Things slowed down in February… apart from our winter trip to Curacao I only have two pics of my paddle tennis season. First was from a day that we had to shovel the snow off the courts ourselves so we didn’t have to forfeit a match!

Also we celebrated the end of the season with a team party! Our team came in first place in our flight (the lowest in the league) so we’ll be moving up next year. A fun time with a wonderful group of women.

Now on to the vacation pics! For winter break this year we traveled to Curacao, a Dutch island in the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela.

We stayed at a beautiful small resort called Baoase. When we arrived our room was not ready so we enjoyed some beverages and small bites in the resort’s main hotel which opens right onto the beach. Sarah realized on this trip that she likes tuna sashimi! She’s always enjoyed ahi tuna steak but really prefers the pink (raw) part inside so sashimi is perfect for her.

Pretty banyan tree in the courtyard on the way to our room.

Our room was a separate house in its own courtyard, with two bedrooms, and outdoor kitchen and pool. Our one complaint about the resort was that we needed a room key to get in and out to access the kitchen, which was annoying. Oh and our second complaint was this outdoor kitchen had a bunch of mosquitoes! Which apparently is seasonal, and the resort sprayed them while we were there, which helped somewhat.

Apart from those minor issues the resort was AMAZING! Small and private with its own beach around a lagoon where we could snorkel and kayak. And the food was delicious.

There were cute lizard friends everywhere, as well.

More sashimi!

One day we left our resort to drive around the island and check out another beach, Grote Knip. Unfortunately we got caught in some rain, and yet somehow the beach was still really crowded! Sarah was not a fan.

Back at the resort for more food! And chess.

Another day we went to check out Mambo beach and had lunch at the Bonita Beach Club and tried some regular and risotto bitterballen, and truffle fries.

Then we went to the Curacao Sea Aquarium and saw some flamingos and dolphins.

On another day we went into Willemstad to see the town and especially to check out the floating pedestrian bridge. Here’s the governor’s house.

And the bridge! We walked across and then went to the Kura Hulanda Museum which focuses on the Atlantic slave trade, well worth a visit.

On the walk back across the bridge the alarm started going off so we dashed across and then got to see the bridge open to allow some boats through. One end of the bridge detaches and then pivots sideways to create an opening for boats.

Then we walked around Willemstad and got some souvenirs before heading back.

Back at the resort, Andrew tried the Blue Baoase, basically a pina colada with blue curacao!

Sunset over the Bida beach club.

We made the most of our last morning with one more swim in the lagoon, and then said goodbye to Baoase and to Curacao! A perfectly relaxing winter break trip.

Hello 2025! We started off the year with some lucky new year’s soup.

And I spotted the festive train one night going into the city for dinner with Andrew.

We went to an escape room in New Rochelle, Hour to Exit, and managed to escape! Though it might have taken a bit more than an hour… and a few hints.

We had a delicious king cake from Estelle Gourmet on Epiphany. Andrew was the king this year!

On 1/19 we went into the city to see an off-broadway show, Dungeons and Dragons the Twenty-sided Tavern. It was a hit with the kids! But first we had some delicious pizza at a small restaurant tucked away near the Port Authority called Capizzi.

Then we walked around the corner to the theaer!

The show was a lot of fun with interactive segments where the audience voted on our phones. It seemed like the audience was mainly adult D&D fans, many of whom were there for repeat visits.

On the following weekend on Jan 25 Sarah’s robotics team competed in a local First Lego League Tournament. It was amazing! Her team did so well, getting more points on each of the robot runs. I didn’t get to see the team presentation (because Sarah said I would make her nervous) but the other parents said they did a great job! So proud of Sarah. Here she is at a prep session at Hommocks:

And here are some photos from the competition– making some last minute changes:

Opening ceremony:

The robot!

Getting ready for the presentation to the judges:

The final robot run:

A video of the final run:

The team worked really hard all fall and winter to get ready and though they were disappointed not to move on to the regional round, everyone was impressed with what they accomplished! Especially since they were an elementary age team competing against middle schoolers! After the competition ended some high school volunteers demonstrated the next level of robotics, beyond legos…

Also in January Sarah played percussion in her school band’s winter concert.

Here’s a clip of one song (the Banana Boat song I think it’s called) where you can really hear Sarah on the snare drum.

Sarah also had her basketball league going on this whole winter! One day Blaine and I took a quiet hike at the Marshlands during Sarah’s basketball practice.

Looking back this was a particularly busy January!

We got our Christmas tree early this year, on 12/1!

We got some hot cocoa at Cocoa per tradition!

And we went to Sarah’s annual soccer banquet.

We spent Christmas in PA again this year, but started off our visit with something new — a trip to the Pinball Gallery in Malvern. For a reasonable fee you gain entrance to pinball nirvana with free play on a huge number of machines. So much fun!

Back at Ingeborg Road we helped the Mahoney cousins finish a Peanuts Christmas puzzle, which they had declared to be impossible! Uncle Fran did most of the heavy lifting though, staying up till midnight one night!

On Christmas Eve Eve, Uncle Fran and I took Blaine and Sarah into center city to visit the Museum of the American Revolution. It was a cool new museum built to house Washington’s actual tent that he used in the American Revolution! Sarah was not impressed by the tent, but the rest of us thought it was pretty cool! No photos allowed, and they keep it in a controlled environment to preserve the fabric. The rest of the museum was very informative, as well. As a side note when the kids went back to school in January we were amused when Blaine’s social studies teacher had the class do a virtual visit to this very museum!

After the museum we met up with Uncle Tim and fam at Franklin Square to see the light show (featuring a giant light up kite!) and have some hot chocolate. It was cold!!

Then we went over to Yards Brewing for dinner. Yum!

The next day was Christmas Eve and so in the morning we went for the traditional bowling with all the Mahoneys, followed by lunch and the Gift Grab at Ingeborg Road this year.

After the luncheon the kids were very happy that we managed to have the 2nd ever Mahoney Cup Mario Kart Tournament. Sarah won — again!!

Christmas morning was a blur of presents and food, but around lunch time we got some outside time on a short cold walk on a trail at Haverford College.

After our walk I was on cooking duty! Tim made the filet mignon and I was in charge of the mushroom risotto, roasted broccoli, and arugula salad. I’ve always been underwhelmed by my attempts at mushroom risotto in the past but this year I combined some aspects of Dad’s recipe with tips from J Kenji Lopez Alt and some advice from Andrew and I was pretty pleased with the results.

A picture of the kids on Christmas Day, including ours, Tim’s, Liz’s sister’s kids, and my cousin John’s kids.

Back home the next day, and we got to work on this puzzle Sarah got me for Christmas celebrating the deliciousness of bread.

This year we drove down to Great Falls to celebrate Thanksgiving with Gram and Grandad! Blaine helped Gram make the persimmon pudding again this year. Everything was delicious, from the turkey to the chocolate turkey to the persimmon pudding.

On Friday the ladies took a trip to a nearby paint your own pottery place, which also made its own frozen custard! Kiln and Custard in Vienna VA.

We also had a visit from Andrew’s cousin Cam and his family, which was a real treat as we hadn’t seen them since the pandemic! No pics sadly, though we did spend some time outside flying balsa wood planes and boomerangs, and inside we completed this pretty puzzle. A wonderful holiday!

To kick off the Halloween season, Sarah signed up for window painting this year and painted a lovely scene on the window of our hairstylist, Gisele.

On 10/26 Larchmont held the annual Ragamuffin Parade, here’s Sarah in her black cat costume with her friend, an orange cat.

The 5th graders at Chatsworth have an annual pumpkin decorating contest where the assignment is to decorate a pumpkin like your favorite literary character. Sarah said she has been hoping for years to make a dragon pumpkin from Wings of Fire, so we made it a reality! Out of a pumpkin, cardboard, and lots of masking tape. I especially loved Sarah’s idea to make horns out of pencils.

And here’s the finished project! For those who are WoF fans, it’s Qibli from the 10th book in the series. She won first place in her class!

That week the kids also carved their pumpkins.

And then on Halloween day Sarah walked in her last EVER Halloween parade at Chatsworth (sad) and then went trick or treating with friends.

Blaine decided to stay home to give out candy this year, and did an excellent job. Here’s one pic from the evening of a standout house we went to that had a full on Lord of the Rings theme, with a screen showing the eye of Sauron and everyone in full costumes. So cool.

After Halloween we booked tickets to see the Great Jack-o-lantern Blaze at the Van Cortlandt Manor. I’ve been meaning to go for years but always put it off since you have to buy tix in advance. This year we had plans to drive all the way to Ardsley to get the “Flumist” vaccine which is a nasal delivery flu vaccine. The kids loved it, anything to avoid a shot. We also got a beer at Captain Lawrence, and then got to admire the pumpkin displays at the Blaze. A fun way to cap off the holiday!

Happy Halloween!

Birthday week 2024!! For Blaine’s 12th birthday he wanted Walter’s hot dogs for dinner, and then after we accidentally ended up with too much cake because I got a small cake from the Snackery and Andrew picked up cupcakes. Oops!

For Sarah’s 10th birthday she asked for her favorite dinner – steak, baguette, and kale chips, and then for dessert she asked for fudge!! Which I had ordered from Murdick’s, her fave place in Martha’s Vineyard which is originally from Michigan. Plus some more cupcakes!

Sarah got lots of legos for her birthday, here she is with one of the first sets she assembled, a Ninjago dragon from Gram and Grandad.

On Friday we went out to dinner at one of Sarah’s favorites, bartaco in Port Chester. She really loves their roast chicken.

On Sunday we hosted the kids’ birthday parties at 5th Dimension VR — 3rd year in a row for Blaine! Last year we had one big party for both kids, but this year we decided to do them back to back. Sarah’s party was at 1pm, followed by Blaine’s at 3! It all worked out very well and much VR was enjoyed by all.

One last pic of Sarah in a wearable blanket she got from a friend!

There was something else for me to celebrate in October — our new paddle courts opened! We were able to launch our women’s paddle team as planned and had our first home match on 10/24.

The kids had two days off from school for Rosh Hashanah that happened to coincide with Aunt Molly’s performance of West Side Story with the Melmark Players, so we went down to PA for a few nights. On Friday morning we went out for brunch and then to see Valley Forge!

It’s a great site, the visitors’ center is fantastic with a wonderful movie narrated by Laura Linney! We learned all about Washington’s order for the army to be mass inoculated against smallpox, I feel like February 6 should be a holiday to celebrate vaccination.

The kids also enjoyed learning about the log cabins the army built to survive the winter. Lincoln Logs!

Then we did the drive around the site and visited Washington’s headquarters and saw some replica log cabins which slept 12 men each!

That night we saw Molly’s performance — it was awesome!

We also brought along C.A.H. so we could play with Uncle Fran!

I thought this was a hopeful sign of things to come but now it just makes me sad…

But then I look at this pic and it cheers me up.

We drove back to Larchmont on Saturday in time for Sarah’s soccer game that afternoon. Here’s a pic!

On Sunday, we went on our annual fall outing for pumpkins and a corn maze, and this year the farm we chose also had apple picking! We went to Fishkill Farms, which was SUPER crowded driving in but then once we got inside (we needed a reservation) it was very pleasant. Small corn maze, but that was fine with the kids.

September came and the kids were back to school! And soccer! Mom-Mom and Aunt Molly came up to visit to see Sarah play a match. And they lucked out and found the elusive Mr. Softee which we hadn’t managed to find all summer.

That night we took Mom and Mol out for dinner at Sarah’s favorite restaurant in Larchmont — Coriander. Mmm Indian food.

I told Mom-Mom how much the kids had enjoyed Cards Against Humanity so she got it for them as an early birthday gift. Then we made Mom-Mom and Aunt Molly play it with us!

On Saturday we went to Sarah’s game in the AM, and then in the afternoon we went on a tour of Philipsburg Manor, a colonial era farm and mill in Sleepy Hollow.

The kids + Molly were able to get the hand mill going.

And then they made some hard biscuits that sailors used to take on ships?

Blaine was sad that they’d changed the tour and no longer gave a flailing demonstration at the barn, but we went by to try it out ourselves.

Back at home we talked Mom-Mom into more board games — Battleship with Blaine and Monopoly with Sarah.

We enjoyed some more blooms from our dahlia plants this month!

One day Blaine and I went for a “trail run” at the Marshlands and he took some pics of a group of deer.

Also one day I walked with friends at Manor Park to see an unusually high tide — the water was covering the path out to the point at the beach.

Here’s another photo of Sarah’s panda collection. I feel like I’ve taken similar pics through the years and it would be interesting to watch the menagerie grow. Can you spot Japeckathan? 🙂

Here are a few more summer pics! Sarah got a drum kit in the basement!

We started to get some dahlia blooms from the Costco bulbs we planted.

A hike to Cranberry Lake to check out the restored section of boardwalk that was recently finished.

The Merchants’ second visit, end of the summer before they returned to Abu Dhabi. We made it to Playland!

Sarah was tall enough to drive the bumper cars!

We all got matching air brush dragon tattoos!

We also took the kids to their first ever trivia night, where Blaine’s random knowledge was very helpful. 🙂

At the end of the summer we happened upon the celebration for Walter’s 105th anniversary.

And we said goodbye to Manor Beach for the summer! And also goodbye to these old locks on the bathhouses, since we were told next summer they will be replaced by combination locks! 🙁 There goes the kids’ dreams of one day getting a job in the key room. Goodbye, Summer 2024!

We capped off a fun summer with a week in Martha’s Vineyard in August. Our ferry over was in the afternoon so we stopped for lunch at the Lobster Trap.

Then we had a little extra time so we tried out these bumper boats!

We arrived early evening and settled into our VRBO, then drove into Edgartown so we could pick up some fudge at Murdick’s! Typically one might buy fudge as a way to remember vacation, but Sarah had been so eagerly awaiting fudge this summer that we decided to go on our first night so we could enjoy it all week.

Our VRBO was on the far side of the Sengetonkacket Pond, better known as the Jaws pond (There’s a shark in the pond!)

On Sunday we drove around the pond and spent the day at State Beach. It was a cloudy day so the beach was not crowded!

That night we drove back into Edgartown for some dinner at the Seafood Shanty. Then we picked up some ice cream!

And we spotted a bunch of skunks on the walk back to the car!

On the 19th we woke up to a beautiful morning, here’s a view from the upstairs bedroom.

But I think rain rolled in and we went out to breakfast, followed by bowling!

The next day I think we went to South Beach. That evening we went back into Edgartown and somehow, miraculously, found a stuffed seagull! Sarah had been growing fond of the seagulls we kept seeing on all the beaches this year and decided her preferred souvenir was a stuffed seagull. We’d already checked out a bunch of stores in Oak Bluffs with no luck, but then we managed to find a place which had one in Edgartown! She was so happy she even smiled for this picture. She named him Japeckathan.

Next we went to our first ever escape room experience, this one with a Jaws theme.

We managed to escape the room within the time limit and only needing one hint!

Then we had dinner at Lucky Hank’s, yum!

On 8/21 we had reservations at the Long Point Wildlife Refuge beach for a beautiful day.

Back at the house, we observed seagulls from our deck overlooking the pond and Sarah worked on drawing seagulls.

Here’s a closeup view of the Jaws bridge across the water (this is how Jaws gained entry into the pond in the movie!).

On 8/22 we decided to spend the morning kayaking from our house. Unfortunately Blaine got pretty upset about the life vest selection so we ended up going out in two shifts. Here’s Andrew and Blaine on their kayak trip.

Then we went mini golfing at the one course on MV, over by Vineyard Haven. I believe shortly after this photo was taken Sarah’s water bottle took a dive into that water feature! Don’t worry, we managed to retrieve it.

In the afternoon we drove over to Aquinnah to check out the cliffs and lighthouse again.

We were also able to climb the lighthouse this time, which we hadn’t done on our previous visit. Sadly there was some mishap I can’t really recall (Sarah bumped her leg perhaps?) and Sarah did not want to ascend! So here are Blaine and Andrew at the top.

And then Blaine very kindly went back up with me!

We had dinner at Mad Martha’s brewery near our VRBO, which serves pizza at an outdoor beer garden right next to a garden center.

Here’s another pic from that night of the whole family playing Cards Against Humanity, Family Edition. The kids loved it so much we played it most nights.

On our last day we went back to South Beach and managed to briefly meet up with Sarah’s friend, Saoirse, at the beach to say hello. That night we had one last meal out at Rockfish in Edgartown, which was also conveniently located close by Murdick’s fudge so we could get another box to take home with us. A delicious and sunny week in MV!