Duck Pond- November 2015

When we went to the Bronx Zoo in June, the animals the kids liked the best were the ducks. So we thought they would enjoy our local duck pond. We were right- it was a huge hit! The ducks came right over and we spent about 30 minutes just throwing bread to them. They even followed us around the pond when we changed locations.

Yay!! Feeding ducks!!

Kevin keeping his eye on the kids, not the ducks

Three happy ducks

I often take a lot of pictures of something we're doing and I get accused of not living in the moment. Well, Kevin had the camera for a while and I was fully immersed in the simple joy of feeding the ducks. And I really was watching to make sure the kids didn't fall into the pond, but while I was throwing some bread Miranda moved quickly and went down the slope. Kevin caught her before she went into the pond, but he was not amused. After that, we played one-on-one defense with the kids, and left as soon as the bread was exhausted.

In the moment! Enjoying the ducks!

Miranda threw a lot of bread that didn't quite make it to the pond.

Ash Visits- September 2015

Ash visited this weekend. I was really looking forward to her visit, then I had a kind of a rough week and her visit was especially a godsend. Ash hung out for a little while and visited with my very odd children.

My kids think this is normal.

Reading to Miranda.

We started with mani-pedis. I actually hadn't even been to the local place yet since moving here, so that was a good exploratory visit for me. Then we were off to Port Jefferson where we managed to alienate everyone in listening range. Fun! We went to Village Way, a friendly little bar I'd enjoyed on my own before. Then we went to the waterfront for drinks- my favorite. This is the part where we were having so much fun we were alienating people. We also made friends while paying for parking the first and second times, because I am parking machine-challenged.

Village Way

Selfies at Wave on the waterfront

Waterfront view

Our manicure and fun drinks

We tried a sushi place in Port Jefferson, Kimi, which was pretty tasty. It was also the quietest restaurant in the history of the world... until we walked in. We followed it with ice cream, which I promptly dripped all over myself.

Ash hung out the next morning and we tried Crazy Bean which is so yumy. Here our pumpkin drinks pumpkin chai (Ash) and pumpkin mocha (me).

Our drinks

Ash is awesome as always! Thanks for visiting!!

• Ash and Janice visit July 2015
• Girls' Weekend March 2015
• Visiting Ash- February 2015

Jaime Visits- August 2015

Jaime visited from Friday to Sunday and we had so much fun! On Friday she got in late in the evening so we had ice cream at a place I hadn't tried before, but kind of near our house, McNulty Ice Cream Parlor. They were cute, and Jaime loved her flavors but they were out of a lot of things we asked for. I will probably still go back because they had a rainbow of adirondack chairs that will make for some great pictures. We took our ice cream to go and ate it at the nearby beach. There were a lot of people just hanging out there with friends. I'm hoping that I'll become part of that community of evening beach bums. It seems like an awesome way to be.

Jaime gets in and says hi to Miranda. (James was already in bed.)

Beach at night

Saturday we had big plans to drive farther out to an ocean beach for nicer sand and more waves. Corey Beach was really nice. It was really small but large enough for the number of people there, and the ocean was roped off so it will be a great place to go back to with the kids as they get older. There's also a nice playground there. But it was girls' beach day so no kids this time.

Playing an early morning game of Candyland with James

Chilling at Corey Beach

Corey Beach Selfie

After the beach we were so hungry we went straight to dinner at Benten again. I was hardcore craving sushi and it was even better this time than last time. We got the "sushi & sashimi combo for two" and it was awesome (except for that one mystery chewy white thing- gross). We went home on a sushi high and got ready to go out in Port Jeff. Jaime is a big advocate of me learning to drive for real. (Insert blog post here about my lack of driving skills.) So she bravely got in the passenger seat so I could drive to Port Jeff. While the drive there was basically fine, once we got there locating a parking space was challenging for me-- I felt like I was playing Frogger while trying to get into lots. Might not repeat that drive for a little.

Once we got there we went to try the rice pudding place. We were really excited to try it but it's no NYC Rice to Riches. Rice pudding should be made of rice. This was more like gelatin pudding with a few pieces of rice thrown in. Very sad. After that we went to Wave for drinks on the waterfront. People were really friendly.

Sweet 'n' Savory of Port Jeff

We were a little wiped out already because of our beach day so we went home and finally opened the champagne our real estate agent gave us. Jaime also just bought a place last month so we celebrated all together.

Cheers to home ownership! (They are bemoaning my camera timer and silliness.)

Jaime really loves the beach. So we went to the beach again, this time the one closest to our home. We brought James with us. I drove to the beach and oh boy- it's terrifying to drive and make mistakes with my child in the car. I will likely try that drive again soon because there's nothing actually hard about it, but hopefully I can get comfortable with it before the kids come with me again.

Jaime and James playing in the Sound together

Fizzling out at the end of the beach visit. Delicious snuggles.

Come back before beach season is over Jaime!

Greek Festival 2015

Last weekend, at the behest of our real estate agent, we took the kids to the Port Jefferson Greek Festival. It was interesting! We navigated our way through a maze of flea market and promotional tables, and at the back was a fair with rides.

We bought a bunch of ride tickets thinking that I was going to ride everything with James, but at the first ride I was told- no adults allowed. Oh sadness. So James went on his first real ride alone. He looked nervous, but he claimed it was fun when he got off and he asked to go on the next ride.

Getting off his first ride. Checking that the ground is still there.

We found one we could do together- the Ferris Wheel. Definitely not a scary ride until you start visualizing all the ways your 4-year-old might escape the ferris wheel. I held on tight.

Ferris wheel fun!!

We are in the one on the far left- you can see us!

Next James went on another solo kids ride but this time he was psyched. He watches a cartoon called My Big Big Friend and said the ride looked like that. He had his own big friend and flew around on him.

Big elephant friend

Flying!

Miranda thought it was a bunch of BS that she couldn't go on any rides and gave us the poutiest face to express her displeasure. By now we had run out of tickets anyway, but we were pretty sure James didn't want to hear about that. So we lured him away from the ride with Greek diples (honey rolls pronounced dip-less) and cookies.

Diples are my new favorite food!

Munching on honey cookies

First Date Night in New Town- August 2015

We have lots of new places to explore! About a week ago, while grandma was here to watch the kids, we ventured out on first date night here. I liked the sushi place we found, but I love love love the place we went to for drinks on the waterfront. I think it was called Wave. It's friendly and the view is beautiful.

Post-sushi dinner at our new localrestaurant

Outdoor bar

Sunset on the waterfront

Date night was great!

Cedar Beach- August 2015

Grandma, Kevin, James, Miranda, and I went to the beach and it was actually fun! We had the lowest possible expectations that we'd spend the entire trip trying to keep Miranda from jumping into the ocean by herself and having tantrums when we tried to hold her or something equally horrible (she's very independent). Haha, but really, Miranda spends most playground trips trying to run out of the playground into the parking lot. (James was our good baby it turns out.) She was actually a little scared of the ocean and happy to stay away unless I held her. When she was on the beach she shoveled sand into a frisbee very happily! James was also good! He enjoyed both the ocean and the sand and followed all our rules! We might even go back soon.

Just getting comfortable.

Girls in the shallow end, boys on the deep end.

Grandma made me so happy by taking these photos!

Fun!

Life is good.

The beach is rocky, but we have a rake.

Making it rain on the castle.

Check out Grandma's chair. Apparently canopy chairs are the trendiest thing on the beach and lots of people had them. Pretty smart and no umbrella installation needed. Miranda's shorts-on-the-head look is less stylish but easily achievable.

Loves Grandma

My hands and my heart are full.

One little asterisk is that to get the five of us in our sedan I had to sit wedged in sideways between the two car seats. I love how the kids both acted like I was making them uncomfortable. What age does that self-awareness thing kick in? Oh, 25? That's too bad.

I make it look good.

Grandma Visits- August 2015

Grandma visited! It hasn't been a month since her last visit but she was eager to see the new house, and we were happy to have her come back. More than happy. James was downright ecstatic.

Day 1: Playing on deck with Grandma- our little cheapo pool is holding up!

Day 2, Kevin and I got to run some house-related errands while the kids had a blast with grandma.

Day 2: Scored ice cream off ice cream truck with Grandma

Miranda steals James's cone

Day 3, we went to one of our local beaches for the first time. The kids were actually good! (Beach post later.)

Day 3: Beach with Grandma

Beach love.

Grandma and Kevin also went to see Kevin's job place and went for drinks that night. No fun date night pictures available.

The following day, she had a fun afternoon with James. She took him shopping and then rewarded his patience with treats at Friendly's. She also watched the kids while we went out for dinner which was really nice.

Day 4: Sundae at Friendly's

Before she left on the 5th day, she got to walk around Port Jefferson, take the kids for smoothies. And when she left she took the ferry to Connecticut! We're psyched to try it ourselves on the next Cape Cod visit.

Day 5: At the library

Fun at the library

Goodbye Smoothies

Thanks Grandma! See you soon!