Summer in NYC

We travel for food.  And playgrounds.

 

Thanks to Poosh, we scored a reservation at Red Rooster.. it was an amazing meal!!

http://redroosterharlem.com/

We did have to drive to Harlem, but it only took about 40 minutes, and it was a really interesting tour-from-the-car experience.

Yes, do order the 'yes, chef' cocktail, it's sooo yum.  So is the Brownstoner.

As far as food goes, you can get Zach to do almost anything if you promise him greens (with the fried chicken appetizer).  I make better carrot ginger soup, but the cornbread is AMAZING.

Meatballs are awesome, so is the jerk chicken, and so was the salmon. 

I loved the blackened catfish.. but I was so full I couldn't finish it,

It was a wonderful lovely amazing night with great company and excellent food. 

Will be asking to do that again next year (did you hear that, Poosh?).

 

 

 

 

Once we got moving the next morning, we went into NYC again.. this time for a trip to Zabar's. 

Eben was excited about the swiss cheese, and wanted lots of it!

We went through the store and got a "picnic" .. which was (of course) way too much food,

but so so so good.  Cheeses and salads and bread and cornichons and smoked whitefish and lox and dolmas.  And three kinds of streudel!!

Once we made it through lunch.. we avoided the nap by running over to the playground and playing in the sand and the sprinkler (not together!).  We looooooved this playground!

look at me jump!

so handsome!

 

and beautiful!

And, not surprisingly, we got some swinging in!

hi dad!

 

 

Then, in true visiting-a-city fashion, we stopped for a pee and a drink.

Needed to capture this true moment of sharing :))

 

And, some eskimo kisses from Jonah!

 

What a great visit, even if too short!!

love love love

Jonah Bear!

We were sooo excited to see Jonah (and Aunt Pooshie and Uncle Zach!).  Jonah welcomed us with an introduction to 'red' his vacuum cleaner. It needed fixing... and--as we all know--those things are best done naked with a beater.

The kids had a great time playing together.. Jonah got a taste of what it might be like to have siblings, and Eben got to be the 'big cousin'.  Jaffa took care of everyone and periodically fought with Eben to remind him who the really big sibling was.

And they watched the movie 'Cars' no less than 4 times in 3 days.  We were really on vacation!!!

 

And, the cousin bath.  The bathroom was very wet after this one!

 

Union Market

Zeric, in his usual form, had his ear to the ground about new and good places to eat in the city.. preferably ones that are kid friendly.  He found Union Market in NE, just near Gallaudet University.  It was well worth the visit!

 

The grown ups relaxed and ate outside, while the kids played in the dirt.. and with beanbags from the guy who had the silver trailer that sold beer and ice cones, and had pink flamingos in his lawn.  And many piercings on his face.

Jaffa and Lula curls together again!

Sushi surprise from Avalon and Eben! 

Maybe they didn't get enough to eat??

 

and Lula gets a daddy spin!  don't watch, mommy..

 

Finally, Ted decided he needed a headshot for his LinkedIn page, so we decided to do headshots of a number of us just for fun.

Voila!

 

 



Ayan .. ayam?

We did two of our favorite things together:

We saw our friends Ayan

and her sister Maya and their parents Amal and Louis,

and we had sushi :))

(note here the hand clapping games)

Jaffa did share the joke with Ayan about how we have mistakenly called her 'ayam' a couple of times. Ayam in Indonesian means chicken :))

We were all very happy to get all caught up,

we sure have missed our friends!!

museum number three

Like in Paris, top on the kids' list of things to do in the US is to go to museums. 

Natural History was top of this priority list.

We spent a lot of time with the elephants, the mummies, and the insects.  It was funny that they had (for holding) the rhino beetle whose cousins we met in Puncak.  We also spent time with the dinos and learned about how horses evolved from small running mammals. 

 

And we saw the Hope Diamond ("I thought it would be much huger!").

And skeletons.  Wow!!

 

It was so exciting that many pictures were warranted.



We really enjoyed spending the afternoon with Memere and Uncle Reuben.

 

And with Avalon and Charles for the first half of the afternoon :)

 

Miss Mary Mack

Jaffa has gotten into the clapping games these days..

..and has been practicing almost incessantly, with anyone who is willing.

Like Zeric :)

Building Museum

The Building Museum is another much-loved destination from years passed, but this is the last year for the construction room.  We are getting to big for things (and, by the way, starting to call things "babyish").  There are other rooms that don't have an age limit, though.. one of which has Lincoln Logs (!!!) and foam blocks on a lit table.

 

 

 

Still enjoying being silly!!

Delia and Anna!!

We had a super terrific and awesome playdate with Delia and Anna, and Benedict!  It was so nice to catch up with them.. they have had an exciting year that has included buying property on marshland, and a fight between a fierce raccoon and their chickens.

barf bags

Eben gets carsick, so, because we think ahead sometimes, we take the bags from the airplane just in case.  Apparently, Jaffa found some more interesting uses for the bags.  These are not puppets, she says.. but they look like it to me.

Playseum

The kids have missed the Playseum alllllll year so we took a trip to Capitol Hill and spend a few hours being cops and robbers (I was the candy thief!), pirates, fireman, in the store, in the restaurant, in the dog shelter.. and many of the other rooms.  It was fun!! 

We also bumped into our friend Lula.. and the girls zoomed off to fight a fire.. curly hair flying!

And then we found a fabulous sandwich (and cookie) place for lunch. Yum!!