Cheer for the Cure!!

Avon had their 30 Mile Breast Cancer Awareness walk a couple weeks ago and we just had to participate in the cheering.  Grandma Thelma was a breast cancer survivor (twice) and a few dear friends have been affected as well.  We for sure cheered for the cure. Those walkers were amazing!  30 miles covering every Borough in only 2 days.

 

I love all the fabulous phrases there are out there about Breast Cancer Awareness. 

We then met Scotty at the girl's school for their annual BIG Green Halloween Fall Festival.

 

 

This is how we protect Vivi's ears from loud trains. :)  It's a chain reaction.

 

"I gots my ticket!"

Daddy looks sooooo excited about the news of Paisley winning her 3rd goldfish!!  Yaaaaay!

 

Paisley had a Party.

Paisley turned 7!  Hard to believe.  We are doing parties every other year for our girls, on their odd numbered birthdays. 

Scotty found an Amazon Local deal for a party at 16 Handles, which is NY's equivalent to a Yogurtland.  We HAD to do it!  It was a steal!

It was SO fun to plan!  Ice cream was the theme.  I was a bit worried about crowd control, especially when the planner mentioned that most people cater and hire entertainment for these parties!  HA!  I wasn't doin' any of that, that's ca-razy.  I did have one rule and that was that all food brought in had to be Kosher.




Getting ready for her party.

Decorating Goody Bags.

A little sand art, in ice cream shaped necklaces!

The snack bar.

A beanbag game.

 

 

 

 

 

And of course, I dug down deep and did some magic. ;)  For the first time in 7 years. :)  Scott and I almost cried when we said the magic words.

They were quite excited about those magic cookies.

And then came the good stuff.  Paisley was taken to get her froyo first.  She got to get as much as she wanted!  That's a birthday wish come true right there.  I regulate when we go to those places.

Friends enjoying their treat.

It was SUCH a success.  The owner and her daughter kept telling me they couldn't believe how well behaved everyone was and how smooth the party ran.

They invited us back and said to let them know if I decided to go into business. ;)  I must say that parties are either a total success or major fail for me!  We've had both through-out the years.  I put so much thought and time into them so I either end up disappointed or over-joyed!  Super thankful this work for us, doin' it again in March!!

Spared.

 3 weeks before hurricane Sandy, we got our car back from being repaired.  It was hit while parked on the street.  Needless to say, we were a little worried about our car being damaged from the storm, especially because there are a lot of trees in our area aaaaaannnnnnd dealing with even your own insurance company, is torture.  We weren't parked by a tree, we were parked by scaffolding though.   So when Scott and I heard a horrendous sound Monday evening...and saw scaffolding being blown down the street like...like...a plastic bag in the wind!!  We were nervous.  We went out the next morning to see the damage.

Investigating.  They had to bring their 4th of July headbands that have pinwheels on them. It was still very windy though we got hardly any rain.

Paisley kills me with her facial expressions.

Sure enough the scaffolding fell directly in front of our car....and smashed the vehicle in front of ours.  We stood in the middle of the street in disbelief.  We feel awful for our not as lucky neighbor.  It was literally 6 inches in front of our car that the other cars entire side was smashed along with the back light busted.






 It was scary and windy!
.



We like to play UNO in our family.  We taught Vivi during the storm, she had her mini sized cards and everything!  She did have a hard time not looking at the other players cards, showing us her cards and of course eating the cards, but we think she felt included and can't wait to play with her again. ;)

 

 

 

Past, Present and Future

There's a lot of jumping around on here...don't mind me if the next few posts are about directly before the storm and directly after.   And a few during. 

In other words--Halloween 2012!!

A Little Halloween Sprite!



 Church Chili-Pie Cook-Off
(Saturday Before)

Zombie.

Dog Walker.

Paisley's Pooches-- Always a Walk in the Park

 Halloween
(Day After)

We called around to see what was open.  We went to Breakfast.

 

We walked to the New York Historical Society for some fun at the DiMenna Museum for Children, but first passed by the AMNH.  :( A lot of tree damage in our neighborhood)

 

Knufflebunny Art.

 

Then the girls got in costume.

Paisley had been saving this little pot for Vivi to Trick or Treat with since the March before she was born!  Adorbs! Our building has a nice party for residents every year.  Pizza, Magic, Kids...can't go wrong.

Girls with a favorite doorman, Julio.

Met up with friends on a near by block where each brownstone participates in decor and candy giving!  Then they all ran up 20 flights of stairs in our building and 16 floors of a friends.

 

 

Da Loot! :)  I'd say they made out like bandits for Halloween almost being canceled.

 

 

Happy 1st Halloween, Vivienne!

As I brushed Scott's Steel Toe Boots off last night, I said in my best funny voice, "Well it's a good thing that I saved these here boots all these years..."  He looked up from his tool box with a  smile,"You've been asking my to "git rid" of those for years."  We got a good laugh out of it, because I really did try to persuade him to not bring them when we moved to New York (and about every year since then.)  They were his "Electrician Boots" when he worked electrical for my dad in College...9 years ago.  He's using them for a different purpose today.  We felt like we were sending him off to his first day of work, since he hasn't been to work since Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on NYU, the hospital that he works for and so many other surrounding areas.  Today he's headed to the Rockaways with the group "Mormon Helping Hands" to gut houses and other needs.  Today, I'm glad he kept the boots. :) 

More Info Here.

The past two weeks have been very extreme.  Extremely saddening, extremely bizarre, extremely different than what we are used to in our area and every day lives.  But, I can't go without saying that it has been extremely relaxing for us a lot of them time (forced relaxation), exciting and memorable too.

(The girls and I are home today, doing chores.  We were going to take the car out to go grocery shopping, but gas is being rationed and it's not our day to pump, so we're going to wait it out until Tuesday to do both. :)  When's the last time something was rationed in this city?!  Sounds so strange to say.  I'm going to play catch up of the last two weeks between every task. :)

"New Yorkers don't hide, New Yorkers sing!"

The day before the hurricane hit, our primary had their annual Primary Program.  Lucky for us, my dad drove from Maryland, where he was on call, in case a sign he is the Project Manager for  was harmed in the storm.  (He works for YESCO, Young Electric Sign Company)  We were quite excited he came for a day!  Although, I know my mom was quite nervous that he came out for the storm!   He drove back to Baltimore on Monday morning and says he was airborne at moments as the winds came in.

Someone, we don't know who, recorded the sound of one of the songs from our program and posted on our ward's FB page.  A friend of mine Hailey,  posted it on Facebook saying, "On the day before a hurricane, New Yorkers don't hide, New Yorkers sing!"  This is true!  Enjoy!  This song got us through the week.  We listened over and over and if you listen to the words, you'll know why. ;)

Click Here to Listen!

We had a good Sunday that day.  We came home, ate, went to our building's playroom, watched the last World Series Game, ate popcorn and the girls just sat and played with toys with Papa!

We had a solemn few days before we heard about Hurricane Sandy even coming.  A family in our neighborhood that we do not know personally, but feel for immensely, lives were changed when their Nanny lost it and took the lives of two of the children she nanny'd for.  We've thought about them a lot the past few weeks.  Especially Paisley, she's been so concerned. (She heard this news on the street.)  The morning after the tragedy happened, there really was a sadness out side.  It was obvious that many people were just grasping to trust humanity again after such a grim night.  I love how people come together in our neighborhood and support each other when awful things like this happen, although rare, it happens.  There was a flashlight walk in remembrance of the little girl and her baby brother at Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Riverside Park, where it started and then ended at Hippo Playground.  Bless those little babies and their surviving family.  Click here  to read the most updated as of today, of the tragic losses.