Daddy and Emily's early Sunday morning

A bike ride to the Kensico Dam park, where there's a great playground. The biking and playing wore Emily out.

Watching "The Pirates of Penzance"

Happy fourth birthday, Belle!

From Friday, August 29, 2014:

Emily and Daddy play a silly running game

Belle is four!

It's exhausting to face forward in a car

Craig's creation (from the Crayola Factory)

Belle's first pony ride

On Tuesday (8/26/14) at Paradise Stables.

She loved it!  The pony's name was Ariel.

At the Crayola factory

Because it's 64 degrees. 

What's summer vacation without ice cream?

Pinecrest Lake

Shopping!

Belle holding her own playing with six-year-olds

At the playground at Stepping Stone.

Bedtime routine

Tufts '02 Reunion

Seren, Melissa, Alex, Katie, Jessica

Reading with Grampy and Grammy

Water fun!

We stopped at the playground on the grounds of the Stepping Stone Children's Museum in Norwalk, CT on Thursday. I saw that there was a sprinkler aspect to the play area, but I didn't have the kids' swim gear. I did, however, have a "just-in-case" change of clothes for each little girl. Confident that the girls wouldn't drive home soaking wet, I encouraged them to take off their shoes and play in the water. Emily joyfully removed her shoes and played in the sprinklers. Belle befriended a few first-graders (age 6) and was playing them on the dry play areas. When Emily was one with the water play, I changed her into her dry clothes and put her wet ones in a plastic bag.

Run around and get wet in her cute pink dress? Why not? The summer is flying by. These girls are growing up quickly. Why not risk stretching or staining the dress a little for some fun? I think back to last summer. Emily was still an infant and Belle was not quite as advanced. Next summer, they'll be different children, I realize. They'll only be almost-two and almost-four one summer, so let's enjoy.

Loving smiles

Emily and Cousin Mia enjoying a snack

The cutest load of laundry this laundry basket ever saw

Ice cream!

Loving "best sisters"

Following the Rules

At the show, the pre-show and after intermission announcements requested that audience members put away their cell phone and cameras. Belle nervously urged me to put my cell away immediately. "Mommy, they said no cell phones!"

Tuckered out

Between the excitement and the walking, Belle was exhausted. She fell asleep on the car ride home and here I am trying to wake her for dinner.

Success!

I snapped this pic at the end of the show. From here, we subways to the car and zoomed home (thanks to August's lighter traffic) in time to pick up a very happy Emily from Nadia's house.

Excited outside the theater

Our seats!

Our seats were all the way on the end (house left), and very close to the stage. The theater offered booster seats. Belle sat in her seat on a booster for part of the show, but also kneeled on her seat (sans booster), and sat on my lap for parts. She was very well-behaved.

At the theater

Our excitement grew as we reached the theater and retrieved our tickets.

Making our way to the Broadway Theater

We stopped for a bite (I bought a coffee so we could sit at a table in a coffee shop, where Belle ate the lunch is packed her), and then continued north to the Broadway Theater at 53rd and Broadway.

Times Square through Belle's eyes

We rode the subway from 96th St to the 40th St exit of the subway. I left us enough time to walk through Times Square to the theater, which is at 53rd St. Belle was mesmerized and excited by Times Square! She gripped my hand tightly, and her magic wand with similar fervor. With nearly every step, Belle exclaimed, "Look!" She marveled at the television-like billboards on the buildings (she especially enjoyed the huge screen above the Disney Store, as it displayed all of her favorite Disney characters; she also chuckled at the images projected on the M&M store). Belle questioned the bank of pay phones, which she encountered for the first time ("why would someone need to use that phone?" Very good question.) Belle liked to look, but not touch (or take pictures with) the various costumed characters (Minnie Mouse, Spider-Man, Elmo, and and more). I loved seeing Times Square through Belle's eyes.

Belle on the subway

Today I took Belle to see her first Broadway show: Rogers &Hammerstein's Cinderella. We dropped Emily at Nadia's house and then drove to our old stomping grounds. I parked the car on the Upper West Side and then we took the subway to Times Square.
Belle was at first frightened by the subway (so crowded, so noisy, so utterly unfamiliar), but then she embraced the excitement of it.
(First on my lap, then on her own seat looking out the window).

Thoroughly amused by the bleating goats

With Daniel.