Washington, DC and Virginia Beach

We took a mini vacation with an overnight stay in DC and a short visit to Virginia Beach. In DC we stayed at the hotel where Paul stays when he is down there for work. Clare loved the hotel. They provide animal print robes in each room. You can see her resting on the settee in her leopard (?) print robe. One funny perk is that they will bring you a goldfish to keep you company during your stay. Clare was very excited to have a pet for the night and named her/him Coo Coo Baby Goldfish. We went to see the building Paul is working on (the Newseum), the Natural History Museum, and the Air and Space Museum. We also took time for a few photos and a carousel ride on the Mall. Saturday afternoon we headed to Papa's house. We visited the beach numerous times and attended the birthday party for 5 year old Hannah who lives across the street. Then before we knew it, it was time to get back in the car and head home. The kids did great in the car considering the length of the journey.

Slidin' Sisters

Most days we've been heading to Church Square park after school. We saw Cathy, Amanda and Abbey at the park near 4th Street and the big sisters decided to take the little sisters for a trip down the slide.

Visting Saratoga with Nana

We went to Congress Park in Saratoga when we were upstate visiting Nana over Labor Day weekend. There is a restored antique carousel in the park - no safety straps and the floor is made of wood. The carousel came from an amusement park on Saratoga Lake where Cheryl and I both worked during high school. (Yeah we were carnies!) The park was sold and the carousel was purchased but put into storage until they could find a place to house it. It has been in the park for a few years now, but this was the first time Nana had been on it.

We love Preschool!

Well at least Mommy does. The top pics are from the first day when the parents stayed for the whole time. The other pics are from her official first day on her own. Don't let the smiles fool you - there were some tears. Actually there have been tears most days, but when she gets home all she talks about is school, so we think it is going OK.

Mommy gets a haircut

Before and after pics. It felt great to cut it off. I mailed the ponytails to Locks of Love a few days after.

Whole Foods

We took a trip out to our local Whole Foods and we picked a great day. It happened to be Back to School Day so Clare got a tshirt, sippy cup, stickers, chefs hat and gardening glove (just one). For activities, she got to make a pizza and plant pumpkin seeds. We have yet to go back to see how her seeds are doing. They labeled the seeds by tracing her hands and writing her name on a sheet of paper to be laminated.

Swingers

Gwen likes to swing, Clare likes to push - a perfect combo.

Teletubbies

Clare is insistent on wearing these hand-me-down Teletubbie jammies every night. Since we are choosing our battles these days, we let her do it. I guess we can be thankful she is not leaving the house in them!

Central Park Zoo

Clare has watched the movie Madagascar a few too many times, so we decided to take her to the Central Park Zoo. We watched the sea lion show and saw penguins, polar bears, and monkeys. Clare kept asking to see the lion, zebra and giraffe, like in the movie. To keep a meltdown from happening, we told her they were loaned out to a different zoo. There was a plaque at the park dedicated to, I think, John Clare from England. We tried to capture just Clare and England, but this was the best we could do with our little wiggleworm.

Rain, rain go away

This is what you look like after days of rain, and Mommy, in desperation, takes you outside to play in the puddles. It took us two hours to walk across the park near our house, go to the library and read a few books and walk back home. Then we made a pizza. Clare was in charge of rolling out the dough, can you tell? I told her it looked like Papa's airplane.

Sisters!

Clare has been asking to hold Gwen since Gwen was about three weeks old. Of course we were so excited that Clare was genuinely interested, and not jealous, we were more than happy to let her do it. It is definitely getting easier now that Gwen is more 'sturdy'.

Swimming upstate

Clare doesn't appear to have a care in the world except staying afloat. Ahhhh.

Central Park Take 2 - Fishing!

We joined some friends from our playgroup to go fishing in Central Park at Harlem Meer. We fished with cane poles and corn provided by the park. Amanda and Cathy caught a fish right off the bat, which was a good motivator to keep the other little anglers interested. Between everyone in the group, six fish were caught. (Thanks to Gayle for being a good sport and removing the hooks to release the little fishies.) Clare didn't catch any fish but she was more than happy to touch the one Katherine landed.

Visits to Van Saun Park

Baby Angst

Gwen gets out her frustration on poor Lumpy!

Cape Cod with the Cousins

We visited Cape Cod with the Smiths. Our first trip to the beach was a disaster because it was way too hot. The second trip was great. Clare had a great time building sand castles and riding the waves on the boogie board. Even Gwen did a bit of sunbathing.

Jersey Girl with Jersey Grown

We visited a pick-your-own farm in Cranbury, NJ. Clare was proud of her produce.

Visit to VA Beach

Clare and Daddy went to visit Papa this summer. They got to go to the beach, see Papa's new plane and play with the neighbor Hannah.

Crayola

We recently went to Crayola in Easton, PA (which is surprisingly close to Hoboken) to see a friend from Boston who was visiting Crayola with her nephews. I can't believe it has been 5 years since we saw each other! We all had a great time, especially Clare who loves crafts.

House Hunting

We've been spending our weekends looking for a home. So that Clare doesn't go too crazy being in the car, we always try to stop at a park for her to run around. This is at Lincoln Park in Cranford, NJ. The ice cream stop was for Mommy and her prego cravings!