Sung took the kids to one of the quintessential NY Thanksgiving activities – not Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, but to watch the inflation of the parade’s balloons the evening before. The spectator scene was a lot more crowded than they had anticipated, and the access a lot more restricted. Mika wasn’t in the best of moods, as you can see in the above composite, but her spirit brightened when she saw Hello Kitty up close. All in all, this might be a better experience when the kids are a bit older (or better rested … or with both parents in attendance).
BREAKING NEWS: just in time for her 6th birthday, Mika has lost the first baby tooth! Being one of the youngest kids in her grade, she is quite relieved to have joined the gap-toothed crowd in a timely manner.
This is our second time participating in the annual St. Martin’s Day Celebration in Prospect Park. The weather was decidedly better than last year, and the kids had a great time. We bumped into a bunch of friends (Lily pictured here), sang the songs generations of German kids grew up with, walked a bit through Prospect Park, and watched the re-enactment of St. Martin’s legendary good deed (he cut his coat in half, and gave one piece to a beggar to save his life during a snow storm).
Mika and Gaang have a history of Fall/Winter beach play dates at Coney Island. The first time, two years ago, Tobin was on the brink of walking and Sahn wasn’t even born. Look at them now: at times, all four kids played together nicely (although Sahn wasn’t allowed near the water on his own). Tobin had brought along his brand new backhoe loader from Omi Hilde, which proved to be the most popular vehicle … especially with Sahn. Good thing Tobin shares even his most prized possessions, so the afternoon turned out to be sunny all around.
UPDATE: here’s the collaborative picture Mika and Gaang created back home in the afternoon – featuring real (and imaginative) sea creatures of the NY Aquarium and the Atlantic Ocean:
At Tobin’s first parent teacher conference, we got a detailed progress report and received a folder with samples of his artwork to date. I was surprised to see a self portrait featuring body, pupils, and feet – details he hasn’t used on his potato heads at home. It must have been the exercise where the class had mirrors on the table while drawing their (more detailed) self portrait. The teachers said he did it by himself. Mika liked the drawing a lot and commented on his silly smile, which Tobin kindly repeated for my camera. In other news, his signature is still standing strong, but currently it’s always upside down and/or mirrored.
We havebeen to Storm King Art Center many times now, but have never seen it in all it’s glorious Fall colors until this past Sunday. We spontaneously gathered Gaang’s family and Team Neubert for the most breathtaking visit we’ve had so far. Although we missed the height of the Fall foliage by about a week, the colors were still stunning and complemented the artwork in a whole new way. Beyond that, each area had it’s own, distinct, leafy pattern on the ground: vibrant, muted, glossy, matte, soft, brittle … and all so very different from the leaves we see flying through our neighborhood streets. The kids (3 big, 3 small … 3 boys, 3 girls) entertained each other and walked with us for hours. The weather was fantastic, albeit a bit nippy towards the end of the day.
On our way back home, we visited Arturo and Doris and got treated to hot apple cider, snacks, and their very own piece of art: a gigantic leaf labyrinth for the kids to run in (see last picture). Thank you so much for opening your doors to a horde of hungry kids and adults … we had a great time, as always!
UPDATE: check out Arturo’s time lapse video of our kids running through the maze…
One of the many activities i love at Tobin’s school are their imaginary trips to countries around the world. Often fueled by grandparents visiting from overseas, the kids each get their own passport issued and pretend to board an airplane or boat to get to their destination. They experience some of the local culture – music, language, history, and actual food specialties – before they return “back home”.
Tobin took his first trip yesterday – to Lebanon. When Mika and i went to pickup, Ms. Ela had a special surprise: she found Mika’s old passport from 3 years ago (!), with all the visa stickers that she accumulated from her trips to Germany, Sweden, New Zealand, Japan, Austria, and France. Her picture is the very first portrait her teachers took when she started school … probably on the first or second day, thus the skeptical expression.
This year, we stuck with our tried and true Halloween routine: we met up with our neighborhood friends at Cobble Hill Park for the kiddie parade and took a good look at the fantastic costumes that our Halloween-crazy neighborhood produces (how cool are those jellyfish costumes made from clear umbrellas and bubble wrap?). After the parade, the crowd slowly moved to Garden Place, the most perfect – and crowded – street for trick or treating. The kids were psyched, and Mika collected more candy than ever. By the end of our tour, Tobin had fallen asleep and Mika held on by sheer willpower (and sugar?) – she had a sleepover last night and started the day with a substantial sleep deficit…
Both kids ate a lot of candy, but happily surrendered the rest to the Switch Witch, who will visit tonight and switch each kid’s candy for a little toy. The tricks you learn from other parents…
Luna celebrated in her own, haunted house and gave everybody a chance to try out their Halloween costumes before tomorrow’s official trick-or-treating. The frightening bunch of kids did arts and crafts, romped around the garden, ate spider cupcakes, and saw a spooky movie. Oh, and they played the very German “Topfschlagen“ game…
Friends and family came from near and far to celebrate with us. At 3 years of age, Tobin and his friends have moved on from toddler to children – there was even a brand new generation of babies to illustrate the point. Our “big kids” partied like crazy, but somehow the grownups managed to relax nonetheless.
After last year’s birthday cakes, Mika and Tobin are under the impression i can bake anything they dream up. This year, Tobin wouldn’t let go of his wish to have a digger cake – with every part of it edible. Way to get myself into trouble!
I researched online and found a few pointers (mini donuts as wheels!), but my original plan to do a simple gingerbread-house-type construction out of Graham crackers failed miserably. The only parts that didn’t crumble were the shovel and the cabin, so i had to construct the vehicle’s body out of a pound cake and yellow fondant after all. “Crashing” the digger into the main (dirt & grass) cake: priceless.
(I don’t understand how people can make a living off of theme cakes though … this is way too tedious an activity to pursue more than once – or twice – a year!)
How could this happen so fast? Tobin turned three years old and officially graduated to “big boy”. He goes to preschool, doesn’t nap anymore*, rides his scooter everywhere, and speaks two languages. The only thing he carried over from the time he could barely sit, is his love for cars … and especially diggers. Naturally, this birthday was under the influence of heavy construction: Omi Hilde gave him the toy version of his beloved backhoe loader, Halmoni and Harabogi sent a play carpet with streets, and Omi and Opa supplied authentic foreman gear from Germany. In the afternoon, we had a lovely birthday celebration at his school (with edible rocks on top of the mini cupcakes), but once the day came to an end he was lost in play again … dressed to the nines and surrounded by his fleet of new and old vehicles. Happy Birthday, little big boy!
