Saturday we went to the NY Aquarium in what seems to be our yearly trip. She seemed to be a little more into the fishes and other sea life there than last year. We were pretty much done with the place in an hour and a half, opted to forgo the shows and get lunch at Nathan’s. We got home in time for Sienna to take her regular afternoon nap and later that afternoon, we filled the blow up pool with some nice cold water and had some of Yves’ yummy burgers on the grill for dinner.
We were invited up to Tammy and Mark’s house for a BBQ on July 4th. Since we had gone up there already, the drive wasn’t so bad. Their house is perfect for entertaining and there was plenty of food and good people. I love any excuse to bake and tried 2 new recipes for me: ‘real’ strawberry cupcakes and strawberry lemonade cupcakes using the frosting from the 2nd cupcake recipe for both (of which I had trouble). Both were really good and got lots of praise despite the look of the frosting (which tasted good but didn’t look anything like the photo posted on that blog).
Tammy and Zack and friends. No shortage of babies and kids at this BBQ!
Grilling!
Alison, the tattoo artist!
Sienna’s new Donald Duck tat
My new tat to match the other one!
Quiet swing time
Sienna playing ball with a baby. She loves babies!
Tammy going around giving samples of bacon ice cream. You can see that Yves isn’t that excited to try it but he did and liked it!
Got cupcake frosting?
The cupcakes:
See how blah my frosting looked?
Filling for the Strawberry Lemonade cupcakes. This is the first time I had less than what the recipe said I would (I usually have more, way more!)
On Monday I met up with Peter to have lunch at the Blue Water Grill as part of NYC Restaurant week. We usually go to Nobu but seeing as we have been going to Nobu for the past 3 or 4 restaurant weeks, I thought it might be fun to try a different place. There are so many restaurants taking part so it can be a little intimidating to pick one. When I saw that BWG had a BBQ soft shell crab sandwich as one of their entrees, I picked that place. Unfortunately it was changed when we got there and it was a swordfish sandwich instead. Pete got that and it was good. I got the seafood salad, that was good too. For appetizer I got the Spicy Laughing Bird Shrimp Maki Roll, which was quite delicious! And Pete got the watermelon gazpacho, it was different and refreshing. Pete got the watermelon granita and I got the chocolate truffle bar for dessert. It was all yummy. We enjoyed our dishes but we both agreed that we probably would not go back there. There wasn’t anything particularly wrong with anything we had but it didn’t have any WOW factor that would make us want to go back. But it’s always fun spending time with Peter!
My appetizer
The gazpacho
My seafood salad (that I wish there was more of!)
Seductive Pete and the fish sandwich (the fish was yummy as I am sure Pete is too)
Chocolate!
The granita
So the first part of our trip was Sesame Place. As I mentioned in the previous post, I was sick! I felt something in my throat during the drive down but didn’t think anything of it. It didn’t dawn on me until later that night that I was getting sick. GRRRR. We grundingly went to Chili’s for dinner as the choices for dining were limited to chain restaurants. The service was very slow and then food was just ok. The next morning we went to IHOP for breakfast and a quick stop to Walmart for cold meds and some misc. things we forgot. Since the park opened at 10, we weren’t concerned and we got there about 10 after. There was a big line! Several other families had the same idea of getting there at opening and there were a backlog of people waiting to get in. That was annoying and we must have waited about 20 minutes (although it felt longer.)
I went on the Merry Go Round ride first with Sienna. Then Yves rode the airplane ride. Those went well but then there were a couple of things she did not enjoy. This net climbing thing and this bouncy thing (I think only because she wanted us to bounce with her but we weren’t allowed or maybe because she saw Elmo and wanted to go see him.) Lunch wasn’t very memorable and Yves thought we should leave after lunch so Sienna could get her nap in. I was hoping to get more activities in to get our money’s worth but because I was also lacking in energy from being sick, I succumbed.
Sienna helps Yves push our crap into the Marriot hotel
We were concerned about where Sienna was going to sleep on this trip but the pull out couch worked out. Until the 2nd night when her diaper leaked all over her pj’s and she ended up in the king bed with us. It actually worked out ok even though she was edging us both out!
We made it!
It was hard to get a good shot of them on the ride!
Sienna did not like this thing.
Or this!
The 2nd day went well. The line to get in didn’t seem as overwhelming. Since I was sick I had to bow out of the water rides so Yves went on this water tube ride with Sienna. She loved it! But then she was shivering for a bit afterwards. It was warm but a bit breezy.So we ended up not going on anymore water rides. It just didn’t work out. Me and Sienna did go on this up and down ride that was really fun! Yves was hesitant and wasn’t sure if she would like it but she loved it! She wanted to go see Elmo again so we went back to the photo area. It was Abby and Elmo again like the day before yet she was still just as excited to see them as she was the day before. We also got to see an Elmo World Live show, which she enjoyed. We left around 2 to head to Lancaster and Sienna fell asleep on the way over.
Looking for Elmo!
Driving a fire truck on Sesame Street
At the Elmo’s World Live show.
Reading over what I just wrote, it sounds like I am complaining a lot and didn’t have a good time. Besides being sick, I did enjoy myself but I’m mostly happy that Sienna enjoyed herself. I feel she is still a tad bit young for the park and when we go back next summer, it will be a lot more fun. But I am glad we went!
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Water Tube Ride from Lisa on Vimeo.
We’re back from vacay! I don’t have as many photos to look through (compared to other vacations) but wanted to quickly post up these “gems.” I’ll post more about the vacation later but in a nutshell, it was generally a nice time. I got sick with a cold the first night there so my energy level wasn’t at what I would have wanted it to be! The first half was Sesame Place and then we went off to Lancaster. I just wish I wasn’t sick! Blah!
She was excited to meet Big Bird but he had “to go pee” so she didn’t get to officially meet him. She did keep yelling out HELLO BIG BERD! But Abby came out to replace him!
But she was really excited to meet ‘DA MAN!’
The moment right after this, the sand went into her mouth. UGH!
Since Yves had off on Friday, we decided to finally head out to the beach. I am not a big beach person (I get restless) and Yves is a beach snob (after being at the beach where he grew up in Jamaica, I can’t blame him!) But a few moms had recommended Riis Park, a beach I haven’t been to since probably high school when I rode my bike there! We decided to give it a shot since Sienna loves the beach and playing in the sand. It was fun! The water was a bit cold but you got used to it and Sienna loved running in and out of it with us. In between water excursions, we tried to get Sienna to build sandcastles with us (mostly so we can rest! HA) It wasn’t as easy to get her to do that. She would knock down any castles we put up and basically kept wanting to go back in the water.
We would definitely go back as it is so close to our house. It was a nice time although we didn’t see any showers on the boardwalk. There must be some there and probably just missed where they were. We spent about an hour and a half there and stopped by Golden Krust to pick up some patties for lunch. We left at the right time as a thunderstorm came just as we were getting home. It only lasted about 20 minutes tho.
Walking to the water
In the water
Running from the water
Sienna babbling away while building sand castles
No Sienna, we don’t put the shovel in our mouths! sigh…
Side by side play
Squashing one of daddy’s castles
Singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Trying to do a headstand in the sand!
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Twinkle Star at the Beach from Lisa on Vimeo.
Nico had a birthday party to celebrate his 3rd year here on the 20th of June. It was to be in Owl’s Head park but the weather wasn’t cooperating. Geneva was kind enough to offer her house as an alternative. The kids played pin the tail on the donkey but I think they mostly enjoyed getting tattoos! Starr made birthday cupcakes and pizza was ordered. It was a nice day despite the rain.
Sienna and Phoenix playing ball and not minding the rain.
Phoenix showing off her tats
Sienna getting her 2nd tattoo by Diana, the ‘tattoo artist’
Sienna and Phoenix going to show off their tattoos to the pizza delivery guy!
The rest of the birthday cupcakes
And Nico opening some presents
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The Singing Frog from Lisa on Vimeo.
I’m way behind on my posts once again. So I thought I would work on the current then go backwards. Saturday was the Toddler Take Over BBQ! I finally decided to go ahead and invite all of Sienna’s playdate friends over to our house. I always hesitate to do that since the majority of our playdates are in Bay Ridge so that means most of them would have to rely on public transportation to head over. But to my surprise, people were saying yes and before I knew it, 27 beings were coming over! (I say beings because the number includes adults, toddlers and babies). Initially I was in shock and started stressing about how we were going to fit all those people back there. And since they have never been over, I didn’t want them to have the incorrect notion that we had this big, beautiful backyard (which we so do not!) But Yves reminded me that these were nice, easy going people that go with the flow of things. Eventually I stopped stressing and got super excited about it. Eventually it ended up being less with some last minute cancellations so it worked out! The kids loved the kiddie pool and the sand/water table was a big hit as well as the sprinkler ball. All the guests loved the burgers (yay Bubba!) and hot dogs. I made homemade ice cream (vanilla with banana and strawberries), black and white cupcakes (in honor of Michael Jackson, solely coincidence!) with either chocolate frosting or butterscotch and blueberry slab pie. We have a lot of food leftover because everyone was so generous with bringing stuff! There was antipasto, guacomole and baked ziti from Geneva! Cole slaw from Starr, empanadas from Diana, fruit salad from Yan Ling, yummy veggie sticks from Michele…I hope I didn’t leave anyone out!
I shot film so I don’t have any digital shots but borrowed a couple from Yves.
Sienna with Phoenix, Nico and Ethan. Dakota, Sophie and babies Casey and Sylvie not shown.
Sienna enjoying her cupcake! There’s the blueberry slab pie!
Eating!
And here are some baking shots:
The Blueberry Slab Pie is from Martha Stewart’s baking handbook. I made the dough too! I had to do it in 2 batches because my food processor isn’t big enough to hold all the flour. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out but people enjoyed it. I think the biggest hit was the ice cream. I don’t have a shot of that!
 
I can’t believe I forgot to post about seeing Doves at Terminal 5 on the 4th with Joy and Pete! My photos came out on the darker side and at the time was lazy to fix them, which is probably why I forgot about it. The show was good. They have a new album out, that none of us have, so the majority of the show were new songs we weren’t familiar with. Of course the band and the crowd really picked up at the encore when they played a bunch of familiar songs. We got there around 9:15 and they were already playing. I’m pretty sure they just started. We walked out of there at about 10:45.
Prior to the show, we met up for dinner at a Mexican place called Tulcingo del Valle. It’s a small little place but their menu was pretty large. I got overwhelmed and ended up ordering mixed fajitas to get a little bit of everything. It was just ok. Paled in comparison to Joy’s and Pete’s dishes! Joy got tripe soup and chicken molé and Pete got fried pork skin in a green sauce. We also got an order of Texan style nachos that included delicious pickled carrots that were hotter than the jalapenos! (I forgot to take a photo of that!) Would definitely go back there and this time not order the fajitas! And you know it’s authentic when there is no sign of sour cream! 
After swim class on Saturday, we had our first BBQ of the 2009 season! Start time was 2pm and we had put Sienna down early for a nap. It worked out well as she willingly went to sleep after lunch (also earlier) and swim class helped with that. She slept for 3 hours although I basically woke her up so who knows how long she would have really slept.
It was super fun! Peter made his delicious deviled eggs, Nate and Mari made fruit kabobs and Joy brought over her Wii with Guitar band setup (drums, guitars and microphone!) Yves came up with the brilliant idea of putting one of the extra tvs in the garage and setting up the Wii there. We kept the food simple with Bubba frozen burgers (quite good for frozen!) and hot dogs. I made my Potato Apple salad and a new recipe, a lighter version of Cold Sesame Noodles from Martha’s website. For dessert I made homemade oreo cookies, banana choco chip muffins and at the last minute decided to try vegan vanilla cupcakes with butterscotch frosting. Everything was well received! Yves has a funny video of us during rock band. Apparently, you could hear the singing a bit from the front of the house. I might be getting some funny looks from the neighbors!
There really is no reason I posted this shot, it’s just that Sienna looks like such a grown up here!
Sienna really took to the drums!
Skippy was eyeing the hot dog on the table!
Did I mention that Sienna really took to the drums?
Yves’ drum solo
Grilling is hard work!
Joy cutting up a burger for Sienna. Awww, she would make a good surrogate mom! HA!
Pete and his cuddle buddy!
Sienna tries a vegan cupcake
Nate, Sienna and Skippy looking for ants
Homemade Oreos recipe here. They weren’t bad. Don’t know if I would make it again
Vegan Vanilla cupcake recipe here. I came across the recipe by accident and was curious about it since it got good reviews (if you know me or read my blog regularly, you know I am not vegan). It was quite yummy and you wouldn’t have known it was vegan. I decided to do a butterscotch frosting.
My crack muffins as Pete refers to them and the vegan cupcakes pre frosting.
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