Ikea Fun

I think I have written about Ikea before - it is one of my favorite stores. We also still have lots of furnishing/ decorating to do in our house which means we go there on a regular basis.

Last weekend we actually went on the way home form visiting Ben's family in MA and they all came too. The kids had a blast. Here is our "routine" at Ikea:

• Kids get dropped off at instore Playland for some fun (except Lilly, she is not tall enough yet)
• The grown ups try to look at as much stuff as possible in the available 45/60 min of kid free time
• We then all gather for lunch at the Ikea restaurant (ok food at a great price)
• We play a little more in the kids area next to the restaurant - this time a puppet show by me
• Potty stop
• Downstairs to the Marketplace to pick up everything we need - which is always a challenge with kids. And this time we had 4 of them. We tried to contain them as much as possible and bribing them of course :-)
• While the adults checked out, I took the kids for an ice cream at the Ikea food store
• Now ready to head home - nap in the car for all the kids!

Stepping Stone Children's Museum

Groupon anybody? I have gotten much better, but I still like to look on a regular basis to check what is "on sale". If you have not tried Groupon yet, it is really a great way to try new things for a good price - just make sure you read the fine print and them up in time.

I have actually found some great things to do with the kids on there and the latest one was half price entry tickets to the Stepping Stone Children's Museum in Norwalk, CT.

We have been there before (maybe another Groupon???) and the kids really have a great time there. Lots of hands on activities, games, water play, outdoor play, etc. The have a cafe where you can purchase some snacks or eat the ones you have brought, a fun store with cool toys and a little train for the holiday season. If it would not be for Lilly getting tired and needing a nap, we could spend the whole day there.

Finn loves the fishing game

Lilly enjoys the dress up area

More fishing

And we always go outside to play for a while

Leaves

We do not have too many trees on our property, but there are still enough leaves to be racked on a regular basis. The kids loved helping rack them up and putting them onto a pile on the street. Here in Larchmont everybody made huge piles of leaves on the side of the road and then they come with big diggers and trucks and load them up. 

Finn and Lilly loved playing in the big pile at the end of our road until they came and picked it up. As you can see, Finn is wearing his bike helmet. He enjoyed running his scooter into the pile and falling down. Happy fall!

Lunch date

I had wanted to take my friend Brigit out for her birthday, but as nights out are a little difficult with our kids we decided on lunch. When I saw that there was restaurant week in November I suggested to try one of the restaurants on the list. We picked Palomino in Larchmont and had a great time. The place was nearly empty and we had a nice corner table where we could be as loud as we wanted. Which was good as Lilly joined us for lunch (all our other kids were at school).

During restaurant week they offer a two course lunch option for a great price. We also decided to go for some yummy drinks (white Sangria) and finished with a delicious desert (churros) that we all shared.

I loved the food and drinks and the price it came with during restaurant week. 

Delicious drink and my main course: salmon

Brigit liked her meal

And Lilly had a great time as well

Winter Beach Day

Some time in November the temperatures hit high 60s and when I picked up Finn from school in the afternoon I asked what they wanted to do on this nice day. His response was: "going to the beach". So we drove to Rye beach (where we really like to go during the warm season as well) and enjoyed some great time running around, looking for shells and crabs and writing our names in the sand.

At Rye Beach Park is also a duck pond and we had a look at the ducks and geese. While we were there a park employee came by and gave us some old bread to feed to the birds. The kids had a blast feeding the ducks!

Apple Picking

One of my birthday wishes (in September) had been to go apple picking. We spent a weekend in MA with Ben's family before they headed down to Florida. And we got lucky - the weather was perfect on Sunday and we went to a local farm for apple picking.

The hayride/ tractor ride was fun and we got some beautiful views of the valleys around. The kids enjoyed it. Unfortunately the apples were a little difficult to come by. Lots of them were rotting on the ground already or not really good to be picked. We were glad that we had only selected small bags at the entrance to fill up.
And the pears weren't even ready yet to be picked.

But we still had fun on the ride, checking out the farm, eating apples, looking at the pumpkins, walking through the orchards, taking pictures and most importantly: eating cider donuts and drinking apple cider at the end!

Bridal Shower in NYC

In September one of our friends - Beth Roper - had a small bridal shower. I got to go and it was fabulous!

One of her brides maids lives in this beautiful building at the very tip of Manhattan and she held the party at her apartment. We started off with drinks on the roof deck. WOW! With a perfect view of the Statue of Liberty! It was breathtaking.  And it helped of course that it was a gorgeous day and we were enjoying the sunshine.

We then headed down into Tracy's apartment and she had a personal chef cooking us a delicious lunch. The menu was really yummy and lots of wine with it. The group was small and we all had a fun time chatting and talking about the lovely Beth and her upcoming wedding.

I think I was a little tipsy when I headed back home to Larchmont on the train :-)

Thanks for a a wonderful afternoon!

Dance this fall

We signed back up for "Movement Class" this fall. It is basically pre dance class for boys and girls. It is run by the town and is held at the VFW, which is always fun.
Lilly each week dresses in one of her dance outfits (great hand me downs from friends) and Finn of course runs the show!

Soccer this fall

We decided to go back to soccer this fall. We really like this group called US Sports Institute.

We have taken several classes from them and this fall we took a soccer only class in White Plains (unfortunately nothing closer, but we sometimes combined soccer with a visit to our friends in White Plains). The coaches were called Mickey and Tom and from Scotland. I have to admit I did not always understand them, but they were really sweet with the kids and they had fun. Especially Finn got really into it and started played soccer. Lilly is still deciding if she likes it or not….

Let's see what we will do in the spring.

Pumpkins….

Our kids really like pumpkins. We have had them as a decoration in front of our house for weeks. We have big ones, small ones, painted ones, carved ones, ones with stickers, ones in different colors.

We thoroughly enjoy working with them!

Gymnastics - Photos

When we came to gymnastics the other day, we saw our pictures on the wall. Yeah!
They always take pictures and display different ones out front. We were so happy to see ourselves.

Belmont Horse Races

Early October we took a trip to the Belmont Horse Track on Long Island, NY. It is one of the big race courses in the US and during the annual Belmont Event it is crazy busy. But they have races throughout the year and we went during one of the last race days this fall. We met up with our friends Mark, Mike and Joe from NYC and had an awesome day.

I had only been to the horse race in Nashville before and was not really sure what to expect. And I have to admit that I was very pleasantly surprised. It was a great event to bring the kids too (and as you know, we have 2 little ones with us almost all the time). The weather of course helped, as it was one of those last sunny and warm days in early October. The boys had gotten there early and reserved a picnic table close to the entrance and close to some TVs. 

We all brought some yummy food and set out a great spread. During the afternoon some bets were placed - and won. The kids loved looking at the horses when they brought them out to be walked around. We also watched some of the races live at the track. 

But most of the time we spent running around, checking out the place, getting tattoos and face paints (great entertainment for the kids), playing on the awesome playground (really big and fun), eating some food, running to the potty, watching the people go crazy of the finish of races.

We stayed until the last race was over and headed home with balloons for the kids. 

Successful day and we will be back next year!

At the Playground

Can you find Finn watching the races with the crowd? He is wearing a blue hat….

Watching some horses

Our food and drink table

Front row at the track

Waiting for the horses to come by

Lilly on her own horse at the playground