Piano Recital

Eva started taking Piano lessons in September, and she has been eager to participate in a recital ever since. She and Maddy both performed in this Winter Concert on the 21st of December. First, Madeline played a duet with her teacher entitled the German Dance.

Afterward, the girls played together. Eva had a series of 5 short songs that she played, and Madeline accompanied her. I think Eva really enjoyed having her big sister up there with her for her piano debut. The girls duet songs ended up getting split into two videos.

The volume is really low on these, so you will have to turn your volume way up to really hear anything.

We're Baaaack!

Oh, I have missed my home. Don't get me wrong, I have loved spending our holiday with family, but it is nice to be back. In my own time zone. In my own bed. Even if my fridge is entirely empty and I don't have a Fresh Direct order coming until tomorrow morning.
Our family had a great time in Utah, the children especially. Both Maddy and Eva have voiced their desire to move to UT about 100 times in the last 16 hours. Of course, their view of UT is a place where eternal parties (attended by cousins) take place, because basically that is what we did for the entirety of our vacation. I think they would be a little disappointed with what life ended up being like if a move back ever occurred.
I will post pictures when life gets a little more orderly around here (aka suitcases all unpacked) but for now, here is a glimpse of what our flight to Utah was like. After wrestling a 2-year-old for the 5 hour span of our non-stop flight to Salt Lake, I did not think things could get scarier.....but, they did.
Marc and I are both pretty certain that if it were not for the 5 missionaries on board, we would all be toast :).

Thanksgiving

This year, we spent Thanksgiving with our good friends, the Tomcos. We met the Tomcos while Marc was getting his MBA, and they even lived a few blocks away from us here in NYC for a summer before they headed to the Suburbs. We spent Thanksgiving Morning preparing our portion of the meal: Rolls, Sweet Potatoes and a veggie tray- packed it all into some backpacks, and we were off to the MetroNorth.

Here are the girls toting around part of our Thanksgiving meal.

There was a security alert of the Subways and commuter trains this past Thanksgiving weekend. This was a little unnerving, but, not something I really gave second thought to.....well at least until I noticed the train we had boarded was crawling along the tracks in the tunnel. It took us 45 minutes to go from 42nd street to 125th street. We seriously could have walked faster than that. At 125th street all of the passengers were ordered off the train, further heightening my concern. All was well, though, as we soon found out that the train had mechanical problems (surprise!) and we needed to wait for a "rescue train" to come and pick us all up. Luckily our wait was less than 10 minutes, and our trip was speedy from that point on.

The girls loved being reunited with their old friends, and spending time in a "real" house. Here they all are watching a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special.

The meal was fantastic, and the kids loved heading out to the backyard to play afterward.

VIPS

Instead of braving the actual Macey's Thanksgiving Day Parade, we decided to follow the tradition started last year, and attend the balloon inflating event near Central Park. We figured that the kids would be the most excited about seeing the balloons anyway, and in truth, I wanted to sleep in a bit on Thanksgiving Day.

It ended up being a perfect night. Not too cold, and we were able to bring along the girls' good friend Laura. As we approached the crowds I prepared myself to be sandwiched body-to-body with hundreds of people like it was last year. Just before we entered the long line to get in, a lady approached Marc and asked if he would like to have her VIP pass to get our family in to the restricted access part of the balloon display. Oh, yes we would! Totally different experience in the VIP section BTW. There were only a few people, and it was balloon viewing heaven. Ahhhh, so this is what it feels like to be very important....

This video gives you a view of the floats. As you watch it check out the other side of the barricade (straight shot ahead) to see what the Non-VIP section looks like. Totally packed. As we left, Marc passed off the VIP pass to a family of 8. I wonder how many people saw the balloons that night with that same pass :).

Soccer

For the past couple of months our Saturday mornings have been filled with soccer. The girls have been playing on a league here and loving it. I loved the fact that the soccer field was only a two minute walk from our house. It was a good experience for both of them. Their season just came to an end, so they had a little trophy cermony for the kids that participated.

Here is Eva and her good friend Brighton. It was a bummer that they were not able to play on the same team this year.

Here is Madeline and her "twin" Laura. Her and Laura share the same birthday, and they are kindred spirits. On the field, they could usually be found next to each other- one playing goalie while the other helped out.

The coach presented each child with their trophy, and gave them small tribute. Over the course of the season, Eva was nicknamed "wheels," and you can see in this video that she was pleased to no end to have the coach tell everyone about it.
Their soccer coach was from the Bronx and has quite the personality. The girls really liked him. I will miss hearing "Who's talkin' when I'm talkin'?!?" in his NYC accent.

Oh Christmas Tree!

When we got back from the Museum the kids were excited to find our Christmas Tree had arrived. This year, we decided to order our tree online. We have a little more room in our new place, which made a full-sized tree possible. As I researched places to purchase a tree here in NYC, I came across this sustainable tree farm in New Hampshire with prices comparable to what I could find on the streets here in Manhattan. And being the car-less people that we are, not having to schlep the tree home on the subway made the deal even sweeter.

Here it is in all of its glory, right out of the box.

Marc shaking the tree out, and getting it ready for the tree stand. The Reindeer are looking on, eager to try their hand at decorating.

Marc and I trying to get the tree to stand up straight, under the direction of Maddy and Eva. Five and six-year-olds are excellent direction givers.

Eva- "Go left, mom"
Madeline- "No... right, Eva"
Eva- "Oh, yeah, right"

The girls loved helping to decorate. Our miniature fake tree last year took a tumble (courtesy of a very curious Owen) and many of our decorations didn't survive the fall. So, this year, the ornaments were a little sparse. But, I am still happy with how it turned out, and I am loving the real Christmas tree smell!

A Day at the Museum

This past Saturday we decided to take advantage of a world-class museum that is less than two miles from our home. We have only been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art once before as an entire family. I decided it was high time for a second visit. We focused mostly on the Greek/Roman and Egyptian exhibits on this trip.

Eva was mesmerized by all of the unclothed statues. "Mom, I see bums," was her most quoted line- accompanied by a giggle.

Madeline was fascinated by the Egyptian collection. She didn't want to leave when it became clear that Owen was done. Every couple of feet she would ask "Mom, what does this Hieroglyph mean?" I had to laugh. "Um, you know.... I don't know that one." She made me promise that next time we would get headphones like everyone else had. She was sure that the headphones would interpret the Hieroglyphs for you. If you go to the Metropolitan anytime soon, make sure not to miss the Temple of Dendur (pictured behind Madeline). This Egyptian Temple actually once stood in Egypt- and was taken apart stone by stone in the 1960's and relocated to the US. It has been rebuilt and was added to the Metropolitan collection in 1978.

Owen liked watching Dad chase him around the museum. He pretty much wanted to touch everything in sight. He made the security guards' jobs just a little more exciting on this Saturday.