Summer chalking

What does Zoe do when Ezra is away at camp by day and she’s bored? Get creative of course!

and of course when Ezra got home, he also had to contribute:

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Ezra (E3 band) goes to Battle of the Bands!

Well this was their biggest performance to date… in a theater that holds 2000 and about 500 people arrived.  They were the youngest band there (most others approaching college age or older) and they were really solid!  I was so proud.  Better yet, Ezra was lit up like a Christmas tree for the rest of the day after being on such a big stay with a crowd: he loved it!  I don’t know where these kids get their fearlessness from.  Not me!

(see his street performing below, and other E3 practices and performances by clicking here:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCha8hq9mndSIvQiKoaZRnUg)

 

and check out E doing some street performing in Washington Square Park!  He’s got fans:

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Summer!

It’s finally here… and yet, it’s arrived too quickly.  The winter really did speed by this year (hello? what happened to spring?) and now the kids are officially out of school and frolicking.

Ezra’s Lemonade stand is open again for business and Zoe got to graduate from her k-2nd grade school. It’s off to another school next year for her .. but mostly with the same kids in her class.  We are lucky that another school nearby has opened up a dual-language (Spanish English) class for her to segue to.  I couldn’t be more pleased that it’s practically across the street from our house!  And Zoe couldn’t be happier about staying with her classmates.

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Last of the ‘historic house’ posts:

I’ve been following Cybele Grandjean on Instagram , and she posted this amazing local bike tour in our hood that follows some jazz greats!  It’s fun to see how much musical history Queens has, and if you want to see our Louis Armstrong post: see it here!

We have heard rumors that Dizzy use to jam in our basement (previous owner of our house promises to dig out some old mail directed to Gillespie at our address), and our neighbors still have old phone numbers of Benny Goodman’s band scratched on to their garage wall.  It’s the reason why we jokingly refer to our back yards as  ‘Jazz Alley’.

Hope this has inspired you to get out and explore!

 

 

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Historic House touring: 2

It’s been an ideal time of year to see historic houses, and we stumbled on this one just as we were driving to one of Ezra’s band gigs.  Who knew this little historic gem would be nestled amidst the factories of an industrial neighborhood between Queens and Brooklyn (Ridgewood) ?

Vander Ende–Onderdonk House is a historic house at 1820 Flushing Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens.  It is the oldest Dutch Colonial stone house in New York City.  The original house on the site was built in 1661 by Hendrick Barents Smidt, from land that was granted to him by Peter Stuyvesant.  Another part of the structure, expanding from the original house, was built in 1709 by Paulus Vander Ende.

Clearly it’s got us thinking about adding a ‘dutch door’ to our house!

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Zoe’s sweet little class ..

I was invited to speak at Zoe’s ‘Multi-culture Day’ at her school, and got a chance to see all the projects they’ve been working on this year. The walls and bulletin boards are jam-packed with all sorts of cool projects: all about pulleys on the science board, heroes on the writing board, Spanish and English key words and 3D shape facts on the Math board. I don’t think I was doing this much in second grade! But it all looks so fun, I kinda wish I could go back to grade school. We will miss this sweet little school when Zoe leaves this late spring. Ezra went through here up until 2nd grade as well, and we wished we could keep them in this warm, nurturing, creative environment forever. (Plus they let this mamma come in and add some creative flair to backdrops and bulletin boards sometimes.. which I love). But it’s off to ‘bigger girl school’ in the fall – thankfully many of her classmates will be going with her.

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and more spring photos!

Apparently Ezra and Zoe’s dad was inspired by the petals too!  check out these gorgeous photos by gregkessler.com –

 

Louie puts his paw up for spring!

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