A new career in a new town

I think that the thing that made the biggest impression on Bluet and Ilona about New York was those street artists who draw (almost good) pictures of tourists (that look a bit like the subject) in Central Park. When we got back they took turns of posing for and being drawn by each other. Here is Bluet's picture of Ilona, I will update with Ilona's picture of Bluet if/when I find it






While drawing they had a discussion of future careers. Ilona says she wants to be an artist while Bluet wants to be a scientist as she thinks that is more fun, for some reason

New York

This weekend we took Bluet and Ilona for an overnight trip to New York. First stop, the Upper East Side, where we ate lunch then took a walk to the apartment we used to live in on 79th Street.



Onwards, to Rainbow Hardware, where we used to buy our DIY supplies (they also stock more or less everything else you could think of for your home), where we also took a look at paint colours for our new house.

We then walked further downtown to the hospital where Bluet was born, then took a taxi down to our hotel near Grand Central. After dumping our bags, we headed up to Central Park via Bloomingdales, where Ilona got a new pair of shoes



And then Central Park, the kids favourite, where they ate ice cream and climbed big rocks.




There was time to visit Whole Foods Market for refreshments



And then for dinner, then bed





Sunday we headed downtown to get the best view (land based) of Bluet's current obsession, the Statue of Liberty




Then the train home

First time in New York

We even managed to fit in Wilder's first trip to New York (and Ilona's first one she can remember). It was more or less in and out, a quick stroll to Central Park via the Lego store. We ate lunch in Bryant Park and Ilona vaguely saw the Empire State Building

Before we were in our new house

We were in a temporary house in Danbury (we've been in our new house for almost 1 month now, so these are a little old). Anyway, it was near a bounce park, which Bluet and Ilona are actually at right now (it's a day off school for them).



The temporary apartment had a pool and a rainbow


And looked like this


They also had some swimming lessons to get them up to speed, and before school started


Made some Art

(Top Ilona bottom Bluet)

Bluet was so excited for school she made this


One time we went out for dinner

Some American Videos

Just in case you've run out of things to watch on Netflix. Right now Wilder is starting to speak, and sometimes makes a little sense (he seems to answer yes to questions sometimes), but mostly he says 'gum'

First Day of School

It's been a while so maybe we can work backwards from where we are now to Wilder's birthday, and see what happens. So yesterday was Bluet and Ilona's first day at their new school. Bluet is in Second Grade while Ilona starts kindergarten. They were both overly excited to discover that this meant that they would get to ride the school bus every day. It stops just outside our new house (which should come up in a later post if we are going backwards), and picks them both up around 7:30AM - so a nice early start for everybody, especially as we now have to make 2 packed lunches and 2 snacks every day.



Here we all are waiting for the first bus yesterday. The excitement levels in the house about riding the bus got so extreme that we had to go out many minutes early to wait, and so were outside for a while. Then the bus arrived, they both clambered on and off they went to school. The bus then returned around 13:30 to return Ilona (kindergarten has half days for the first week) and then around 15:30 to drop off Bluet. Both of them were extremely happy when they got home, and Bluet was so excited to go to school this morning that she had trouble sleeping last night.