Eloise at the Plaza

Oh my. I cannot believe we are through the first week of summer. It FLEW by. The girls are absolutely LOVING summer camp. Mia tried zip lining twice today! Emi was very excited to practice archery…just a great time. Ten is out on a boat this evening with a friend, and the kids and I made the long drive into New York to one of the river towns to visit a friend. It was an hour drive after finishing camp. Throw in a flat tire and trip to fix that, and you can imagine that we have had an eventful week.

Anyway, catch up continued. Two weekends ago Mia got invited to The Plaza in the city for a birthday party. Magical. I was so excited for her. I have been contemplating taking the girls to the Eloise tea there since this is one of our favorite books, so this was a good introduction to The Plaza. Good luck following those rambling sentences that I do not intend on fixing.

Hmmm…what’s in this bag? I think it was 6 new Eloise books for the girls to share.

Starting a bit at the end, but each girl came home with a few Eloise trinkets. A notepad, pencil, a door hanger, lip gloss, etc. Very cute.

This was an all girls party, so they were able to do very girly things. One event was to choose your own outfit for a fashion show. Mia went with an all white ensemble. She looks like an angel.

The usual pizza was pushed aside for tea sandwiches and fruit. Mia really liked the fruit but said that the bread was kind of dry/almost stale….hmmm…wonder what was up with that…and wonder if she would like the actual tea luncheon at The Plaza…mental note made.

The girls spent time coloring and decorating little bags to bring home. Our coloring sheets are still tucked away in our Eloise bag in the girls’ room.

You can’t have an Eloise party without a reading about Eloise.

Enjoying cupcakes

The girls got a chance to walk down the red carpet and model. This was apparently the best part of the party.

Mia had such a good time at this party, and Ten said it was one of the best parties that he has ever been to. The girls were all very well behaved, and they had such a fun time. I was so happy to be spending the morning with Emi and Kai at a different event, but I am dying to go to The Plaza for an Eloise tea party…because I am mentally 6 I suppose.

Before heading home, it looks like Mia got to stop by Ten’s office for a little cheesecake….because you know cheesecake after cupcakes….much needed.

This weekend made me so thankful that my kids get the best of everything here. Beach life, suburb life, and city life. Mia was a city kid for a while, so it’s always nice to get to go back in and hang out for an afternoon.

Kids U Birthday Party

So, trying to do a little bit of catch up from last weekend. I was going to do this in one post, but realized I just had too many pictures to combine for what the girls did last weekend.

Emi got invited to one of her best little friend’s birthday party last weekend in Stamford. So, we picked out a cute dress to wear with shorts underneath since it was at a gymnastics/inflatables type of place.

It has been brought to my attention that it looks like Mia only has one arm, and Emi looks…really weird…hahaha. Well, still a cute picture.

We dropped Ten and Mia off at the train station and headed straight over to Kids U in Stamford. This was the best venue for a 4 year olds party. I actually wish we would have used this place rather than the one that we had chosen.

Indoor slides on hot, humid days.

Same bouncy house obstacle course but at a different location. Emi flies through this thing in no time with as much practice as she has had on it.

Coming down the giant slide I had to talk her into trying. She played on this thing non-stop with the birthday girl.

Over and over again. Having such a good time.

After playing on the inflatables and this huge play structure, the kids got to enter a room that is more gymnastics like. Emi kept going across the beam trying out new things that she has learned in her gymnastics classes. She LOVES the beam.

After a little while, I had to convince Emi to go and try and something else. She is a fearless kid when it comes to physical challenges, but socially, she is very timid.

Flying on the trapeze. She was kind of meh with this, but tried it a few more times.

After the kids had played for more than an hour, we headed to the party room for pizza and cake.

Emi must have been starving because she ate two slices of pizza and all of her cake, which is about 2 slices of pizza more than usual. We said happy birthday and thank you and then headed to the grocery store. We were so tired when it was finally time to go get Mia and Ten!

Also, we got the birthday girl a mermaid tail blanket, set of dress up rings, and a birthday reading book. Really cute gifts for a 4 year old girl. In the goody bag, Emi got one of those mermaid sequence slap bracelets which she hasn’t taken off since.

Birthday and Father’s Day Weekend

Ten is always a bit out of luck because his birthday and Father’s Day are usually only a few days apart. This year his birthday was the Friday before Father’s Day. Last year, I totally failed both gift wise and event wise, so this time around I wanted to make him feel special.

We decided not to do a cake this year, but one of his coworkers bought him a small piece of very nice cake…so Mia ran and grabbed a bunch of candles, so that we could do a proper celebration. 

We all sang Happy Birthday and Ten blew out his candles….and Mia and Emi quickly ate the cake up. I had a tiny taste of it….and oh my….it was delicious….and I immediately added “eat cake” to my Tokyo to do list.

We also gave Ten his gifts. We got him a cookbook for dads and a french fry slicer. He has been wanting this thing for a while….so I think he likes it…but we haven’t been able to test it out yet.

Beautiful princess candles on the cake.

On Sunday, we celebrated a really nice Father’s Day. We gave him a family compass and a nice book about what being a dad means. We then drove over an hour north to a Father’s Day BBQ at a local farm. We had a nice drive up and were able to buy some gifts for people in Japan there. Everything is locally made which makes it the best kind of gift in my opinion.

Once again….my phone memory was an issue so I got one photo of the setup….and it wasn’t a very good one. I absolutely need to get my phone all cleared out….it’s getting pretty ridiculous….and was in fact one reason that I stopped blogging in the past.

BBQ buffet under a big white tent.

 

They had cheeseburgers, hotdogs, watermelon, baked beans, cheesy potatoes, salad, cornbread, and just so much more. Also, there was a good breeze blowing…perfect lunch. We also enjoyed the apple cider they make there.

Ten had 3 cheeseburgers! They also had grilled chicken, brisket, and pulled pork. We didn’t try those…but it all looked really good.

 

We also had pie for dessert. I had a slice of blueberry but couldn’t finish it.

 

Ten had a slice of each…no idea how he can hold that much food.

Mia loved the food and the farm store. My little friend Emi was having the best time playing in the gravel.

 

So, that is what we did to celebrate Ten’s weekend. He really enjoyed his meal out, and it was well deserved. He does an awful lot for our family, so he deserved a day out to do something that he loves….eat and spend time with his kids 😉

Birthday Party at the Water Club

Saturday was a busy/fun day. First , Mia had ballet rehearsal in the moring. I worked as a volunteer, so at 8:15 in the morning we loaded into the car and drove to the studio which is right across the boarder in NY. Mia practiced until 10, and then we drove back home to get ready for….another birthday party. It feels like every weekend we have 1-2 parties to go to. I think we have been to maybe 8 parties in the last six weeks! I just recently had to decline an invitation because it was just getting crazy out of hand! 

Anyway, this party was at a private water club which was super nice. The mom is actually a world famous athlete, so I really tried to only snap pictures of Mia….only fair as someone might actually recognize who she is.

Anyway, the kids spent the first hour of the party just hanging out in the pool and swimming. The moms chatted under the sun umbrellas. It was so nice because the club staff were constantly coming around to take drink orders and to see that we were  taken care of.

There is Mia in the orange floaties. The girl in the pink is wearing Emi’s. I brought hers just in case, and the mom that borrowed them was so thankful.

So, pool parties can be so dangerous. Mia actually got out of the water and asked if she could take the floaties off….She is a great swimmer, but safety first when playing around in the water. No sooner than I had explained to her why she had to keep them on…we saw a mom jump into the water, fully clothed (handbag and all). Apparently, her child had gone under and couldn’t get up to get air. The lifeguard didn’t even notice. The mom basically rescued her kid. So, so lucky. Mia said….wow, that was terrible. I will definitely keep these on.  Several kids ended up in floaties after that.

Bright and sunny day. I believe it was only 72 degrees….June in New England. Yay for heated pools.

 

Hi again!

After swimming we went indoors for lunch and entertainment. They had a small buffet set up, and you could order anything off of the restaurnt menu. They did a great job making sure everyone was taken care of. 
  

Mia had the balloon maker do a T-rex. She also had a purple cat made for Emi.

  
We then sang Happy Birthday, ate ice cream cake, and did face painting.

Snapped a pic in the car. She chose to have Pikachu….but she didn’t want the whole face…just a character…very cute.

We then got very nice gift bags to take home and everyone started to clear out. We were asked if we wanted to stay a bit to hang out

, but I knew Emi was waiting   at home. We said our goodbyes, and made our way to the car.

Fun way to spend the morning, and it’s so fun to celebrate a birthday with a family that you very much do like. 

After we grabbed Emi a Happy Meal and took her to the library with us. Whew, I was tired when we got home.

 

The Matsuri and Birthday-mania continues

 Still catching up on what we did over the weekend. On Sunday (May 21), we went to Norwalk to go to a family friend’s birthday. It was a very low key event, but a private chef did come and cater it. They served the most amazing tea and sandwiches. We also had some really good pasta salad and other picnic foods.

The kids enjoyed snacking on fruit and helping themselves to lots of herbal tea.

  

While the adults chatted, the kids basically had free reign of the house and outside. They were running around every which way just having a great time.

 

 After staying for about two hours, we decided to leave early so that we could go to “The Matsuri” in Harrison, NY. We stayed at the matsuri long enough for the girls to get to play six games each and to cash in their tokens for prizes. 

Emi playing the pitching game (not sure what this game is called). I dont think she could have gotten any closer.

  

Woohoo! She knocked a few off and surprisingly actually missed a few.

  

Mia did an awesome job and won tons of tokens.

  

Here the girls were playing a ball catching game. Apparently, this is where the yo-yo game was…but they ran out of yo-yos before we got there. The girls were pretty disappointed. Crazily enough some families would walk by and have like 10 yo-yos for one kid! We love the yo-yos too, but not sure that much!

  

Ring toss hosted by Mia and Emi’s current Japanese school. I’m not sure how much longer they will attend this place though. It’s pretty far from our house, and Emi literally breaks out in a rash from the stress of going there. Maybe a private tutor is the way to go?

  

Golf. The guy that ran this game was so super nice! He took quite a bit of time teaching Mia how to hold the gold club. He was so patient and cheerful.

   
 

Me and Emi took a break from the sun under this nice tree.

So, a few things.  The festival this year…..not as good as last. 😦 For example, the Japanese bakery wasn’t there this year. The girls realy wanted to grab a few things…but they were out of luck. Also, the food area was taken up by a giant tent selling Indian food?? I love Indian food, but you kind of want some Japanese food at a matsuri. Indian just felt out of place…..also lots of fusion options….no thanks.

Secondly, when we go to these sort of events….I totally hang out in the background and try to let Ten do his thing with the girls. It’s not because I don’t want to join in….it’s more because Japanese people tend to speak to our kids in English if they see me….but if I’m out of sight….then they use Japanese….so I’m like a creeper in the background at these things….unfortunately.

Anyway, after about an hour and a half, we headed to the grocery store and grabbed a few things for the week. Then we dropped Mia and Ten off at home and headed to our second birthday party of the day.

The second party was held at the Darien Nature Center. It was our first time there, and it was such a great venue for a birthday party. Emi actually said she was too tired to go, but these are pretty good friends…..so off we went.

The party started with a nature walk. Emi was really into trying to complete thr scavenger hunt card.

  

After the walk, we got to go inside and pet lots of critters. Some of them included bunnies, turtles, a hedgehog, snakes, and some lizards. The kids really enjoyed this part.

  
  

Finally, we headed downstairs to the basement where a very cute party room was set up. The theme was a beach party, and the decorations were adorable. Also, the goody bags were little sand buckets filled with things like sunglasses, beach balls, water guns, and more. Very fun.

  

The kids were served pizza, raw carrots, and fresh strawberries. Unfortunately, Emi was way just so overly excited about her noise maker that she forgot to eat. I had to keep going over and remind her to take a bite.

  

Simple theme and cute table.

We sang “Happy birthday,” and then ate the best cake ever. I’m honestly not much of a birthday cake fan, but they asked the adults to please have some as they just had so much left. I had barely eaten, so I took a piece….and omg. It was not overly sweet at all and had only a thin layer of icing. The center had some sort of custard cream in it…..so good. 

After Emi cleaned up her trash, we said our good byes and headed out the door with the rest of the guests. We finally made it back home at nearly six o’clock. It was a jam packed day, so we came home and crashed. I feel like even though there wa a lot going on this day, we managed to handle it in a way that didn’t feel overwhelming. 

My Birthday!

 Over the weekend we celebrated my birthday. I will say it was very low key. I decided to skip out on the cake, and when Ten asked me what I wanted as a gift, I told him nothing. There isn’t anything that I truly want/need, and I’m not the type that likes to buy things for the sake of buying something. Also, my Mom did send me a gift card to Starbucks, so I felt like that was perfect and just enough.

Anyway, so we decided to have breakfast at the Hyatt. I am such a loyal Hyatt fan…one of the few brand loyalties I do have…so was really looking forward to it.

The restaurant is like being in Bali. At least that is what it reminds me of. Very pretty.

  

Emi’s plate. She ate almost everything on her plate! She is such a tiny thing who basically survives on air, so we were happy that she filled herself up.

  

Mia had lots of fruit and some pain au chocolat.

 

Mia enjoyed lots of fruit and some pastries.

 

 

I loved the little flowers that Mia was drawing.

  

Ten and I basically had the same things. Sausage, home fries, and a veggie and cheese omelet. Extra bacon for Emi. We also split a bagel with cream cheese and lots of smoked salmon.

 

Another view of the restaurant.

We really had a nice time having breakfast out together as a family, and the girls loves being at this restaurant….however, we had horrendous service this morning. Like truly terrible, it was so bad we cut breakfast short. I know that we will unfortunately never eat or stay at this Hyatt ever again. So sad.

   While Ten was speaking to the manager about the horrible service, the girls and I went and took some photos around the atrium.

Mia wanted her picture taken with these pretty pink flowers.

 

  

I think the best picture of Emi I could get. She seriously just would not get in the pictures.

  

We threw pennies into the water and made wishes. Actually, Emi threw a quarter…Ten would pass out if he knew…haha

 

We basically made the best out of a bad situation and then went home to change to get ready to go to the Maritime Aquarium followed by Kumon. We decided on the aquarium because the girls really wanted to go, and it was the last day of our membership.

Creating sea animals to add to the display.

  

Spending time touching jelly fish.

  

On our way to the indoor play area before watching and Imax movie. We saw Born to Be Wild…and it was so incredibly good. Even Ten thought it was great which is saying something…I wouldn’t say he is as environmentally sensitive as I am.

  

We let the girls play in the under 5 area for a good, long time. Usually we skip this area, but since we probably won’t be back for a while…we let them play most of the morning until the movie started.

We spent the last bit of the day at the butterfly house.  The butterflies were so active since it was such a hot day.  

A few hung out on my bag.

  

…and Ten was very popular with the purple butterflies.

    

The girls loved the butterfly house this morning. They range anywhere from terrified to love when it comes to the butterfly house.

 
So there you have it. 

In other news, we have been working very hard here. I have started on a few different holiday projects, Emi is about half-way potty trained, I have been decluttering and cleaning faster than everyone has been able to destroy it and lots more. Also, hoping to enjoy this last full month of summer before the hectic school schedule begins again.

Also, I see the errors and typos in the post but can’t be bothered to change them.

Father’s Day Weekend

I have just had so much going on here recently (had to fill out and take medical forms to doctor, plan the girls’ fall schedule/book classes, deal with some insurance issues, pay city taxes, etc….list goes on and on), that I was a little worried that Ten’s birthday weekend/Father’s Day weekend was going to be a flop. However, I was able to pull it together at the end of the day.

First, we wanted to get Ten a cake that he would enjoy. He loves icecream cake, so we chose this one from Baskin Robbins. Ha! He loves baseball (almost as much as my grandma…so that means a whole lot), so he loved it! 

Rocky Road cake. It says “Happy Birthday! Let’s go Yankees!” haha. Even the guy when I picked it up had a good laugh about that. Mia came up with the wording on her own, and she was so proud of herself.

We used a Cars candle from Mia’s birthday. No sense buying new candles.

While I had made a really nice baked ziti for dinner, Ten and the girls ended up requesting our usual Friday night dinner. The girls have pizza and Ten and I share chicken nuggets. We all share the fries that come with the nuggets.

He was pretty surprised….even though a little someone (Emi) totally spilled the beans the night before. She just started saying at dinner “We got you a baseball cake dad, a BASEBALL CAKE.” Over and over again…there was no recovering from that.

On Saturday, we all went to see Finding Dory. 
I had not been to a movie theater in probably 5 years! This was also Emi’s first trip to the movies! Big day I guess you could say. 

Yes, I bring in my own food…but this would have easily cost us $30-40. it just makes no sense to pay that much! Snow caps for Mia and Ten, Reese’s Pieces for Emi, and Gobstoppers for me. i also popped one big bag of popcorn, poured some butter flavoring on top, and put it in these two bags. The girls brought some juice, and the adults had vitamin water. Also, in my defense….some people brought in whole meals!

Pre movie selfie! We got there about 30 min early to pay for parking, buy tickets, take Mia to the bathroom, and find seats. Perfect amount of time.

  

Mia basically devoured both bags of popcorn! I just thought it was so funny to watch her just sit there and eat handful after handful. She takes movie watching so seriosuly. She reminds us no talking, turn off your phones, etc. She is really fun to go and do things with. Both girls are, but Emi is just at the age where it still requires a lot of work.

    

Seriosuly enjoying that popcorn.

  

After the movie…best picture we could get…no idea what they are looking at.

Emi did a great job. She didn’t make a peep! She also fell asleep for about the last 30 min, but we totally expected that. Everyone liked the movie. My honest opinion is that it was good but I don’t know if I would watch it again. If anything , it may have been better to rent. Really cute but sometimes a little slow.

Note: we also did get Ten a birthday present and made him Father’s Day cards that included a picture of each girl.

Today we have a busy day! Emi has a graduation party at school, I have to go back to the doctor’s office to pick up camp forms, Emi has a swim lesson, I have vacation planning/packing to do, and I just got my car emissions test slip in the mail. This is of course on top of Kumon, housework, and having both girls home all day! Will be a busy one for sure.

Mia is 4!

On Saturday, Mia turned 4! We talked about it, and she decided that a family birthday party would be really fun. I was happy to delay hosting a large party for another year, so win-win.

So very fortunately, Ten was able to make it home at 4:00. He loaded the girls into the car to go pick up Mia’s birthday dinner which was pizza from Sound Beach Pizza and fries from Garden Catering. She requests this several times a week, so we kind of knew what we would be eating…haha.

While they were getting into the car, I quickly set out her gifts and decorations. She has been really into Cars since forever now and more recently Planes, so we decided to do a bit of both.

  

   She had no idea that we had decorated for her birthday, and her smile was priceless. She was just so happy…which made us even happier.

 She immediately ran over and grabbed her stuffed dinosaur that Nana got her. Oh how she loves this thing. She has wanted this dinosaur since Christmas, and it didn’t quite make it into Santa’s sleigh..so she was thrilled.

Very happy to open her t-shirts from Mom and Dad. Miles from Tomorrowland and Dusty from Planes. Definitely not a girlie girl.

  

Next , we brought out her cake. The cake was so cute and made from the Very Strawberry flavor from Baskin Robbins. So good! This year we let Mia get a cake made (first time), but next year it will be Emi’s turn. I just can’t imagine having two cakes in less than a week!

Big Smiles

  

Make a wish.

   We had a great, laid-back night at home, and most importantly Mia felt like it was her special celebration.