Max and Esme

Milton School hosted a 2 1/2 hour long performance yesterday, featuring the orchestras, bands, chorus, songs by each grade, and a candle chorus at the end. They did a remarkable job - the parents were all very proud, especially me!  Notable this year was Max's debut on the viola in the 4th grade orchestra.  Here are some photos of our young maestro on stage.

Esme hosted her second annual cookie decorating party on Sunday afternoon.  We had 14 six-year-old girls over to decorate cut-out cookies to take home in the bakery boxes they designed.  I didn't manage to use the camera, but Max caught some of it on video.  Some highlights of the afternoon include: the girls sitting in the bay window to watch for new arrivals and greeting them with a chorus of screams  the girls deciding Max was fair game and chasing him around the house until they wrestled him to the couch and we finally called an end to that later on they stood in the back window watching him play soccer in the yard - you would have thought it was a Diet Coke commercial!  we were treated to a preview of next week's holiday concert songs during the cookie decorating each girl wrote her name on Esme's white board in her bedroom There was plenty of finger dipping in the frosting and a less-than-judicious use of sprinkes, but everyone had a great time....

The kids and I spent the day in NYC with Grandpa and Grandma on Saturday.  We walked the High Line park, had dim sum in Chinatown for lunch, and visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the afternoon. Here are the kids relaxing during our walk, and communing with the pharoahs.

The kids had their Thanksgiving concert last week. All 6 grades performed, plus the 4th and 5th grade chorus which Max participates in.  The singing was terrific, but since I know I can't get a good photo at the event I took this picture of Esme in her concert attire before she headed to school.  She looks so composed and beautiful.

The boat comes out of the water next week, so Peter is spending as much time fishing as possible.  A family trip on Friday yielded several striped bass (all too small to keep), sometimes even catching two on the same line!