Another busy after-school run to the playground. Today, Mika teamed up with her friends Amelia and Leyla to form an all-pink, slide-hogging mini gang. Together, they made even big boys wait their turn.

Friends don’t let friends fall asleep on a play date. After their very busy morning and lunch time, Bruno kindly made sure that Tobin wouldn’t fall asleep leaning on the couch. Tobin assured him that he was ‘just resting his eyes’ … and off they went for another round.

I went to the park today and found a troop of monkeys on the bench. (How do i know that it’s called a troop of monkeys, you may ask? Check out this list … stuff they don’t teach you at school!)

The weather has been a rollercoaster ride to say the least: 11°F (-12°C) just earlier this week, and today a high of 70°F (21°C). What better place to celebrate the sudden warmth than Coney Island Beach? The kids played in the sand for hours. Towards the end of the day, a cool breeze from the water reminded us that we’re not over ‘Winter’ season yet. Still, the line at Nathan’s looked like it’s Spring already…

After partying all morning with Bruno, Tobin started to dismantle Sabine’s animal mobile. Good friend that he is, Bruno helped to hide the evidence by eating any critters that had fallen on the couch. Once the job was done, the boys went on to their angelic power nap.

With spring temperatures in this weekend’s forecast, today and tomorrow might be the last days of the season to enjoy NYC snow. We spontaneously decided to teach our kids … how to skip school: Mika and Gaang had Prospect Park in all it’s winter glory at their disposal, and they had a blast! So much, that they wanted to bring big clumps of snow home at the end of the day. Still, Tobin much preferred the snack parts of our little outing…

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It took Sabine’s observation to make me look at Tobin’s lashes again. When did they grow this long?

Just in time for this snowstorm – and Mika’s first ever ‘snow day’ off of school – we bought a sled. The weather wasn’t nice enough to take it to the park yet, but we took a spin around the block and to the grocery store. Mika got a kick out of catching snow flakes on her tongue, but Tobin’s excitement wore off quickly. On the way back home, Hodge had already cleared the curb…

Update: we got lured out into the cold once more in the afternoon. This time, we teamed up with Tyler and his dad at the local playground.

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Jonah turned the big 3 today and invited all of his friends and neighbors to celebrate … with Audra Rox! Mika and Tobin were thrilled, especially since they had missed their regular music class yesterday. The turnout was impressive, as you can see. 7 kids from our building alone!

Like every year in the past, we brought the kids along to our annual meeting with Jackie. They set up camp with their toys next to her desk, but weren’t ready to file taxes for 2008 just yet…

‘Bruno the Brave’ made it over to our house just 24 hours after having his first major run-in with an evil dresser. As you can see, Tobin tried to introduce him to the concept of casually hanging out on soft, padded booster seats. Once their snack was finished, he started running off once again … but no baby was hurt today. We appreciated the great company, as well as the never-ending bag of treats he and his mom brought over. Thank you for an exceptionally tasty extended birthday celebration!

“Don’t open the box, Mami! You can never, ever, e-v-e-r open the box!”

Those were the instructions i got along with this beautiful, but rather unusual birthday gift from Mika. And so the box sits, still unopened, in our living room. In case you were wondering: it’s not empty. There is something moving inside when i shake it. Hmmmm.