Spring Break 2016

Kevin is on Spring Break from school! We decided to stay home this year because James has school and we're already planning a lot of travel this summer. We didn't exactly take it easy though- this was an intense staycation. I can't even blog it all. I'm going to try, but this post is crazy long and vaguely incomplete.

Day 1- James went to Pre-K, while I took Miranda to a library event- Shake N' Make Music. James came home and Kevin let him ride his new bike (with training wheels) in our street for the first time!

 Under the baby parachute!

Riding his new bike for the first time.

Day 2- We took a long walk and the kids played at the playground at Cedar Beach.

 

Walking

Walking

Playground

Like sand through an hourglass...

James reading to Miranda

Day 3- Sunday was daylight savings time and the transition went reasonably well because we didn't change anything for the kids. According to the clock, they did everything an hour later-- most importantly they woke up at 7:15! Our town had a big St. Patrick's Day Parade. After the parade, we made James's Leprechaun Catcher for school.

We're here!


Family parade selfie!


Our local Irish peeps

Perfect day to make a Leprechaun Catcher

I caught one!

Day 4-  James had school Monday morning. In the afternoon Kevin had an appointment to register James for Kindergarten! This was the other reason we didn't go anywhere for Spring Break, the registrations all take place during this week. James and I had a little solo date to go see the movie Zootopia. It was amazing!

Playing Medieval Times  at home


Watch out James!

At the movie with James.

And WE BOOKED OUR FLIGHT TO JAPAN!!! It's happening!!! In May!! We haven't left the country in over five years! We are beyond excited.

Day 5- Tuesday I had a date with Miranda at Babies Boogie followed by a date with James at Toddlers Tango. James was super excited because he felt like he finally got to go to "Mommy n' Me" which is sort of of kind of is.

Babies Boogie Musical Peekaboo

There she is!

Babies Boogie bubbles and drums!

Toddlers Tango- Music and hula hoops

Toddler Tango Drumming Circle!

He got bubbles too!

Stony Brook made it into the NCAA Tournament this year, which they've never done before. Everyone was very excited for them and there was an official send off for them at the school so we took the family and went. Kevin actually had four them in his creative writing class last semester so he was really excited for them.

With a seawolf.

Jumping in puddles outside.

Basketball team comes through the crowd.

Investigating worms later that day...

Day 6 - Wednesday I decided to use the fact of our "staycation" to use by cleaning out all the miscellaneous things in our basement. (For Konmari fans, I finally finished komono!) I also finished our taxes! Now that's a productive day! Kevin made corned beef sandwiches.

Cheers!

Day 7- St. Patrick's Day! James had a St. Patrick's Day Party at school so we all put on our green, except Miranda who doesn't have any, and we took him in. While they had some assembly in another room, Leprechauns came by their classroom! They left gold and clues how to find it and they also trashed the classroom. The kids were so excited!

Starting the day green

Party set up at school.

James also had his first "friend's birthday party" that night. A girl in his Pre-K class Lyla had her 5th birthday at SkyZone, a local trampoline park. It was crazy.

The birthday girl  Lyla and classmate Gavin


Ellie, Lexi, James, and Natalia running on trampolines

Jon came over to watch some March Madness NCAA Tournament games with Kevin and enjoyed one of the corned beef sandwiches. 

Jon and delicious corned beef

Day 8- James had school in the morning, and Jon, Kevin, Miranda, and I went to brunch at Crazy Bean. We put Jon on the train to Manhattan, and then we went home so James could have lunch. I also made smoothies so that the rest of us could stretch our brunch a bit.

Jon, Miranda, me at Crazy Bean- get the breakfast quesadilla!

We went back to the Long Island Aquarium. We thought it would be fun to go during the week when it's less crowded. Miranda was much more comfortable with the Aquarium this time. Maybe she remembered it from last time? Also we explored the outside area which we missed last time because it was so cold last time.

Back to the museum for lots of fun

James teaching Miranda how to play Candyland (sort of)

Day 9- Saturday was a big one. First we went to the Heritage Center's Easter Egg Hunt with Easter Bunny pictures. It was really chilly this year, and we were on line for a long time so things got a little hare-y at the beginning, but the kids loved getting eggs and I loved getting pictures with the bunny. Yay! Thanks! 

Haha, cuties


Miranda's toddler egg hunt was so fast! A minute of egg collecting on flat grass!
She got two eggs! She saw other kids got more but she was happy with her 2.

James's older kids egg hunt was a little more involved.

Easter bunny picture!

After the egg hunt, we drove to Jersey City to see Jackie, Rob, and Soren. It was really fun to catch up with Jackie and snuggle Soren who is unbelievably undeniably cute. Though I wish I'd held him more-- but he was pretty snoozy when I was there. I think he's still in the three or more naps part of his life- 11 weeks young!

Miranda loves babies now.

Clou kids versus the BEAR- Jackie saves them

Then we went to see Abuelita and David. It's funny how everyone is used to the fact there must be group pictures!

Daisy, David, James, Miranda, me

Day 10- James W. was in town to run the United NYC Half Marathon. He was awesome, running it in under an hour and half, and he celebrated with Nick and Kevin over drinks.

James W., Nick, and Kevin at Spitzer's Corner in the in the Lower East Side

Day 11- We had more snow! We don't have any snow pictures though because James's school wasn't canceled- yay! And it was so warm- I went for a nice snowy walk-- that the snow melted by afternoon. Also, I signed up for my first race today! A 5k near where I live in June. Training begins in April! Yay!

Kevin is exhausted from Spring Break!

Kevin went back to work on Tuesday- for three days of hard work before Easter Break!

Charlottesville, VA 2015

We make a pilgrimage to Charlottesville about every other year, because we love it there. This year, since Kevin was giving a reading there, we invited EVERYONE WE KNOW. A lot of people actually came, and we had lots of fun, and we have now started a new tradition: Clou-a-rama! So the plan is that every year we can pick a location and date and get together! Like when you get invited to an out-of-town wedding and you go, because it's important. Prioritizing our friends is important! By changing the location and time of year it is more (or less) convenient to different people so it doesn't run up against the exact same problem for the same people repeatedly.

Our first picture in front of the place we met as a family of 4!

We arrived on Wednesday and went to the Christian's Pizza on Route 29. I'd only ever been to the one on the Downtown Mall but the one on Route 29 was just as delicious.

Kevin letting Miranda chew all the straws at Christian's Pizza

After we settled in at the little house we rented, we went over to Kevin's  reading at Virginia Festival of the Book. Unfortunately, because the kids were being disruptive I had to leave while Kevin was reading.  I passed Walsh on the way out.

We couldn't fit the double-stroller with all our luggage so I let James sit in the stroller and I carried Miranda in the baby sling. I told James that we left because he and Miranda were being bad, and he said, "No, Miranda was being bad. I was being good. Don't be silly mama." I thought that was funny so I didn't argue the point.

I got snacks and drinks for the kids and we sat around for snacktime for a little while, and then I went over to the chalkboard because I remembered he loved it on our last visit. This is what he wrote:

"JAMES MAMA bad Miranda"

I was thinking I was a pretty awesome mom managing both of the cranky kids on my own when James started chalking some guys shoes. So then I took him for a huge chocolate chip cookie at Mudhouse for dinner. While we were chomping away, we discussed such philosophical questions as whether he thought he would exist if Mama hadn't met Dada at Mudhouse (he guessed no) and whether sharing a giant cookie was better than hogging it (he wasn't too sure). Luckily then Kevin met up with us, and we had dumplings and noodles from Lucca for dessert I guess.

Best. parenting. ever.

Thursday morning Kevin went hiking and picked up sandwiches at Bellair Market for us on the way back. It's all about the "Jeffersonian."

Sunrise from the Turk Gap trail.

We got a babysitter for the evening and met Brady for dinner at Continental. Brady suggested the tuna and yum! I also had margaritas which led... obviously... to lots of inappropriate conversation. After dinner I went back, and Kevin and Brady at Courts Square.

Brady and the tuna!

Romantic night out with Brady!

Friday! Kevin felt kind of violently ill, but he had to give a talk to the Classics Department and then he had lunch with some professors. I was supposed to meet up with Cathy but she got into town late so while Walsh and Brady went to the Paramount Theater to watch the UVA game, I made Kevin come with me and the kids to the Discovery Museum. Sorry, Kevin. Also, thank you!

Besties at the Discovery Museum

 

Air ball!

 

Genius baby.

 

Little tykes on the prairie

 

Wheeling and dealing

Oh yeah, then we had ice cream for dinner. James loves Charlottesville! Oh don't worry I fed them mac n' cheese for dessert so it's all good.

James's first clue that his mother is pretending to be an adult

Then at dinner he went back out for some sexy Virginia Book Festival literary event. Then he went straight to sleep. Luckily, Michele and Brandon came over our little house, and we opened the wine the owner left for us and we had more fun sexy times.

Picture actually from Saturday night but cute.

Saturday was the big day! Some of us went out for breakfast at Blue Grass Grill for Cory's birthday.

   

Birthday boy Cory, me, Miranda, and Robin

Brady and Kevin

For lunch we went to Citizen Burger Bar mostly because we heard they'd have the TVs on the basketball. All of Charlottesville was really crowded because of the book festival and a race that morning. We fit four adults and 6 kids into an 8-person booth, and 6 very uncomfortable adults into a 6-person booth (I failed to get a picture of them but they didn't look so happy anyway).

Miranda, me, James, Cathy, and Kennedy in the 8-person booth

Leo, Madison, Jack, Jen, and Rob in the 8-person booth

Then Cathy, Jenny and I took most of the kids for more ice cream. I'm pretty sure the kids enjoyed Clou-a-rama as much or more than the adults.

Cathy picked up a hitchhiker (Kennedy and James)

James, Madison, Jen, Leo, Cathy, and Kennedy at Sweet Frog 

Michele, Brandon, Kevin, and Miranda met us there.

Kevin and Miranda went back to the house for a nap, and I took James to Meade Park. We got a babysitter. Then 8 of us went to Mas for dinner. Mas doesn't take reservations and it was really busy even though it was early. We figured everywhere had a long wait though based on our experiences that day so we just started drinking and hilarity ensued.

Before picture: Brandon, Michele, Janice, Darren, Jaime, me, Brady, Walsh

Eventually, Janice and Darren had to give up, but they were there for some of the best of it anyway. We were seated, we ate a lot, we drank some more, and here's our after picture- note that Janice and Darren turned into Kevin, Robin, and Cory. Also, Jaime saved my life by suggesting we quit while we were ahead. Actually, I was way ahead!

 

After picture: Kevin, me, Jaime, Michele, Brandon, Walsh, Brady, Robin, and Cory

Sunday we regrouped at Mas for some coffee and snacking. James played a little made-up-chess with a little girl he met. Charlottesville is cerebral like that.

Snuggling with Jaime at Mas

 

Cory and James are besties

I've never seen the pieces move like that- it's like they're chess wizards. Ha.

Michele and Brandon went off for a fun day of hiking and wine tasting (I should have gone with them!) While the UVAers went to Champions to watch the UVA game. The extremely devastating UVA game. Extremely. On the plus side, the food truck outside was selling delicious BBQ, so there's that.

Brady, James, Kevin, Miranda, me (photo by Walsh?)

Cory, Robin, and Miranda

We thought we'd drive home after that, but Miranda had other thoughts. After a lot of screaming we decided we should stop in Arlington and tire her out. Janice and Darren gladly obliged. Jaime came over too and we took the kids to the park briefly. They were actually happier chasing Fudgie around the house than at the park anyway. After a big pizza dinner, we finally headed home. 

 

Janice welcoming the trouble-maker

At the park

 

Dancing disco together.

"NONE SHALL PASS!"

Let's do again next year! Where to? You're invited! Clou-a-rama!

• Charlottesville, May 2013
• Charlottesville, April 2012