Posted in Beautiful Things, Fun in NYC, Parenting, tagged ABT, American Ballet Theater, ballet for kids, children, Manhattan, NYC, parenting on February 25, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Zoe and I got tickets to a kid-oriented day at the American Ballet Theater. What a treat! It was only an hour long, covered 4 choreographers and allowed kids to stand and try to practice a few moves on their own while in the audience. This all meant a lot less wiggling around and boredom by act 3.
Best of all, the main hall was tricked out with some pretty great polkadot sculpture and a carousel of twirling figures.
Posted in Beautiful Things, Fun in NYC, Parenting, tagged children, Harlem, jazz, kids, Manhattan, marjorie eliot, music, NYC, parenting on February 22, 2016| Leave a Comment »
If you can’t give your kids an authentic music experience in NYC, then why live here in the great city of jazz? We’ve been dying to do this ever since we learned about it while at the Morris-Jumel Mansion. We finally made it back uptown to the ‘triple nickel building’ (as Marjorie called it) – or 555 Edgecombe Ave located near 160th St in Harlem. Marjorie opens up her own apartment for a jazz show from 4-6 pm – donations requested, and love of music required. The kids were so well behaved and Marjorie’s piano playing so soothing on a cold Sunday afternoon. Here is a great shot from Zoe via my iPhone, and then other great pix from placematters.net –
Marjorie has snacks at the ready for the audience
Posted in Fun in NYC, Parenting, tagged bubbles, children, fun in NYC, goo, Javitz Center, kids, Manhattan, NYC, parenting, pokemon, puzzles, skateboards, slime, toy fair, toys on February 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Ok really Ezra was ticketed to be somewhere else, but he somehow got on to a little caper/adventure and found himself wandering around where most kids are NOT allowed – The Javitz Center Toy Fair. Don’t ask me how it happened but this boy got to explore some new exciting toys and even tried many of them out! Good thing he’s a sweet kid – no one threw him out! (photos by gregkessler.com)
a horse that is powered as you rock it back and forth, and it moves forward!
slime that’s not messy
basically Ezra’s dream bed
a safe way to shoot those nerf guns indoors
3D puzzles… amazing!
Posted in Beautiful Things, Fun in NYC, Parenting, Rainy days, tagged Angie Keefer, art, art for kids in manhattan, ballerina, children, christin sunkim, cold days, culture for kids, degas, fun, john ahearn, kids, Manhattan, mary beth edelson, MOMA, museums with kids, new york city, NYC, parenting, PS1, The Met, travel, winter days on February 17, 2016| 2 Comments »
And when it’s so cold, we’ve got lots of museum going to do! Gotta keep it creative to keep the kids occupied (entertained is more like it) while taking in culture.
There was a weekend of revisiting the Met and PS1 shows to keep us from going stir crazy indoors –
At PS 1 Moma we found a room with shimmery streamers to enter : 
and waterfalls projected on glass (Angie Keefer)!
Lifesize momma love by artist John Ahearn
magic corners of rooms by Mary Beth Edelson
And batons that talk if you keep the connection (by Christine Sunkim)
And at the Met Zoe discovered a love of selfies, and proves that sometimes life really does imitate art:
Posted in Crafting, Parenting, Queens Life, Rainy days, tagged casein, children, cold day activities, DIY, february break, fun, home schooling, kids, kids and science at home, kids learn indoors, learning, making things, parenting, science project, turn milk to plastic on February 12, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Well it’s that time of year again: time to make a poster board covered with information for the Science Fair at Ezra’s school. We like to do this as a Feb break project. When trapped indoors in the cold it’s always fun to turn to science for some lessons! Last year’s science project (documented below) involved making casein from regular hot milk and vinegar. Basically you can make plastic out of mammalian milk, which in the end pretty much grossed me out. But Ezra got a good lesson from it and even got a yellow ribbon on his board! This year we are going to try our hand at making BUTTER .. with a lot of shaking. I hope. Stay tuned! (And to see more on casein, click here.)
Posted in Fun in NYC, Parenting, tagged children, city playground life, good articles, good stories, mommyhood, motherhood, NYC, parenting, raising kids, Timeoutnyc, urban families, urban kids on February 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Here are 21 things NYC parents have no shame about – as per TimeOut.com. Should I be embarrassed or proud that a lot of this rings true? Would you local mammas agree (or older moms, is it just the same as it ever was?)
NYC is the best place to raise a family, and here, being a mom or dad is tougher than it looks (and comes with plenty of things you just don’t have time to feel shameful about)! Here are just a few of the funny things you brush off your shoulders while raising the little ones (including, but not limited to, being covered in boogers, planning mommy meetups at a cocktail bar and piling kids three-deep in a stroller).
1. Going (unshowered) to Sunday brunch with the kids in tow because really, mommy just needs a mimosa and a pile of syrup-drenched French toast.
2. Changing a diaper anywhere. ANYWHERE. Like a ninja!
3. Essentially being a bag lady/gent between the diapers, wipes, backpack of small toys and even your own stuff (if you remember to bring it).
4. Just giving up and ordering an Uber when you can’t freaking deal with the stroller for one more second.
5. Quickly brushing off a dirty pacifier on your sleeve before giving it back to your kid. It will only make their immune system stronger…right?
6. Letting your kids play catch in the middle of the street, because where else are they supposed to do it?
7. Suggesting the local bar as the site for the next Mommy/Daddy Group meetup just so you can have a beer.
8. Getting Shake Shack for dinner three nights in a row because the kids begged and you didn’t have the heart to say no.
9. Using your sleeve, dress, pants, etc as a rag on the reg and accepting the fact that you’ve become a human tissue.
10. Offering your kids an extra hour on Minecraft before bedtime so you can veg out and watch the Game of Thrones episode you missed on Sunday.
11. Borrowing your friend’s go-to babysitter in a moment of desperation (and secretly hoping she comes back/likes your kids better). Okay, a teeny tiny bit of shame…
(click the link to see more!)
Posted in Alley life, Beautiful Things, Food Adventures, Fun in NYC, Queens Life, tagged children, hawk in NYC area, hot maple syrup in snow, jackson heights life, Jonah, kids, parenting, sledding, snow activities for kids, snow in the city, snowballs, winter on February 5, 2016| Leave a Comment »
With all that’s been going on here, I’ve been slow to put photos on the blog (sorry, neglected you again blog!) A couple of weekends ago we had a night of snow that trapped us behind a couple feet building up on our back door. After a LOT of shoveling, the kids got out and ran around a winter wonderland of an alley. It all melted quickly but it’s now flurrying again! Hope your weekend is white – or at least wonderful – too.
my morning workout
cars buried
hot maple syrup in cold snow
a lovely sunset with icicles
and by end of day a hawk came to visit us in our tree!
