Posted in Cooking, Queens Life, tagged Astoria, bbq, butcher bar astoria, Feb, food, good eats, good food in Queens ny, love, parenting, parents, restaurant NYC, smoke, smoked meat, sustainable food, Valentine's day, valentine's day date on February 13, 2015 | Leave a Comment »
My husband and I like to celebrate a little earlier (or later) than Valentine’s Day, in order avoid all the chaos of the actual holiday (battling for reservations and dealing with over-decorated restaurants with mediocre ‘prix fix’ menus is not for us). This year we discovered Butcher Bar in Astoria – where even my mostly vege-pescatarian husband was tempted by great smoked meat. The Beef Candy sandwich was amazing – I’m already craving another.
Enjoy your weekend and happy Valentine’s Day!
Posted in Beautiful Things, Crafting, Decorating, Kid style, Parenting, Queens Life, tagged art station, at home, children, crafting with kids, DIY, draw, easel, kids, make a painting station, paint on February 4, 2015 | 1 Comment »
If you can’t get out to buy one… try this trick. A clever friend set this up during a Pictionary party and it gave me the idea to do the same with a small metal step ladder in our own home. Zoe LOVES her new painting station. Magnets on the side make a great way to dry fresh paintings!
Posted in Alley life, Food Adventures, Parenting, Queens Life, tagged blizzard, fun in the snow, kids, NYC, parenting, Queens, school's out for snow day, snow, winter on January 28, 2015 | 1 Comment »
Even though our blizzard petered-out, the kids stayed outside all day and got good and tired from snow play. Ambitious dads made snow forts, Ezra repeatedly heated up maple syrup and poured it into snow, and neighbors on our alley were shoveling for hours.
a bird’s eye view of the neighborhood snow fort
Maude (leaning against the garage) taunts the ‘boy camp’ before the snowballs start to fly!
everyone out and shoveling on our alley
Posted in Fun in NYC, Parenting, Queens Life, tagged children, electrical engineering, LED lights, light, New York Hall of Science, parachutes for kids, parenting, Queens, science for kids, shadow puppets on January 23, 2015 | 1 Comment »
We went back here for the first time in a while and were pleasantly surprised by the new exhibit in the lower level. It’s a permanent set up with a ‘pirate ship’ of sorts in the center – kids can climb on this and meanwhile the 4 stations below allow kids to explore with science crafts. There is a station where kids create a city with LED light inventions that they come up with, and another station where they can build a ‘survival pack’ and parachute if off of the overhang from the ‘pirate ship’ (or is it a tree house? It’s whatever you want it to be!) I wish Ezra’s science classes at school could be so creative. Zoe created paper puppets at the ‘light play’ station, and of course Ezra was back to building structures —
Posted in Alley life, Beautiful Things, Cooking, Kid style, Parenting, Queens Life, tagged children, dolls, girl birthday, girl's vanity and toys, kid cooking, parenting, Queens life, stuffed animals, weekend, weekend at home on January 20, 2015 | Leave a Comment »
We had a lot of friends over, and yet a basically mellow weekend. How about you?
(Below – Zoe and BFFs Hazel and Mia on a train to Manhattan for her tea non-party, Ezra arranged all her dolls for a slumber party on the floor that night, she can’t get enough of her birthday gifts, and Ezra making eggs for all of us in the a.m.)
Posted in Cooking, Kid style, Parenting, Queens Life, tagged 5th girl birthday, children, cupcakes, growing up, kids, parenting on January 16, 2015 | 2 Comments »
Here is Zoe at school yesterday – a day before her birthday she wanted to bake and share cupcakes with everyone in her class, and today on the actual big day she and I will go for a little tea party in the city (remember this place? She loves it!) I don’t know how she arrived at the decision that she didn’t really want a party this year… but I will have her all to myself so I’m not going to complain. Happy 5th Birthday my sweet little lady! (and thank you to Zoe’s teacher for the photos!) Bottom photo by Greg Kessler.
with her friend Walker who is also celebrating his birthday
always the little helper
Posted in Alley life, Beautiful Things, Fun in NYC, Parenting, Queens Life, tagged fountain, NYC, Queens, scenics, snow, the city, winter on January 9, 2015 | Leave a Comment »
Ok I’ve been behind on posting what we were up to last weekend… we had a fun New Year’s Eve in Cornwall where Ezra stayed up (for the first time) until midnight, but Zoe crashed early. Work, home maintenance, and a host of other post holiday things have kept me from keeping the blog fresh – but I hope to do it soon. Meanwhile I leave you with these pix from our instagram feed, and have a great weekend!
this lovely shot of Brooklyn is from http://instagram.com/whimsyandspice/
and @inaseow pic of the frozen fountain in Bryant Park!
