Wilder's First Baseball Game

On Sunday it was Father's Day, and the Mets were playing the Cardinals, so we all hopped in the car and made the roughly 1h drive to Citifield for the big game. Unfortunately the Cardinals won (which pleased everyone else no end, and Bluet in particular really got into it. Aside from the result, a good time was had by all; - although to be fair this was not the ideal location for Wilder who doesn't really like to sit down in one place and watch a whole game - I am sure this will come; for now this was his first baseball game, and he did enjoy clapping along every time with the sound of the crowd. At the end of the game the kids got to queue up outside then re-enter the ballpark at field level, and come out onto the field and run the bases, just like real players. Luckily for me children too small to run by themselves could be carried by their parent, so I got to run the bases carrying Wilder - he was excited to see Mr Met on the way around, but when I put him down to run to home plate he was more interested in sitting and playing in the dirt so I had to pick him up and run the rest of the way home. 

The beach

Here is a post that nearly got lost - I uploaded the pictures from my phone but then never got around to writing anything. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago we had visitors - Emily's old room mate from College, and her Mum, so we took them on a day trip to the beach. The best thing about this was that this was Wilder's first encounter with sand and sea - as you can see, he loved it, although the moving water was a little confusing at first, then produced little laughs of joy. 

Gap toothed Ilona

Yesterday Ilona lost her first tooth (it was hanging on by a thread, so she let Emily pull it out while we were eating dinner). She was so happy (she wanted a loose tooth for months before she finally got one, and one time she told us she had 7 loose teeth at once). When she got home she decided she needed to wash it, and it went down the sink. So she wrote a note to the tooth fairy and left it under her pillow, and in the morning $2 was there - crisis averted!

Messages for planes

My Birthday 2019

Near our house is Putnam park, where there was a large encampment of American soldiers during one winter of the revolutionary war. The rocks in the photos with Bluet are the remains of the chimneys of these tiny huts that slept 12 soldiers each. Anyway, it has a museum that has been closed since Labour Day last year, and opened again on Memorial Day, which was my Birthday. As the school was closed because of Memorial Day, we took the kids, and Emily's friend and her mother who were visiting to check it out. 

On the way home from dinner we stopped for ice cream at a roadside ice cream shop. For some reason Bluet needed to lie down right next to the road while we waited

All the kids at the park

We went to a restaurant for a birthday dinner (I had the impossible burger 2.0), but while we were waiting for the food Wilder was pretty bored, so I took him back out to our car where he could do some driving. This kept him entertained.

Visitors from Switzerland

At the end of April we had visitors from Switzerland, our old neighbours who became our new neighbours for 2 weeks, staying in the apartment attached to our house. This meant that the girls were very excited every day when they came home to school as there were kids to play with at home. On the Saturday in the middle Hugo even went with Ilona to her German school class (I think he found it quite easy). It was great fun, and almost like being back in Switzerland. 

We also took a day trip to New York - this is Bryant Park

And some walks in the woods

We went up the Rockefeller Centre to check out the view

The last night we went to our nearby BBQ joint

Wilder enjoyed playing with the extra recyclin