We are just gonna ignore that I haven't posted in months, okay? Okay.
The kids got outta school a couple weeks ago. The Goose had her last day of preschool, which was also MY last day of preschool. It was brutal. She then had her dance recital and lost her first tooth within two days. My friends, it was a rough weekend. (Even rougher when her adult tooth came in at a 45 degree angle.)
We spent a couple days at the local pool with friends and with Popsicles.
Then the kids and I were off to the East Coast. Our flight was delayed a couple hours and since we got there a couple hours early, we had 5+ hours to kill at LAX. A boring and expensive 5+ hours.
This bowl of "buttered noodles" cost me $9. It had specks of green in it. The Goose refused to eat even a bite. Sigh.
We finally got on our plane, buckled up, and sighed when the captain said we'd have another slight delay. And then we perked up when we found out the delay was because of Air Force One! We watched President Obama's plane pass us by and then speed by and take off. We were all frantically waving out our tiny plane windows, and I expect President Obama was waving right back at us.
We had a long, uneventful flight and landed in Newark around midnight. Robyn came to pick us up and was stuck behind a huge line at the pickup area behind some guy that straddled three lanes right at the end of the pickup area. I caught sight of Robyn, waving madly, and tried to give the guy blocking traffic a friendly "move on, my good man!" wave. He shot me the finger and continued to block three lanes of traffic, and friends, I knew that I was home.
When I woke up the next day, the kids had already been up for hours (Jet lag? What's that?) and had been tearing around the Brody-Kaplan household.
I can't tell you how much I miss those impossibly tall, sheltering trees.
We met the Redwines in West Orange and spent a lovely couple hours at their school fair. The pictures above are of Purl Marie Redwine, the best dog ever. I plan on keeping a bag of her shedded fur so I can clone her when the time comes.
The kids literally had to wait over an hour to go on these bouncy things. They had every reason to be overtired and crabby and whiny. Instead they waited patiently and chatted cordially with the kids around them. Every so often I would play the bad guy ("I don't live here! Do you want me to tear a new one in those line cutters?) but we had a lovely afternoon, with Brody-Kaplans and Grandma Pat and Redwines.
We had made plans to crash at the Redwines that evening. They have four kids, so even the best houseguests are a terrible imposition. But they managed to rally all our kids and invite over my friends (who they knew tangentially) and hosted 5 adults and 9 kids with graciousness and aplomb for a long, lovely BBQ for hours and hours.
I am the luckiest girl ever, to have such welcoming friends.
The Goose and Krypto. Or maybe Comet. But really Purl, best dog ever.
The Redwines have a whole finished attic. I slept there the night before we sold our house, and the kids and I conked out there one night two years later, visiting from CA.
I am SO GRATEFUL for my friends.
We quickly drove by the old house. It looks good.
The next day we headed off to the North Jersey Pride festival. Our darling Robyn had worked really hard to shape the week's festivities into being, and we were so happy that our visit coincided with the Saturday festival.
We parked at our secret Maplewood festival parking spot (contact me offline and I'll let you know where for a price) and walked through one of our favorite playgrounds to the festival.
We found a dead cicada on the walk! Since I force the kids to listen to NPR in the car, they had heard all about the 17 year cicadas and were looking forward to seeing some.
Future PotUS Cory Booker opens the festival. Oscar and Arlo were too busy tearing around the park with their old friends but I made The Goose watch the speech with me, telling her that she will remember this when he's president.
A real live cicada!
Robyn, Sarah, Lily and Amy.
The Goose and her carpool and Playhouse pal, Ruby. Such a sweet girl from an awesome family that I am happy to keep tabs on via Facebook.
The Redwines stopped in for a clutch and a smile.
Master of Cuteness Lily and Chief Apprentice Goose snuggle with a small fluffy doggy.
The Goose snogs with her godmother.
Robyn hamming it up on stage.
The organizers had the kids attempt to make a record breaking paper chain (rainbow colored, natch). Oscar and the Goose pitched in to walk it around the audience.
We even ran into our old neighbor Shayla, who was a tiny mite of four when we moved into NJ. She is now an impossibly tall gorgeous young lady. Her brother (a freshman at CHS) is 6' 3" and was at football camp.
More tomorrow! To come: Pawling, grandparents, farm camp, NYC and even more grandparents!
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