How did we design our family flag?

"We took one color from the flags of each of the countries where our family came from: Greece and Scotland (blue), Russia and Poland (red), and Germany (black). My mom and I picked the fabric. I ironed it, and we sewed it together."

Basil Extravaganza

And that's only half of it.

He Decided To Go Shorter

My Little Rock Star

Boylee Had a Sudden Idea...

(I actually did most of the cutting.)

B-Day Party Highlights

Boylee finally got his party!

First Tomato of the Season!

NYC Highlights!

Reunited with old kindergarten pal, Meliki, who now lives in Brooklyn.

Here's a flashback photo of the two of them back in kindergarten days. They basically adored each other then and still adore each other now.

We were foiled in our attempt to go to the Natural History Museum -- every family in the tri-state area was there -- so we walked down to the Central Park Zoo instead. We had lots of fun -- it wasn't too crowded at all. Here Boylee is contemplating a polar bear.
As we walked down from 81st Street through the park, Boylee was thrilled to find the exact set of rocks he climbed on last spring!

George Washington and Boylee at Federal Hall.

A Lower East Side bike cozy!

At the very cool, brand new Imagination Playground at the South Street Seaport. We didn't see anything else at the seaport, just hung out at the playground until the rain drove us back home.

Kehila Kedosha Janina!

Another Highlight

More To Come, But Here's One Highlight

We didn't see the show, but Boylee was thrilled to see this pic on the side of a payphone!

Boylee's Quote of the Day

"Mama's afraid of mayonnaise."

(He's right!)

We were able to borrow an iPad for our trip to NYC. This'll be great to keep Boylee occupied on the plane rides!
But it didn't have a case...so I quickly sewed one for it.
The fabric is lightly padded, and I added some velcro.Now I just need to decide which books and games to download for Boylee...

Two Tragedies

First, we postponed Boylee's birthday because we were supposed to be getting 2+ days of rain. And it didn't rain it all.

Then Skittles killed this bird. It's been a while since we had anything in our Heaven Bowl, and for some reason this one feels sad. Skittles brought it into the house, I rescued it, and the poor thing sat sweetly in my hand, panting. I laid it outside in a secluded spot and though it managed to sit up, it was dead when I checked a couple of hours later.
Now it's a science observation project...

One More

But we had to postpone the party because of rain.

Preparations

Labels for potions.



Lists of spells.



And an assortment of wands. (It was really handy that a big storm knocked down a lot of branches at our local park, leaving us many "wands" to choose from.)

What Happened Was...

First, Boylee didn't want to have a party for his 8th birthday. Instead he wanted to go to Legoland with his best pal. He has told me, over and over again, that this was his plan and he was going to stick to it. He has literally been planning this for about ten months.

Then...he changed his mind, which was fine by me. I'd rather have a crazy hoard of kids over here for two hours than driving two hours (minimum) to Legoland, spending all day there and then having to drive back. Not to mention the cost of the tickets.

But...Dad's work schedule is terrible right now and he's working weekends for the next two months. I hated the idea of him missing his kid's birthday party, so I decided to have the party on a Friday night. That's pretty much unprecedented in the world of birthday parties, at least in our neck of the woods. But we're doing it. And everyone we invited is coming, which means 15 kids. Ack! It's also going to mean pizza and cake and I'm sure a lot of wild nuttiness.

Our theme is Harry Potter and I will post some pictures of the party ideas that Boylee and I have devised...

Music He Doesn't Like, Other Than Jazz

(Listen to the song here).

Boylee just told me: "This hippie, spiritual song is TORTURE."

Spring!

We're planting basil, and Juliette and Sungold tomatoes. Both of those are small, cherry-type tomatoes, which will be much easier to deal with when harvest time comes around. Last year Boylee found it incredibly painful waiting, day after day, for our ultra-big tomatoes to ripen. We already have chives, strawberries and a single green onion growing.

Four Months Later

Boylee finished the last Harry Potter book this morning. So it took about four months to read however many thousands of pages. He cried a lot over the last fifty pages or so, and as soon as he was done reading he said, " When will she write another book?"

Jogathon Highlights

Wow -- 21 LAPS! Unprecedented! Boylee really turned on the afterburners! Based on our pledges it looks like we'll be raising over $400!

Here's how it all went down:

First, a dad who's a big-time runner helped the kids warm up.


Then they were off! Boylee started at a great slow and steady pace, exactly how they've been practicing with their beloved PE teacher.


Some kids walked at times, but I don't think Boylee ever stopped. (And here he is holding a torch, which was passed from kid to kid.)


Volunteers gave the kids water throughout...though most of it ended up dumped over their heads.


At the end of the 15 minutes Boylee seemed a little wiped out...


But he perked right up!



Afterwards, they all had water and a snack




All in all, it was a great success. I'll be curious to see how much money we raise. Last year with 250 kids we raised $40,000. This year we have 500 students...