Ruminating on Thanksgiving 2008

Toddlers - Teenagers - Two A.M. - Turkey - wii Tennis - Tinker Toys - Twenty-eight people for dinner - Turkey again - Tummy ache - kniTTing - southwesT on Time - Time alone to Tinkle the old ivories - TicTacs - Tattoos

No Plan Stan

Today was one of those rare days with no agenda. Everyone seemed to sleep just a little longer, it was my morning off work and we had no music class to get to, no plans with friends, and nothing pressing to do. The weather looked to be a bit nicer than the last two days, too. Bliss! I bundled the girls up and got out the stroller. I knew Avi would fall asleep immediately - she's had this low-grade fever since yesterday and just wants to be still. Nourit wanted to go to 'campus' so off we headed. Sometimes she claims a word for her vocabulary and you think you know what she means, but then you realize later that her meaning and Webster's meaning are completely different. I'm still not sure what she meant by 'campus' because after we got on campus, she still wasn't convinced we were there. We went inside one of the buildings, but that wasn't where she wanted to be. We went to the pond. Still no good. So I suggested Bixler and she was happy to trade 'campus' for the playground. We had the entire place to ourselves and played for awhile. I coaxed her back to the stroller with the promise of a croissant (but only after we stopped by the bookstore to pick up something for a friend.) We took our Medici croissant and headed to the Winter Garden and sat at the foot of the statue of the 'nice man' and shared our chocolate-y treat. There was a group of young children out playing, and she wanted to run and play with them so badly. So we kind of ran and played parallel to them. It still makes me want to consider another preschool for her for the fall, if the French school doesn't pan out. I just don't know...

Cookie Party, or "We're gonna need alot more stepstools!"

It took me a year to do, but I finally ordered some fall cookie cutters, found a sugar cookie recipe, and baked, baked, baked! I also made icing for the first time, scouring the city for powdered egg whites so as not to accidentally kill our children by using raw egg whites, and experimenting with natural food coloring. That's when things got a little tricky. See, I was imagining neon orange and astroturf green. I kept adding more and more of the (um, really expensive) natural die to get the deep, rich color I wanted. Instead, I got pastel icing that tasted like, well, the spice aisle in an Indian grocer. This morning, with emergency directions from my husband, I added this and that, and came up with something edible. I actually ended up liking the muted colors after all.

To make it more festive, we invited over our neighbors (and friends!) and had a cookie making and icing party. Abigail (3) and her mom, Kyla (almost 3) and her mom (and Baby Cole), and Scarlett (1.5) and her mom came over to help Nourit, Avi and I ice about a million cookies. (Danielle came over later, too, since she's got my vote for favorite non-blood related Auntie.)

Before our first guests arrived, (while we were busy getting the dishes clean from the night before!) Nourit started lining up stepstools in front of the chopping block where we usually roll out the dough. "We're gonna need alot of stepstools," she said, as she brought in all that she could round up, including the potty seat/step. We gently explained that that one stayed in the bathroom exclusively, then proceeded to clean the floor and her hands after we sent it back to the other side of the apartment.

Abigail and Anna

Amber and Kyla

MacKenzie and Scarlett

Busy creating masterpieces!

And here they are, the masterpieces.

Links to recipes used in this production of "Cookie Party":
Sugar Cookies
Orange Cardamom Cookies
Decorating Icing

Stealing Summer in October

The last 4 days have been amazing. After a cold and rainy spell, the weather turned warm again - I guess that's our Indian Summer? There was something inside of me (and many other people I ran into at the beach!) that wanted to just soak it all in, banking up sunshine for those cold and gray days that are heading our way very soon.

Nourit at the 57th Street Beach baking a sand pie.

Thursday, we left the house with our wool sweaters, and returned in short sleeves. We kicked off the first day of our ecumenical mom's bible study, held at Hyde Park Alliance Church. 14 moms, 22 kids, and 5 caregivers arrived at 10am, and soon the church was filled with the excitement of the children having Sunday School on Thursday. The diverse group of moms met upstairs in the sanctuary, thankful for an hour and 45 minutes sans children to pray and talk together. We decided to study the Psalms, and will meet again every other Thursday. Nourit, who never admits to having a good time, said she really liked 'going to school.'

Peter playing on the beach.

Friday morning, we caravaned with Amber/Kyla/Cole and headed to the 57th Street beach. Not 10 minutes after we arrived, our friends Joanna/Joshua/Peter (the initiator of our mom's study) and new friends Leslie/Eli/Micah, surprised us by coming to the beach, too. The kids splashed in the cold water and built sandcastles for a couple hours, while we tried to make sure noone ran into the water or the road, and all babies were happily fed and rocked. 4 moms, 8 kids. Not your average teenage trip to beach, but wonderful to be in the sun, nonetheless.

Amber, Kyla and Cole (all bundled up!)

Saturday was market day. Mike set up some recording equipment to tape Baba Eli singing and playing. He'll use it for a project he's working on this quarter. Nourit, Avi and I visited the garden, listened to Baba Eli, went to a cheese tasting, and just chitchatted with neighbors. I was excited to learn the market will stay open through December, moving inside the Experimental Station in November.

Avi contemplating the nutritive value of dirt.

When we got home, Nourit and I decided to get creative with the apples we picked last week. Nourit was too excited to nap and leave the baking to me, so she stayed up and we made our first yummy apple pie together. It really is easy! Alas, for two days in a row, little miss no-napper was so horrible by early evening that she went to bed more than 2 hours ahead of schedule.