autumn stroll in central park

 there's really not much to be said. thanks corinne, for getting me to finally enjoy the colors before they are gone.

kids in costume

 just after i picked simon up from school i took a few pictures before we started trick-or-treating. i just wish mim has been in her lion costume. she was refusing to put it on. but at least she had a mask.

simon was in character all day. he loved showing off his ninja moves.

and mim loved copying him. but probably the best thing about these shots? mim's hand isn't in her mouth.

and then as soon as he joined her in the frame, she stopped.

this is my favorite.

summer's end at the highline

simon was third on the waitlist for the charter school i want to send him to and i knew they were going to pull from it at some point today. knowing that it could possibly be his last day of summer i wanted to do something fun. so i took the kids to my happy place, the highline. i hope he thought it was a good last day of summer.

miriam was so full of energy, it was impossible to get a good picture of her. and then this happened. i think it was mim's idea. so much love.

and then liz offered to take a picture of us. thank you. mim still wouldn't hold still.

and a few more from my phone. thank you lesley for cluing us in to imperial woodpecker sno-balls. no future trip to the highline will be complete without a cup.

fête paradiso

we took a morning ferry to governor's island this morning. barely made it. but we did. and this was our reward.

because we were early there were so few people. it was magical. the next ferry didn't leave for another hour. we practically had the place to ourselves.

it wasn't easy getting mim onto this ride. she started out on my lap while i sat on the donkey. then i managed to place her in the saddle. then worked my way back to a reasonable distance to get a picture.

we were so happy to have liam with us. those kids had a blast.

we dined under these lights.

and had this visitor join us for lunch.

i admit i had a hard time adjusting to new york city. but now i never want to leave. and this is one of the reasons. things like this don't happen anywhere else in the world.

fête paradiso at governor's island. it's here for the rest of the summer. it's a vintage parisian carnival set up in a park that's five minutes away from manhattan by ferry. these rides were slated to go up in a museum until someone had the brilliant idea of turning them into a carnival. our kids were among the first to enjoy them in a hundred years. give or take.

moving up

simon's moving up in this world. from pre-k to kindergarten.

you would think he'd be happier about this. he's not a performer though. that was pretty clear during their class performance.

i love how he's walking his fingers along the backside of the chairs on his way to his seat.

and this is the woman i have to thank for taking such good care of my kid for the past nine plus months, ms. dinkl.

after the moving up ceremony, families were invited back to the classroom for treats. simon told me earlier that he wanted to come home with me, but after eating and playing in class with his friends he decided to stay the whole day. he's really going to miss it. and this smile is one of my favorites. it's so simon.

i remember on his first day of school he came back saying they had all these dress ups in his class. he loved the firefighter and the policeman uniforms. this kid learned the alphabet and how to write his name. he learned how to draw stick figures. he learned how to form new friendships, and balance them with existing ones. he learned so much. i'm so glad he went.

these guys

cherry blossoms

i've lived here nearly three years, and this is the first time i've made it to the brooklyn botanical gardens.

i'm not sure what i thought it would be like. i imagined mim running under the promenade of trees, throwing blossoms around and me getting fabulous pictures of it all. but this is what really happened, mim had no desire to run around or play with her friends. she had no intention of allowing me to get some good photos. the pictures of her on the bench were from the only opportunity i had to even prove we were there. fortunately, i had friends there that could help me get a shot of the two of us. thank you, amanda.

river run playground

after our trip, robert still had about a week of vacation left. this meant both kids had someone paying attention to them at the playground the whole time. they must have been in heaven. and simon never passes up a chance to scoot alongside his long-boarding daddy.