together in tarrytown

It was a retreat over four years in the making. On Friday afternoon my friends, Emily, Whitney, Deborah, and I managed to escape the busy routines of motherhood in favor of a girls-only overnight getaway outside of the city. We didn't venture far -- just north of the city in Tarrytown, New York. Whitney, Deborah and I took the commuter train and met Emily, who drove over from New Jersey and picked us up at the train station.

Beginning our adventure at Grand Central Station.

View of the mostly frozen Hudson River from the train.

We checked into our hotel, which was just as historic as the area of the Hudson Valley it is located in, then headed out to dinner.

It was clear as we drove onto the estate that we'd found a winner of a hotel.

The whole purpose of this trip was to relax while we enjoyed each other's company, so we didn't do anything terribly adventurous. But here is a little of what we did do:

- Braved the curiously unheated labyrinthine halls of the hotel in order to soak in the hot tub.

- Stayed up late talking and eating dark chocolate almonds covered in sea salt and turbinado sugar. (Dangerously delicious, those almonds are.)

- Basked in the fact that we wouldn't be awakened during the night or too-early morning hours by our children (even though none of us slept spectacularly well, thanks to a bizarre heating system in the room).

- Ate a late breakfast at a local and apparently beloved diner.

- Crossed the Headless Horseman bridge and wandered the cemetery at the Old Dutch Church in neighboring Sleepy Hollow until we were too cold.

Headless Horseman Bridge (not the original, but lovely just the same).

Frozen.

 The Old Dutch Church.

 Most of these headstones date back 200+ years.

 And this one was in Dutch.

- Found a Starbucks where we could warm up with hot chocolate and continue chatting. (I highly recommend adding toffee nut to your hot chocolate. So tasty.)

- Wrapped up our conversations at the Irvington Public Library, which shared a parking lot with the train station, before we had to part ways and head back home. I scored a treasure on the For Sale cart: an old copy of Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink (more famously known for her Newbery award winning novel Caddie Woodlawn, which I loved as a girl). Not only are the illustrations to die for, but so is the plot.            

It was hard to see our escape together end, but it was good, too, to come home. My boys missed me (as I missed them) --- so much that they made sure that I came home to a clean house. (Score!)

These ladies are so lovely, inside and out, and it is such a privilege to know them, let alone count them among my dearest friends.

'Til next time! (Because, so help me, there WILL be a next time.)

play ball!

It only makes sense that if you're going to have four boys, you might as well invest in some basic t-ball equipment. And so we did. And then we recruited some some friends from the ward to join us at a local park to play some ball.

Play ball!

Our boys are very new to the game, so it was requisite that we start with the absolute basics, like catching.

 At bat and assuming the position.

  The ball didn't go nearly as far as he thought it had.

 There we go. That's more like it.

Garrett fared a little better.

 Matthew's turn.

His turn at the T is over, and he was sorely disappointed to have been sent to the field to catch the balls of other hitters.

Manning first base.

 Three batters/runners versus two dads.

One highlight of this first day of t-ball occurred shortly after a mini game was organized, and two boys both ran to home at the same time, one from third base and the other from first. I don't even know where the batter was headed. It was hilarious and delightful, which I'm sure is one reason why this sport is such a beloved past time. It'll be a fun and entertaining summer watching these boys make more attempts to learn how to play it.

the last hurrah of summer

School [finally!] starts on Monday, so to celebrate/make the most of this final day of freedom, today we visited Pier 25 in Manhattan to play 18 holes of miniature golf.

Garrett, Caleb, and their little friend, Blake, discovered early on that your chances of hitting a hole-in-one are greatly increased if you placed your ball six inches or less away from the hole. Likewise, it helped to use the club to gently guide it in.

Also, form is overrated.

There's no need to take turns. The green is big enough for everyone to hit their balls simultaneously.

And the "magic hole" deserves to be played over and over (and over) again.

They had a great time, and were very entertaining to watch from the sidelines. We capped the outing with a stop at the playground there on the pier where everyone played....

 ....until every one of them collapsed into puddles of exhausted and extremely whiny tears. Which is always a clear signal that it's time to go home.

Exhausted and whiny pretty much sums up how I, too, feel at the close of this summer. It's been a fairly good few months of freedom, but I'm ready for it to be over, and I think the boys are, too. The fact that we have survived these last few days is itself a back-to-school miracle. So farewell, Freedom, and hello Routine. It'll be good to have you back in our lives.

a ferry fun day

The carefree days of summer will soon come to an end (not that I'm counting) (okay, maybe I am...), so to make the most of what we have left/celebrate that it's almost over, yesterday we went on an adventure. A commuter ferry from the Rockaways to Lower Manhattan recently added a stop in our neck of the woods, so we, along with a lot of our friends, decided to ride it up to the Imagination Playground, located near the South Street Seaport.

Our 1.5 mile walk to the pier took us deep into the industrial part of Brooklyn. Luckily we had Garrett with us to read the signs that pointed the way. We arrived at the pier a few minutes before the boat did, which only built up the kids' excitement.

The boat arrived, and we all boarded and climbed up to the very top. The wind was strong (they don't call this ferry Seastreak for nothing!) and the views were spectacular.

  Looking south. That's the Verrazano Bridge in the background.

The building where Blake works is the pinkish one tucked away in the center of this skyscraper cluster.

The ferry docked at Pier 11, just west of the South Street Seaport, so it was only a short walk to the Imagination Playground. I'd forgotten to bring swimsuits, so we stripped down to the bare essentials so the boys could play in the water. I think, though, that their favorite activity at the playground were the giant foam blocks.

Talk about an inner city playground. Look at that landscape!

This landscape they're building is pretty awesome, too.

We stayed at the playground for a while, then said goodbye to our friends and walked down Water Street to meet Blake for lunch. The only bench outside his building that offered shade was directly across the street from the Fraunces Tavern, an 18th-century building that played an important role in the Revolutionary War.

After lunch we headed back home. This time we took the subway. I have no more photos to share, but I wanted to pause in my narrative to describe what it's like to ride the subway with young children. Actually, I'm going to let Jim Gaffigan describe what it's like, in this comedically accurate excerpt from his recently released book, Dad Is Fat:

"The subway is a fast and economical way to get around Manhattan, but from the moment the turnstile smacks your kid in the head to the time your child terrifies you [or, I might add, a stranger who also terrifies you by harping about your lack of parenting skillz] by almost falling in the gap between the platform and the train, to the lack of interest anyone has in yielding a seat to you, to the kid inevitably licking the subway pole that 800 million filthy hands have touched, to almost missing your stop because it's too crowded to get off and you don't want your kid trampled, to carrying the stroller up three flights of subway station stairs behind people who are moving so slow you have to hold yourself back from stabbing them, to the time you realize that the museum is closed for renovations, this fast, economical, environmentally friendly form of transportation becomes more of a treacherous pilgrimage than a way of getting from point A to point B."

True story.

And then you have to do it all again on the return trip. Which is even more exhausting because you and every little person with you is worn out and whiny. And that is one big reason why the ferry was such an appealing option for at least one leg of our trip.

But to be perfectly honest, the ferry wasn't a much easier option than the subway. It also turned out at the last moment to be more expensive that we'd originally thought. But it was fun, and it took us onto even more fun once we docked in Manhattan, and I suppose that's what matters in the end.

crabby, but not sluggish

Oppressive heat and humidity, such as we have been experiencing this week, has a tendency to make all of us pretty crabby. But as much as we wish it would, it has not yet made us sluggish. In fact, I think we have been busier these last few days than I initially imagined we would be. Perhaps that's been a survival mechanism -- staying busy has a way of helping us keep our minds off how miserably sticky we feel. Here are a few things we've been up to during this heat wave.

Soccer. Garrett's soccer season ended the week before, but last Saturday they held a make-up session for one of the days we were rained out. In an effort to promote registration for the fall season, other children were invited to also play, so after weeks of only watching, Caleb got to take to the field. He loved it, and did really quite well. Needless to say, both boys are now signed up for the fall season.

Little House. Confession: I have not ever read the Little House on the Prairie series. Well, let me amend that -- I've read the first book several times, but have never made it through the second. I know, I know. It's a travesty that must be remedied immediately. Which is exactly what I'm currently doing. I am now on the THIRD book (!!!) and am absolutely loving it (and possibly also kicking myself for never sticking with it when I was younger). Anyway, it's looking like this attempt will be the one that sticks, even with the fact that I had to pause in between books two and three to read this month's book club pick, The Fault in Our Stars, which we met to discuss last night.

Union Square Farmer's Market. We've been through here many, many times, but have never actually stopped to sample the goods. We had a free afternoon on a beautiful day, so we decided to see what the hype was all about. If it was closer to home, I might do more grocery shopping here, but as it was, the half gallon of cold apple cider that we enjoyed in the grassy shade and the few pieces of maple sugar candy fresh from Vermont that melted on our tongues (and which made me think fondly of Laura Ingalls Wilder during her Big Woods days) were enough.

Sponge Quest. I must be crazy because one day, even after another three-mile-round-trip walk in the hot sun to 3 Guys for produce, I went on a quest that took me much further it should have for colorful sponges so I could make these sponge balls for the boys to play with at the park sprinklers. That day I my walks around the neighborhood totaled more than 8 miles, and I was sure beat by the time I finally crawled into bed. But my efforts were successful. The sponge balls are super easy to make, and on every visit to the playground sprinklers that we've taken them with us on these hot, hot days (which, I assure you, have been many), I've been That Mom -- the one who all the children hang around because you have Cool Toys. If for no other reason, you all should consider making some just for how awesome everyone will think you are.

image source

The Last Day of School. Kindergarten officially ended for Garrett on Wednesday. To celebrate we stopped in at the Carvel around the corner for ice cream. And now I'm counting the days until school starts again in the fall. (Okay, not really, but that might only be because the reality of the Summer Situation hasn't fully hit me yet.)

"Fever! In the morning, fever all through the night." What I thought was a boy mopey and bored out of his mind only an hour after the school year ended turned out to be a boy with a minor virus. Garrett fell first, followed by Caleb. Of all illnesses to have, though, this one is pretty decent. They're only a little more crabby than usual during the day, and feverish at bedtime, which a dose of Tylenol seems to get under control after a couple hours. Then they wake up and begin again. It seems to last only a couple days, so unless the virus mutates, we should all be back to normal in time for birthday celebrations this weekend.

Crabbiness Pays -- in Salmon. One afternoon, when it was especially hot and I was especially crabby, we stopped in at the grocery store to pick up a few needed items. I noticed that the frozen salmon was priced at $4.99 a bag, which is steal, so I brought one with me to the check out stand. In the chaos of keeping all the kids in my sight while I paid, I didn't notice until a block later that I was actually charged $8.99 for the salmon. This happens all the time in Brooklyn -- poorly/not even marked items and incorrect shelf stickers. It makes me mad every time I end up over-paying for something, but usually I just sulk for a little bit and then move on. But this time I was too crabby, so I hauled my brood back to the store, showed them the not one, but two $4.99 price stickers on the bag of salmon and demanded my money back. For once they actually didn't put up [too much] of a fight, so I got to eat salmon that night with $4 I might not have otherwise had in my pocket.

So Long, Farewell. My good friend, Melanie, is moving tomorrow, so we organized a girl's night in her honor. Nearly two dozen of us gathered for ice cream at the hip, new (and incredibly delicious) parlor, Brooklyn Scoops, where we surprised the employee working solo with an obscene amount of customers on a normally slow Tuesday night. He said he was was grateful for the business, but I apologized just the same for not thinking to call in advance; honestly, more people showed up to say goodbye to Melanie than I thought would! She is more than worthy of the love, though, and I, for one, will desperately miss her and her kids.

Bringing Home Baby. Yesterday it was my privilege to be able to pick up my friend Deborah and her brand new baby, Levi, from the hospital. I don't have a photo, but you can take my word for it when I tell you that he is adorable.

Crazy Quilting. After more than 2 1/2 years of working on it, my crazy quilt is almost done! I've been working extra hard on it this week so that I can hopefully have it finished in time to share tomorrow evening at our ward talent show. I only have the binding left, so maybe, just maybe, I will get it done. I will take a picture -- nay, dedicate an entire post! -- when it's completely finished, so watch for that maybe next week.