That's a wrap

We're taking advantage of going to Daddy's work while we can.  (They close down his office in January and he'll be working from home)

 Kate's last story time at the Cotsen Library in Princeton.  Unbelievable!  This lady is so creative.  Lily will be old enough in the fall ;)

 Birthday pancake breakfast outside.  I love eating outside.  I love the morning air.  It was the perfect way to start my day.

 We went into NYC (we sure have been a lot lately) to go see Mo Willems read some of his books. The Thank You Elephant and Piggie book was a really good one.  Perfect really.  And he read his soon to be published Nanette's Baguette.  He had us all laughing the entire time.  My kids loved it!

 Elephant and Piggie.  Our favorite is Should I Share My Icecream?  Tommy's favorite is There is a Bird on your Head

 Mo Willems exhibit.  This was fascinating.  To learn where Knuffle Bunny came from, why he used a stuffed Rabbit instead of a stuffed bear.  Why he chose to draw like he does and all the steps in the process.  So fun to learn the behind the scenes.

 Kate loved this book when she was a baby.  A little bit random but we quote it all the time with her cute baby voice.  Maybe...it's a new friend!  Blarggie Blarggie

 Mo signing our favorite books of his

 And a perfect way to finish off the afternoon...with a tea party!

 Banana nutella cake...it was good!

 Central park

 The end of the day, metro downtown is closed, so we have to walk to another one (plus we barely made it on time for the reading too, after waiting 25 minutes for our subway and it never showed)...we were all feeling a bit crazy.

Rachel played Rondo in G, despite a few mistakes (she gets a little nervous) she performed fabulously!  We are so proud of her.  

 It's that time of year!

 Tropical Day at school.  This week has been full of parties and I'm pretty happy we're missing next week.  Not sure what they're going to do.

 I got really sentimental the other day and really tried to enjoy these two girls playing together.  It makes my heart so sad that Kate will be going to full day Kindergarten.  She is ready and excited but we are going to miss her at home.  She is my awesome helper too.  So eager to put away groceries or help me clean the house.

 Tommy's new trick

Field day

 Last play date with Sara.  We have been swapping for the past 3 years.  Sniff.

 I'm trying to treasure every last second

 Lily's first depictable work of art.  A house and some grass

Last day of school!!!

And we're off to Brussels this evening.  The kids have been counting down for the past 90 days.  They are very excited!!

May

Our nice days were far and few between this spring.  So we took advantage when it was nice.

Girls night while the boys went to Father and Sons.  We watched The Little Princess.  They all loved it.

Jake's good about getting at least one picture

Rachel's 5th grade class had a field trip to NYC to do the memorial, Liberty and Ellis Island.  She had this unit in 3rd grade she wasn't thrilled about doing it again, but we still had a great time.  Despite that it was FREEZING!  It was supposedly 67 degrees, but the wind was killer!

The freedom tower.  Looking up at this tall building was a little trippy with the clouds moving past.

Our old apartment complex.  It was so fun to see Rachel go down memory lane here in our old neighborhood, and listening to the things she remembered.  I was feeling super nostalgic and missing this place a lot!  We had some great times here.

The "castle" the kids used to play in all the time.

Rachel and I agree that no matter how many times we see the statue, it never loses it's awe.

For our belated anniversary this year we took a gelato making class in the city.  It was a lot of fun.  We still need to try out our newfound skills at home.  We came home with 8 pints of gelato, but they didn't quite make it back on the 2 hour commute home.

I have been doing a little bit of "training"  Jake and I are doing a biking trip in France and I need to get my neck and butt and muscles ready for the long rides.  We picked a beautiful day to picnic and bike the canal.

It continues to be so fun to see all the things blooming in my yard.

Jake got tickets to see Finding Neverland.  It was SO good!  I highly recommend it.  The music, the story...I loved everything about it.  It leaves New York this fall to go on tour...see if it's coming near you.  If not, come visit us ;)

A "hike" (or we'll just call it a walk) with friends.  We found a turtle in our path.

There's a great group of girls in our church here.  They have a book group going that has been really fun.  This month was Rachel's turn to host.  She chose the book Remarkable by Lizzie Foley.  Based off of the discussion the girls had I would say they all LOVED it!  Rachel did a great job organizing it all, coming up with good questions, creating a treasure hunt, etc.  I baked the cookies.

These girls were all fascinated by our typewriter.  I picked this up a couple weeks ago at a garage sale  for next to nothing and the kids are loving it.  Tommy is loving the sounds, the punching keys and the ding!

Last weekend we had the Richards come stay with us.  We met them back in Provo in our first ward after we were married.  They live only an hour away but it's amazing how had it is to get together often.  It was great to catch up.

And the kids got along famously.

Another training day.  I'm up to riding 10 miles.  On Monday, Memorial Day, I snuck into the Washington Crossing Cemetery as they were getting ready to do a service.

And in the spirit of the day I decided to swing by the 9/11 Memorial park, which isn't too far from our home.