Leah & Baby G

Kiddie Pools for All

It was a hot one today. I was filling up the kiddie pool for the boys. It is very small and ideally for a baby to splash in. I use it for big bubble play but the kids wanted to sit in it to cool off. It worked. Even if it is a bit on the silly side.

Beach Season Begins

It is Memorial Day weekend and we did what 90% of people out here do is head to the beach.

The TOBAY sprinkler park opened up this weekend. The kids couldn't wait to play. I could go on for paragraphs about how much I love this park. It has something for everyone and makes it easy to have all three kids in one place. It can become a bit hectic when it is busy but it's still great.

Water Table Play- Good for Big Kids too!

We finally got around to picking up a water table for the kids. The weather has been unseasonably warm so it has turned out to be the perfect activity for the kids. It isn't always easy to find something they can all do together without getting in one another's way. All three of them enjoy it, even Leah.

Recital Weekend 2012

After a fun competition season Leah rounded out the year with a weekend full of recitals. 3 shows in 2 days. She had a great time and did beautifully. The dance teams are a great group of young ladies who are positive and work hard. They help one another out and have fun too.

Leah's tap routine outfit. 

 Behind the scenes in the dressing room getting ready for the big production number that kicks off the show.

Mother's Day 2012

The three beautiful reasons I can celebrate on Mother's Day <3

Bailey Arboretum

There are so many places out here on Long Island that we have yet to visit. I have a growing list of things I'd like to do and fortunately the kids are totally up for it. Today we headed out to the Bailey Arboretum. It is a beautiful place, easy to walk trails. Plenty of picnic areas. They have some nice gardening, as well as perfect photo ops. The Children's Habitat leaves open a lot of creativity for the kids. They also a wildlilfe group that helps rescue and care for birds on Long Island.

We had a great visit and will be back soon. If you are out on Long Island and looking for some place to visit on the North Shore? Good place right here.

If there is a critter to be found? Chances are Leah has her hands on it.

Leah took some photos. She played around with the macro lens.

  

Muah!

Leah doing some last minute stretches before the dance team heads out to perform.

Play and Bugs

We went to Eisenhower Park again. Unfortunately their great new playground was having some work done but we still had a great time. They have a couple of playgrounds so we headed over to one to play for a while.

Leah and Louis looked for grubs in the trees. They managed to find some pretty decently sized ones. 

Off We Go...Again

We headed off to Manhattan today. It has been a very busy Spring Break and today added to that. All in good ways. After an uneventful LIRR ride followed by subway ride we started the day off with having breakfast tea at Alice's Tea Cup-Chapter I.

We had a pretty big breakfast. The kids ate it all up. It was delicious. The tea was yummy. Perfect way to start our day. 

Afterward we headed over to Central Park for a bit. I brought along bubbles for the kids to play with.

 I tried to get the kids together for a group photo. These are some of the better ones.

 I think this may one of my all time favorite photos of the three of them together. All three of them laughing at me.

Now that we have a membership to the American Museum of Natural History we decided to take advantage of it. Even though we had visited earlier in the week the kids wanted to visit again. There were a few exhibits we didn't see on our earlier trip.

Leah has been helping Louis learn about our solar system, aside from trains and dinosaurs, Louis' other favorite topic is space. AMNH has a special exhibit right now called "Beyond Planet Earth:The Future of Space Exploration.

While I sat to feed Gabriel, Leah and Louis walked around while we waited for our turn to go into the exhibit. They loved all the information about reptiles and other related creatures.

'Beyond Planet Earth' is a walk through exhibit with various components. Leah loved the section on the moon.

 There is a wonderful computer setup which allows you to move around Mars and check out the planet. Louis's favorite planet, so we spent a lot of our time on it. Definitely will have to come back to do this again.

 Leah working on Mars.

We went upstairs and stopped in to see the dinosaurs. Leah and Louis went from kiosk to kiosk to see all the different stages of evolution and to read more info on the development of the dinosaurs and other animals. They are so perfect together!

At this point the kids were restless and hungry so we headed back towards Central Park. We grabbed some hot dogs from the halal food truck, sat and ate.

Louis wanted to climb rocks so we went over to the Ladies Pavilion. Great rock climbing with nice views of the pond. Louis is an excellent climber, takes after his sister. I remember Leah climbing the same rocks when she was his age. She led him carefully up and made sure he had a good footing.

 We stopped at a playground. Leah and Louis played in the sandbox for the most part. Hard to get Louis out of one once he finds it. A few of the other moms and nannies made comments about how great Leah is with Louis. How she was one of the few kids above the age of 4 and she didn't seem bothered by it. She wasn't. She loves it.

Earlier in the week we had stopped at the Alice in Wonderland statue but we weren't able to spend any time at it so I promised Leah we would go back. Leah and Louis climbed up okay. They were fine up until Leah lost her footing coming down and Louis followed her. They both got a little banged up but it was much better than it looked. Both were fine afterward.

It was an early day for us. We headed out after this. Usually we're in Manhattan until the evening but we had gotten there at 10 am. It was a long day. The kids do so well when we travel together. We get into the swing of things and with Leah being well experienced with traveling in NYC? It is surprisingly smooth and easy with just myself and the three of them.