Beary bear

Beary bear belongs to Ruby’s class. Every night some lucky family gets to take Beary bear home and show him a good time. The competition is savage,  there's a book the parents have to fill in with pictures (no mean feat to take the pics, write the entry, get the pics printed and everything sorted all in a night after work..). But  beary bear has done some extraordinary things in NYC.  We did manage to take him out in the freezing cold to get some ice cream though turned out it was Beary bear’s turn to learn about going to plan b. Screme was closed so we settled for a munchkin from dunkin. 

Recent trips (Fall 2012)

One really great day trip (planned by Al) was to Cold Spring. About an hour and a bit north into New York state, it's a cute arty village. One of the nicest things is the train trip up there which is just miles and miles along the Hudson river bank with gorgeous fall leaves.

Which Ruby loves to crunch on.

We had lunch in a cute restaurant which used to be the old railway station, looked around the village, got some hot apple cider and spent a lot of time in the village playground.

I went on Ruby's first class trip with her which was apple picking in New Jersey. My favourite part was going on the yellow school bus.

Then there were a few trips closer to home, including a recent hike to Carroll Gardens which took us 2 hours in horrible Sunday subways. Love Brooklyn but not enough to do that again for a while.

Ridgewood to see Rob and Leslie. Utterly Handsome Eben in the school field opposite their house.

And closer to home, forays to Central Park. This was from when mum was here.

And one of the highlights of mum's trip was seeing Woody Allen playing clarinet at the Carlyle. The guys practically expires when he tries to play, a little painful but very exciting to be that close to him.

And a concert at Carnegie Hall to see the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Lovely concert and truly beautiful venue.

Halloween 2013

Our street amazing as usual. This year's costumes: Ruby - fairy. Eben - gruffalo. Al - rocker (?).

So we don't forget in 20 years time, from left: Sara, Olive, Ruby and Emma.

Orient

Great holiday in Orient with the Hardymans.

Wedding

One very important post I've just realized I'm missing. Wedding of the year- Wantman, Bowman - summer 2012. I don't have enough photos (for which I blame Meir) but here are the ones I have of our trip to England.

Three little ladies sitting on the bed

Little boys in waistcoats.

Preparing Ruby for when we move back to England

Lake on a Mountain

Still in Canada - today we went for lunch to a beautiful place, Lake on a Mountain. Lovely view, and even though lunch with Eben is rarely relaxing, Al managed to have a beer and we both finished our meal.

First time in Canada

We're living in New York - we have to at least go to Canada and see what it is about the country which makes people so g-ddam lovely. Our criteria was that we wanted somewhere relaxed, beachy and somewhere you could drive to from New York. We were recommended Prince Edward County by Cassie's mum (who is Canadian) - a loyalist area - so we wouldn't be unwelcome - and we found a house online in Wellington on the Northern edge of Lake Ontario. It was an ambitious 7-8 hour journey in the car with the kids which we made it through and got here a couple of days ago. Couldn't be nicer. The house is really quaint and gorgeous and literally steps from the lake which is like a very calm sea so perfect for Ruby. There are tons of deserted lake shores around - here's one of them which we went to yesterday, splashed around and had a picnic.

We've mostly paddled, and eaten.

People are RIDICULOUSLY nice. Wellington is a town of 1700 people (apparently ambitious), and tonight we got invited round to our nextdoor neighbors for a glass of wine, together with Lizanne who owns the house and is staying nearby. They'd gone to such an effort, .wine, nibbles, made various barriers so the kids wouldn't hurt themselves and were taking endless photos of them. couldn't get enough even though Ruby and Eben were literally tearing their deck apart.

So Ruby and Eben are happy.

Eben especially following his introduction to chocolate orange ice cream.