Dusting off cobwebs.

I realize it's been awhile since I posted here. I'm actually considering quitting this place. What's the point of keeping it up if I barely update it? The reason I don't blog more often is I don't find much satisfaction in writing here. This blog has never been a place where I express what's really on my mind and I am sort of "faking" it here since the pictures I post are not the true story of my life. I just feel as though I'm deceiving anyone who comes here to check out what we've been up to.

That said, what and where have been up to lately? David goes through different changes so rapidly that I can barely keep up with him. After I convince myself that he hates his sister ("I don't want a sister, I want a brother" and constantly annoying her), he proves to me that he would move mountains for her. At times, I awe at his generosity, consideration and love for her.

Seth decided to involve David with a cub scout organization. As long as I don't have to bring him to their meetings, I couldn't be happier for them especially when two of them went camping for an entire weekend with the organization.

David's sense of fashion drives me crazy. He is into button down shirts, jeans that have to be certain length and sweaters (no sweatshirts). He won't ware anything that says 4t or 6t on it. The mornings before school don't look good if there's no ironed button down shirt in his closet. It doesn't matter that he has a gym that day. Right now I'm knitting him a vest, so hopefully, he'll like wearing it on top of his shirt.

We took the kids to the "Bubble Show" on Broadway and David was one of the kids chosen to help out on a stage. It didn't go well with Ms. Jealousy. Thankfully, David shared his gift with her.

We did the usual fall activities : pumpkin and apple picking, Bronx Zoo during the Halloween celebration, pumpkin carving, lots of Halloween parties and going trick-or-treating. David found a Darth Vader costume at one of the garage sales and decided to use it during Halloween (yay!) and Julia went as a Super Girl.

Julia really surprises me with her personality. She has never been a very girly girl. Yes, there was a year when she'd refused to wear pants and she used to dress up in some of the princess dresses. But she never liked playing with dolls. She will still chose to play a board game over any activity. Her favorite game nowadays? Trouble. The hours she spends playing it per day? At least 2.

She's been wearing a princess cape, white Minnie Mouse gloves and her rain boots everywhere for awhile pretending to be a Super girl. David told me that next year he wants to be Indiana Jones for Halloween because it would make Julia happy. She's obsessed with super heroes and adventurers . She loves when David reads his beginning books about super heroes to her and she's pretty much memorized all the information about them.

She reminds me of David at her age. He used to wake up earlier than anyone and head straight to their arts and crafts table and do his projects. Julia does the same thing now except she wakes up anytime from 3 to 5 am in the morning and refuses to go back to bed. Without any naps she surprisingly functions pretty well during the day.

Whew, it was a long catch up post. Hopefully, it won't be too long before I write another post.

Weekend Photos in Review.

Craving Boredom.

I just recently realized why I am more tired on the weekends than during the weekdays. I shouldn't have any excuses as Seth spends the weekends playing with David and Julia whereas on the weekdays they are mostly my responsibility. On the weekdays though I don't drive myself crazy coming up with things to do with my kids. They spend bulk of their waking hours at our local parks playing with the same kids they've known for years/months in Julia's case. Once the weekend approaches, we always have at least two kid friendly outings in mind. We make sure we are back home for the kids' naps and we are back "on the streets" as soon as they are up. That's why we never get any break and Seth actually looks forward to going back to work on Mondays to "get some rest". This weekend was no exception... except that we had nothing planned days ahead and decided on the activities half an hour before leaving the house.

We found an ad in a paper about the Hackensack Street Festival and a half an hour later we were headed west. To our surprise, the festival had a lot of activities for the little ones such as a petting zoo, pony rides, live music, puppet shows, an inflatable slide and moonwalk. Did I mention running on the streets was not only allowed, but encouraged which was good as the kids had filled up on candies and lollipops and needed to burn some energy.

Saturday didn't end there. After the kids' naps, we took them to the playground where Julia was trying very hard to keep up with the older kids.

Sunday came and Seth thought it would be nice to get a fresh organic chicken from the farm for a dish I am planning to make this weekend. We've been to this farm before, but didn't remember the address and since it was too early to call a neighbor who introduced us to it, Seth decided to google it. Instead he came across Demarest Farm which we visit for pumpkin picking every October, so even though it is a little bit too early, we decided to get us a pumpkin for Halloween.

The hay ride was the most exciting part of the entire experience for David.

Julia was so mesmerized by a hay ride that she sat still the whole time.

Picking up the biggest pumpkin seemed challenging.


So, then David decided not to be so greedy and settled for the smallest one.




David chased Julia in a corn maze ("chased" is an understatement, it is more like "tortured").




Back home, while the kids were taking their naps, I was fixing some furniture I bought at a garage sale for Julia.

It was another busy weekend. There are definitely times when I wish I could stay in bed all day long with a pint or two of Ben and Jerry's ice cream and watch old movies. If Seth ever offered me this opportunity, you bet I am taking it! But for now, I am already planning the activities for next weekend which promises to be a hectic one.