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We went to the Big E a couple of weekends ago. We took Sienna out of school on Friday and had big plans on meeting up with “Uncle Peeder” and Mike. Both parties even reserved a hotel room for the night! Well, Mother Nature had other plans for us. I forgot the name of the hurricane but they were predicting heavy rains, flooding and wind. It didn’t turn out as bad as they said but we opted not to do the fair on Friday but went Saturday instead. Saturday was a perfect sunny day. Unfortunately, because Mike had work Saturday night, they could not do the same. It was a bummer not being able to spend the day at the fair with them. I hope it will work out for next year.

Driving up to the fair on Friday morning took FOREVER! What would normally take about 3 hours, took 6! Lots of traffic and congestion (and not at the spots we thought there would be-smooth sailing on the Whitestone Bridge!) We weren’t in a rush but it was bizarre how we were stuck in traffic not very far from our house and it was so long that Sienna had to pee. We had no choice but to put a pull up on her and at first we had to coerce her to pee in the pull up! We felt so bad that we were reprogramming her. We stopped for lunch at a place called Sherwood Diner. Not bad, your standard diner fare. We got to City Place Inn at around 3:30, went into the pool for a bit, showered and headed to the mall in search of dinner. We ended up eating at Friendly’s. We got back to the hotel and was surprised to see Pete and Mike sitting outside! We finally get to meet Mike! Of course Sienna was delighted to see Uncle Peeder!

Anyway, the next morning we had breakfast at the hotel. We didn’t want anything fancy so we can save room for fair food. Honestly, there really isn’t that much to say about the fair. We got there early (9:30) and breezed right in. Got the yummy mini donuts, saw some animals, Sienna rode some rides, Sienna started getting cranky, we started getting cranky, we ate some lunch and pretty much left. That was in 3 hours. I know we weren’t going to spend all day at the fair because we had to drive home but I was hoping to squeeze at least another hour out of Sienna. Oh well. Sienna was pretty tired because I don’t think she slept very well in the hotel. She ended up climbing into our king size bed in the middle of the night and spent it mostly keeping Yves up while I snored away on my end of the bed.

Needless to say, Sienna enjoyed the mini donuts as much as Yves!

Her first ride. I don’t know if you could tell but she wanted to get off by the 3rd go around.

No drama on this ride

She seemed to enjoy the ferris wheel although she said she was scared even though we were all sitting together.

I know she doesn’t look it here but I think she liked riding the pony. She wanted to ride the elephant afterwards but it was vetoed (only because we told her to pick either the pony or the elephant to ride and not both!)

This pumpkin was over 1,000 lbs!

I had some fun fiddling with some photos and applying some retro actions and putting them in retro frames.

I also did some fake lomos.

I’ll post some holga shots soon.

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Our CSA is over in November and I haven’t really written about it. It started in June and I was a little overwhelmed in the beginning. I got better at it but there were still a few things that ended up in the garbage because I waited too long to use it or didn’t know what to do with it. Some pluses are that we discovered a like for swiss chard, mustard greens and leafy greens of that nature (and that they taste extra delicious when you saute them with turkey bacon!) Also Yves also discovered that he likes pesto!

We also got a fruit share and got some really yummy peaches, apples and pears. There was some fruit that was a letdown such as the watermelon. It wasn’t very sweet and it had seeds (I got spoiled eating the seedless!) But that’s from a different farm.

Anyhow, we were invited to visit the farm at the end of September. It took a little over 2 hours to get there, it was up by Warwick, NY. We got brunch with fresh squeezed orange juice (totally wasted on Sienna because she doesn’t like the pulp.) The french toast was a little disappointing as the crust of the bread was really hard. The omelet was better but I could have eaten 3 of them and the potatoes were cold. 🙁 The “tour” consisted of a girl telling us the history of the farm and allowing us to pick some stuff. Sienna and I picked a couple of edible flowers and I tried to find some basil but the season was pretty much over for that.

We were disappointed with the trip but at the same time, it was interesting to see the farm where our vegetables come from.


Cool city girl waiting for her country breakfast

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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.

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!)

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!

We woke her up after intermission when the lions came out. Honestly, it was kind of a snore.

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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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).

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.

Yes, you need 3 images of the strawberry cheesecake! 🙂

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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!

Sharing her binoculars with Nico and I think Sylvie was sharing a snack with her.
Climbing

Smelling a sunflower from the CSA pickup

Nico impressing the ladies by saying he was going to make farty sounds with the balloon.

Emma and Sienna, yep, in the middle of a giant puddle

Yeah, in case you didn’t believe me!

Soaking wet

As soon as Leah saw me with my camera, she came over toward me and said CHEESE!

We finally met Lenny! Our friend Aaron’s baby. He’s a cutie!

Sienna gives Aaron a handshake

Playing “frisbee” with Yves at Sunset Park

Ella and Sienna marking up a tree (not really!)

Sienna agreed to lend her dress to Erin.

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Or are you just happy to see me?

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 chalk  in the driveway and Skippy sat right on a drawing, hence the pink butt! Too funny!

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:

Yayayayayayayayaya from Lisa on Vimeo.

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.

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.

Pete did well to wear Sienna out because she really did fall asleep on him! (Pete was pretending for the photo’s sake)

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!

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Went to the aquarium a couple of weeks ago with Heather and her daughters Caitlyn and Hailey and Shirley with her son Daniel. It was a pretty warm day. After the aquarium, Shirley and Daniel went with us to Nathan’s and then me and Sienna went to the little amusement park next to Luna park (I think it’s Deno’s Park?).

There are a lot of photos of Sienna and Caitlyn, can’t help it, they look so cute together!

Holding hands

Stingray

Shark!

So many fishes!

Look at that fish!

Surprisingly Sienna wasn’t that into the penguins!

I caught Heather’s flash on this (purposely) so that’s why it looks a little funky
The girls posing and being silly in front of the fish

I love that I caught the light rays in this shot

I wasn’t lying! Shirley and Daniel were there too!

He’ll be a ladykiller when he’s older!

Here’s a video if Sienna dancing at Nathan’s after lunch. I swear, I don’t know where she learned these moves from!

Nathan’s Dance from Lisa on Vimeo.

I told Sienna she could pick 2 rides and the first one she picked was the roller coaster! She is my daughter after all! The first 2 go arounds she was having a blast laughing and screaming. By the 3rd and last go around, she was ready to get off. I could tell she was saying stop around the 3rd turn. Good thing it only went around 3 times or it would have surely ended with Sienna crying.

She’s ready!

I know it’s blurry, I was just snapping away!

Almost over!

I was surprised she picked the merry go around for the 2nd ride but I suppose after the craziness of the roller coaster, she wanted something more calm? (Of course after the merry go around, she wanted to go on the tilt a whirl!)

And I couldn’t resist taking yet another photo of the wonder wheel. I applied a lomo effect on it. I promised Sienna we would come back another time to ride it.

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We joined the Wildlife Conservation Society and went to the Bronx Zoo a couple of weeks ago. We didn’t even do the whole zoo and we were completely exhausted at the end of the day! Sienna fell asleep on the way home for just 40 minutes and her energy level went back up when we got home (ah, to be young!) We haven’t been to the zoo in about 6 years and I was a tad disappointed because I feel like we didn’t get as close a view as last time (see here and here) or maybe because I haven’t been taking photos as much I lost my touch!

I think these are gazelles but I can’t be sure!

“Melvin” (we were on the lookout for the Madagascar Movie animals)

I love the look she has here at the turtles

“King Julien”,”Maurice” and “Mort”

Climbing up the rope web

I think Sienna’s favorite part was the petting zoo!

She was having a conversation with the alpaca!

This chicken in the tree cracked me up!

Sienna big ears

When I tried to show Sienna this cool porcupine, she replied “We don’t have time to look at that”

I love the contrast of the bird with it’s neutral surroundings!

We saw these elephants on the Asia Monorail ride, something we saved for last because I thought it would be nice and relaxing while seeing a bunch of animals. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see much. 🙁

I saved the bug carousel photo for last because I’ve been playing around with some vintage photo filters and picture frames.

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Earlier this month, we went over to Erin and Mikaela’s for a dress up playdate. It was a real muggy day but I don’t even think the girls minded at all. Mikaela has lots of different outfits and jewelry to dress up with. It was really fun for Sienna especially since we don’t do dress up at home. I don’t think Sienna even noticed that we were at Geneva and Phoenix’s old apartment.

It really amazed me how much older Sienna looked while playing dress up! They also rented a real hokey and fun disco party dance video from the library. The girls enjoyed dancing to it while me and Erin cracked up (not sure how old it was but a very young looking Jamie Lee Curtis made a guest appearance).

Sienna really liked the first princess outfit. Mikaela dressed as Dorothy.

Erin made yummy cucumber sandwiches and antipasto for lunch!

Time for another outfit change for the dance party!

Waiting for dance instructions

Sienna liked this hat!

Mikaela gets in on the hat wearing!

And sharing necklaces too!

Water Bottle singing (it was actually an exercise video so MK was copying the moves!)

All tired from dancing, a super quick game of Candyland because Sienna was getting tired.

Mikaela was sad because it was time to end the playdate.

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