Circus!

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We took Sienna to see the circus over Labor Day weekend earlier this month. They have a special show at Coney Island. I debated about going for ethical reasons but after reading Water for Elephants, I was really in the mood for the circus. (Incidentally, PBS will be broadcasting a documentary on the Big Apple Circus in November that I am really excited to see!) Plus I wanted to give Sienna the opportunity to at least experience the circus while she is still young enough to enjoy it. Well, that was a laugh! She fell asleep after the first 45 minutes! Granted it started right at her nap time (when she was still taking naps!) and she was a bit sick with a cough. Poor thing.

First, we missed the meeting of the animals before the show. Me and Yves were so bummed! That was what we were looking forward to! Good thing we didn’t mention it to Sienna. So we let Sienna ride the bouncy slides that they had in the tent. There was also the bouncy house but she liked the slide better. It was unlimited sliding for $5. She got our money’s worth. Honestly, she could have done that the whole day and forget the circus and she would still be happy. Sometimes it’s just the simple things that make her so happy.

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We didn’t know what to expect at this venue but we didn’t realize how small and close we were going to be to the ring. Of course, in hindsight, it only makes sense that there is just one ring (as opposed to 3 at Madison Square Garden.) There were about 3 clowns there with 2 being the more traditional type and the 3rd being a modern day one (no clown makeup.) I guess he was for the older kids because Sienna took more to the traditional clowns (which they didn’t really showcase as much as the modern one! Another bummer!)
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We treated her big time with sugar and got her some cotton candy that came with a wizard hat. Needless to say she loved the cotton candy! Who’d thought she would fall asleep with all that sugar in her but she did! Right before the cat lady came out!
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We woke her up after intermission when the lions came out. Honestly, it was kind of a snore.
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Maybe I’m too old for the circus or maybe because Sienna fell asleep but I was disappointed in the circus. But my favorite by far were the elephants. I think I can watch them all day.
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Happy Birthday Yves!

Today is Yves birthday! He doesn’t make as big a deal about it as I do for my birthday but I wanted to surprise him by making him carrot cake cupcakes. He LOVES carrot cake! I used this recipe from simply recipes here and they came out delicious! (I didn’t have cardamom so instead used extra cinnamon and added nutmeg and cloves and also used pistachios instead of walnuts).
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Sienna licked the cream cheese frosting, took a few bites of the cupcake and was done as she is not a fan of carrot cupcakes. BUT! I also did make these pear cream cheese muffins with the 2 riping pears left from our CSA pickup last week. They are also delicious! She ate a bit more of that but she still wanted to lick more frosting off the other cupcakes! LOL

We also celebrated with my parents last weekend (my mother has this strange superstition that you can’t celebrate a birthday after your birthday. See me rolling my eyes?) I bought strawberry cheesecake from Jean Danet in Bay Ridge and we also went out for dim sum.
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Yes, you need 3 images of the strawberry cheesecake! ๐Ÿ™‚

First Day of School!

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Today was Sienna’s first day of school. It was only for an hour. The teacher (Mrs. D.) has 18 kids in her class but for the first 2 days, she divides them up into 2 groups. Sienna was in the 2nd group. She showed some resistance and said she was scared but we managed to get her into the classroom without too much fruckus. She cried. I did not!! (Very proud of and surprised at myself) I was surprised when the teacher said I could stay in the classroom for a little bit, especially since she mentioned numerous times that we were to leave right away. She knew Sienna was going to take a little extra work plus she had a child in the first session that cried the whole time. I was pretty sure Sienna would not cry the whole time but I guess the teacher did not want to take that chance. The teacher had me stay for 45 minutes!! I honestly did not think that was necessary but whatever. Of course Sienna cried when I left but I saw the teacher picked her up. I came back 15 minutes later and was told she stopped when I left! SEE! I know she will be fine and it will take a little bit. I know because she did venture away from me several times to play. Tomorrow is another hour day and then starting Wednesday will be the whole 3 hours. Wish me luck!

EDIT TO ADD: 2nd day of school, no sign of tears whatsoever! That was FAST!

Here is Sienna posing with her flame backpack!
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On the way across to school!
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Tears inside ๐Ÿ™
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Venturing away!
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In preparation for school, last night Sienna helped me make some new hair clips for her to wear to school. When I say she helped, that really means she kept herself busy with the extra hair doodads while I made the clips!
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Here’s what I made, sorry the photo isn’t the best
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I was rushing taking the photo because she wanted to put the clips in her hair! All of them!
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Last night we also started a new tradition! Family game night! Me and Sienna had bought 2 board games. First we played Yahtzee Jr. with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters and then Chutes and Ladders (Yves was excited to play this one!)
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Sienna won both games! ๐Ÿ™‚

Last days of summer

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Sienna starts nursery school next Monday. I am sad and excited at the same time. Sad because this marks the true end to her carefree days for at least another 15 years. Ok, I suppose that’s being a bit dramatic, it’s not like I remember my years before school started. And I’m excited to start this new chapter in our lives and excited to see her grow and mature and come into her own. I’ll be a wreck tho, for sure. But just for the first few days. I hope! I thought I would post some photos from the last few weeks of August, mostly spent at the playground with her friends, some old and some new. She’s been really great lately as far as the social aspect goes. There was a point where she wasn’t playing with anyone, not even the kids she knows. For the last few weeks, she’s been playing with anyone and everyone! I hope it lasts!

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Sharing her binoculars with Nico and I think Sylvie was sharing a snack with her. climbing.jpg
Climbing
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Smelling a sunflower from the CSA pickup
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Nico impressing the ladies by saying he was going to make farty sounds with the balloon.
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Emma and Sienna, yep, in the middle of a giant puddle
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Yeah, in case you didn’t believe me!
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Soaking wet
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As soon as Leah saw me with my camera, she came over toward me and said CHEESE!
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We finally met Lenny! Our friend Aaron’s baby. He’s a cutie!
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Sienna gives Aaron a handshake
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Playing “frisbee” with Yves at Sunset Park
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Ella and Sienna marking up a tree (not really!)
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Sienna agreed to lend her dress to Erin.

Is That A Pink Butt?

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HA! Sorry couldn’t help that! “Uncle Peeder” came over last weekend and we had a BBQ. Both Sienna and Skippy were very happy to see him. Poor Pete kept getting harassed by Sienna to play with her. We told her after he finishes eating so practically every 5 minutes she kept asking if he was done yet. Fortunately, Pete got a kick out of her harassment. That’s why we love him! They played with chalkร‚ย  in the driveway and Skippy sat right on a drawing, hence the pink butt! Too funny!

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Somehow, Sienna convinced Pete to mimic her running down the driveway (those are bowling pins under their arms). I missed the going down the driveway but I caught the coming back up:

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I made basil pesto pasta salad (basil fresh from our CSA!) and salsa (heirloom tomatoes fresh from our CSA!) and apple potato salad (apples fresh from our CSA! and potatoes from the supermarket). I used rice pasta for the salad and it did not do well cold. The pesto also did not have enough salt so it stunk all around (thankfully, it heated up well and Yves loved it and took it to lunch the whole week!) I also made some pickled cucumbers with kirby cukes we got from the CSA. They were a tad too vinegary but I thought it tasted well in the burger.

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We went upstairs for the dessert portion. Pete bought donuts from our favorite donut shoppe and I also made a blueberry peach crisp and I asked Pete to bring ice cream as well.
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Pete did well to wear Sienna out because she really did fall asleep on him! (Pete was pretending for the photo’s sake)
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Nate met Pete at our house so they could walk to Williamsburg! It’s 10 miles and Pete is warming up for his 12 miles walk for the Jimmy Fund Walk he’s doing in a couple of weeks. So he had to leave Sienna sleeping on the sofa. We tried to wake her up to say goodbye but she just didn’t budge. Wouldn’t you know it, she woke up fully a few minutes after he left and when she learned he had gone, she was so sad, she cried!

Starving Artist spotlight!

Ok, so I don’t usually post about blog candy but I have been ogling Doodle Factory‘s rubber stamp designs for awhile now. Her designs are sold through the Starving Artist site. I just love her quirky designs and love the fact that they are cute but not in the traditional way. They just came out with 4 new sets of stamps, 3 of which are Doodle Factory and Halloween related and since I love Halloween, I couldn’t resist a chance to win! Here is one set, isn’t it awesome?

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The point is to spread the word about the 4 new stamps sets. Please read the post on Starving Artist’s blog for your chance to win Doodle Factory’s ghoulies set! Plus that post shows some samples of the awesome cards you can make with the sets! Drool!

Happy September!

I can’t believe it is already September! The summer seemed to fly by and in a couple of weeks, Sienna begins school! It’s just nursery school for 3 hours a day but this will be the first time she is away from me for so long. This is just the beginning. Before I know it, she will be in real school all day!! I can’t even imagine. At any rate, this post isn’t about Sienna! Here are some of the swaps I sent during the summer!

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A shaker postcard swap. My partner likes lighthouses so I dug through my archives and found this photo I took when Yves and I went to Washington State right before Sienna was born.
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An owl stuffie from the Stitch Fall 09 magazine. I’ve already made the raccoon and the chipmunk is the last one in the trio!
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The owl stuffie was part of the Woodland Profile swap. I made my partner an owl pouch, woodland creatures glass magnets, hedgehog keychain, and a mushroom keychain.
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I’ve been experimenting with some glitter and rub ons (print my own rub ons that I got for my birthday from Yves). I made the top one into a keychain for a keychain swap and the bottom one is a pendant for a WTA in one of the groups I’m in.
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Bird pc for a mail art group
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I joined a swap to make Red flowers from this pattern. I had so much fun making them that I joined the swap to make orange ones. I almost did not want to send the orange ones away. (Unfortunately I’m still waiting for the orange swap from my partner and it’s past the due date. argh!)
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We had 3 partners for a handmade earring swap. The above 2 sets were for someone I knew personally!
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These 2 sets were for the host of the swap, who likes flying pigs (I had her for a partner before!)
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It was hard to make this last set for the last partner because she really didn’t indicate her likes in her profile. Still waiting to hear if she likes these!
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This was for a Sublime Stitching embroidery swap. I had bought these Aunt Martha paint pens thinking I could use them to color in the patterns (I see such beautiful coloring by so many people!) They didn’t turn out the way I thought (it’s supposed to be used for outlining, why would you want to do that?!) Anyway, I figured out how to use them, which I’ll show in another post. Here I used my gocco fabric paint for the brown and used the glitter paint from the same Aunt Martha order.
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These notecards were for the Hand Carved Stamp group. I just finished reading Water for Elephants and was inspired to do a circus theme. I carved the circus tent, CIRCUS, elephant and ringmaster. I even had some clown scrapbook paper!
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And finally, for the woodlands wearable swap (I’m finally happy with the photos) ! I made my partner a bunny pendant necklace and a bird bracelet. I’ve gotten a lot of uses out of the woodland graphics I got from Etsy seller Plan F Studios and the bird is from Piddix.