James's First Field Trip 2015

Last week, James went on his first school field trip ever! He was most excited about the bus because he's never been on a bus before, and he particularly wants to ride the school bus because he sees several go through our neighborhood on a daily basis.

Joy! Because he got to ride the school bus!

James and some of the kids from his school went to go see Barnaby Saves Christmas at Theater Three in Port Jefferson. The kids from his class who went were Rebecca, Cora, Mylah, Lexi, and Emma. The rest of the kids were from the other Pre-K class and the 3-year-olds class.

    

James's friend Rebecca on the far left, and two kids from the other class

Cora and Mylah

Lexi and Emma

It wasn't his first time at the theater. Grandma Kathy took him and Nesie's granddaughter Aubrey to see Ellen perform in Dr. Dolittle at Harwich Junior Theater last summer. He was only 3 then and had a little trouble sitting still. Not sure how well he did relative to the other kids this time, but the performance was only an hour so I bet he did fine. He said he liked it and he told us about Santa appearing in the play, "But it wasn't real, he was in costume." Hm.

The cast of Barnaby Saves Christmas

As long as we're on the topic of performing arts, these are some of our favorite three theaters:

• The Cabot, Beverly, MA- where our friend Casey is the Executive Director
• The Harwich Junior Theater, West Harwich, MA- where Kevin, Ellen, Caroline, and countless other friends have performed
• The Depot Theater, Westport, NY- where I saw shows with my parents when I was itty
• Theater Three, Port Jefferson, NY- our local theater!

What's your favorite theater? (I really miss when you guys used to comment!!)

Cape Cod- August 2014

So even though we saw Grandma Kathy the previous weekend, we went up to Cape Cod last weekend because it was Aunt Nesie's 60th birthday, she wanted to meet Miranda, and also we wanted to meet Katie's new beau Biggie.

Miranda's second visit to the Cape and Great-grandma Ruth's!

James at Johnny Kelly Park

Same little squinty eyes

Miranda meeting Auntie Nesie

Poor James was already in bed when this kids' party broke out! #CapeLife

Plus James loves the Cape because there's always a million kids around. Even though Ellen is almost four years older than him, he adores her, and she's probably his best friend in the whole world (apart from family). And he got to meet Emalee's kids: Ben, Aubrey, and Jack. Grandma Kathy took him and Aubrey to his first live performance on Saturday to see Ellen perform in Dr. Dolittle at the Harwich Junior Theater!

James and Aubrey


Ellen, Aubrey, and James after the show

We only managed to spend a little quality time with Katie and Mike on Saturday night. We had to head out in the middle of the night again so that Miranda would sleep through most of the travel. Otherwise she's so miserable it borders on child abuse, and parent abuse at that.

Miranda and Auntie Katie

James, Mike, and Harry the dog

More Great-grandma time!

A View from the Bridge 2010

We went to the play A View from the Bridge and loved it. A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller is set in 1950s America, in an Italian American neighborhood near the Brooklyn Bridge in New York.

Outside a View from the Bridge, at the Cort Theater

The main character in the story is Eddie Carbone, an Italian American longshoreman, who lives with his wife, Beatrice, and his orphaned niece, Catherine. Scarlett Johansson, making her Broadway debut, played Catherine. Tony winner Liev Schreiber played Eddie. Jessica Hecht played Beatrice. Hecht is the same actress who had small roles on the television show Friends, as Ross's ex-wife partner Susan. I didn't recognize her until the end of the show because she was so deeply in the character of Beatrice that she didn't look or carry herself the same way. I thought she was by far the best.

It was particularly awesome because it is narrated by a lawyer, and I feel like he was telling the story of my professional life right now.