HENRY'S THIRD BIRTHDAY

Here they are, the pictures from Henry's third birthday party!  Held yesterday, Saturday December 10, at the Newtown Fire Station.  Here are a few favorites:

just call me martha

birthday boy in all his glory!

proud parents/fire fighters

woof!

Thank you to the amazing Newtown Fire Department,  to Dan the balloon man, to my dad and his guitar and to all the family and friends who traveled from near and far to help make the celebration so much fun.  Thank you also to Raph, who helped me pull it all off.  This year we kept the party relatively "low key" and invited mostly friends from henry's class.  Even with less kids than last year the party was still chaotic and fun!

And just to get fully caught up on our photos, here is a link to pictures from the Newtown Holiday Parade, which we attended last weekend.

Autumn, 2011

It's that time of year- time for me to get caught up with all our photos.  With Henry's third birthday approaching, (and the party later today), I realized that I am going to have a lot of birthday photos to share.  But before I do so, I have plenty of Halloween, etc. photos.  So, in chronological order, here are our photos since the summer:

Here is a picture with Eileen, Henry's favorite babysitter.  She gave him his fire suit which he has not stopped wearing since.  If you want to see the full series of him trying on his fire suit, here is the link.

Fire Chief Henry is born

Next is a picture from Henry's first day of school.  A link to all three pictures I took is here.

In September, we took a road trip to the Crayola Factory.  A link to those pictures is here.

Later in September, I had a big night out in New York for Beth's bachelorette party. I'm not going to post those pictures here.  If you want to see them, email me and I will send you the link. :)  (Also included are some adorable pictures of Ezra, Lisa's new addition; he did not attend the bachelorette party).

Here are some pictures from Rosh Hashana, 2011.  Mostly they are just glamor shots of Henry, for a change.  Also some artsy shots of the Lincoln Tunnel  (don't ask. we were stuck in traffic). Here is my favorite photo from the series.

eating sweet raspberries for a sweet new year

In October we took a day trip to Howell Living Farm.  Here is a link to the album.  If you look at one album of photos on my blog, this is the album to see.  The setting is beautiful, and Henry looked particularly cute. After the farm, we met my friend Deb for lunch, and our outdoor meal at The Station was fantastic.  We also bought an enormous and gorgeous mum plant at Cedar Hill Farm.   (If you are a local, I strongly urge you to check them out next year.  I have never seen such gorgeous mums, and they were ridiculously inexpensive.  It is a local business and the owner couldn't have been nicer. I wasn't even looking to buy mums, but from the road I could see how perfect their plants were and I made Raph veer over so I could buy one.  So, check them out).  Here is my favorite photo from that day:

Then at the end of October on what was hoped to be a crisp, perfect, autumn day, Beth and Lodewijk were married.  Here are the pictures from the wedding.  Here is a rhyme to summarize the day: the bride and groom were glowing, while the weather was snowing and snowing and snowing. (just call me Dr. Seuss.) Yes, Beth decided to get married on the day that the world was ending.  Here is a link to our photos from the snowstorm.  The highlights from the storm include:

• Henry staying at my dad's house with no power, sleeping in front of a raging fire in the fireplace.
• My mom getting stuck in her car several streets away from home, and being rescued at midnight by the head of the highway patrol in a giant bulldozer.
• Said bulldozer driver unsuccessfully attempting to drive her home, but being thwarted by several trees blocking her entire street, curb to curb, not to mention a zillion other large branches down.
• Raph and I unable to get to anywhere close to either my mom or dad's house due to down trees and power lines.
• Raph and I deciding to abandon our car at starbucks and attempt to walk 2 miles to my dad's house, with me in a mini dress and heels.
• A police officer suggesting we stay at a local hotel, which, having lived in the area my whole life, I never knew existed.
• Checking into said hotel (the farmington inn) for $300 a night, at 12:30AM, and being led by candlelight to our room.  Extremely creepy.
• Sleeping in a hotel bathrobe for 6 hours.
• The next morning picking up henry and then walking in my wedding attire (including heels) along West Avon Road, up Kingsbridge and all the way to Copplestone to rescue my mom.  Fortunately a family at the bottom of Kingsbridge lent me a pair of boots so my trek in my heels was limited.  And yes that is my spanx you can see sticking out of my dress in some of the snow pictures (I opted not to put back on the fishnets the following day).
• Collectively gathering up all we could carry, tying a rope to a snowtube to pull henry, and walking back to where my mom's car was stuck to dig her out....and then serendipitously encountering the same bulldozer driver highway patrol man, who bull dozed the snow away from the car making our lives much easier.

The end.  Here is a picture of us with the lovely couple:

Here is a picture us walking to my mom's house the next day:

We finally made it back to pennsylvania in time for Halloween!!!  My mom didn't have power for 10+ days, so she was with us to trick-or-treat.  Here is a link to the halloween pictures.  This is also a fun album because it includes pictures of pumpkin picking. Here are a few highlights:

 And finally, here is a picture we took for Amy, who collects pictures of funny signs.  Raph has been wanting to stop on route 1 to take this picture for almost a year.  Amy, here is the link.

"children swear"

Pictures from Henry's birthday to follow soon!

This is only a test

This is a test post to show my friend, Debbie, how to blog.

Here is a picture:

debbie cant believe how chubby henry used to be!

Here is a Link to Amazon.

Summer photos

I have finally caught up with all our summer photos!  Here they are.  Click on the links for the albums from each event!

Photos from a pool party we hosted at the Newtown Swim Club for Henry's class as an end of year party.  The kids had a great time splashing around in the pool after a fun year together!

Henry and Arushi splashing around

Next are our photos from Fathers Day.  Raphael was in Luxembourg, but we celebrated with Grandpa Mike.

At Joe's Crab Shack

The following weekend we went to the Jersey Shore to visit our friends Bronnie, Kevin and Sara at their lovely home for a day at the beach and evening of barbeque.

On the boardwalk

For July 4th, we went up to Rhinebeck and visited with Grannie, Papy and Francine, who was visiting from Paris.  Our trip to the museum of fire fighting was a highlight!

hanging out with francine

firefighter museum

The following weekend we visited a Lavender farm with friends from Henry's class.  It was beautiful! also that night we had the DeAngelo's over for dinner.  You'll see Henry and friend, Gianna, snuggling on the couch. (henry once smooched her on the lips, so they have a special relationship).

Driving the tractor at the farm

Clementine and her friend were visiting from Paris.  Raphael took the day from work and spent it with them at Seaside Heights, NJ!  In their defense, they were supposed to go to the beach, but the weather was so bad they decided to hit the boardwalk instead.  Raph swears he saw Deena from the MTV show.

Look! There's Snooki!

The next weekend, we left for Cadaques (see post below)

When we were back from vacation, we visited Michelle, Alex & Madeline in NY.  The kids enjoyed riding the carousel in central park. (there is a video of the carousel ride)

henry and mommy waving from the carousel

Here are some videos from the summer, including henry playing, and a bath with his cousins in rhinebeck!

And finally, last but not least, here are my photos from the beautiful wedding of Francesca and Jason, held at the amazing Inn at Palmetto Bluff, in South Carolina.

Beautiful wedding, beautiful couple!

So that's it!  Summer 2011 is officially over, and here is how we spent it, in pictures.

Cadaques

Cadaques....  where do I begin?  Home of Salvador Dali, nestled on the Costa Brava in the foothills of the Pyranees, on the mer mediterranee at the most north eastern corner of Spain.  Village of artists, wanderers (hippies) and just a two hour drive from Baraelona.  When we toured Dali's home, we saw a mirror that he had set up so that he could see the sunrise from his bed.  He used to say that he was the first person in all of spain to see the sunrise, given this area's eastern location.

 The scenery was breathtaking.  Rocky cliffs with the sea below, and all the buildings white washed stucco with accents of Grecian blue.  Beaches made not of sand, but of stones smoothed over centuries, speckled with sea glass (or "Treasures!" as Henry came to know it).  Vines of fuchsia bougainvillea climbing the walls everywhere.  And at Casa Bona, (chez Arielle and Jose), a small vineyard of 30 vines transplanted from Jose's home village in Salamanca, a few olive and lemon trees, and grapes hanging above from one of the patios.  Not to mention a gorgeous pool, overlooking the mountains and the sea far below.

The company was warm, welcoming, and casual.  Arielle, an artist, and Jose, a retired architect, have made this second home their coin de paradis- their corner of paradise.  It is well known that the best way to tour anyplace is with a local.  Jose's rapid Catalan rolling off his tongue in the market and restaurants, and Arielle's passion for finding the most hidden creek, or path to a secluded rocky beach, certainly helped us experience this beautiful place like a local.

 

 We were fortunate to have a revolving door of relatives: first cousins Paul and Capucine (and Capu's two friends), later followed by Raphael's grandma Simonne, accompanied by Hugo and his petite amie, Marion. The last time we saw Hugo was when Henry was only 5 months old!  Henry and I both enjoyed practicing our french, as it was most definitely the preferred language of the house.

 

The weather was uncharacteristically cool and even humid/ rainy on a few days.  But we did not mind.  We relaxed, we read, we hiked, a lot (and me in flip flops), we swam at the pool and in various creeks, and we ate. And ate, and ate, and ate.  Arielle cooked for us, mostly, but we also enjoyed a few local restaurants, and gelatto in the village (when I could convince everyone to get up and go!).  We particularly enjoyed La Sirena, where we had the freshest of fresh fish.

In short, it is no wonder we took over 800 pictures.  I managed to cull them down to 400+.  I then managed to cull them down to under 200.  Here are the two albums, the long version (444 photos) and the short version (180 photos).  In the long version you'll see much more scenery as well as more photos of family (Paul is so photogenic!)  You may also get some kind of error from your computer as the site tries to load all the thumbnails.  But if you persevere through the errors, you should have no problem viewing them all.

The end of the first school year

My baby is all grown up!  He is done with his first year of school.  Next thing I know he will be in college.  I'm crying already.
Here are pictures (480 of them!) that his teacher sent around from the school year. 

Don't think I'm crazy (or do), but I jotted down the picture numbers with Henry in them so I could order them later.  I probably shouldnt even admit that here.  But since I went to the trouble, if you dont want to look at all 480 of them..... see Henry in #s:

23, 30, 32, 46, 54, 60, 61, 119, 149, 150, 151, 152, 154, 155, 161, 162, 173, 198, 224, 238, 239, 241*, 263*, 264*, 266, 270, 278*, 280, 281, 282, 283, 318*, 323, 328, 334, 335, 342, 343, 345*, 346, 359, 365, 373, 374, 376*, 379, 385, 395*, 424, 426, 461, 470, 473, 474, 480

Beth's shower- weekend in CT

We all gathered in Connecticut last weekend to honor our beautiful, blushing bride, Beth with a shower.  Everything was truly lovely, top to bottom, but especially elegant beth in her fabulous dress.  You may have seen that I recently changed my profile picture on facebook to a picture taken from that day.  Anyway, here is a link to the pictures, with a few highlights here....

After the shower we went to Anna's house to visit with John and Sylvia.  Henry particularly enjoyed Sylvia's improptu cello concert that she performed for us!  What a talented and beautiful young lady!



Sylvia and Henry (and watchful me)

On sunday morning, we had a little photo shoot on "the rock".  I think there is a picture of me and Jeff on "the rock" from the first day of school from kindergarden through loomis.  seriously.

The end.

Trenton Thunder, etc.

Here is a link to some miscellaneous photos, including our visit to the Trenton Thunder baseball game, some random pics from a playground (I'm not even sure who took these but I found them on the camera!) and some pictures that henry took of me.  He is quite the budding photographer.
Here is the best recent photo I've seen of him:

Houston

We finally, finally went to visit Jeff in Houston.  We had a ball.  Jeff was such a kind and thoughtful host and has a beautiful apartment.  Houston was surprisingly nice. (sorry, but it did exceed my expectations!)  Here is a link to our photos and below are the highlights...  We were too busy having fun to take more pictures!

we fed giraffes (!) at the hoston zoo

Jeff's work

Six Year Anniversary

We have never done anything to celebrate our wedding anniversary, other than the occasional going out to dinner.  This year we went away to Milford, PA to visit the lovely Hotel Fauchere.  I found it by going on Relais & Chateaux's website and looking for the closest place to us.  It was in the Deleware River Valley, right on the NY border.  The food and service were very good, and the staff extremely friendly.  The hotel is owned by a man who lives on a 70 acre farm, which provides fresh food for the restaurant.  He also has 70+ llamas on the farm.  A perk of being a guest there is that you may tour the farm, which we immediately did upon learning there were llamas.  Look closely in the second llama video and you will see a riled up llama hocking a loogie and spitting!  The video really doesnt do justice to the whole scene.  Those llamas were fierce!   We also visited a waterfall.
Here's a link to the photos and below are a few highlights.

Raph and the Llama stand off.

Visiting Danielle!

At the end of April we went to visit Danielle at her *new* home in the hamptons.  It wasn't so new to her anymore, but new to us.  As always, Danielle was an amazing host- so warm and welcoming, and we had a wonderful time.  We were happy that Annie was there too, as it gave us the chance to spend the weekend with "Grannie" also.  We canoed, walked on the beach, ate lobster and steak, and drank our favoriate champagne (to celebrate!)  Here is a link to all our photos, and here are a few to get you started....

My boys...

Danielle teaching Henry the slots