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I know that Sienna’s first day of school was over a month ago and things have been going really well so didn’t want to jinx it by posting too early. She actually says she likes school!! Practically everyday that we would walk across the street to nursery school last semester, she would tell me she doesn’t like school. From practically the first day of this new school, she would wake me up in the morning by asking if we can go to school now. At 6:30 in the morning. The first few days there were issues with walking the 3 blocks home, where she wouldn’t want to walk home. Things are better now, thank goodness. Don’t know what that was all about. And while lately, she hasn’t been waking me up to go to school, she is still happy to go!

It is now part of the routine to walk over the bump everyday going to and from school. The bump is from the Hurricane Irene back in late August when a tree fell over and uprooted the sidewalk. Almost 2 months later and it still hasn’t been fixed!

She instantly became friends with a girl we had met when we were at the school to register, back in June. Her name is Emma. She is also friends with a boy named Vinny and usually the 3 of them play in the playground if it is nice after school (or even when it’s not so nice out!) and I get to hang out with the moms for some adult talk!

Playing with chalk on a sunny day

Playing Simon Says, it had just stopped raining! Do you see Vinny’s butt all wet? They had just finished running around the whole playground and Vinny was sitting on the play areas!

A self portrait!

I’m happy that she has a chance to run and play after school. It helps the time go by since she gets out of school so early. I have a bunch of craft kits in the arsenal to pull out for the winter, when it’s too cold for the playground. I hope that they will be adequate substitutes!

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On Friday, Yves and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary! 10 years ago on Friday, we went to Vegas to get married and a handful of our friends and family joined us. We had planned it earlier that year as October is my favorite month. It was nice to get so many well wishes on my Facebook page. Our friend, Rob, who went to Vegas with us, reminded us of how his room in the Tropicana hotel had mirrors on the ceiling! LOL! He also wanted to make note that he did not request the mirrors! HA! Yeah, ok! 🙂 Anyway, we celebrated on Friday by going to Morton’s Steakhouse. I knew of the place, having bought a gift card for friends Bill and Laura, who were moving from New York to Chicago a few years ago (all the cdmomers chipped in!). Our friend, Jana, highly recommended the place so we said, why not?

Here’s the photo they took of us. The service was wonderful and everyone wished us a happy anniversary. The food was so good! I am still full from the dinner on Friday! We opted for the steak and seafood special. They started us off with warm onion bread. I could have easily eaten the whole thing! But I only cut off 2 pieces! I ordered the chopped salad and Yves got the caesar. I love that salad! It was so delicious! I’m going to have to attempt to make that at home. I got the Shrimp Alexander with my filet mignon. The shrimp was jumbo, lightly breaded with a butter wine sauce. MMMM. I also ordered the brussel sprouts sauteed in bacon and shallots! Yves got the lump crab cake with his filet and the grilled asparagus with balsamic glaze. I was already half way full when our entrees came! I was only able to eat half of my warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream! It was so good but I felt like I was going to burst! Yves got carrot cake. It was very light and fresh but it had cloves in it, something that Yves doesn’t like. If it wasn’t for that, it would be the perfect carrot cake! He ended up taking home the carrot cake. It’s too bad I couldn’t take the warm chocolate cake home!

My chopped salad, you can see the onion bread in the back!

Sorry for the bad vegetable photos but I just wanted to make sure I document them. We ended up taking them home too.

Afterwards we had originally thought of going to check out a movie. Going to the movies is not something we do often since Yves has unofficially banned going to movies. He ALWAYS seems to get stuck sitting by the noise makers! But since it was a special occasion, we were thinking of giving it a go. Well, we were so stuffed from dinner that sitting down for a movie did not appeal to us. We had to walk it off! So we decided to walk down to the Brooklyn Promenade. It was very nice! We haven’t been down there in awhile. We also took a few night shots, which we used to love doing!

All in all, a very nice evening! Oh, here is the card I made for Yves too! Very simple.

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The last weekend of August, we drove up to Maine to visit our dear friends, Geneva, Layne and their girls, Phoenix and Lennox. We almost didn’t go because that was also the weekend of Hurricane Irene. I am so glad we decided to go for it. It was nice to get away from the drama of the hurricane (subway closings, flooding, etc.). We missed the major part of the hurricane and only got some heavy rain in Maine on that Sunday.

We left that Friday, early in the morning – 6am! We stopped for breakfast at Cracker Barrel in Connecticut (my secret plan as I knew there was one up there!). It was pretty smooth sailing all day. There was one point we had to pull over and Sienna used the travel potty (the first time to use it too and we bought it in May for Myrtle Beach!), she just had to go. It worked out well. A cop pulled over behind us and we got nervous but when he saw Sienna, he told us to take our time. Whew! You never know about those CT cops as I always remember it was in CT that I got my first speeding ticket ($285!!)

We stopped off for lunch when we hit Maine and I got my lobster roll!! MMMMMM. Starr had mentioned to me about all the lobster shacks there are as you head up north and I found one! We went to the lobster claw in Saco, Maine. See how big my lobster pieces were?

Posing with the fisherman

We made it to their house around 4:30 and as you can see, Sienna made herself right at home with Phoenix and her friend, Delaney!

Let me say that Maine is a pleasure and such a different place! The girls played all afternoon, going in the house, going out the house, going next door to another girl’s house, etc. Since they all knew to stay out of the street, it was safe for them to play outside and up the street without having to constantly watch them. They don’t lock their doors! Having never lived outside New York, that concept is so foreign to me! Yves even marveled at how he saw a woman pull into a Target parking lot, left all her windows open and went into Target! Wha?! Anyway, I didn’t see much of Sienna the rest of that day as she was so busy playing with Phoenix. It was so great to see! Makes me miss them that much more.

Lennox getting in on the fun!

They had a ball jumping from the giant bean bag to the bed. They were doing this for awhile! Everyday!

Saturday, we went to the American Folk Festival! Food and music!


Too loud for Sienna!

So yeah, I was too busy eating to take photos of the food! Sorry! Here’s a list: pulled pork BBQ sandwich, mini donuts, chicken on a stick, root beer float and fried dough. Sienna got cranky because she was tired and it was humid out. We went into the neighbor’s pool to cool off (how awesome is Ann, her neighbor?!) but we didn’t stay very long as the water was really super duper cold and Sienna did not want to stay in.

Later that night, Geneva’s neighbor (Delaney’s dad), Matt, BBQed some seafood. Bacon wrapped scallops and salmon pinwheels. I made guacamole with tomatillos and Geneva made cole slaw and corn on the cob. MMM!

Matt did a great job and we went over his place later that night and took a walk around the block.

Sunday was the day the rain came, heavy at times. Geneva took the girls to a bouncy house place (sorta like BounceU) so me and Yves could go out. We intended to go to Bar Harbor, a touristy area by the water that is an hour away, but it really was pouring down hard so went to The Lucerne Inn instead. Their seafood brunch was very good!! I was so into the food that I forgot to take any photos!

Later that day my dear Geneva took me to the craft store, how can I say no? We left the brood sitting on the couch playing video games.

Geneva picked up these pirate mask to color for the girls.

Later that night, we took everyone out for dinner, a small gesture to thank them for the hospitality they have shown us.

We promised the girls ice cream so went to another place to get it. They had cute retro decorations all around the place.

They had a ton of ice cream flavors too. They mix it to order and I thought that was pretty neat. Unfortunately, Yves’ butter pecan was pretty flavorless but my creme de menthe and Sienna’s chocolate was delicious! And Phoenix let me try her tutti frutti too! That was also good.

The next morning, we started heading south toward home. We were going to take 2 days to go home so we can stop at one of the beach towns along the way. More on Salisbury, MA in another post. We went to a local bagel place for breakfast. Geneva turned me onto their apple cinnamon bagel. It was very delicious!

Her face shows the attitude I’ve been getting from her lately. Hmph indeed!

I finally managed to catch a photo of Lennox laughing!

Good-bye hug.

Earlier today Sienna told me she was sad because she missed Phoenix. I told her that I missed Geneva too so she asked me if Daddy missed Phoenix’ daddy, Layne. LOL! And how can I forget a photo of their cute puppy, Elsa?

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Yves’ mom came for a visit in August and stayed with us for a week. She was actually here for 2 days in July but that was really a stopover before heading to France to meet the Chopards at Il de Seine for 3 weeks. Sienna took to her right away! That was a relief! I wasn’t sure how she would be because the last time my mother in law was here, it took a couple of days for Sienna to warm up to her. Yves and I even went out on a date! Dinner AND a movie! In the city! We don’t usually venture too far when my dad watches her but I think she is old enough to be able to handle grandpa! Anyway, I digress. We went shopping at Ikea on Long Island one day, grandma took Sienna to the playground while I got my hair done, we went to Coney Island, we went to the Bronx Zoo and did more shopping! Not necessarily in that order! Here are some highlights:

Sienna likes the pretty dress Grandma bought from Jamaica!

Grandma takes us out to lunch at Johnny Rockets at the Broadway Mall. Cute braids courtesy of Grandma!

The “face”

Coney Island!

Skeeball (at 75 cents a game! WHAT?!)

I used to love Tilt-a-Whirl when I was younger too. Now Sienna loves it. (photo by grandma)

a trip to Coney Island isn’t complete without going to Nathan’s!

Yves’ cousin, David, comes by.

With the giraffes at the Bronx Zoo. Sienna was grumpy from walking and being hot.

Another famous face!

Here’s a funny video I took of Sienna while we were shopping in Kohl’s with grandma. This was in July. (Taken with my Ipad2)

Entertaining herself at Kohl’s from Lisa on Vimeo.

I got some fun animal photos while at the zoo. I’d like to do another post on that.

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Being tourists at “the Bean”!


At the Target sponsored Family tent. There were a few giant fans in there and being the hot and humid day that it was, it was a bit of a relief (although not much!)

At the Crown Fountain. If only I wore the right shoes, I’d be in there with her!

We went to lunch at Hamburger Mary’s in Andersonville where I got a delicious chicken salad sandwich (with cranberries in it! yum!), yes, I know, I did not get a hamburger at Hamburger Mary’s! Then we stopped by this cute shopping gallery, the name I did not catch. It was 3 levels of a bunch of little stalls on each floor with handcrafted items for sale. It felt like Etsy in 3D! It was really cool and I enjoyed looking at everything. Most stalls did not have an actual person in it but there were 3 woman that worked there that could help you. I ended up getting a pair of pretty blue earrings.

Sienna and I both liked this WW mosaic.

I thought the Catwoman was really cool. Sienna didn’t like it but only because it was Catwoman.

An interesting WW hubcap art!

Theresa then wanted to check out a shoe store, a real shoe store with salesclerks that measure your feet! I ended up buying another pair of awesome Dansko sandals, Yves bought some Keen sandals and we got Sienna a size 12 sneaker (she’d been walking around in a size 10! Yikes!). Rich also bought a pair of Keen sandals and the only person to not buy a pair of shoes? Theresa! The one who wanted to go into the shoe store in the first place! Ha!

We really didn’t do much touristy stuff this trip but the main reason was really to hang out with Rich and Theresa. Plus the weather was just too energy sucking (hot and humid) to do much. I did manage to take Sienna to a playground that was 3 blocks away from the house!

On our last day, we decided to go out for breakfast and we went to Walker Bros pancake house. Huge omelets and lots of pancakes! Needless to say, we were stuffed!

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As promised, the last installment of our Myrtle Beach vacation! We ventured away from the beach one day and went to check out one of the many shopping centers/entertainment places. We picked Broadway on the Beach. We really didn’t want to do much shopping so we went to a little tiny amusement park called Pavilion Nostalgia Park. You could really feel the heat when you are away from the nice ocean breeze so it was HOT!

Sienna really liked this ride because it whipped around the bend. She went on it at least 2 times.

She claims to have enjoyed the ride although her face doesn’t really tell it.

She rode several other rides as well as this train ride but I will spare you!

Yves being silly

Feeding the fish and boy the fish were hungry! See:


Did I mention that it was hot? So someone got grumpy!

I’m sure she is smiling under there!

The sun wore us out so we ordered delivery! It wasn’t bad!

The next morning we DID NOT GO TO WAFFLE HOUSE! Gasp! HA! You can’t find banana walnut pancakes at Waffle House!

Fried Green Tomatoes at Mr. Fish. We came here twice because the food was very delicious!

Shrimp Po Boy

I guess Sienna is really hungry!

Outside our hotel, there was a cute little area with tables and swinging chairs.

We checked out a playground a few blocks away.

Checking out another area of Myrtle Beach, by a pier.

Back to Mr. Fish on our last night. Soft Shell Crab and fish and chips.

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Videos that Yves took!

Photos and another video in my previous post!

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During the middle of Sienna’s spring break, we went into the city to have lunch with Peter, or as Sienna calls him, Uncle Peeder. Sienna really enjoys riding the subway into the city although she pretty much asks if it’s time to get off at every stop (starting from the 2nd stop from our house!)

Entertaining ourselves while waiting for the train

Checking out the scenery outside

Pete and I both enjoyed the short rib pierogies at Veselka last time so we decided to go back. This time I got the meat combination because I knew I could give Sienna the kielbasa portion of my meal. Pete also gave me one of his short rib pierogi (thank you Pete!).

They gave out wikki stix, a nice change from the standard crayons.

Pete showing off the bracelet Mike made him for their 1 year anniversary! The dark beads are made of the roses Pete gave him from their monthly anniversaries! (Cute AND crafty!!)

My meat combo sans kielbasa (off to the left on Sienna’s plate)

Pete humors me by making goofy faces when I take his photo

Stuffed!

We stopped by Sundaes and Cones for ice cream afterwards.

Pete had to go back to work after that so I decided to check out the newish playground at Union Square. Of course, while we were still eating ice cream, Sienna had to go to the bathroom. We hightailed it outta there and I was hoping to be able to make it to Whole Foods to use their bathroom. I realized we probably wouldn’t make it so we stopped into the Amsterdam Billiards. I usually don’t like to do that but they were really nice and accommodating.

Notice how she is wearing a t-shirt now? I knew she was going to be hot in the long sleeved shirt even though she was so adamant on wearing it. Good thing I brought a short sleeve shirt for her to change in! But she was still hot…(it was a beautiful day!)

I told Sienna she shouldn’t be doing that out in the open! HA!

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My friend Jana has been raving about her and Allen’s favorite Chinese restaurant to me for a few months now. Yves was a little leery to accept any of Jana’s restaurant recommendations given the long list of things she won’t eat (bananas and beans being 2 of them!) We finally went with them to sample it for ourselves a couple of weeks ago. So it is now official, China Max is delicious!! Jana’s raving of their fried pork dumplings is justified! Their favorite waiter, Jimmy (whose name they didn’t know until I asked that night!) is very attentive. When he realized that Sienna also liked the maraschino cherries (as does Emma and Leah), he brought out her own little dish of them!

So we ordered the fried pork dumplings (very plump, not greasy and delicious!), sesame beef (the beef tasted like good quality beef, big, thick pieces!), happy family (chicken, beef, shrimp and scallops in a brown sauce) and fried rice. The portions were pretty big. They also have a sushi bar, which Allen always orders from. He offered me 2 pieces and I have to say, the sushi tasted very fresh! Melt in your mouth fresh! Jana says they always order the same things so don’t even look at the menu and don’t even have to tell their waiter because he knows! Jana always gets the combination chicken with broccoli and fried rice. Since she never eats the egg roll, Jimmy no longer brings her one and doubles up on her rice instead. I forgot what else they got but after Jana saw our sesame beef, she said she was getting that next time.

Emma and Leah share some hot and sour soup

Pork dumplings

Happy Family (they give a lot of scallops!)

Fried Rice

Jana’s chicken with broccoli

Their other dishes

Sienna really likes the beef!

My fortune?

Because of conflicting school schedules, the kids don’t see each other as often so it’s nice that they got some play time after dinner. They are playing with their “magic sticks.”

Can’t wait to go back to China Max! I wouldn’t mind some pork dumplings right now!

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Here’s the 2nd in a series of food posts. I went to dim sum with my parents and aunts in Queens on the first day of Sienna’s Spring Break. I forgot to take note of the name of the restaurant but they were having a weekday special where all the dim sum was $2. Needless to say, I stuffed myself and I actually did not eat much dinner later that day! There were the usual standard fare (none of Yves’ favorite-funkore-probably not the correct spelling!) and then a few different items. Chow fun noodles, fried chicken (never actually saw fried chicken at dim sum before), some crab meat dumpling wrapped in rice and muscles with a cheesy like topping. Everything was pretty tasty.

Chow Fun

“I’m gonna eat you don tat”

Fried Chicken

Crabmeat with rice, this was eh

Mussels with cheese like topping. The mussels were good, the topping not so much.

Sienna thanking Aunt Helen for the stuffed dog (among other toys she got from her!)

I really dug these lamps

Sienna asking who I was taking a photo of!

The next night was date night! We dropped Sienna off at grandma’s and grandpa’s and headed over to The Burger Bistro. You get to choose every aspect of your burger, from the bun and meat and cheese and toppings! I was tempted to get the lamb, as I do love lamb burgers, but since it was our first time there, thought it better to see how they make their beef burgers. We started off with one of the special appetizers, frito pie. Basically nachos with frito chips instead of nacho chips. The waiter really played up the dish but it fell short of expectations. Oh well. Thankfully the burgers made up for it! It was huge! I got beef with cheddar, portobello mushroom and bacon on a whole wheat bun with a side of frizzled onions. It was very good. My only complaint was that the bacon were crumbled into bits. I much prefer they were kept in strips. I’m not sure what Yves got and I didn’t get a good photo of his burger. Definitely beef and probably bleu cheese!

This didn’t warrant the $7 price tag and I hate when places use sliced cheese melted over nachos!

Can you tell how huge that burger was? (I did not eat breakfast the next morning!)

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