Mike and Havi Are Engaged! 2015

Mike proposed to Havi on 12/12 at 12:12. Unbeknownst to her, he had already planned an engagement party a month in advance. He set up a photographer to capture the proposal, they took pictures, celebrated, he sent her for a manicure so she could properly show off the ring, then they got ready to go out. He invited both their families and closest friends to wait at The Half Pint to surprise her.

Proposing!

Going through the beautiful Washington Square Park on the way to The Half Pint

It's totally unanimous that we all adore Havi, think she's awesome, and we're so psyched to have her be part of our family. Our household has been referring to her as Aunt Havi since we met her this summer. I mean, the woman was wearing Pacman earrings. Need we say more? And not just because we're biased but Mike is pretty great too. 

Entering the party and being surpised!!

YAY!

Beautiful women: Havi and her friends

Mike's parents, George and Fran

Cape Cod buddy Tim!

Here are some things I heard people say over and over all night: "Mike is a really great guy." Translation: He's the real deal down to his toes. "He really surprised us by pulling all this romantic planning off." Translation: He must really love her like crazy. "We love Havi." Translation: "She's smart, fun, gorgeous, and down to earth. We love her like crazy too."

Cousins!!

My party buddies and cousins-in-law-in-law Caitlin and Amanda

Mike's dad George making a toast to Mike and Havi. 

Cheers to an awesome couple!

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!!)

Suffolk County Farm- December 2015

Saturdays are "Family Day" in our house so we try to come up with fun things to do with the kids. Kevin thought it would be fun to take James to Wreath-making at Suffolk County Farm. We figured we'd have to wrangle Miranda a bit, but luckily is was pretty warm out so I just took her outside to run around while Kevin and James worked on a very Charlie Brown-inspired wreath.

Wreath in progress...

Mostly Kevin is making it...

Eventually Miranda and I got a little chilly so I brought her into he big wreath-making barn to color while we waited for the boys to finish.  She insisted on coloring with both hands which I don't think she often does. And then she exhibited a lot of pride and attachment to her finished product which was hilarious and awesome.

A little blue with the left hand and a bit of green with the right

YAAAASSSS!! That's the effect I was trying to achieve!

Since we were on a farm, and someone mentioned baby pigs ... we went for a walk around the farm. Checked out the goats first, then the pigs, then the baby pigs.

Regular pigs.

Baby pigs. Miranda is impressed.

They also had a little playground. Miranda kept saying "truck." I think she meant the trucks in the back but she might also think that trains and trucks are the same thing.

She was very happy in this tiny-size park.

She invited me to sit at the table with her.

Running back and forth...

Joy!

And my personal favorite!! Cut-out pictures. Mooo.

Bar-hopping December 2015

On Friday we went out on our first of hopefully more regular date nights. We went for fancy drinks at a nice restaurant/bar followed by drinks at a dive bar. We're exciting like that. Both places were great, and I was so busy relaxing I didn't take pictures.

Actually, that's not true. I tried to get a picture at the nice place of the bartender lighting my drink on fire but I wasn't fast enough. Also, we talked about the kids a lot. Whatever, we love them like crazy.

The nice place.

One kind of fun thing about the dive bar was that we had to go in the back door because the front door was locked. Tricky. It was also a much younger cooler place than we anticipated based on its exterior. It's likely to become a semi-regular hangout for us because we ♥ dive bars. Already scheduling the next date night! Woo!

The back door.

Miranda's Vocabulary at 19 Months 2015

Miranda had a big vocabulary explosion in the last two months, and we are now having what I like to call "one word conversations." The concept is a lot like the sound of one hand clapping, but it's happening. She appears to understand basically everything I say to her. She also pretends to talk on pretend phones speaking in mostly gibberish even though Kevin and I don't talk on the phone much. (Nana's genes I guess.)

Wearing Dada's shoes.

Miranda's speaking vocabulary~~

Nouns:

• Dada
• Mama (sometimes Mamama)
• James
• baby
• poop/caca (bilingual on this one issue only)
• ball
• book
• shoes
• duck
• block
• M&Ms (pronounced "eminem-inem")
• apple (but for some reason can't or won't say banana)
• "ish" (Goldfish snacks)
• "cook" (cookie)

Verbs:

• tickle
• go
• jump
• walk
• kick
• think (I don't think she knows what this mean but she sings it with Blues Clues)

Other concepts/ commands:

• Yes
• No, no, nope!
• Up!
• hi!
• bye!
• ow!
• Roar!

PS. James still says "pascetti" instead of spaghetti and I hope he always does.

Dentist Visit- December 2015

I just wanted to share this because I thought these pictures were hilarious. Also, the following conversation took place between the hygienist and James.

Hygienist: Let's count your teeth...1, 2, 3, ...10 on top. 1, 2, 3, ....10 on the bottom.
James: 10 on top, and 10 on the bottom is 20.
Hygienist: Yes! Wow, how old are you?
James: Cuatro. That's "four" in Spanish.

I just have to brush your teeth with this special brush.

Fun!

Fire Safety 2015

Just wanted to share some cute pictures of James's PreK Fire Safety class. They got to talk with a fireman and touch the truck and whatnot. James is in the back to the right of the picture. James's class is only 11 kids- this picture is his mini-class combined with the full-day PreK class.

Posing with the fire truck

It seems like this firetruck talk has become very common these days. I'm not sure if we had this when I was younger or if maybe we did it when we were older?

Touching stuff!

James Made a Raccoon at School 2015

This cool little raccoon gets his own post because he doesn't really fit in with all the Christmas-themed art I'm collecting for later in the month, but also because we actually have a racoon around our property that's HUGE. Like pig-size. It's crazy. It came right up on our deck and had a fight with some other animal up there. Super scary. This was back in October, maybe. So in honor of our neighborhood raccoon, and random awesome school art, I present you:

James's Paper Plate Raccoon, 12/2/2015

James's First School Picture: Pre-K 2015

James at 4.5 years old.

TA: Miss Tasha, Pre-K Teacher: Miss Jackie 
Back row: James, Emma, Adrianna, Natalia, Lyla, Dillon 
Front row: Rebecca, Mylah, Alexia, Cora, Ellie

More posts about Pre-K

November Art Gallery 2015

Curated for your enjoyment!

James's acorn art with poem!

James and I got leaves for leaf presses.

We let Mirand do some leaf presses too.

James's Cornucopia

Miranda's still doing pumpkins in Mommy N Me. Babies don't know the month...


James made this turkey dinner. Turkey, mashed potatoes, peas, and cheese?

James made acorn hands in Pre-K

Miranda calls this blue zebra-turkey.