A Day In NYC

Thought it was about time the kids saw Manhattan!
So we packed up on Tuesday and hit the road. We stayed the night in Pelham with Steven (my youngest brother) and Tracy. Mark (younger brother) and Jess met us in the city on Wednesday. So all of us were tourists for the day in Manhattan. All the cousins spent much of the day together and each in their own way were in awe in aspects of the city. A lot of fun.
This morning we headed back home.

Great Performance

The show was great.  Faith loved the show and even the boys had to admit that they "kinda" liked it.  Faith then waited on line after the show for autographs.  She is very proud of her signed playbill.

Up in the balcony at Annie

Curtain up in 5 minutes at Olney Theatre Center

Beep. Beep. Beep. Boom!

Reuben has been planting these paper bombs all around the house trying to blow me up where ever I go.  Last night he snuck one up my shirt and I exploded right after I tucked him in bed!

Today he set up a star wars armada to attack me in bed, while a star fighter dropped more bombs. 

I need backup!  Help!

Some Fun In the Snow

Kids are milking the 2 inches of snow we got three days ago...

Safe Stairs

We finally got carpeted stair treads for our main staircase.  We ordered them about a month ago.  Of course about three weeks ago I took a bad fall down the full flight.  Luckily bounced all the way down on my tush.  Eggplant size and color bruise followed.  Just about gone now :-)
Hopefully no more worries and tipper will be running up and down again.

Rainy day

Still a busy day between Hebrew school and cub scouts. But, I was still able to take Tipper for a long walk in the rain. After we got back she went upstairs and decided to lay her wet self across my side of the bed. After she pushed the blankets down!  Nothing like that wet dog smell on your sheets :-)

Before, during and after

Yummy! It looked better than it tasted

The room is coming together

Oh no. They left me at home alone!!!

Tough Life

Hanukkah bargain

The 10 flashlights for $10 at home depot has been one of the big hits of Hanukkah. Each kid got one, 7 to go :-)

Argon Kids Holiday Party

Always a fun time.  This year it culminated with a funny magician for the kids.  Faith though already knew his act as he was at her friend Maryn's birthday party earlier in the year.
Afterwards Ken and Amanda came back to play at our house.
Its 7:20p and I bet kids are asleep in 10 minutes.

Hanukkah is here

Library Gets A Bookcase

We raised a new bookcase into the library/guest room.  Came out nice and sure holds a lot. Karen did most of it.  I just did the difficult bolts, lifting the monstrosity, and anchoring it to the wall.

A Day At The Museum

The Norman Rockwell exhibit was very good. He really summarized a "feeling" so well in his artwork. The kids liked it and acted interested enough :-)
We broke for lunch nearby and then went back to see some modern art and then the hall of sports champions. I realized that I had never been to at least many parts of this museum before. It was very impressive.

Off To The Portrait Gallery

Heading in to see Norman Rockwell exhibit, Speilberg and Lucas' collection. Our neighbor recommended it yesterday.
For the kids no matter how good the art is, it will pale in comparison to the metro ride.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a delicious Thanksgiving Feast!
We even got out the fancy china and a tablecloth.


My overflowing plate, followed by seconds :-)

And I emptied it clean!
And now starts the countdown to Hanukkah!

Flood!

Looks like we got lucky.  Late this afternoon I heard the boys toilet running, which is a normal occurrence. So I yelled to Reuben to put the lever down.  About 10 seconds later I heard the words that make you jump into action.  "Dad the water is running down the hallway".  Luckily the bathroom is right next to the linen closet so on my way to dive in the bathroom and shut the valve off I threw all the towels down. Reuben started spreading them out.  We controlled the water upstairs pretty quick.  Then we found the water filling the foyer lighting fixture and dripping out one of the high hats in the kitchen.  Then found the few spots it had made its way to the basement.  After the triage cleanup, it does look like we dodged anything significant.  Looks like most of the water found easy exits and did not saturated drywall in the ceiling. Will know better in the morning, but right now I only see one small spot.
As for the cause, I'm not sure.  The toilet wasn't overflowing, just running.  So I figure its something in the tank, since immediately below the toilet was not wet either.  But I couldn't see it dripping around the tank.  Will try and trouble shoot in the morning when everything dries out and then start with the water only turned on a bit.  Then cross my fingers. 

Meanwhile, Jacob was impressed with his sign that he tapes on. :-)

Gums!

Here is Faith now with all four front upper teeth missing :-)

Fall In The Backyard

While the new gate was being put in, Reuben, Jacob, and Faith were hard at work in the backyard.







That Japanese Maple is magnificent this time of year.

Last Weeks Final Boys Soccer Game

We played a very tough team and Jacob, in goal, held them to only 1 goal through half time. But in the second half they cracked through and then flooded in :-) We found out later that this team pays their coach. He's not one of the kids' Dad, but an assistant coach at GMU; British accent and all. Then to make matter worse, most of the same kids we had just played we saw playing in the game after ours; a division older. Not sure if they were playing down in our league or up in the older league. I was impressed though that they still were playing hard. Our kids tired out in the 4th quarter and these kids were going strong into a second game.
Anyway it was a tough season but the kids played well and had fun doing so. They were proud of the tie they had and know they were playing in a crazy competitive league.

Faith's ski warm up

New Gate :-)

We finally got our gate to backyard replaced.  No more escapes from Tipper.  I also had them add a small alcove next to our shed to keep garbage cans.  Glad its finally done.  Practically had to beg fence guy to get on his schedule.
That gate isn't going anywhere.  Framed by two 6"x6"s.  One leg is in patio.  I thought they bolt to a U bracket but instead they drilled out a 10" diameter hole and seated it into new cement.  Solid!