our normal{ish} life: 2010 Vault of Memories

January 2010....

visits to parks to get out energy from being inside in the cold - and pretending like we have a backyard. Notice the difference between the 2 days/2 parks!

Union Square Park

{so funny the hallway seemed crowded then....we have added 2 bookshelves and our "Recycling Center" so that it definitely is a ONE WAY access!}

Central Park

February 2010....

Bryson running the boys through this "exercise" routine

The children and I spent Valentine's Night at Daddy's work since he had some extra work that needed to be done, and it was a Sunday so we weren't going to go out and we wanted to spend time as a family even if Daddy was working. We enjoyed dinner together in the conference room and the view from the 24th floor!

Boys being boys!

Back at Central Park....this time after the first blizzard of 2010!

Enjoying our favorite Chinese dish - Potstickers - to celebrate Chinese New Year

Celebrating Madeleine's 8th Birthday at the American Girl Store and cafe!

March 2010....

To release energy during the last cold month, Jacob had a "movement" class - although his boyish movements and energy were too much for the teacher and the little girls in pink!

Our trip out to Salt Lake for Madeleine's Baptism, niece Noel's blessing and Grandpa Great's 89th Birthday!

...and skiing! Hooray - it was my first time in years and years (I think at least 10 I'm sad to say) - and the first for the kiddos - who did great until we got up to the top of the lift and combined crying and laughing down the hill altogether!

All the cousins - we had a fantastic time with everyone - although sad to say someone played with my camera and half of my pictures are in a weird color due to a strange setting....oh well, since we can't recreate the moment we'll take even less than stellar pictures to remember the fun memories!

April 2010 ....

We rediscovered Central Park with warmer temperatures! One of our all-time favorites that we take all our friends to - the slide at the Billy Johnson Playground. It's 1 stop away via the subway and 3 blocks over....and another world awaits within the park and the slide provides huge smiles and so much fun! {and we are becoming pros - we upgraded from cardboard to bringing our nylon bags that we always get as hand-outs and the kids zip down even faster!!}

The boys created fun and more excitement daily from putting on a new Spring US Open in smashing gentlemen clothes to having a little reading time under an umbrella during a rainstorm outside.

Madeleine got a haircut - which was only supposed to be a trim. I was fired as her hairdresser, and we both look forward to having it grow back and forgetting this little moment.

oh...and spring burst through the city. We heard it would be beautiful...it definitely did not disappoint!

May 2010....

The children started to have wrap-up celebrations in their classes - although the end of school was still off in the distance at June 28th! Bryson had a Mom and Me Brunch where they shared Poetry Notebooks, and the 3rd grade classes celebrated the end of testing! It had been a busy week for these students who were new to standardized testing - the amazing result is that Madeleine scored a perfect 100% on the State Math Test. That was the test I had been worried about - way to go Madeleine! Here she is enjoying their Free Play Outside Day at the park across from the school with her best friend Aoi living here from Japan {pronounced Owie, like you hurt yourself}.

I wanted to get together with a lot families - problem being our small apartment, so we hosted a Cinco De Mayo party, that happened to be on the 8th of May due to scheduling problems during the week. We had so much fun with about 12 families out on the front lawn of our building, with all different nationalities making Mexican food for the first time and having a pinata for the kiddos. We were finally kicked out by a huge windstorm (the one thing that can ruin fun here on the Island) - but we look forward to a repeat gathering in 2011!

We enjoyed a birthday party for a friend's daughter downtown at Battery Park City (BPC). Definitely NOT to be confused with Battery Park. There is a difference, and I took us to the latter, looking for a birthday party among all the tourists lining up at Battery Park to go on the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. Only realizing once we saw a map, that we needed to be up about 12 blocks and without a subway station on the different route. It had already taken us an hour to get to where we were, and we were 1.5 hours late for a 2 hour party. If we walked - we'd miss it completely. So, we jumped in one of the millions of yellow cabs around the city, and enjoyed a quick trip up to BPC. The green space was lovely - they actually have a rec office that puts out toys each weekend for the children to play with....hula hoops, balls, the bouncing toys you ride on, and the large doughnut Jacob is in (picture below). It was truly one of the first warm days, and we had an amazing time being outside and enjoying the weather and thankfully the party that lasted another 2 hours once we got there. I suppose in the city, it's hard to have anything start and end on time due to the traveling situation with everyone!

Madeleine had her end of the year ballet performance. It was actually a very small performance - only she and another girl in the class, as the real performance is on a Sunday, and we chose not to participate. So she and the other girl performed a duet for our little family group one afternoon....and it was lovely and beautiful, not like a full-out performance, but I hope that Madeleine felt better about the decision not to participate with the Sunday performance.

Jacob rediscovered his love of STICKS! A boys true best friend :) Everywhere we go, he finds at least a few to bring back to the building with us, but he knows they aren't allowed outside, so he came up with this creative way of trying to store them until we would come out later again. The sticks were rarely ever there, which he didn't seem to mind too greatly as it meant he could find a new set....however, I wondered if the building maintenance crew just laughed at us or was cursing us with all these sticks they would find around the entrance to the building.

We went to Hershey, PA for our Memorial Day weekend, and enjoyed going to Hershey Park as a family, and then visiting Gettysburg Battlefield.

Madeleine and Aoi participated with the other girls in an Activity Days skit at the Stake Center.

I found out a photographer visiting from HI was asking for children to photograph through our LDS Mommy Group/Email and I signed up as quickly as possible. It was fun to pop into Central Park for this, and the pictures are gorgeous that she took!