The Earth Day march..

Ezra and his class had a march around the block one day during school in honor of Earth Day. They spent a few days making hats out of recycled things – then proudly marched around the neighborhood wearing them and holding their eco-conscious ideas on signs. I was so proud when I saw his sign insisting on ‘more electric cars’ to keep the trees happy (and – according to his sign – it will also prevent stick figure people from falling over and bleeding in the streets!)
As the sign says: “Gas cars is killing us!”

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Spring Beautiful Things

photos from ohhappyday.com

Since we’ve had a couple warm days this week I must admit, I wasn’t perusing blogs like I usually do. But these little gems did catch my eye and I had to share. Have a great weekend!

– Zoe is so into watching flowers bloom this season, I’d love to make her this hat.

– A dad does hair with a vacuum. I could’ve used this for Zoe’s dance recital!

– Performance art meets soliciting on the subway. This is hilarious!

– Pretty little girl’s room.

– A very cool consignment shop in Virginia.

– Have your heard of quilling? Amazing!

– Cutest pinterest page ever of kid’s stuff.

– Time to build this in our garden – our kids would love it.

– Can’t wait to take Ezra to this fuel efficient car show. (Thanks Jill!)

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Incredibly cute baby photos

This creative mamma has found something to do while baby sleeps (or doesn’t sleep?) We made a birth announcement similar to this when Ezra was born but didn’t continue it in a series, and didn’t get this clever.

Photos by Adele Enerson.
This one right here… the cheeks. They kill me.

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Beautiful Things Friday

Ezra is reading his 3D book on Monster Trucks, excited that he and a friend will go to the Monster Truck Jam this weekend. I worry about the noise, and his ears … but he is over the moon. And I’m looking forward to having an evening of tea party and princess movie watching with my main girl Zoe.

Enjoy the weekend everyone, and meanwhile here are some of our favorite things from perusing our favorite sites:

– This yummy brunch is making me yearn for warmer days.

– Here’s a fun kid activity to do while indoors – some science with food coloring.

– The dry version of our food coloring project will be this – great powder photos!

– When stuck indoors, we love to make stuff out of cardboard boxes left in our recycle area. (Remember our halloween costume?) Here are some more great ideas of how to reuse your cardboard stash.

– Speaking of cardboard reuse, my kids consider this clever little guy to be a cardboard rockstar.

– We once made a dollhouse out of a UPS box. I confess, I’m nuts about dollhouses and I love when they are created out of something unexpected like this and this.

– Our neighbor from Just Arting Around created a fabric using her own fingerprints!

– A very cool sushi-themed birthday party.

– Mmmmmm some delicious takes on kale. Clearly our foodie neighbors are as home bound as we are, but they are eating well.

– Need some kosher stuffed potato skins for Superbowl Sunday?

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More Beautiful Things for a cold Friday

Instagram shot by Ben Blair.

– Oh how I want to be Betty. I need to take the kids to Paris soon.

– YUM hot chocolate made with coconut milk!

– Have you seen these fireflies in Japan?

– E and Z’s dad deserves this great new mag for dads.

– I tried to design something like this in college but it didn’t turn out nearly as great.

– Get ready for valentine’s day – send some love in a box.

– My stylist friend from Martha Stewart taught me that grey and white are great in kids’ rooms (or anywhere else). Here’s a great example.

– Living small is a virtue.

– More beautiful bird nests.

– Something new I learned about this week: vertical gardens.

– Can I live here please? And Ezra will take the car.

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How Much Do I Owe You?

We saw a fun show this past weekend at an abandoned Bank of Manhattan building in LIC Queens. It happened to be a very kid friendly show about money – which Ezra is newly interested in. He is learning to count money in school and just opened his own bank account so he was excited to see the vault at this new gallery show, and Zoe loved drawing dollar bills for funhundred.org! Materials for the Arts provided lots of things to craft with…

art made from scratch lotto tickets!

Lots of crafting materials from http://www.mfta.org

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Beautiful Things roundup

image by HonestlyWTF

Happy Friday. Here are a few beautiful things we found this and last week – enjoy!

–I love the way the Seinfelds celebrate December.

–Nothing is more redeeming than seeing college-age kids dress the way I did when I was in college – (and if you know me, you’ll know why I love a post on strong brows).

–Taza blog’s makeover and photos of Italy make my heart sing.

–Cup of Jo’s great news and stylish pregnant attire.

–A yummy winter meal.

–Our talented Jackson Heights neighbor Samarra really knows how to cut a snowflake!

–Have you seen the northern lights?

–I love the colors in Stella McCartney’s new line, and the coat proportions are hilarious. You get the impression that the models think so too.

–In an ideal world my family photos would be impromptu and black and white, like these beauties.

– I have to get back to Evolution for shells because this DIY earring idea is great!

–Birds as architects.

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Hanging in SoHo – visiting Evolution

While in SoHo we had to make a stop at a shop that I remember visiting back in 1993 when it first opened. Not quite a fossil, but a fixture in the neighborhood for sure! Where else but NYC can you find a shop that prides itself in offering the unusual – including human skeletons and replica skulls? We explored the “mysteries of the natural world” (as Zagat put it), with two floors of exotic gifts including shells, taxidermy, jewelry fashioned from fossils, and other curiosities like jarred butterflies. Ezra seemed to love the ‘medical’ aspect to it all but Zoe stayed in her stroller, calling the place “too scary”.

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The Christmas House in Torrington

When we were young, my brothers and I would’ve gone bananas to know there was a brightly lit house that we could tour ON THE INSIDE as well as view the outside. This crazy house in Torrington Connecticut (see their facebook page here) is definitely worth a visit. In fact I’d venture to guess it may become a national treasure some day. Not only is the exterior ablaze with Christmas love, but inside we toured 3 floors stuffed full of mechanical dolls, trains, and other holiday paraphernalia. The sign at the entrance isn’t lying – there are over 500 mechanical dolls in there (and notice that the number on the sign seems to change). We did manage to find at least one (maybe 2) menorahs in the windows. If you go 2 days after Christmas as we did, there won’t be any crowds. At least, not of people – we did still feel very crowded by dolls!

mechanical carolers as far as the eye can see..

a ceiling Santa overlooks a room of trains and snow village

the full moon is barely visible amidst the lights at the exit

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Rocks rock!

While at the Museum of Natural History, we checked out the Hall of Gems. There’s also a Hall of Meteorites and a Hall of Minerals in this same area of the museum. I think the kids love this zone the most because they can actually touch some of the exhibit. Of course Ezra enjoys it because he got very into geodes this summer during our trip to Maine, and Zoe loves any gem that is pink or purple!

I can’t stop touching the purple rock!

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