Halloween Festivities

So last night in my haste to get these pictures up (due to pressure from family far away, aka: Spencer) I did not write about our lovely Halloween. So here it is:

The girls and I headed out the door to meet a friend and her kids. Glenn was not planning on doing the parade and trick or treating part with us, because that stuff starts around 4 here, but he surprised the girls and met us as we walked. We walked up to a neighborhood park where there were tons and tons of people waiting for the Halloween parade to begin. The parade was being led by a guys who sings children songs on the disney channel and sometime sesame street (Dan Zanes). He was a lot of fun to see and played some fun music.

We then wandered down the neighborhood lanes of Carroll Garden's in Brooklyn. It was way different from Utah, because instead of spending most of the time walking long distances between houses you take about 5 to 10 steps and there is someone else sitting outside on their stoop with a bowl full of candy. There were also tons of kids and families and there was definitely a community feeling there. Miriam caught on to the idea quickly. She finally started running house to house with her bag out. It was pretty cute. Rebekah loved getting the candy, but I think she mostly loved being with her friend Hannah and having wings on her back. We passed a brownstone and the owners had 100 carved pumpkins all along their fence. It really was amazing. The older couple who lived their carved them all themselves.

We walked down to the corner store where a friend from the ward was paid to stand with her puppies (all dressed up) and hand out candy. We then made our way back to our friends house at a slight jog due to my bumble bee needing to go potty. Our husbands stopped by Vinny's Italian food and picked up some baked zitti. So we ate in their apartment, let the kids play, and had some apple pie.
It was a very festive Halloween.

Changing Seasons

Fall is finally here in New York. The weather has stayed warm up until this week. It has been wonderful. So it is finally chilly and fall in New York means cold rain. I happen to love the rain. I love how it makes the earth smell and how it looks when you peek out the window. But rain means a different thing in New York. You are much more exposed to it here. Instead of hopping in your car (like in Utah or anywhere else) and driving to your next destination, you walk there and you walk in the rain.

So, I have concluded that I need to buy myself a great rain jacket and rain boots for myself and the girls as well as snow boots too. I am interested to see how winter will workout for us. How will it work walking through the cold snow if we want to go somewhere or staying inside our house? I guess we will see. You really are much more exposed to the elements here since you walk everwhere. I just need to make sure we have warm winter coats, gloves, boots, and hats and we will survive.

Lawrence Farm

It seems that apple picking is the thing to do come fall time in the East. This is a bit ironic, because in Utah there are orchards within 10 min of us and we never went apples picking. Here we drive 2 1/2 hours with our kids and go pick apples. It made it much better that I rode with someone and did not drive. A group of Mom's from our ward went out on Friday and the girls and I had a GREAT time. I am glad I did it despite the drive. The girls were so so so happy to finally run free after 2 months of being cooped up in the city. We loved it.

Girls night out

Glenn was at work late a couple nights this week. So the girls and I had a little outing. We took our large stroller out and walked down to Mazzzone's hardware store where we bought our pumpkins. The staff there is so so nice. I probably go by there once a week looking for random things and they are very toleratant of my stroller and two girls in thier very small store even so that they walk around and take me to each item and then walk me to the register. So nice!! We then walked home and dropped our pumpkins off in front of our stoop.
We then walked down to the neighborhood pizza placed that everyone here raves about. It is a little place called Fransceos. It has a very cute atmosphere and all sorts of Italian food. This time we just went for the basics, but maybe next time I will try something new. Their pizza itself was a little greesy, but I think that is what Brooklyn style pizza is supposed to be like.....huge and thin enough to fold.
It was a fun little outing with the girls and I.

Central Park

Our latest famiy outing was to Central Park. We took two subway trains up to the part of the park that looked fun for kids. It was beautiful! It is a HUGE park. They have several ponds within the park. A few of them have places where you can rent a canoe and go rowing. It looked like a great date. The park was full of all sorts of activities. There were people there practicing martial arts, some kind of HUGE dog convention, people taking bridal photos every, and all sorts of fun. Above is a picture of Bekah and I in front of a big fountain. This was a popular area with tons of people around.


This was a statue they had of Alice in Wonderland. Below Alice is the rabbit and some other animals from the story. Rebekah and Miriam had a fun time playing on it. The other picture is Glenn and Bekah inf ront of another bdoy of water that had mini sailboats in there. It made me think of Stuart Little. They were very fun to look at with the girls.

The there is a smaller castle within the park as well. Rebekah was so excited to climb to the top with Dad and look out at the rest of the park. She saw turtles and ducks from up there.

We loved going up there and the day was a perfect fall day. We wore jackets for a while and then took them off as it got warmer. We will definitely do this again and explore a new part of the park.

Sleepy Miriam

I guess Miss Miriam has been really tired lately. She has never been one to fall asleep easily in her car seat and especially now that she only gets in the cat seat about once every 3 weeks, she never does it. She has learned the art of sleeping in strollers and on one particularly sleepy day she fell aslepp while eating lunch. She slept through me wiping her hands and face off and moving her to the crib (she always wakes up when I try to move her). She then slept for an unheard of 4 1/2 hours. Woohooo, I think she must a whole inch taller or something. Just thought they were cute and that I would share.

Sneaking around the house

Okay, so hard wood floors are pretty and easier as far as stains go, but I think when they are over 60 years old they are quite ridiculous. Not only do they have marks, scratches, and stains, but there is no way you could walk around without EVERYONE including your neighbors downstairs from hearing you. When Glenn gets up in the morning and he is tip toeing around so the girls and I don't wake up everyone in the house hears....creek...creek...creek...creek...creek with every footstep. Or if I want to or need to go listen at the girls door to be sure if they are asleep I everyone hears...creek...creek...creek with every footstep or even shift of weight. I guess it is good that I always know if Bekah is up at night or during quiet time, but wow it really is loud.

Tea Lounge

During Rebekah's Joy School class I went with the other Moms to the Tea Lounge. I have read about it on the internet and also heard things from people in the area. Basically it is a little coffee house here in Brooklyn that is very open to moms and kids. They have volunteers come every Tuesday and Thursday to sing with the kids. It was like a little live concert for little kids. Jazzed up versions of the classic songs, but some new ones which featured the names of the highways and bridges around here as well as the common Subway stops....really cute and really Brooklyn. Miriam is teething and did not get into as much as I thought but by the end she was dancing and clapping and doing all the motions. It was a lot of fun and it was free, which was unexpected, because on the website they had a suggested amount to donate, but the singer would not take our money...woohooo!! They also have free coffee for mom's, although that doesn't benefit me, but I am sure it is great marketing on their part. A fun experience of living in Brooklyn. I am sure we will do it again.

Coming Home

I think one of the best feelings in the world is walking through my door after work at the end of the day. The catalyst for this feeling is my little Miriam. The moment I walk in the door I hear these little feet slapping down on our hardwood floor moving as fast as they can. Accompanying this is a little voice saying....."DaddyDaddyDaddyDaddyDaddy"......I look down to see my 1 year old with a huge grin on her face running towards me as fast as she can go. She jumps into my arms and as I pick her up she wraps her arms tightly around me and nuzzles her head into my neck. She then hold this position for about 10 seconds as I snuggle her little body in my arms. She looks up at me with the same sweet grin on her face......but it isn't over yet. As I set her down she walks a few feet away and then looks up at me with an inviting grin that says, "chase me." I then start to move towards her and with a little yelp she starts running in the opposite direction, laughing as I swoop her up and smother her little cheeks with kisses. It is these moments that make being a dad the best job in the world.

Pet Shop

When I was a little girl I LOVED going to the pet store. I would spend the time looking and petting the kittens and puppies. Looking at all the differnt types of fish, birds, and snakes. It was heaven for a little girl.
Well there is a pet store on the way home from most of our outings. We pass it everyday and the girls get so excited. There are always little puppies in the windows. Miriam starts yelling "puppy, puppy" over and over again. And Rebekah and I stopped and look at the new puppy in the window. I kept thinking we should go inside, but the door is always closed. That is not usual around here, everyone leaves their doors open and are usually right be the door with a smile welcoming you in. Anyhow, I thought we would wait until the store had a more friendly day. So, finally a few days ago a man inside saw my girls and I looking at the puppies in the window. He opened the door and invited us in and then he left (I guess he was a customer). There was another customer in the store holding her dog. We said hello and then Rebekah ran to a pack n' play that was set up in the middle of the room with a doggie bed, food, toys, and of course an excited puppy in it. Rebekah reached down and immediately started playing with it. She was having so much fun. A lady came out from the back yelling, "don't touch that dog....no, no, no, don't touch her. She hasn't had her shots yet. She could get her sick. You never know what she has." At first I thought, wow, what a health concious woman, but I quickly realized that she was talking about Rebekah getting the dog sick. I had to laugh inside, that she was so uptight about a dog, but it is also a little sad. It was like the world was ending because an infested child was touching her dog. I am sure that the dog costs quite a bit of money as you could tell it was a rich persons dog. As I looked around the pet store all they had were dog things. Gourmet dog food and treats and hair cleansers and organic dog things. And cute little dog bags, like Paris Hiltons. Anyhow it was not what I thought a pet shop would be like. I should have known since all the dogs in the window were the tiny hairless dogs that rich women like.

Just another day in Brooklyn, NY