Problem Behavior

Thea might be cute, but she's terribly destructive when she's bored.

She got a hold of Kuba's mouse and started to rip it up with her very sharp teeth.  

Luckily I noticed in time and rescued mousey from the jaws of death.  

Now she has a neat little scar but that's it.  

Kuba and Thea

we hoped for just this

when we said yes to this pup

snuggling like siblings 

Thanksgiving 2018

It was a quiet Thanksgiving again this year.   It was also the first year anniversary of my dad's passing.   He died 2 days before Thanksgiving.  Last year we had a very small turkey dinner in the barn apartment with Mom, Paul, Sandy and the 4 of us.  This year Thanksgiving was actually on the day he passed.  We spent the holiday at Anna's mom's - a gathering of co-housing folks.  I came home early with my mom and promptly took a nap.  She did too.  The boys and Anna came home a little later and we finished watching a series on Netflix, called Atypical.  That was the best part of the day to me...being with just Anna and the boys.  It's easy to not see all that you have when you focus on what you are missing.  I am missing my dad and I have a beautiful family right here, right now.

Life Is Too Short To Skip Cake

After many weeks of tossing ideas around for Kuba's eleventh birthday party with friends, we finally settled on a cake decorating party.  A friend of ours creates amazing cakes and after seeing her cakes, an idea was born.  We spent a lot of the day yesterday (with our niece Hannah, the baking wizard) baking 22 small vanilla, lemon, and chocolate cake layers.  Today, ten boys set off frosting and decorating the cakes with direction from Erinn Simon.   The cakes were OUTRAGEOUSLY beautiful as you can see in the photo below.  The boys even named each others cakes: Flower Power, Struck with Chaos, Fireworks, The Champion, On a Date, Tree, Crazy Garden, the Soccer Player, and Superman were some of the tags. The boys rocked out with frosting, candies, and a wicked dose of imagination.  I got small cake boxes from a local bakery and each boy left the party, cake in hand.  I hope the cakes taste as good as they look - 

and no one got sick from too much sugar!!  

  

  

  

  

    

We also ordered a skunk cake for the party from Erinn Simon

and this adorable creature showed up.  

and this is what was left over at the end of the party.  

Arty Grandma and She's 92 too!

In honor of my mother's 92nd birthday (October 16th), and in celebration of her long life devoted to drawing and painting, my sister and I created an exhibit of her work at Nunyuns Bakery and Cafe. It’s opening on her birthday and closing in mid December. Since her diagnosis with macular degeneration decades ago, her vision has deteriorated slowly and significantly. She is now legally blind, and her ability to see colors and details as she once had is not possible. This is a significant loss for a woman who has painted for over fifty years - and who reveled in the joy of color. This past year she was talking about her heartache over this loss, and was able to do some hands on touch painting with Topaz Weiss, from Expressive Arts Therapy. This ignited a memory and a longing in her for a stronger relationship with her art. She lamented about not ever having a solo art show, as all of her exhibits were part of group shows. Well, we certainly can change that. Come celebrate Adeline's creative life at Nunyuns Bakery and Cafe and take a look at her art - which includes landscapes, still lives, and portraits. The collection is just part of a retrospective spanning more than 50 years. The work includes her pastel portraiture, a collection of oil and acrylic paintings, and many experiments along the way.
 For decades my mother took private classes in portraiture, acrylic, and oil painting - and having no studio of her own, set up her easel in the kitchen after all 5 of her children had gone to bed. She often painted late into the night. This was a remarkable choice for a woman raising a family in the sixties and set the stage for a role reversal, making my father the "breakfast" parent. Her commitment to life long learning certainly has inspired all of her five children who continue to emulate her love of the arts.

E M S Photo - LAST ONE

2018 school photo...Anders is in the S as an 8th grader  

2017 school photo...Anders is in the M as a 7th grader

2016 school photo...Anders is in the E as a 6th grade

Best Getting Faster Award Goes To....

Anders!!

Anders finished up his last year of middle school cross country recently 

and really had a great season.

Even Thea made the team photo!

Congratulations to Anders for the best getting faster award!
From 2 years ago when he was in 6th grade, he's shaved up to 4 minutes off of his time.
Way to go!

Museums and More Museums

We've been to a lot of museums lately.   It's something we all love to do and a whole lot of fun.  This past week we took a trip to Brooklyn and while I was at a Visual Thinking Strategies Training at the Brooklyn Museum, the boys and Anna got to go to a few museums on their own.  Here's a bit of history from those visits:

The Brooklyn Museum 

(after nearly 30 years, I finally got to see Judy Chicago's Dinner Party) 

The Museum of Illusions 

(a brand new museum in NYC and a big hit with the boys)

The National Museum of Mathematics 

(Kuba was here in June and could not wait until he could go again with Anders) 

Storm King 

(It was a cold and pouring down rain kind of day, but alas, we made it work!) 

The Boys Make Pasta

Kuba and Anders made fresh pasta together today - 

using Kubas brand new pasta maker!
We're having pasta for dinner tonight.  

Kuba is E L E V E N

As Kuba spins into his eleventh year - I like write about some of the highlights from his tenth year.  

We took a family trip to Arizona and saw the Grand Canyon, spent a week on the cape and a week in Maine.  We also have been to NY City three times, and got to see Hamilton on Broadway.  

Grandma has been out in the barn for this entire year, and Kuba is always loving and kind to her, continuing the tradition of saying  "Did I tell you I love you today?" each time he greets her.  

Kuba fell in love with theater and drama this year, taking 3 drama camps/classes and loving every one of them.  He also got a family puppy this year, on June 22.   He is one heck of a loving boy with a phenomenal imagination, a giant amount of zest for life, a hearty and passionate approach to all of his feelings, and is basically just a lovely boy.  He's grown 2 inches and continues to be at the 96% height range for his age group.  He loves to write, draw, play, and invent all sorts of games.

He remains super attached to his brother and his family.
He still gets a bit scared at night and of the dark - and I am just so sure this is because of his ridiculously creative imagination that dreams up all sorts of things that could potentially be lurking in the darkness, waiting to grab him.  

Happy Birthday Kuba.

This family loves you utterly and completely.

100% devoted to you!

For the past 5 years at school, Kuba has celebrated his birthday in class with fruit cups.

Adorable little papercups overflowing with raspberries, blueberries, grapes, and strawberries.  

This is his last year in elementary school and he didn't want it to be the same this year, as it's his last year at IAA and he wanted it to be a special treat.  He decided to bake lemon bars for his class.   Here are some photo's of him baking the dessert and a snapshot of him in his classroom ready to share the birthday treats.  

And here he is last night after his birthday dinner with family and friends.  

Check out his lemon raspberry cake made by Anna.

He chose to have a meal with loads of ravioli - his current favorite food.  

Kuba got many wonderful gifts, and one was a pasta maker.  

Which leads us to the next post.