We Are But Sheep

I don’t know about Paris Hilton, but I think our girls could make it on The Simple Life.  School was closed today due to the lack of use of Snow Days this year (and Ascension Thursday), so we did what any parent in fear of dealing with bored children does on a fantastic weather day…take them to the farm.  The baby and I went with her godsisters & godbrother (of course my BFF) to pick strawberries and asparagus.  We lucked out that the strawberries came in early this year and the weather was just incredibly nice today.  We hit the same farm that we all went to in 2010 when the baby was 1.5 yrs old and her godbrother was 0.5 years old to pick cherries.  I heart this farm -Terhune Orchards, located a little south of Princeton.  They have various farm animals for petting or viewing for the kids, tractor tricycles and such, a little playground, picnic benches, and a super cute farm store.  The strawberry bushes were seriously ready for the picking and it was so much fun.  God knows we will definitely be coming up with creative ways for using strawberries for the next couple of days.  Strawberries in our lemonade anyone?  We continued onto picking asparagus after the kids loaded us up with strawberries.

Now, I had NO idea what asparagus picking was going to be like and I was totally taken off guard on how the stalks just pop out of the ground.  I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting, maybe a pokey looking bush - but I was genuinely surprised to see how this was done.  The funniest part was that the girls were a little confused to exactly the type of stalks we wanted.  Somehow, asparagus didn’t inspire the same blitz harvesting that strawberries did .  Of course, they were a little tired and possibly starving by now.  They first went for the big ones, followed by the super skinny ones after we told them we wanted thinner stalks.  It was definitely an experience.  Our little godbrother over there also just wanted to eat the asparagus - it was hilarious.  Our day out was amazing and lulled me into thinking it was Friday already.  Somehow we are setting a precedent for how single school day offs are going to be - the last one we all spent watching the new Lorax movie and celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.  Today ended with Ruby Tuesdays for lunch, sundaes from McD’s, and good old fashioned playing outside scooting, etc.. at home.  It really is about the simple things in life…

How was your Mother’s Day?  Mine was fantastic starting with a big Hubby-made breakfast and flowers from the little one.  We took a jaunt down to Philly to watch the NY Red Bulls play the Philadelphia Union.  Yeah, between the Hubby who can’t contain his enthusiasm at the first Red Bull goal and the Baby’s Red Bull chants - we were “outed” pretty quick.  I laughed my head off when I discovered that the food service was remarkably worse than that at the Red Bull Arena, and believe me that is saying something (really.  diabolical. aneurysm-inducing.).  The food certainly tasted better, but I couldn’t believe that a Crab flavored fry stand didn’t actually have any fries at the ready 5 min before half time as 6 separate lines formed behind me.  I could go on forever on the food failure of the MLS franchises - but I won’t.  I’ll spare you all the ugly metaphors running around my head.  Anyway……It was so sunny that I think us natives were melting a little.  I’m not used to 80 degrees with sun.  It was a full house and the crowd was certainly enthusiastic.  The guy behind us was yelling to a player.”You Stink!” and the baby turns to me and says, “Hey Mom, someone stinks!” while fanning her nose.  Then she had a secret for me telling me that the Red Bulls were losing at the beginning of the second half (which was totally true at that point).  She wasn’t too happy about that.  We did come home with the win and a tan.  Hubby was super happy which makes me happy.  All in all a great Mother’s Day.  Kiss your Moms for me!

It was perfect weather for a little jaunt to the local zoo this morning.  The baby and I needed to get out of Luis’s hair for the day so he can finish working.  The best way to occupy the baby? Yeah, the zoo.  I was just looking back at our blog and realized that we do about 1.5 zoo trips a year.  We seem to gravitate toward aquariums more than zoos, and I’m not sure why that is.  Is it me and my aquarium background?  Dunno, but last year we did go to a safari and the year before was this local zoo a couple of times.  At any rate, our little girl is now much more mature in looking for animals, etc… Her favorite today was this walk-thru bird aviary exhibit where hundred of parakeets are enclosed with you there walking along.  The birds swooped so low and were flying so close, I felt feathers and wings whip my hair around.  That was cool.  We walked through it twice.  The leopard and black bear made a good show today.  They actually have a sloth now, but it was just being a sloth and sleeping (it did look like the painting on the wall of her room).  It still boggles my mind that our precious little girl likes reptiles the most.  My Mom and Luis both think that’s just weird.  Of course they both hate snakes; some deep seated Christianity brain-washing I’m sure.  The babe’s has no qualms about kimono dragons, pythons, gila monsters, etc..  We went through the reptile house twice as well.  She insisted we go through again before we left.  I personally thought that the baby prairie dogs were the cutest today.  Do you see two of them kissing.  Cute!

Do you remember the first time you went to a concert?  I was in high school and I do believe it was a 91.1X festival back in San Diego where a bunch of bands played (namely New Order was there which I was totally into…).  Well, fast forward a generation and viola, my little 3 yr old gets to go to her first concert.  And believe me, it was a REAL concert.  The “Imagination Movers” played here in Red Bank, NJ on Thursday and I snuck in a little Mom & baby time.  This band actually has a Disney Junior TV show and has been touring for 10 years.  On a recent article in Time Out, they were ranked #13 on the top 25 bands for kids (#1 happened to be her favorite band/ album - They Might Be Giants).  We downloaded the latest album and joined the masses in cheering them on.  I was really impressed with these guys as they really gave a live concert complete with beach balls, a giantic robot, a disco ball, and confetti (which incidentally ended up on the floor of the baby’s room).  We waved our glow in the dark spinning device like many old timers remember doing with lighters (and now cell phones these days).  These guys from New Orleans played all the songs that the kids recognize from the show, the songs from their new album, and they even covered stuff from Tears for Fears, Blink 182, and U2 - meshing it up with their stuff.  So, the parents weren’t bored at all.  Heck, I was jumping up and down like the rest of the groupies.  The highlight came when one of the band members “Smitty” made his way down the aisle and the baby was able to high five him!  I think she is now in love with Smitty.  I’m so glad she has this opportunity to enjoy live music in a way I wasn’t able to for a long time.  Even attending the Preschool of Rock here in town has exposed her to live music as a baby.  She was jumping up and down dancing in the aisle and screamed for the amazing drumming that was highlighted.  I shocked her when I told her that Mommy knows how to drum.  Heh.  I will definitely be on the lookout for more live music concerts since she asked me if she can go to 100 more.  Being so close to NYC has its advantages, although I was really glad we went to their show here in NJ instead of Manhattan - less hassle.  All we can do my friends is….

Rock On!!

Today we visited the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ.  The last time I was here was with the baby and my parents the week of the baby’s 1st birthday (2.5 years ago).  Today, Luis and Nats were there to join in on the fun.  We had such a great time and the babe absolutely adored the grounds.  She ran and ran between installations and would call out if the sign was red or green indicating if we were allowed to touch the sculpture.  I tell you, if that sign was green - you can be sure there were fingerprints of one particular 3 year old all over it.  Such a great Sunday!

We did see a little more than be bargained for at the sculpture park.  We were able to catch an additional art exhibit as well as spot an albino peacock.  The all white peacock is shockingly beautiful with its totally absence of color expression.  We just couldn’t stop staring at it.

This weekend was such a high octane weekend for us.  I chaired the annual High Tea for the Borough Improvement League again.  It was so much fun and crazy as usual.  The image on our flyer was created by my eldest step-daughter Natasha (she also did last year) who was actually here to attend the event with me.  Okay, maybe work the event instead of just attend.  What can I say? I’m a slave driver…The ladies in the kitchen had us rolling in laughs with their stories and exaggerations.  This year, the desserts were astounding - my BFF Cat made these crazy tea shaped cookies with ships drawn on them, we had a teapot cake made of green tea sponge cake and fondant, and there was a lemon pound cake to die for.  Yeah Nats, I know you ate all the extra pieces . We took the decorations seriously having room divided by loyalty (british/ american).  The young junior members were dressed in some impressive colonial gear and the queen stopped by and took pictures with people.  I did go patriotic, but couldn’t keep my white hat on for the whole event (too cumbersome) and my red shoes that I love were killing me after 5 hours serving.  I had a blast and wasn’t able to take any pictures until the end with my family and some of the girls who came to support me.  Below are the sights and sounds.  Since it was Cinco de Mayo, we did finish the evening with a Chipotle dinner and homemade Silver Patron margaritas.  Till next year my dear ladies….

Could this kid’s helmet be any funnier?  I can’t take the babe seriously when she is wearing this thing!  Today was her first trip outside with her new scooter and helmet.  She was dying to get on her scooter last week, but I wouldn’t assemble it until her helmet arrived yesterday.  Luis arrived home late last night and we assembled it in the living room.  She went around and around in the living room for a good extra hour before I could convince her to go to bed.  Unfortunately she had a late nap yesterday, so it took forever to get her to fall asleep.  First thing at 7am this morning when her eyes opened, “C’mon Mom!! Let’s go scooting!”.  Watch out everyone, there is a deranged looking bunny scooting around the neighborhood!

If there is water within 1 mile of our vacinity, our child will find it.  I swear her internal compass is pointed directly at the sea.  Its those pesky island genes I tell you.  We spent Saturday morning at Jenkinson’s Aquarium down the Jersey Shore.  I knew there was a boardwalk, but I wasn’t aware of how close everything was to the beach.  Well, okay - it’s on the beach, sue me.  The baby saw the beach as we were going into the Aquarium and was already planning our after party on the sand.  So, we also had an impromptu beach day as well.  Its our first official trip to the beach for 2012!  Yahoo - we hit the beach before the state of NJ can start charging for entry (they charge here to go the beaches from Memorial Day thru Labor Day).  Anyway, we have been focusing on all things ocean & sea creatures this past week.  My inner biologist loves that.  Today was an insane 86 degrees, and if that keeps up - maybe we will be visiting the aquarium and beach many more times before the summer is over.  Keep cool people…

It was such a gorgeous Easter Sunday!  The morning started off grand with a big breakfast and the baby fawning all over the Easter basket we made her.  Then, after church, our little monster made a killing at the egg hunt hosted there.  She nabbed 22 eggs before I kindof nudged her off to make sure there were plenty for the other kids.  Kudos to the church since they actually had a ton of eggs hidden.  After all the festivities of the morning wore off as well as the sugar, we were able to go to our neighborhood park and fly our fish kite for awhile.  We haven’t been kite flying since the baby was 18mo old.  What a difference 2 years makes.  Seriously.  She was so eager to get the kite in the air and take over, it was insane! Like control freak insane.  We were shocked when she was able to take over and maneuver the kite to dip and swerve, I think accidentally making a figure 8 as well.  It helped that the wind was so strong today.  I definitely think her fine motor skills are improving drastically.  At any rate, she was manically happy and I’m forced to admit that I don’t think I was able to do that type of trick at 3 yrs old.  This little bird will definitely be ready to fly way before Mommy is ready to let her go.  Fly baby fly…

Wishing you all a peaceful and happy Easter!…We took a bunch of photos in our yard to mark the occassion (you will notice we take pictures at Christmas and Easter times).  The little monster is getting so much harder to photograph with all her wiggling around.  :).  Here’s hoping you found all your Easter eggs…

The Easter Bunny (a.k.a. moi) is getting ready for the big reveal tomorrow morning.  Aaaah, the joys of being Mom some days.  The Lenten season is pretty serious business simply by topic and focus, so the celebrating on Easter Sunday is always sortof a relief.  I was surprised that even in Catholic School preK-3 for the baby, the teachers explains it pretty straightforward to the kids about Jesus dying on a cross and everything.  I was a little nervous thinking she may get a little freaked out, but what typically happens when I brace myself is…nothing; all the kids seemed to have taken it in stride.  I’m SO okay with that.  The school did do a great job focusing on different themes each week in Lent - Hence, my overdone Easter basket to finish everything off.  Well, I pretty much go overboard on most things :).  We had a great time doing crafts this morning (and actually all last week as well).  I took some pics for posterity…

Dandelions were the main attraction today.  Our yard is littered with what the baby thinks are pretty little yellow flowers and cool dandelions.  I look at it as the weed plague is back.  I do think it is totally cool that she can spend a nice hour picking flowers and blowing dandelions around.  Such a spring thing.  I couldn’t help but take pictures today.  She is also sporting a new haircut she received from a local salon last week.  She did so amazing as they treated her separate from me, washing her hair, cutting, and blow drying it all out.  She was a champ talking to all the ladies in the salon, telling her stylist that she wanted to “be” her, and that she can borrow her rain boots when it stopped raining.  They were so enamored with her and couldn’t believe she is only 3 yrs old.  I can’t believe it sometimes, although usually that is when she is trying to negotiate with me.  I find it funny how she is so accommodating to everyone, the life of the party if you will - when she is outside of the house.  No one will believe me that she is a little monster sometimes.  Her hair is so straight, it is a good thing that she liked the professional salon since even they were commenting on the precision needed for her hair (any deviation, you would be able to see it).  She was so into it…chatting away and thanking everyone for her hair cut.  My stylist said she was the cutest little girl she had ever seen.  They were thinking of taking her picture for display.  I let her have an ice pop and dragged her out of there before we could wear out our welcome or she started any ideas on modeling or something.  She is bad enough changing her clothes all the time.  I guess that is what little girls are made of….

One serious artist.  I have no idea what it is, but our little girl is so serious when she is doing crafts.  We are up to are elbows in spring and Easter crafts over here.  I volunteered for 3 separate turns at leading the craft for kids during playgroup as our Art/Craft leader will be going on maternity leave.  How can I not volunteer when my child is so into the crafts and takes the most time & supplies during these things?  Anyway, while I’m getting different ideas, supplies, and projects together, I decided to let the baby do the test runs.  I was watching her work (in this case decorating a paper egg - including paint) and I can’t get over her level of concentration and attention.  I don’t know - I guess my husband produces great artist sperm or something.  It’s so wild.  She also made me take the pictures below of her “bunny car” she made at school.  It’s base is a twinkie and the whole thing is edible.

Conversions with our artist go like this (while watching Umizoomi on the couch together):

Dad: Bella, why doesn’t Agent Oso go to help those people instead of Umizoomi?

Baby: Agent Oso is sick.

Dad: What is he sick with?

Baby: Ah, ah, he put a balloon in his mouth.

Dad: And what did the balloon do to his mouth?

Baby:  Broke his teeth.

Dad: Oh, and did he go to the doctor?

Baby:  Yes.

Dad.  What did the doctor say to him?

Baby:  Don’t fix your teeth.

Dad:  Hehehehe. Baby just told a story

March madness here translates to the warmest temperatures on record for the month as well as super high allergy alerts.  Fortunately, we don’t suffer allergies in our family right now or we would be so drugged like many people in our fine state.  Our trees and plants have completely spazzed out generating so many flowers it looks like snow when the wind blows.  Definitely makes for a pretty photo backdrop though.  I haven’t been blogging as I can’t even keep up with all the activities for the month.  Luis wonders how that’s possible since I’m at home with lots of time seemingly; My response is that my boss is a neurotic 3 yr old that he can try entertaining/enriching for 10 hrs a day if he wants to understand more.  But I digress…Anyway, one of the highlights was a night of Belly-Dancing last weekend.  Ah the ladies and I had to have some liquid courage to get up and try some moves after the dance performance we watched.  It was fun, and kindof inspiring for us Moms who could use from hip waving.  March is also when we get to celebrate Cat’s birthday.  Last year, we were yelled at during Dim Sum and the year before that we came home to find my pine tree down in my yard.  This year, we were blissfully incident free.  We attended a seafood cooking class where I did indeed learn new knifing types and such.  Snagged a pic of my BFF looking chipper next to the cedar plank salmon.  Here’s hoping for a menu recreation soon…

We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in style this year.  We were able to spend yesterday with my BFF’s kids due to the awesome timing of an in-service at the school; everyone had the day off.  Taking advantage of this, we went to the first showing for the Lorax in the theatre.  The girls had such a great time.  I was reading the story and prepping the baby this week, so she was completely adsorbed in the movie.  It helped that there was music numbers as well.  I have to say that I wasn’t too happy with the scary previews they put before the feature started, but the kids just took it in stride; a little confused and asking when the Lorax was coming when each preview popped up.  My buddy outdid herself with shamrock cookies, fish sticks for a fishy Friday lunch, and our annual shamrock shakes.  Ah…I heart shamrock shakes.  I finished our St. Paddy’s Day festivities by making my very first Shepard’s Pie for today.  Well - okay, cowboy pie since I did use beef instead of lamb this round.  It was a hit with the family.  I’m going to have to find me some Irish love and plant a kiss on somebody.  Mwah!

This year, thanks to the diabolical mind of our dear friend, we celebrated the Ides of March on the 15th.  We told the kids they were remembering Julius Caesar (nixed all talk of assassination) and they were able to learn a few phrases in Latin.  All the kids in the playgroup were outfitted with togas and head dress.  I picked “Pro Bono” for the baby.  Too funny.  We did attend a toga party on the evening of the 15th.  The historic schoolhouse is town was our Theatre de Pompey.  The tables were adorned with apples and grapes and we feasted on pizza and Italian desserts.  The baby thought it was awesome that everyone was dressed up and absolutely loved my toga made from one of our bedsheets.  I personally felt like I was able to capture some long lost fraternity right of passage that I didn’t do in college.  Heh.  Hopefully our little girl get this whole toga party thing out of her system before she hopefully goes to a university.  Well, here’s to Brutus and bringing down the glorious Caeser! Or basically - any excuse for a party.