Walking NYC at Christmastime

Our tree is up!

And decorations, too!

keepin' busy

Dash's kids bike finally bit the dust so we moved him to Jen's foldable for the winter months.
We will look into cooler bikes in the spring. But, hey, he looks good on this bike.

Hugo is also getting in on the biking action.  Although, it's been a much slower process
 to get him to focus and commit to learning it.

The Dash! Faux-hawk-ing it

Teaching Dash to play crib! I am not pegging his missed points yet :)

Dash, finishing our leftover coffee in the AM. 

Hasn't been the best weather around here. Here we are waiting for
the school bus at 6:30am on a school day.

Speaking of weather.  We had 6.5" of snow one day! It was mostly gone the next day.

One of good-ole Mr. Diego. If he's standing here looking 
at me like this, he probably whining and wants something

A few autumn moments

Hugo asked one morning if I could buy him better
jumping shoes so he could jump and touch the moon :) 

Cutting veggies for soups

The other day, getting ready for school, they came out together in the same shirt.
A rare moment of morning sympatico for them :)

Ready for Halloween as space soldiers.  As Jen said, they dress
as characters from video games they aren't allowed to play yet.

End of the trick-or-treating...with a friend.

Playing Battleship with Dash...very serious stuff.

Halfway through the fall, and we've barely had any "true" fall days.  Mostly warm and humid through the month of September.  Just posting a few images from since mid-September. :)

The boys wanted a photo in front of this old car, I am not sure why.  It reminded me some of the first car I can remember my Dad owning...same lines, but his was bottle green and a convertible.  Someone on Instagram said it looks like the "Ghostbusters" station wagon.

Coming back from a farm visit we stopped for dinner in Pawling NY. Found a neat little pub and the boys were posing with mom's beer.  They tried it, though, but weren't fans.

Dash and I played our first games of chess! I dug my old set out of storage.  Anyway, the funny part of our games was the trash talking Dash was doing :).  Really?! The kid's 8! Playing a board game with Dash reminded me of playing cribbage with Nana Brown and my Aunt Nancy :).  I still have Nana Brown's old crib board, but it's tough finding anyone who wants to play crib...maybe when Dash gets a bit older.

Good friends of ours have a stake in a farmstead in upstate NY.  They host parties on the farm and it was so fun to get out of the city...chat with folks, drink a beer or two, eat good food, watch the world go by...and your kids play with fire :).  They had a bonfire.

Trip upstate, we stayed at a HoJos. They had a pool. This photo is totally posed, but I was reminded of icebergs when looking at it.  You only see the top 10% of Dash, the other 90% is below the water :)

Photo day for Hugo.  He's not a fan of button-frint shirts at all, but if he was forced to wear one, which he was, this one is his favorite.

New sweater.  Dash got his afternoon school bus and he told me that some of his friends said that he looked like he was in the army with this sweater on.  I asked him if that bothered him, and he said, no he didn't mind at all.

One of me.  No reason. We were buying costumes for the kids. Those photos are coming later in the month.

Mid September photos and musings

Sharing photos as I take them from the last two weeks. Mostly I put these images on my Instagram feed.

Recently, we had some new kids move on to the block here on the fringes of East Elmhurst NY.  As the weather cools, Hugo and Dash have been heading out more to hang out with these friends.  It reminds me of my own time spent on Vance Drive; I had a pack of kids I was constantly hanging out with on the street. Apartments turn over quickly in New York, and people move out and on to new things constantly. But, I am glad the boys have kids to play with on the street, for however long it lasts. 

Every now and then, we get these notes from Hugo and wonder where they come from.  If I had to guess, it might stem from feelings regarding our new friends, mentioned above.  With all signs indicating that Hugo (and Dash for that matter) are growing up to be handsome boys, I guess Jen and I can take a small amount of comfort in this note...at least before they demand cell phones and set up dates.

That's right, I made my own pies!  Using some recipes and working from memory from the last time my mom was here (when she showed me and Dash how to make apple pies), I made the crust from scratch and apples we recently picked from Pochuk Valley Farms in New Jersey :).  We have to do something with those apples.  Upon first taste, the night they were made, they were simply okay; they tasted better when they had a chance to cool and sit for a day.  Giving myself a grade of "B" for my first pies. 

I don't usually post much about where I work but if you're curious, Temple Emanu-El just marked the Jewish High Holy Days (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur).  One of my jobs at the temple is to make sure the livestream broadcasts go off without a hitch.  Even though I am not of this faith, the services feature beautiful music (contemporary and classical liturgy), ritual (honoring legacy and community), and meaningful sermons...it's not "fire and brimstone," more about wisdom, ethics, and introspection in my opinion.  The temple often advocates for "interfaith," and we often get people from other faiths watching and enjoying.  

Happy dog, Diego!  The boys, lately, have been more into helping out with dog walking.  I was able to get this photo of Diego, now 14, just out the door for a walk.  At first, he's got this energy, usually, moving from patch of grass to patch of grass doing his business.  But, true to Chihuahua form, once the nose starts rooting in the grass for any length of time, the walks slow to a saunter as he's got to sniff out everything, looking for any morsel of food he can find, usually buried by cats or raccoons who loot the garbage bags on garbage nights.

Pochuck Valley Farm

Sort of our thing we do every Fall.  This year we went early enough for peaches and plums...and apples of course 🍑🍏🍎🌞

Keepin' it local

Dash showing off his second pair of glasses with "transition" lenses.
This from a block party in Brooklyn...hence the cotton candy.

Fashion sense! Dash with the double-octopi shirt and shorts.
With Shark-fanged/Pac-man themed backpack...
He wore this to school.  :)

Around the corner from us is Astoria Bowl.
Hugo loves bowling.  So every odd weekend or so, we go bowling.

AND! He beat me in the first game. 

Labor Day Weekend so far...

Just a few photos from today and yesterday.  The boys got a new frisbee and Dash got some new glasses....and we found a pool with a diving board in Queens!