MORE Memorial Day Weekend

Making a sand volcano and pools of water on the shore, finding nature and making sun art, a cake walk and a llama walk ..

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Memorial Day Weekend moments

We are lucky to be able to escape the city and go somewhere quaint and peaceful. Of course Ezra wanted to bring his iced tea to the country – but I’m not sure his price increase worked on the biggest ‘sale’ weekend of the year! I love that the kids sleep so well after a day of running around outdoors … which is an added bonus when the grill cools off and parents can talk.

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On the High Line – art and train tracks

I use to love this old elevated subway line when it was a tangled, brambly mess of unkempt weeds — but the renovated version is a fun spot for kids. It even inspired one author to create this children’s book about an urban garden in transition. Zoe was a bit too small (and certainly busy napping) when I last posted our visit to the High Line (see this link), so I took her to see it again on a Friday while Ezra was in school. There’s an area of water where she and her friend Mia could splash around – and a ‘Lilliput‘ exhibit that got them looking for little people on the tracks. We stayed until early afternoon when bus loads of tourists started to arrive and the sun got too strong to stay out. I think this will be the only time ever that the girls get to play on the train tracks – and I know they loved it.

See some of the untouched High Line here – and enjoy the long weekend!

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Smorgasburg

Holy yum we love this place… and now that summer is nearly here, Smorgasburg is back on. Just as their website indicates they are open every Saturday “rain or shine”. Smorgasburg is one of those beautiful testing grounds for all sorts of new foodie endeavors (and now there seem to be tables selling vinyl records as well – making it a place for more than just food). It’s located right on the water in Williamsburg, which is a hip section of Brooklyn. The kids love tossing stones into the water, and testing popcicles and fish tacos. This year Ezra liked checking out his competition – The Stand – which is a vendor of new and creative takes on lime and lemonade like cucumber mint or grapefruit basil. (See Ezra’s recent foray into ice tea sales here.) We tried Shorty Tang & Son’s spicy noodles and Miss Lily’s Jerk Hut kept reggae tunes going – which was another great new addition to the scene. Check out Smorgasburg’s impressive list of vendors – we hope to taste all of it by end of summer!

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Some ‘ocean’ in the city

Deborah Wasserman started a great program here in Jackson Heights; one that keeps kids making art even when budget cuts and academic rigor take over some public school curriculum. Her Art For A Start classes have yielded some pretty remarkable projects that I last saw exhibited in a local cafe – and this time some beautiful ‘Ocean Dioramas’ caught our eye while passing by the window of a local pharmacy. Ezra loved these ‘fish tanks’ (as he likes to call them) and now wants to create more ‘box art’. Anyone who has known me since college knows how much box art I created in my day so – needless to say, I’m thrilled. These dioramas were created by various students aged 5-13.
Check out Deborah’s website at http://www.artforastartny.com and hang on to your shoe boxes, beach bits and blue paint for the next rainy day. Get inspired:

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Rainy days…

Lately we’ve been having a lot of rain, and Zoe and I have had to pass the hours (between leaving her brother at school and collecting him again at 2:30) indoors. She discovered that she loves playing hide-and-seek – and finds the most hysterical hiding spots. And of course the afternoon is usually punctuated with one long, lovely deep nap. I’m sure she’s going to give up napping soon so I had to get a photo of her sleeping .. as a reminder of how nice rainy-day-siestas are.
Here’s her favorite hiding spot as of late. She often forgets to hide her feet:

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Grounds for Sculpture in NJ

My brother made us aware of this amazing place, on a weekend when we watched his kids for a day. What an incredible discovery! It reminded me of Stormking only this place was more kid friendly; offering GREEN labels on the art that we were allowed to touch, and RED on those that were off limits. There were lots of sculptures of ‘real people’ in the woods and scattered throughout the grounds – whose hair and clothing seemed so real and detailed in texture, the kids often assumed that real life visitors were art! There were friendly peacocks everywhere, an exhibit of what the kids liked to call a ‘bouncy house‘ show, and a water garden with steam to cool us off when the sun got to us while walking around. My favorite part was the sculpture of Claude Monet creating a painting – and when you looked just slightly to the left of him, the entire painting‘s vista was recreated on the grounds! Note that my nephew is standing ‘in the painting’ (click here to see the original painting).

my adorable niece and nephew touching the art:

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