Max and Esme

Esme and I attended a performance of the Nutcraker at Purchase College before I flew off to London on Dec 8th.  We had a lovely time getting dressed up and going to the theater.  Esme was very attentive throughout, and excited to see a couple of her classmates who were in the show. She has not decided that she wants to be a ballerina, too silent a performance for her I think. She'd much rather act and sing :) 

On Friday morning after Thanksgiving we headed into NYC to see the Rockette's Christmas Spectactular at Radio City Music Hall.  It was a fantastic show, enjoyed by all generations. We met up afterwards with the cousins for lunch and then for a brief walk through the Lego Store and the American Girl Store.  Max sprained his big toe on Thanksgiving and walking was painful... but you'd never know it from the smile on his face!

Postponed by Hurricane Sandy, Halloween was celebrated in the city of Rye on November 11th this year.  The kids were excited to wear the costumes that they had so carefully choosen and came home with a vast amount of candy. 

We're almost back to normal after Hurricane Sandy. Except that school is closed for Veteran's Day and where once Mommy could have taken the day off she needed to get to work instead!  So I have company today. Two lovely kids that have done homework, read books, played games on the ipad, and otherwise amused themselves while I deal with the daily grind. Love these guys.

Max made dessert last night for my birthday. It wasn't pre-planned, he hadn't actually thought about dessert (or my birthday for that matter) until we got home that evening.  But he checked the fridge and came up with a unique ice cream sundae... peanut butter flavored ice cream with cranberry concentrate as a sauce topped with apple chunks.  I admit to bracing myself before trying it. The apple was a little odd, but the rest pretty much tasted like a sweet PB&J.  Not bad, but maybe next year he could make me a card instead.

Esme modeling her birthday dress from Grandma Sissy.

The kids and I spent a nice afternoon at the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, CT during their September holiday.  I'm pretty sure Max and Esme could lead tours of the place by now.  The shark and ray touch tank remains a perennial favorite.  And the octopus has been moved from a dark tank where he used to hide in the corner into this bright tank where he came out to play.

We're getting into the swing of things in our second week of school.  I met both of our new teachers at back-to-school night yesterday evening and it seems like Max and Esme are lined up for a great year. 5th grade has a focus on civics and science, which suits Max just fine.  I earned him a free homework pass last night by correctly defining an idiom and doing his morning work.  He has a male teacher for the first time and field trips planned to Broadway and the Philharmonic.  2nd grade has catapulted Esme from spelling words like "book" and "three" to words like "auditorium" and "principal."  They do units on the environment and ocean life, including seining for the classroom tank from Rye Beach and a trip on a Schooner in the spring.  

Esme's favorite part of spending her summer at South Lake was the swimming. Here are some of my favorite pics of my water baby - with photo credits to Grandpa and Uncle Rob.

The kids and I spent a couple of great days with friends at the Washington County Fair.  Staying true to its agricultural roots, the fair was a slice of rural America at it's very best - good, clean, kid-friendly fun.  Here are some of my favorite pictures - hippie cows with yuppie calfs, baby ducks and chicks to hold, and teddy bears won by dart sharks disguised as 7-year-old girls .

My amazing son turned 10 on Sunday.  Where does the time go? We began our birthday celebrations early, with dinner and cake (apple turnovers in this case) with the neighbors on Wednesday.  We also gave Max his birthday present in advance so he had a couple of days to work on the Lego Death Star before heading to South Lake this week.  This was the ultimate gift and has generated spontaneous hugs for several days. Max's choice birthday dinner was held on Saturday night - pan fried fluke, lobster risotto and asparagus. The actual day was spent partly in the car, heading to South Lake where we shared apple pie (are you sensing a trend here?) with Grandma and Grandpa. The kids are hanging out with their cousins for the week while Mom and Dad work, we'll join them again on Friday for an extended family weekend. Happy Birthday, Max.  Best. Kid. Ever.

a perfect gift from her brother

The kids are enjoying some time with their grandparents, so the blog may be even quieter than usual! (Rob - insert sarcastic remark here.)  To get you through the next couple of weeks, here's a picture from Mom/Grandma's recent birthday celebration

The men in the family will recognize the importance of this event.  Not that women don't mow lawns, but those of us with brothers know that it's not primarily our job.  Our neighbor came out to take a photo and remind us of when Max used to ride on Peter's shoulders to do this job.  It will be a while before he can do it by himself I think, but Max was super proud of himself when he was done. And Peter was practically giddy.

We popped into the American Museum of Natural History on Saturday afternoon to see a special video presentation on Coral Reefs. The film was shown in a geodome so you felt as if you were sitting inside the reef itself and watching the spawn occur. We also took in the exhibit on Bioluminesce, learning more about firefiles and deep sea creatures that produce their own cold light.  We had just enough time before the museum closed to do a quick run through the dinosaur exhibits - according to Max, no visit is complete without it.

The Rye Hurricanes won their last game of the season 3-1.  Biggest soccer related smile we've seen from Max all year! The Blue Team from class 1C took first place at field day.  Esme claims victory was due to her carefull handling of a soccer ball - she didn't hit any cones - and that her team was made up of "sporty kids."

We spent most of Father's Day floating on Rye Lake, pulling up a few small bass, and enjoying some together time.

On Tuesday Class 1C gave a rousing performance of the Three Piggy Opera, the classic children's story put to music. Esme gave the welcome speech and was pretty in pink as a part of the piggy chorus. They worked hard on the play, creating the costumes, decorating the programs, and of course learning their lines and songs.  Esme had a great time and has already said she wants to join Chorus when she's in the 4th grade.  She also noted that her program art was much nicer than Henry's because he doesn't have as much experience drawing as she does and he doesn't have any artists in his family.  I don't know Henry, but I'm sure Esme is right.

We spent a beautiful Memorial Day on Nantucket, taking advantage of the extra days off school this year. Max did some surf casting with Peter, looking for blues off the beach. He wasn't happy about killing the fish initially, but when he realized he was in the running for the annual bluefish tournament his competitive nature took over.  Max hooked and reeled in this 6 pounder all by himself - bringing home dinner for the family, and earning 3rd place in the youth division! 

Max and his friend Paul participated in the Milton School science fair yesterday.  They did an experiment showing the hydrophilic reaction caused by adding dish soap to milk. It causes an explosion of color. They then tested the reaction in different mediums - milk, water, oil and broth to see what the differences were. The boys did a poster presentation and conducted demonstrations throughout the fair. Max was really proud of his efforts, but maybe not as proud as we were!  I don't think the food coloring is going to wear off his fingers anytime soon though.

Season 2 of  Little League baseball has begun and Max has earned his way into playing infield positions.  I didn't get a shot of his double play on Saturday, but here he is during his successful stint on first base.

Esme was my commuter buddy yesterday, joining me for a day at work.  My office ran a full program for the kids with parents meeting up again at lunch time.  Esme quickly made a new best friend and we shared a restaurant lunch of meatballs (and some grown-up food) with Ava and her dad.  Esme enjoyed her day in the office and was good company on the train.

We spent a weekend in Baltimore over February break, with a total of 10 hours at the National Aquarium. Can you say "Fish Geek?" We watched a dolphin show, had a front row view of the scuba divers feeding the rays, and saw everything there was to see at least twice.  It turns out Max already knows pretty much every kind of fish and Esme loved learning from her brother. Max took about 300 photos (all better than this one from my phone) and we're just waiting for a rainy day to sort through and share them.

Esme's 1st grade class performace was a narrative/song/dance called One Big Happy Family. I only have a blurry shot, but our star is in the middle back of this photo.  Esme had two lines to deliver and a short solo in one of the songs - she was loud and clear and is obviously destined for Broadway!  (Or maybe that's just her proud mommy talking...)

Class 4D presented Only Love is Spoken Here during an in school musical performance on Thursday. The kids did a great job with their lines and songs, but as you can see from the expressions in this photo they weren't too crazy about the subject matter.  I have to agree that it was pretty sappy stuff for a bunch of 9/10 year olds. Max has been working on a parody that features zombies and beheadings.  While I can't say I approve of that subject matter either, the kid does have a good ear for rhyme.

Max at the beginning of his snowboarding day.  6 hours of great fun until he got ran over by an adult skier and fractured his elbow. Max handled it all amazingly well and has headed off to school this morning with his arm in a splint.