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!