Florida in July...

For reasons that may forever remain a mystery, the Anderson family decided to have its annual reunion at Disneyworld in July. JULY! In case you didn't know it's hot in Florida in July. Nevertheless, nearly the whole Anderson crew made it down there (We missed you Jenni!!!), and had an awesome time.

The NY Harts decided to drive down rather than spend the money on airline tickets and car rentals. As a bonus we got to see some great friends and great things along the way. For starters we got to see Lindsay Jones Waters in VA. We were hoping to spend a nice leisurely evening together, but NYC traffic being what it is, we didn't actually get to her house until after midnight. Ever the gracious host, Lindsay put up with our lateness and made us a delectable breakfast of cinnamon rolls. MMmmm!

The next day we decided to take the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway. It was gorgeous, and I highly suggest it to anyone in the area. The kids thought going through the clouds was awesome, but found the "overlooks" completely terrifying, in a fun way.

After a delightful day, and a brief stop at the South Carolina State Capital, we made it the home of our good friend Kathi Woodall. Ellie and Nico really hit it off with her kids and Ellie declared that she wants to have more sleepovers with them.

Eventually, we did make it to the Orlando area and joined the whole crew in a week of heat, theme parks, humidity, cousin time and a celebration of my parents 50th wedding anniversary.


Hangin' with the fam.













Marge, B. Ray & Brad with some of the honorary Andersons, Ye Fu and Lyn, some great friends of all of us from many moons ago. I think this was the first time I'd seen them in almost 20 years.










Ellie and Brit were inseparable!













Inseparable and daring...
















Nico and I stuck to the more placid rides, me for obvious reasons, and Nico because that's just what he went for. We did try to get him interested in some of the more intense rides, but after Test Track at Epcot, he was having no more of that. Here we are on flying dinosaurs at Animal Kingdom.







This is one of the rare photos of Alex. He spent a lot of time running around with the girls since he actually could go on the more intense rides. It's a bit hard to see him, but he's there.











Ellie was delighted to find Marie from The Aristocats (one of her favorites still...). She would have been interested in some of the princesses as well, but the lines were simply unbearable.














A rare shot of Nico actually happy to be in a picture. He really liked hanging out with Mike. I think it made him feel a little more grown up to be hanging out with the "older cousins."










He liked hanging with the younger cousins as well, especially when they had a Nintendo DS.












What Nico did while Ellie and Brit went on scary rides... find snails.


















And lest you think I wasn't actually pregnant on this venture... We spent many an afternoon in the pool at the house. Did I mention it was hot?












Our last parting shot of Disneyworld. Nico is back to his thundercloud look.












All in all it was a fantastic trip. It was wonderful to see everyone and the kids LOVED seeing all the cousins. It was also great to be together to celebrate Mom & Dad's 50th anniversary. However, I'm voting for somewhere a little cooler when we celebrate their 75th.

End of School Year doughnuts (belated)

What can I say... our kids in a nutshell.

the old polo grounds

Yesterday I had to visit a site we're about to reconstruct. It hasn't had any work done since it was built in 1913. This site used to feature a bridge that connected to the Polo Grounds, where the NY Giants (baseball, not football) once played. The Polo Grounds and the bridge are long gone, replaced by housing projects. But a staircase connecting this site to the rest of the world and an open area where the bridge once landed are still there, although the staircase is far too dilapidated to be open. So now we're rebuilding the staircase and fixing up the landscape around it.

Right now the site is mainly used by taxi drivers on break. There's a food truck that does a brisk business on the curb there (I can report they have outstanding passionfruit juice).



















The drivers were really happy to hear we were fixing up the space. In this photo you can see the old staircase in the background (if you look closely you can see me walking down).



















The staircase is pretty beat up, but it still works, if you dodge the holes and don't fall off the sides.



















This treasure is on the midway landing. We're refurbishing this and incorporating it into the new staircase.



















Here I am with Tristan Porto, the young hotshot designer who will run the landscape side of this project.



















Alex the Aged Veteran offers some sage advice to Tristan the Young Grasshopper. Or am I just striking a disco pose?

new arrivals

First of all, happy Father's Day to all applicable parties. I myself was honored to receive a very long-awaited toaster, among other delights. The toaster may sound insignificant, but there is a history behind the concept of a toaster in our house that I will not subject you to at this time. Anyway, I am excited to start on English Muffins.


















Recently we added two new members to the family -- and I'm not talking about Solomon and Yehudah, who are still pending. But our change in demographics necessitated a change in vehicles. First, a tribute to our beloved Accord:


















It was so great. We thought we'd keep it forever. But with the twins coming, our numbers would exceed the available seats. Also, the trusty Honda was just not made for the challenging yard reconstruction projects we have taken on. And so, we traded it in for not one, but two new (used) vehicles.

Up first, in order of acquisition, is the truck. It's a 2003 Chevy Silverado with plenty of mileage. But this is not intended to be one of those useless luxo-trucks. It's a worker.



















Seats six on good old-fashioned benches, for those times the whole fam is going camping, or just in case we all need to go off-roading together. Yes, you can turn off the airbags.


















Had to get the Z71 package. Nico appreciates this.


















It's already been very useful. I use its truckish capabilities almost every weekend.

I haul stuff to the landfill...


















...or drag heavy objects around.


















I also drive it to the train station when I'm feeling too lazy to ride my bike (which is most of the time, at that hour). But for transporting large quantities of humans and groceries, etc., you just can't beat... the Odyssey.


















Sharp-eyed observers will notice the same license plate. This is because the new NY license plates are aesthetically unfortunate, especially when paired with the vehicle color we chose. Fortunately, we were able to transfer our old plate over. And this way, we can always remember our old Honda as well as East Germany.

So these minivans have improved in amazing ways since the days of my parents' Caravan (which was revolutionary in its time). Ours is the mid-level model, but that still gets you leather seats and a vast array of features. Moonroof, three separate climate control zones, electrical outlets all over, cd changer, heated seats, half the cylinders shut down while cruising to save fuel, on and on. The rear seats fold completely flat in about 15 seconds:




















































You can also take out the middle seats for a completely cargo van setup, or fold up a middle seat in the middle row to seat a maximum of 8. (Hey, with the truck, that gives us a total capacity of 14! We need more kids!) Suffice it to say, this van rocks. And of course, there's the critical power sliding doors -- how did we live without them?



Makes me wonder what the minivans of the future will look like. But for now, if you're coming to visit, look for these two in the driveway!

two brothers

Last time I saw these guys on the ultrasound, they looked like round globs. Now they're starting to look more like babies. Pretty exciting!

Below is Baby A, a.k.a. Ivan. He's kind of hard to see at first, he's lying on his side looking at the camera. The two circles are his eyes, the top of his head is toward the right.



















And Baby B, whose current nom de guerre is Alyosha.

this weekend: the dyer chilluns

We had the honor of hosting Hannah and Jane Dyer for the last couple days. They are great friends to Ellie and Nico, so they lost no time in having all kinds of fun.

For example, while Ami planted tomatoes...


















... the kids entertained themselves for quite some time on this mound.


















They experimented with every conceivable means of sliding down the hill, usually accompanied by uproarious laughter.


















After a long day of sliding down hills, it's tough to beat Tina's Italian Ices (and other frozen desserts). We joined forces with the Riches on this one.


















In addition to a bazillion kinds of italian ice, they also offer soft-serve ice cream in about 20 flavors. Delicious! Everyone should do that.



















































Thanks for coming out, little Dyeries!

miscellaneous

It's been busy at the Harts lately. Here is a small selection of the more interesting bits.

Ellie had her "friends party" recently, after various circumstances forced a delay.

There were party games...
















They painted flowerpots, then planted them with annuals.















Who wants cake (brownies) and ice cream?















note: Nico wanted cake and ice cream too, but refused to participate in such an insulting poll.















They all had a great time. Ellie had the interesting idea of asking her guests to bring books to donate to African schools instead of presents. That's our idealist daughter. Of course, now we have to ship these books to Africa (or at least the company in South Carolina who passes them on).

And then we had Mother's Day. Pretty low-key this time, but oh yes, there were presents.
















The inevitable kitchen items...
















Gardening hat, picked out semi-democratically by the three of us. (Nico's first choice was vetoed, for reasons you can probably imagine. Alas, no picture).















In other news, we are often visited by a practically tame raccoon. When I shouted at it one night to vacate the premises, it turned and climbed slowly, dutifully as it were, up an adjacent tree -- as if it just happened to want to climb that tree just then, nothing to do with me. And there it sat, with a baleful glare. Harriet the cat stopped by to see what was going on and we all three stared at each other for a little while. I recited a few lines of "Rocky Raccoon," to no effect. There was nothing more we could say to each other, so I gave up after snapping this photo.















And our final news item: For the past week, Ami has been in DC pursuing a legal career (I will leave it to her to explain this, along with the timing, in a subsequent post). The childcare has been charged to a joint venture between myself and our endlessly patient friends Monica and Minna. I have thoroughly enjoyed spending some time with the kids -- it's been awhile. The experience has come complete with Daddy-centric dinners:















Yes, they are fish sticks, and no, I am not ashamed. Much. Ellie was scandalized and after trying a piece of one, opted for cold cereal. Nico and I polished them off with tartar sauce. Ami comes back today, and we are all more than fine with that!