The Zoo

Aunt Christy got us a family membership to Da Bronx Zoo, or rather the Wildlife Conservation Society. Anyhoo, they have member's nights in July and off we went (after an hour or so on the Cross Bronx.) First stop was Tiger Mountain where the tigers obligingly lazed by the glass, took a dip and wandered around in close proximity.
Tiger, Tiger, burning hot, took a dip, now you are not.
Lela's favorite beast of the moment, courtesy of Lion King (1, 1& 1/2 and 2 - we've seen 'em all, many, many, many times.) We were treated to roaring and pouncing.
A breeze break in the gift shop. Did I mention it was HOT?
Zoo employees get a little flaky at the end of an extra long day.
Out of the 8 zillion stuffed animals in the gift shop, Lela chose.....an elephant (tucked tightly under arm.) Go figure. Lela is all in yellow because that's required to be a lion - not sure of she was Nala , Kiara or Sarabi at the moment. The Thinker.
Some people go this way, and some go that way.
The Zoo had a tattoo booth - and not just a regular old stick-on tattoo, airbrush tattoos. Lela got (naturally) a lion. Lian went for a tiger.
It's not a perfect outing without food. Pizza in the food court, yum.

4th of July

Grandma has the biggest flag of all.
Pedaling at Grandma's house.
Friday night concert at the band shell.

The forth dawned dank and drear. Not a beach or picnic day. Jamie plays in the local community band on Fridays, so after a low-key day, we sat on the lawn to hear the concert. And immediately after this picture was taken, it started to rain, a heavy drizzle. Luckily I had a big golf umbrella, and we and most of the audience toughed it out. The conductor told an anecdote about a rainy concert where after hearing no applause, the conductor was about to call it off until he realised - you can't applaud while holding an umbrella. But the rain stopped before the concert was over and we had local pyrotechnic displays going off all around, so we got fireworks too.

More June Goings on

Friday nights at the beach has become a regular family event. Watch the sail boats, the setting sun over the water, eat pizza, swim, have a glass of wine - what could be a better way to start the weekend?

Jamie and the girls driftin' away.
Even our dog, Sally, gets a swim.
Bathing Beauty All bundled up.

HarborFest - another big local event. Craft vendors, art show, music, food, a big kids area. I was manning or womaning rather the Audubon booth under the big tent. L and L had fun at the kids area. Lela decided she was ready for face painting.

Obsession du jour was Dalmatians ala the 101 Dalmatians (we've since moved on to Princess Kiara from Lion King 2, which requires she dress all in yellow, but of course.)

Lian was not to sure, but liked the results too. Monkey see monkey do is a big motivator around here.

Swimming Time. Our dear friend, "Grandma" Barbara has given an open invitation to her pool. Lela is "swimming" with a life vest by herself. Lian is pretty brave, and wants to learn, but we have a problem. She needs to wear an infant size vest (0-30lbs) but they are designed to roll a child face up - which makes swimming pretty tough. Guess we'll have to up size her to the next model.

Lela chillin' in the pool.
Lian ventures out into open water with Barbara.Playing on the pool steps is fun too.

June Updates

Lela in her "Fancy Nancy" best.

We went to a Fancy Nancy birthday party, one of Lela's Chinese school classmates. Despite weather that threatened to produce a thunder storm all afternoon and attending moms ready to drag everything indoors at a moments notice, a good time was had by all. With crown making, banana walk, pinata, door tags, ice cream sundaes and cake - plus a big backyard with swings, slide, sand etc, what was not to like.

I've got all the sprinkles to myself, I'm not playing some dumb game.

Chinese Class ended for the year. A big thanks to teacher Man Li Lin for having the patience of a saint in her quest to give our adopted children a feeling for the culture they left behind when they were adopted. Learning the fan dance, Lela on near right.

Cherry Italian ice apparently doubles as dye.

Chinese Class picnic was another fun day. It was a blistering 90 in our neck of the woods, but the picnic was at a State Park cooled by the ocean breeze. We hung out with friends, ate, ate, did crafts, talked, talked, visited the beach. Then watched the on board temperature gauge climb as we drove back home.

Lela and pal Holly romp in the waves.

Lian Updates
First - the big one. Lian is toilet trained. She still needs to be prompted, but it's been big girl panties for a week now with only 3 misses. She just decided that she was ready. And suddenly she's coming up dry over night too. Pinch me, I must be dreaming - two kids who don't need diapers!!!!

Second - our school district has agreed that she warrants a full day program in the fall, so she will be attending pre-k at a school that specializes in speech and language. We have applications in to several schools right now. Lela will be going to a 4s pre-k program in the afternoon. I will probably be getting a real job. It's going to feel strange without my munchkins around full time.

Third - she tried out Lela's two-wheeler and was actually better on it than a tricycle. Now we need a second two wheels with training wheels. Lela needs to have her trainers bent up so they will catch her, but not provide support - that was how I learned to balance - but the new ones are too good - it's going to take a visit to the vice to bend them.

Fourth - Super Trooper 2. Lian had another surgery - new ear tubes. She got her first set of tubes when she had her big surgery in January. But there have been constant problems with the tubes getting clogged with wax. Her ENT decided that since she had grown, she needed to move up to a larger size tube, which will hopefully also take care of the clogging problems. Though it is minor ambulatory surgery it still required pre-op testing and approvals. Thank heaven for the enlightened policy re children at the hospital. I suited up and carried her into the OR, and stayed with her until she was out. The only time she cried was when the mask went on, but that actually helped put her out faster. It's a quick surgery, I barely had time to wolf down a bagel and cup of coffee before they called me into recovery. She did her usual super girl routine and was sitting up, drinking juice, munching a cracker and walked out the door on her own steam in 30 minutes.

Memorial Day Weekend, Part III

Memorial Day. The town has a home style parade - scouts, high school band, the fire dept, the police, local civic groups and lots of kids. This is year # 3 for Lela and Lian's first. We marched with the Community Chest, or rather I marched and they strollered. The parade goes down Main Street, right past our church where Jamie and Grandma were viewing the parade.
All American girl! All decked out for the day.

After the parade, it's on to the annual picnic at the Church in the rectory backyard. The suspects line up, Lela the Mouth, G-ma, DeHman, Lian the Kid.
The Bouncy Castle - the church bought one for our fair where it earns its keep, and it's out for fun for events like the picnic. Lela is a huge fan and Lian can keep her feet under her now.
Lela and her posse.
The sack race - that's Lela on the left doing it for the first time ever and coming in second against older kids.
Lela wins the wheelbarrow race with handling provided by mom. She has pretty good biceps for a skinny mini.

We were among the last to leave as usual, home for an early evening to recuperated from the weekend.

(and you are wondering why it took me 4 weeks to post this - all complaints can be directed to my blinking computer, which has deleted this post 4 times.)

Memorial Day Weekend Part II

Sunday. We were supposed to go to a birthday party, but Mama blew it and put the wrong time on the master calendar. Ooops. To compensate we took the girls to the Queens Zoo. It's a nice manageable trip - and part of our Zoological Society membership - Thanks Aunt Christy! They feature animals of the Americas, so no lions and tigers, but they do have mountain lions, coyotes, lynx and elk,which is what they were looking at. There were five elk, and Lela counted each one. They also have a petting zoo.
Smile for the camera and act like you love each other.
Enough, Mama!
There's also a carousel. Lian got her first ride, Lela her umpteenth. Despite the look here, Jamie said she was laughing and screaming with glee during the ride. PS - it's a FAST carousel. Another adrenalin junkie?
The perfect end to the day, Cotton Candy, Yeah!

Memorial Day Weekend Part one

The perfect start to a Memorial Day weekend. A Friday night picnic at Grandma's Beach.

It's still a little cool - but not enough to keep us out of the water.

Lela's favorite thing - the swings. She can pump herself now. Mama's arms are sooo glad.

Lela and Lian's favorite person - Aunt Christy. When she's around, we're chopped liver.

Dig we must. Sitting on your heels must be genetic because they both do it - and they certainly haven't ever seen me do it.

As the sun sinks slowly in the west, the bugs come out and we head home to bed to rest up for an action packed weekend.

Saturday afternoon. Our neighbor's twin girls turned 3. They went all out with a petting zoo and pony ride. Since their lot is as tiny as ours (40 x 100) the pony ride went down another neighbor's driveway as the petting zoo was occupying theirs. Lela loves pony rides - I foresee horse madness in her future. I was horse crazy too - except I grew up where you didn't have to be a millionaire to keep a horse. This was event # 2 - we went on a class outing with Lela's Chinese school to NYC in the morning, but I failed to take any pictures.
Lian, on the other hand, is not too sure about ponies. Sitting on the back of some big animal is a bit too much.

Feeding animals - now this is more like it. Our house is just past the hedge in the back.

Lela favors the goats and sheep, maybe because she was born in the year of the Lamb.

Event # 3 - we went to see the fireworks that night which are at the beach. But the noise was too much for the girls so we actually saw them parked in the driveway of the town's Solid Waste facility farther down the road. Lela decreed it, "the best spot."

May catching up

Hanging out with Grandma. She's got the biggest, comfiest chair in town.

Violet Girls. Grandma's yard turns white in spring. May was cool and wet but it was also lush and fragrant with flowers

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What to do on a rainy afternoon? Be a Princess of course.

I finally got my Mother's Day dinner at our favorite restaurant, Shanghai. Spring rolls all around.