the near future. ;)

I'm still working on cleaning the kids room. It's amazing how one little change can make such a difference for storage. I'm thinking about painting Jack's bed this same color. I just have to decide if it will match his denim bedding enough for me to like it. I think it would add a little more continuity to the room, we'll see.

Tricycles!

String Puppet Show

Yesterday Freddy T. and I took Jack on a special outing to the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater in Central Park for a puppet show. The show was called "Three". It was about the Big Bad Wolf who said he wasn't really bad, his mom just gave him that name and he wished he could change his name. The three fairy blind mice came on the scene and granted him 3 chances to be nice and if he succeeded he could change his name to the Big Good Wolf. So he entered the story of the Three Pigs, he tried to help them build a sturdy house, but they all fell down. Then he entered the story of the Three Bears. He was supposed to clean their house, but he ended up eating the porage, breaking the chairs and beds. Finally he was in the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. He ended up not helping the troll get any food. In the end the audience begged for him to have one more chance, it was granted and he built the pigs a big brick house, bought the bears all new furniture, and planted the troll a garden so he would have food. And finally his name was changed! Jack had fun. We look forward to seeing what other shows come to this theater. It was great entertainment for families and very reasonably priced!

We had a little time before the show to walk around and explore a new part of the park. Right behind the theater was a beautiful garden with a path winding through it that lead to the Belvedere Castle. We climbed in the castle, took a few pictures, then headed to the show. Jack was convinced it was the castle from Scooby Doo!

Freddy T. and Jack overlooking the Great Lawn where Jack and Elliott could end up playing Little League when they get older.

Finally headed home. Jack prefers a window seat and claims he is controlling the train. He knows what to do to stop it at the stations and make it go again and even announces "Stand clear of the closing doors please" as the doors start to shut!

*Keep scrolling down, I've added several post today... catching up!

Pigtails

They are small pigtails, but they are pigtails!

Mommy's Day Off!

We've settled into a good, general, weekly schedule with Mary and Lydia. Basically they work with us part-time and the other part of their week is free for them to work or have down time, whatever they need to do.

Tuesdays they have the kids all day and it is MY DAY OFF! I can't tell you how excited it makes me to have a whole day once a week to just do what I need or want to do. This past Tuesday was my second week of having Tuesday's all to myself. The first week it was pouring down rain and windy and cold. This past Tuesday it was beautiful. I started my day walking a few blocks, we'll 2 long blocks and 10 short blocks to the train (I took a different train than normal) and rode to the North side of Central Park. I've never been in that section before so I figured I'd just walk and come out further down the park. It was beautiful. It felt more like I was in the woods than in a park in the middle of a huge city.

These pictures were in the North Woods.

Afterwards I caught a train and headed down to Herald Square and walked all around that neighborhood. I'm not sure the miles I walked that day, but it was a lot. The church meets in that area, actually several blocks down in the Flatiron District, but this was where I started my exploring. We've talked about the possibility of living closer to the church for lots of reasons and I wanted to see what the area was like and if it would work for our family.

I still think it's wild that on a casual day out this is what I see (and every Sunday on our way to church)

I read on a Noel Pipers blog the other day about her visit to Macy's for the Spring Flower Show. She said if you lived in NYC, Chicago, and a few other cities you still had a chance to catch it. So I went. If you've ever been at Christmas, just imagine that scene switched out with tons and tons of fresh flowers. This picture doesn't do it justice. It was pretty neat.

I went in Macy's looking for comfortable, flowy skirts to wear this spring and summer. After last summer I realized that was the coolest (not necessarily fashion cool, but not burning up cool) way to endure the heat around here. Didn't have any last year, this year I will!

Have you ever been shopping in Macy's in this city? It was crazy! I have no idea how anyone shops in that store. It is so big and overwhelming. Unless you're looking for a particular designer, I don't know who has the time to look at all the options. I got the twins an outfit, no skirts.

And I think it's still neat that several of the escalators in Macy's are still these old timey wooden ones.

And as I was heading toward the train. I heard someone call my name. It was Nathan and Lesley from church. I love running into people in the city that I know. It happens every now and then and it really makes it feel more like home when you recognize someone out of millions ever so often.

Monday at The Zoo

Freddy T. takes Mondays off so this past Monday we spent it at the Central Park Zoo. We've been to the zoo several times, but this was Lillie and Elliott's first time in the children's area.

The kids inside a big turtle egg.

Duck watching!

Lillie first spotting an animal in the petting zoo.

At each of the petting zoo stops there are animals like this that represent what's in the pen. If you pet it it makes the animal noise.

Jack feeding the sheep.

Petting the sheep.

Elliott crawling through the hollow log.

Elliott the Bunny Rabbit!