Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

Not staying on top of blogging the way I had hoped to. Hey, I still use my treadmill five out of seven days a week :-)

Saturday was spent at a birthday party at the YMCA. A boy from Craft and Swim invited both R and E to a pool party. R had to leave basketball early to attend, but was glad to, since he really likes D. They had pizza beforehand, then opened the presents, played a game of musical chairs (which E did not play) and headed down to swim for an hour. A very fun time.

Sunday we went to Chinatown in New York to pick up the new setting for my engagement ring. I'm really glad to have it fit again! Afterwards we had lunch at a Shanghai place, which was just okay. I guess since we actually have good Chinese food here where we live, it was hard to wow me. It was very cheap though! Here I am showing off my new ring in the restaurant.












We also went down to check out "ground zero". I wish I had gone before construction on the new place began. I had expected to "feel" the spirits of those who perished there, but nothing. The photos on the gates surrounding the construction prompted memories which were upsetting, but the location itself did not prompt any feelings at all.

I've noticed that people who have lived in NY and had been to the twin towers when they were whole are not affected by seeing ground zero, the way people who had never seen them up are. I guess as a New Yorker I appreciated the reality of what was happening at the time it was. Perhaps people who have never seen the towers can only appreciate the enormity of it when they see the hole they left behind. To me though, it just felt like a big construction site. I'm glad to have gone though. I would have regretted not having seen it.

Monday E made a huge list of things he wanted to do, and we managed to get to many of them; a game of Battleship and reading The BFG among others. I was happy that he considered making dinner a "craft", since there are just so many hours in the day.

Tuesday we headed down to the Peabody Museum with a new friend we made while swimming a week or so ago. N is a really sweet boy with lots of enthusiasm. His mother is very lucky that he is so inquisitive and was so absorbed by many of the exhibits. However, this didn't make for a very good companion for my boys. So next time we see N it will be a playdate, and not an outing.












My boys really enjoyed the temporary space exhibit. We definitely have to get back down there to see it again. It was over E's head, but there was enough there to engage him that he stayed happy. R found a really cool exhibit on designing your own solar system. He had to take the gravitational pull of each planet as it rotated around the sun into consideration. We witnessed lots of crashing planets, but never did get a good one. Like I said, we'll have to get down there again.

We'll be getting a Peabody membership this year. It is reciprocal with the Science Center and several places in Boston which we enjoy. We've had a Science Center membership the last few years, but I recently discovered that the Peabody will honor the Teacher Discount for homeschoolers. So instead of $75 we'll be spending $45. I'm so glad I looked into it!

Today we had playgroup in New Haven. There have always been about five or six families in the indoor space we all chipped in for, but today I counted ten! I'm glad that when I mentioned that there were a lot of families to the boys, that R chimed in and said it was too many, and that if next week there are that many again, we should skip it till they head back out to a playground. That kind of noise just drags me down.

Invitations for R's birthday party are out!

Spellcheck isn't work tonight so forgive me. Sometimes blogger is soooo slow.