Today was one of those rare moments that Sung requested my camera to take a series of shots across the table at brunch. If you like the pictures as much as i do, please give him a shout out to keep up the great work ;-)

We teamed up with the Litt-Coles for a trip to the BAMkids Film Festival. Today’s Shorts Program (for 5-8 year olds) featured the New York premiere of Lost and Found, one of our favorite books. Surprisingly, all four kids stayed glued to their seats through nine movies – even though we had arrived a full hour early to the sold-out show!

In other news: Elsie showed off her two wiggly front teeth … another reminder how fast time is flying by!

Today, NY City schools were closed for their second “snow day” of the season. 19 inches (48 cm) of snow were measured in Central Park, and Brooklyn got almost as much dumped upon. Travel with small children was impossible in the morning and Bruno couldn’t make it over for our play date. Thankfully, Henry was a good sport and joined us spontaneously for a nice, long romp in the snow downstairs.

Later in the evening, Sung took us out for my birthday dinner and we ended up playing in the snow again: Mika’s school yard was still open to the public and kids had dug a tunnel into one of the big piles that the Super left on the side lines. Finally, i could convince Tobin to wear some gloves. Mine.

It’s never too early to start cleaning bunnies for the upcoming season.

Today marked the 100th day of the school year, which coincides with the Kindergarteners having been introduced to the numbers 1-100. To honor the occasion, Grade K had a “100th Day” celebration this afternoon: all kids brought “snacks by the one hundred” to be shared, and the 6 classroom doors opened to family members and for cross-grade visits. Mika ate as much candy as she possibly could and ended the day … well … giving everybody around her the biggest headache imaginable.

Good thing we have an appointment with Anna tomorrow!

Here in Brooklyn, the snow has been cleared from all streets and sidewalks for a while. One can almost forget that it hasn’t been melting much on it’s own … at all. You can imagine the kids’ excitement when they saw the untouched, snowy slope at the ArandaLee’s house. Soon everybody was sledding, digging, and rolling in snow for hours – including the adults. After refueling with delicious hot chocolate and cake, we headed inside to play until (the kids’) bedtime. Thank you for a perfect day!

We finally made it over to our German speaking friends‘ house for a 4-kid play date. The boys were busy jumping the trampoline, playing with Matthias’ vast truck collection, and serving up a never ending stream of lunch plates. Mika couldn’t get her hands off of super cuddly, super lenient Boston Terrier “Elvis”, so the girls’ games mostly revolved around the dog – who clearly appreciated the attention.

A recent visit to the NY Transit Museum left Roman so fascinated that he came over all the way from JC again for a second take. A perfect opportunity for us to meet up, check out all the historic trains, pump gas, and explore diesel engine models together. The boys fell asleep right after their busy visit, and Mika got to enjoy a scoop with the big girls at the new Blue Marble location on Court Street.

Tobin has been convinced that only he came out of Mami’s belly, and Mika came out of Daddy’s belly – despite photographic evidence proving otherwise. This morning, Mika had yet another fruitless argument with him and left the room. A few minutes later, she presented him with the letter above: “You are wrong, Tobin. I was first out [of] Mami[s] belly.”

In honor of Sooki’s 10-year old tradition to gather her friends for Chinese New Year DIM SUM, we rallied our oldest friends for brunch at 88 Palace Restaurant under the Manhattan Bridge. Even on very short notice, we had a nice outcome – especially counting in all the new additions to our group…

The food was good, fresh, and cheap and from noon on, the dragon dancers came right into the restaurant. A bit noisy at times, but the kids were fascinated by the spectacle. Afterwards, we strolled with Jason and Team Roman through Chinatown. We didn’t get to catch one of the parachute gliders, but had ice cream at Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. Guess who fell into a coma on the ride back home?

This is the 3rd year of Mika participating in the red/pink madness that is Valentine’s Day for U.S. school children. By now i am familiar with the rules (everybody has to get one, even the class bully) and we just treat it as another art project – albeit an ambitious one: there are 22 kids in her class and she insisted on making valentines for her two teachers as well.

Happy Valentine’s Day to our friends and families from Mi, Ni, To, and Su  xoxo