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On Saturday Sienna had her first swim class (we missed the first one last week) and she loved it! She was a little apprehensive at first but then really got into and probably could have stayed longer than the half hour class. I took like 8 videos on my camera and filled up my memory card! I haven’t done that in awhile. I thought the class was just going to be them hanging around in the pool but they are actually teaching things like kicking and putting your face in the water. I need a class like that! The teacher was really good and really enjoyed being with the children. I wonder if she teaches adults? HA!

First getting in

Not exactly sure…

Really into it!

Please leave a comment or e-mail me for the password!

First Swim Class! from Lisa on Vimeo.

Yves was exhausted after the class and we put Sienna an hour early for nap (also because we were having the first BBQ of the season later that afternoon). She slept for 3 hours and I basically ended up waking her up so who knows how long she would have slept.

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Sunday we had a playdate with Raya, the 3.5 year old daughter to my old friend Tami. Tami and I were best friends in elementary school. We hooked up again around 2001 because she knows Tommy from college, what a small world. We lost touch after that and then hooked up again because of Facebook. We met at the playground by the Brooklyn Bridge. I love that playground mostly because I love the view of the Brooklyn Bridge, it’s my favorite bridge. Afterwards, we had lunch at Bubby’s.

I love that smile on her face in this shot!

Tami and Raya

Robert and Raya (and my shadow)

Raya kisses Sienna

Going down the slide

Sienna eating a biscuit at Bubby’s. She got a scrape on the side of her face from a fall.

Yves cutting up Sienna’s french toast

Even though Yves cut up little pieces, Sienna grabs the big piece he didn’t cut up!

My smoked chicken salad sandwich

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Saturday was supposed to be Yves and Sienna’s first swimming class but the half marathon that closed off Ocean Parkway really backed up the service roads. Once we resigned to the fact that we were just going to miss it (the class is only half an hour), we went to the playground in Marine Park instead! We were probably more disappointed than Sienna! The park was fun and we ran into Tommy and Maureen at their softball game!

Please leave a comment or e-mail me for the password!

The Marine Park dirt run from Lisa on Vimeo.

Having a snack on the bench

We had lunch at the Golden Krust by us and this was afterwards

This was from a little walk around the hood during Memorial Day weekend

A nose kiss!

In the backyard enjoying some sun.

Bubbles!

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On Monday for Memorial Day, we got invited to a family BBQ by my lovely friend Geneva. We had a wonderful and great time and it was nice to spend the time with other parents of little ones. Besides Phoenix, Sienna had Nico, Sylvie, Nico O and Ethan to play with as well! Fun times! The food was great, the company even better! I made Devil’s Food Cupcakes with this chocolate frosting. I had a bit of a mishap (I overfilled the cupcake and they baked up huge and ran into each other over the rim and got stuck) but luckily this recipe made 24 (although I think I got more like 36!) And I also baked some of Yves’ favorite cookies to bring over and some pasta salad. Even getting bit by mosquitos didn’t squash my fun! 😉
Sienna with a chip

Yan Ling holding Sylvie wearing an old outfit of Sienna’s, which I think was a hand me down as well!

Sienna with Phoenix and Nico at the kids table!

Watermelon!

Starr made this awesome cole slaw and told me to put it on a hot dog for a slaw dog, a Southern thing.

The kids playing!

And here is my baking mishap!

They may not look so bad here….

The outer edges of the cupcake that were touching the pan were stuck and I thought I was being clever by just flipping it over. HA!

The tops just kinda crumbled and fell apart!

I baked another batch with the silicone cups and normally I don’t have any trouble getting them out but for some reason, they were sticking inside the silicone cups! But thankfully there was enough batter to make another dozen in some Elmo cupcake paper.

I put the ones from the silicone cups upside down to prevent it from sticking to the rack. Do you notice the kinda glaze that’s on the bottom of them?

And here are the ones I brought over. I had fun frosting them (I did the ziploc bag thing)!

They were a big hit at the BBQ as well as the cookies. I think my pasta salad probably didn’t matter! HA!

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So now that we are equipped with a nice, new, spacious car, Yves was anxious to go on a little road trip. We took this opportunity to finally go up to visit Tammy and see her new house in Cold Spring, NY! The country! It was only an hour and 45 minute drive so it wasn’t really bad. It’s not a straight shot up and exits came by pretty quickly and we actually missed one! Yves was driving and I was the navigator but Yves took that time to tell me the merits of all the gauges on the new car so I wasn’t paying attention and we missed the exit! We are such city people, we were freaking out a bit because we didn’t know what to do and we didn’t know where we were and the road map I have is from 1995. HA! I had the google map directions but it doesn’t help you when you miss an exit! Of course, normally we would just get off the next exit and turn back around and exit from the other side. Ok, did that except there was no exit on the other side! HA! So we ended up having to go back down and around to the road we were originally on and made the exit. It’s just a little more nerve racking when you have a toddler with you. Normally, if it was just us, it would be mildly annoying and we would easily figure it out!

Ok so I can officially say it is indeed the boondocks! Once you turn onto her road, it’s still a ways down the windy road. I can’t even imagine how spooky it would be at night time! We finally made it at about 10:30 and I was a little chilly! I had to borrow a fleece from Tammy. It did get warmer out later when the sun came out (mind you the sun was out in Brooklyn when we left!). Anyway, her house is so very cool and definitely unconventional! Sienna loved running around and going up and down the windy stairs (there were a couple of sets of windy stairs!). There were a couple of kitchens and a couple of bathrooms, so super funky! After a little tour and chat, Tammy fired up the grill and we got our burgers on. Had a nice lunch and after some playing, Sienna said “Nenna go home.” Perhaps she is not ready to be a country bumpkin! HA!

Why is this chick playing in my sandbox?

Check out Zack standing!

The backyard!

First her, now this big dude, I’m outta here!

The look

Sienna is ready to dig in!

One of the windy set of stairs Sienna liked. That’s kitchen #1 Tammy is in.

Awwww! That’s kitchen #2 on the left side in the back there!

Now she’s playing with my inside toys??

Ready to get back to city life!

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Once again I am behind in my posts so I will try to catch up in the next couple of days. A lot has happened last week! On Tuesday I met up with Pete for lunch at our favorite Shopsin’s. It’s been awhile since we have gone! We have to get back on going regularly again. We opted to get some sandwiches and share them. We decided on the Rooster, chicken salad with avocado on cheesy garlic bread. YUM. Then also we got High School, turkey and sausage with mushroom gravy. YUM.

The rooster came first and I was pleasantly surprised that the chicken salad was warm! OH MY GOSH! Heaven! I would never have thought something as simple as warm chicken salad would make such a big difference. Then the High School came out. It was in a bowl!! It had bread in there but I guess they put it in a bowl because of the gravy. Thick and gooey gravy. Delicious!!

Pete was on his lunch hour so we started heading back. I got home to find that Sienna has a fever (she had felt a tad warm when I left but I was hoping it would subside). More on that in the next post.

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The cupcake craze is really in full swing now and Sienna is all into cupcakes too! It must have started when I gave her a cupcake at the Easter Egg Hunt! There are these 2 stuffed cupcakes that came with the kitchen set the 1st floor tenants gave to her and she loves those things! Well, if you know me, you know I love me some cupcakes so she must have inherited from me! On Monday afternoon, I finally made the chocolate cupcakes with banana cream cheese frosting that I had on my list to bake. I didn’t plan this very well because Monday night I attended Cupcake Night at Etsy labs. I’ve been meaning to go to a couple of their recent craft nights but it turned out those nights were rainy and I got lazy. But I was intent on going to cupcake night! Free cupcakes and cupcake crafts! And then after cupcake night, Brenda met me so I could give her her camera back (I was testing it out for her) and she gave me the leftover mini cupcakes that her friend (who is a pastry chef and used to work at Union Cafe!) baked. Oh man. I thought I would never say this but…cupcake overload!! Good thing I signed up for that aerobics class at the Community College!

Filled and ready for the oven!

Frosted (I opted not to add the yellow food coloring) I really need to take more care in photographing food! I looked so much better than this!

I thought these cupcakes were good but they taste best the same day they are baked. I noticed the bottom of the cupcakes got dry as each day passed. Also, the recipe says it should make 12-15 cupcakes, I got 21! (I gave some to Jana and some to Peter!)

My cheesey attempt at coloring. Good thing I can bake the real thing better than I can color the fake thing! HA!

I was delighted to find that they had cupcakes from Ivy bakery in Bay Ridge. A place I attempted to go to twice but were closed both times! They were good! (Now I’m dying to try Robicelli’s cupcakes!)

Cupcakes from One Girl Cookies. I was intrigued with the blue icing. I’m such a sucker. The icing tasted a bit too sugary. I prefer the more creamy type. They had other cupcakes from other places but these were the two I tried.

These were the cupcake crafts I did, they are tags, or going to be tags.

I also got to meet Rachel, the founder of swap-bot and a new transplant to Brooklyn! Such a sweet person!

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Sunday I went to see Dark Was The Night at Radio City with Joy. She first lured me to go by saying that Ben Harper was supposed to play it. He didn’t – DOY! (I think he was at the Pete Seeger celebration at the Garden) but it was a great show anyway! It started around 8:15, had a 20 minute intermission and ended about 11:115ish. We had pretty good seats, first mezz in row C. Alison was there with Josh in the orchestra. ;-p~

Dark Was The Night is a compilation that benefits the Red Hot Charity Organization and all the benefits go to prevent Aids and for Aids research (I believe). You might  remember past compilations such as Red, Hot and Blue or Red, Hot and Rio.

Stand outs for me were David Byrne (I was surprised at how good his voice sounded as I’ve only seen him live with Talking Heads), My Brightest Diamond, Feist, Bon Iver, and Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. Honestly, I really enjoyed everyone!Here is the setlist taken from brooklynvegan.

Dark Was The Night @ Radio City Music Hall 5/3/09 – Setlist (started by Happy Genius Heroes)
1. Dirty Projectors – “useful chamber” and ‘stillness”
2. Dirty Projectors – “Stillness Is the Move”
3. Dirty Projectors – “Ambulance Man” w/ David Byrne
4. Dirty Projectors – “Knotty Pine” w/ David Byrne
5. My Brightest Diamond – “Feeling Good”
6. The National – “Slow Show”
7. The National – “England”
8. The National – “So Far Around The Bend”
9. The National – “Vanderlylle Cry Baby” w/ My Brightest Diamond
10. Dave Sitek – “With A Girl Like You”
11. David Byrne – “Don’t Fence Me In”
12. David Byrne – “Dreamworld: Marco de Canavezes” w/ Justin Vernon
13. David Byrne – “Waters Of March” w/ Leslie Feist
14. Bon Iver – “Brackett, WI”
15. Bon Iver – “Blood Bank”
16. Bon Iver – “Big Red Machine” w/ Matt Berninger
17. Bon Iver – “Flume” w/ My Brightest Diamond
18. Feist – “The Wagoner’s Lad”
19. Feist – “Look At What the Light Did Now”
20. Feist – “Train Song” w/ Justin Vernon
21. Feist – “Someday Baby”
22. Sharon Jones – “Not Gonna Cry”
23. Sharon Jones – “When I Come Home”
24. Sharon Jones – “Inspiration Information”
25. Sharon Jones – “100 Days, 100 Nights”
Encore
All – “This Land Is Our Land”
(they were playing the song rather mellow and then Sharon Jones came out to show them how to really sing it!)

David Byrne with the Dirty Projectors

My Brightest Diamond

The National and My Brightest Diamond

Feist

David Sitek of TV on the Radio

I loved these drummers that came out with David Byrne and I loved that he played 2 songs from past compilations that were never heard live!

Bon Iver and My Brightest Diamond

Sharon Jones

The Finale

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As I mentioned in the previous post, I met up with Tammy late Saturday afternoon to go see Cirque du Soleil Kooza.  Tammy bought the tickets back in October and this was to celebrate our birthdays (2 days apart), Christmas and just for being great moms. Knowing we would be early birds, we went for the 4 pm show.  I’ve never been to a cirque show and didn’t really know what to expect! It was quite fascinating! Lots of acrobatics and clown acts. It really was quite entertaining although I did get chills during what we ended up calling the ‘spineless act.’ Two young ladies who could bend in ways you never thought a person could bend. My favorites were the wheel of death and teeterboard (see the description under Acts in the above link). Photography wasn’t allowed inside but I did take a shot to show how close we were to the stage. The whole arena was pretty small, I thought it was going to be huge buidling. I’ve never been to Randall’s Island so I hadn’t a clue! We took the water taxi up and it was a pleasant ride! Afterwards, we had dinner at Jackson Hole and got stuffed!
The ride up:

Roosevelt Island to the right

The tent

The stage

And the ride back!

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This weekend the weather was like summer! Dare I say I thought it was too hot! Especially Sunday! Saturday we decided to head over to Marine Park with Sienna and her bicycle. We also brought Skippy along. Well, I wasn’t surprised that the ‘bike riding’ didn’t last long. Yves just pushed Sienna as we were trying to get Sienna to understand the pedaling part. It will take some time. It might have lasted 10 minutes, if that! We stopped for a snack and then Yves took Sienna into the playground and I lugged the bike and Skippy back home. Skippy made a few friends! Later that night, I met up with Tammy to go see Cirque du Soleil at Randall’s Island. I’ll write about that in another post!

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