June 20, 2012

Fathers Day Weekend Adventures

In Lara's words, last weekend was "Daddy's pick" - which ended up being a big win for all of us because what he picked turned out to be crazy awesome!

First, a trip to the beach, which failed to get the photodocumentation treatment. How do you guys deal with the whole camera+sand=ack! aspect of bringing electronics to the beach? My solution generally is just to leave everything in the car to avoid stressing about it. Which means you don't get to see the hilarity that was both kids self-buried up to their chests in sand. But I digress.

That afternoon, we hung out in the park with a ball. And when I say "hung out", what I mean is "marveled at the sudden and astounding acquisition of athletic prowess displayed by little Pele-rina over here":



They must take the "education" part of Physical Education pretty seriously at her school, because this kid now suddenly has some mean soccer skills... which we certainly didn't teach her.



The next day featured another impressive display of child maturity, as we rented a canoe and rowed down a little stream near Princeton.



Yours truly, being of little faith, thought for sure one of the kids would get bored and capsize the boat - or with some luck only fall into the water solo. But no! Behold the team fit to oar a galleon:



We saw turtles, dragon flies, birds, and even managed to avoid splashing each other with the oars for the most part. Which means? Whitewater rafting here we come! No day in Princeton is complete without a picnic lunch from Olives, and this day was not complete without a demonstration in throwing technique. Here, Lara displays her new command of the frisbee, and Misha is all set to throw a regulation discus-Jake:



A stroll through campus is also a must, if only for the mandatory figure-eight sculpture photo op:



That afternoon? Bubbles in the back yard:



Happy Fathers Day!

June 16, 2012

Birthday Book for Jakey

I am so, so excited that the birthday book tradition lives on! We were slightly late with Jakey's book this year, but he has been super thrilled to have a book all about him. We try to throw some really specific things the kids like into the text, so with this one, as you can probably guess if you saw this post, we've got a hippo as a major supporting character.

June 15, 2012

Jakey and Lara's Sunshine Room

We finally finished the kids' room! Well, ok, obviously most of it had been done for some time, but now with the addition of a shaggy gray rug and some floor pillows, we've got ourselves a put-together ensemble-type decorating situation.

Here's what the room looked like when we first moved in (just after we refinished the floors, which were originally an odd pale yellow color):



And here is the room now!



We went with the happy sunshine color that we loved on the the walls of our Manhattan living room way back in the day, and kept it in the gray-white-dark wood family for the rest. Of course, I say this because in this picture you don't see the giant bookcase which is awesome for storage but doesn't really match, and the changing table, which... hopefully won't be there soon.

Also, please pardon the fact that this photo is stitched together from two separate ones. I'm not tall enough to take a picture of the whole room... and too lazy to bring and unfold the ladder that is stored three feet away from where this shot was taken.

June 14, 2012

Weekend with Dad

A totally awesome rare treat - a weekend visit from my dad!



We traversed the city, but the camera in tow was his. But, at the end of the day, we did have fun in the back yard with bubbles.







He somehow even managed to take a cute photo of the four of us - I think it might be one of three. Four, tops.



See you again soon, dad!

New Portraits

A couple of portraits for Sadie. Love the poses that she captured in the photos I used to make these!





June 2, 2012

New Little Kitchen

Check out this little number from Bess! How awesome it the idea to use the space underneath for storage? So brilliant.