no sleep till...brooklyn

Last weekend we wandered south to Brooklyn, New York with a pit stop in Flushing on the way in and out.

My mom wanted to treat Kelly to a birthday dinner at a Korean restuarant called Kum Gang San since January, so we we finally got around to going. It was a fun meal!

We decided to make a weekend trip of it since we have been wanting to take the pups to the Brooklyn Children Museum for a while.

SP 1.0 had a great time, it's fun for kids of all ages; but, they really do a good job of catering to the sense of wonder and fun that the wee ones have.

Even SP 2.0 got in on the fun.

Before we took off for our trip, I did some research on family-friendly restuarants that could be classified as "fine dining" because, quite frankly, you don't go to New York and eat at McDonald's. I was able to find a great Meditteranean French Bistro called Pit Stop (it had an auto racing theme) for lunch that served THE BEST hamburgers; and SP 1.o was impressed with the kids' chicken fingers too (so were we).

It was a great "pit stop".

After lunch we headed to a fiber shop called Brooklyn General, because, you know, I am into that sort of thing--even if the boys are not.

Then we hit Prospect Park. We did a lot of walking. And there was swinging.

Lots of swinging. SP 2.0 has recently graduated to swinging in the cradle swings on the playground, it's a big deal!

And then for dinner, we went to Applewood.

Where we, quite possibly, had one of the best meals of our lives. SP 2.0 enjoyed the culinary experience vicariously!

The chef(s) was very accomodating to my non-dairy lifestyle; and, they made SP 1.0 something that wasn't even on the menu (and gave him extra bread). Papa discovered that he liked pate and I learned that I love apertifs that involve blackberries and gin.

Before leaving Brooklyn, we walked the path to the Brooklyn Bridge and walked a quarter of the bridge.

We stopped in Flushing on the way out of town to eat at Kum Gang San again for lunch; and, we also stopped at Han Ah Reum for some groceries.

It was a great trip! There are tons of pictures in flickr of all our Brooklyn fun.

last bits of summer fun

Earlier this month we went to Lake Compounce (for a second time after going in August in celebration of Coast Guard Day). SP1.0 is very fond of rides.

The only things we have been doing on the weekends with any sort of consistency is going to Harkness Memorial Park. We went there on Labor Day for a small picnic and some fun, in general.

Other than that, we have just been finding creative things to do at home. SP1.0 wanted to learn to add. No, seriously.

And SP2.0 is contemplating a career in the WWF.

More pictures in flickr. We are heading out of town for the weekend (it must be fall!), so I am thinking we will have tons of fun pictures to share next week!

three quarters

Or nine months. Seal Pup 2.0 celebrated 9 months of making smiles last week.

We snapped a few photos, of course; but, our favorite thing is this video which I am calling Baby Gymnastics.

Perhaps this is foreshadowing his future as a gold medalist in the sport of gymnastics?

I will put the video (quality might be a little better in flickr) and a few more of SP 2.0's portraits up in flickr.

Tomorrow I will post our weekend doings, because I am sure you are all curious how we spent Labor Day weekend.

settling into fall

If one were to go by the calendar, one would assume that summer was still in full swing; but, around these parts we have started settling in for fall.

We ended up going to our favorite orchards (Holmberg Orchards) for peaches and raspberries this year (a first for us).

It was fun; but, it reminded us about a favorite fall activity, picking apples. And then that made us think of apple pie, and there is really nothing better on a cozy fall day than a slice of apple pie.

In any case, as far as the Wandering Seals are concerned, summer is over. Kaput. Classes have started at both of the parental Seals' perspective campuses and the motivation for drenching the kids in sunscreen for school in the mornings is on the decline.

I think the great fall trips we have planned doesn't help our observance of summer either. Clearly, we need to find a few fun summer activities to squeeze in to help us enjoy the remainder of summer.

Also on the horizon, Seal Pup 2.0 celebrates 9 months of drool-y goodness on Wednesday. Perhaps some pictures are in order? Just to give you something to smile, here's SP 2.0's last day in the bucket...he is HUGE!

and things here

The last month or so have been filled with everyday doings for us (really, each of these things could have been a separate blog post; but, I plead laziness--sorry).

We went to Sailfest, our town's celebration of sail.

We went to a national model train show held in Hartford, which was pretty fun.

SP 1.0 had his first exposure to Ethiopian food. He is a fan, suprisingly.

Papa went to Florida to take care of some family business for me, since I don't have any vacation time to speak of at the moment. I stayed at home with the pups which as a little tiring.

We spent some time at the beach.

That was fun; but, SP 2.0 is, decidedly, not a fan.

We went to the Greater Hartford Quilt Show, which was really fun (for one of us anways).

Just summer doings. What have you been up to?

I put up pictures of our doings in flickr (surprise!).

to cali or bust

We returned from our vacation a little over a week ago. My intentions were to process all of pictures before uploading them; but, that would mean you would be waiting till Christmas, so I figured I would just put the pictures up in flickr and give a little recap, as it was a pretty big deal, what with SP 2.0's first plane adventuring taking place. So hey, Christmas in July!

We made our annual trek to Carlsbad, California and it was a ton of fun. Getting there was a bit trying since we were sent home the Friday night we tried to depart (clearly, the airline and airport was unaware that we had some seals to see); but, the airlines fixed us up right and proper for travel on the following Saturday. Note to self (or really, Papa), do not book flights for late afternoons/evenings during thunderstorm season.

The first thing on the schedule after our arrival to the Land of Sun, was an afternoon birthday tea to celebrate a special someone turning five, I don't have to tell you how I feel about birthdays. It was great (for those interested in the requested "photo shoot" you can find those shots in flickr).
The following day included dinner, hibachi style, at Benihana. This might be one of my favorite shots from the whole trip and it's not particularly stellar, technically speaking; but, it's kind of hilarious.

There was beach play (I didn't go, this shots were taken by Papa), I stayed in the air conditioned dwelling...it was very nice.

We went to Legoland, which, while crazy, seemed particularly calm when comparing it to the slimmest possibility of going to Disneyland. But the kids (the ones who needed a ticket to get in anyway) really had fun. The babies, I am pretty sure they thought it was kind of hot; but, yay (!) bright colors!

We had a lot of fun there (I really like this shot of the three of them...it's very Breakfast Club-y).

A lot of fun.

And, as you can imagine, there were a lot of Legos there.

We were also able to see old friends (or rather, meet them in SP2.0's case).

We filled our bellies with ice cream.

And then we returned home (some of us so happy that vehicular hugs were in order).

It was a good trip.

There is a computer-crash-worthy equivalent number of photos in flickr for your perusal, should you, you know, be interested in that sort of thing.

a-wandering we will go

Yesterday, Seal Pup 1.o's pre-school class went on a little adventure. There was a little walk to "The Secret Garden" otherwise known as the Caroline Black Memorial Garden in the Arboretum on the Campus of Connecticut College. After taking at turn in the gardens, there was a picnic. It was fun. Parents were invited, so Papa and I went.

Aside: I caught a child who biffed it near a little pond, so I was sufficiently puffed with pride when I returned to work after the picnic, it's not easy being a hero.

While Seal Pup 2.0 could not join us on the Garden adventure, we do have good news to report: he found his belly button. Cancel the search parties.

We are going to wander to the left coast for a while. So no updates next week; but, I will make up for it when we get back. Also, if you are catching up with us on a feed reader, I heartily suggest that you click over to the blog to see the new banner which reflects SP2.0's wandering with us. As SP1.o would say, "I did it all on my own."