I started trying to get a decent Christmas card picture, without much success.  Here are the best of the bunch, may have to keep trying.

On 11/13 Chatsworth had a “Fun Run” fundraiser.  Here is a picture of the whole school assembled outside to watch the principal being slimed.

Rhodes piano at Groove!  Sarah is pretty into it; Blaine, not so much.  This session ends in December and I’m not sure Blaine will want to keep going after that.

I volunteered to help Sarah’s class for the Fall Art Appreciation activity.  This season the chosen artist is Yayoi Kusama, who will be featured at the Bronx Botanical Gardens in the Spring.  The project was very neat and season-appropriate, making paper pumpkins decorated with dots.  I probably won’t get to join the activity in Blaine’s class because all the leaders of the Art Appreciation program are parents in his class!

On 11/16 both kids were invited to a birthday party at the Rock Club in New Rochelle.  We’d been there before, two years ago for another birthday party.  At that time both kids were very reluctant to participate, so it was fun to see how much they have grown since then!  They both willingly got up there and gave it a shot, and they went higher with each climb.

On 11/17 the kids asked to go into the city, so we decided to check out the National Museum of Mathematics (aka MO Math).  We took the train in, then had lunch at Maison Kayser.  Then we walked past Madison Square Park over to the museum on 26th street.

It was a small space, just two floors, but the exhibits were really well done with the right amount of information for our kids.  It also wasn’t too crowded, so we didn’t have to wait long to try out any activity.  Here’s Sarah on the square-wheeled tricycles.

The kids really enjoyed driving these cars around a Mobius strip.  The car had a camera and there was a “starting gate” which really helped us visualize the fact that the car was traversing one continuous route that went on both sides.

Not sure what this one was — something about a platform rolling on these strangely shaped acorn-looking things.

Downstairs there were more exhibits, including this one which took Blaine’s image and made it into a branching tree.  Creepy!  We spent about two hours there and had a great time.

This week is “BetterTogether” week at Chatsworth, a parent-led program which aims to help our kids understand differences and think about what it is like to live with a disability.  The purpose is to encourage understanding, kindness, and inclusion.  I’ve been getting involved this year and helped to coordinate the 3rd grade program which is focused on physical impairments.  Blaine’s 2nd grade class did a program on hearing impairments that he really enjoyed.  And I also got to join Sarah’s classroom for the Kindergarten program, which does an introduction/overview and then activities around visual, hearing and physical impairments.  It’s a great program and so good to have these conversations with the children.

We took a day trip to PA on 11/9 to celebrate Josie’s 3rd birthday.  It was a very Daniel Tiger-iffic party!  We also enjoyed hanging out with family and seeing all Mom’s new furniture and the new bathroom on the 2nd floor.  The house looks great!  So fun to see everyone, can’t wait till Christmas!

Here we are on a nice weekend day back at Cranberry Lake.  We saw lots of dragonflies!

On 11/8 I got to join Sarah for the Kindergarten Square Dance at Chatsworth.  It was so much fun!  A retired Kindergarten teacher (Ms. Slade) is a square dance caller and she returns each year to lead this event.  There is also a square dance for the 5th graders when they are graduating, so we’ll get to do it again in a few years!  Sarah and I learned how to do-si-do and promenade and everything.

We carved our gigantic pumpkin (and the slightly smaller one I got at Costco) on 10/30.  It was such a pleasure this year because the kids were able to do most of the work!  I helped with scooping out the innards, but then Blaine and Sarah did most of the carving themselves!

It was a rainy day so the Chatsworth parade was moved indoors and parents were not invited, but luckily the rain cleared in time for trick or treating!  Here are the kids all dressed up and ready to go!

And here they are in their new PJs from the VLs — thanks, guys!

On 10/14 the kids had off from school for Columbus Day so we went apple and pumpkin picking at Stuart’s Fruit Farm.  I regret allowing the kids to choose the most gigantic pumpkin they could find.

On 10/15 we went to the Chatsworth Family Math Night, and Sarah lost her first tooth!  The bottom left incisor.  She was excited to leave it under her pillow for the tooth fairy, in the cute tooth pillow she’d just received from Uncle Peter!

We set up the new keyboard the kids got for their birthdays.

On 10/18 we went to Larchmont Tavern for the annual Larchmont Halloween Window Painting!

On 10/19 we went for a fall hike.

10/21, Blaine’s class field trip to the Larchmont Public Library.

Moving the gazebo from Constitution Park while the park is being redone.

Not the best picture, but here’s Sarah tending goal on her last day of soccer for the season.  Her coach said she did such a good job and was so alert and ready for the ball!

We got back from the west coast on 10/6 and went straight into birthday week!  Blaine’s 7th birthday was on Tuesday, October 8.  He celebrated at school with ice pops and at home that night with dinner from Walter’s hot dog stand followed by chocolate ice cream cake from Longford’s.

Sarah turned 5 on Thursday, October 10.  She wanted to celebrate by having her hair braided into three braids, instead of the usual two!  She also celebrated at school with mini-cupcakes, and again at home that night with her favorite dinner (bbq chicken, mac and cheese, and salad) followed by a home made chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

On Saturday, 10/13, we had a birthday party for Blaine at the house.  We hosted 12 kids (mostly second grade boys!) at our house for a magic show by Magic Evan, followed by pizza from Nicky’s and cupcakes from the Snackery.

Sarah’s birthday party was the following day, Sunday, 10/13, at Creative Corner in Larchmont.  It was the same venue she picked last year, but this year she chose a melted crayon art project which was very cool (fire breathing dragon/dinosaur).  There was also face painting, pizza, and more cupcakes!

Happy birthdays to Blaine and Sarah!  Can’t believe you two are getting so big!

On Wednesday, 10/2, we flew from San Francisco to Portland, OR, for the second half of our trip!  After checking in to the Residence Inn in the Pearl District, we checked out a beautiful little park nearby which exemplifies Portland’s thoughtful city design and architecture.

10/2 was also our 9th wedding anniversary!  Shout out to the Alaska airlines flight attendant who gave us some prosecco to celebrate!  We also lined up a babysitter that night and went out for a celebratory dinner.

The next day we were planning to meet up with Nellie at her family farm in the afternoon, so we spent the morning at the Portland Zoo.  It was fantastic!  The exhibits were all set up so you could be really close to the animals while they were resting!  We got to see bats, cheetahs, mountain lions, and even African wild dogs!  Which we missed on our honeymoon.

Then we headed out to Gaston, OR, to the McAdams family hazelnut farm.  I have been hearing about this farm since I first met Nellie in college, and it was so wonderful to finally see it in person!  It was a rainy day which put the actual harvest on hold, and meant that we had time for a delicious lunch with Nellie and her parents and then a very informative tour of the farm including tractor demos.

This was one of three tractors!  This one brushes the hazelnuts into lines between the rows of trees.  The second one picks up the hazelnuts and sorts them from the other debris and the third one collects them and deposits them in the bins (I think).

We took a group pic with Nellie and her dad, Dave, here in “Nellie’s orchard” which was the first group of hazelnut trees they planted, back when Nellie was born.

We also stopped to pick (and eat!) a few apples.

We ended up back in the garden, admired their very large pumpkins, and the kids picked some flowers to decorate our hotel room!

Thank you so much to Nellie and her family for hosting us for such a beautiful and informative afternoon!

Back in Portland that evening, we took public transportation to dinner at the Deschutes brewpub.

The next day (10/4), we met up with the rest of the Mahoneys for a tour of Tim’s company’s fertilizer transfer facility!  But first, some Voodoo Doughnuts!

IRM gave us a wonderful tour, including a ride on this “Trackmobile” named Hercules.  It’s a train engine, essentially, that can move the heavy train cars around on the track.  The kids even got to drive it!

Then we went down to the water to see where the materials are delivered.  Thank you so much to Kenny for his patience answering all the many questions he was asked!

After the tour (thanks again to Tim for setting it up!) we went to the famous Powell’s bookstore downtown and had lunch at the Rogue brewpub.

Then we briefly went to the Portland Rose Garden.

At the nearby playground, Sarah discovered she was able to do the monkey bars!

That night we went to the pre-wedding dinner for Annie and Jimmy, and sadly it seems I neglected to take any pictures!

The next day we had brunch at the home of some grad school friends of Andrew, again not pictured!  But I did get this one of Blaine losing yet another tooth!  The tooth fairy came twice on this trip.

And the final act of our big west coast trip was the wedding itself!  It was at a venue called the Colony in the St. John’s neighborhood.  The space was beautiful.

Here we are patiently waiting to be photographed, all dressed up.

I’m sad I didn’t get more pictures of the bride and groom, but here’s a tiny glimpse of Annie!  And another one from the toasts.

We had a great time and were sad to cut out early to get to bed for our 6am flight the next morning.  Heard it was a great party, though!  Thanks so much for including us in the big day and giving us an excuse for a trip out west.

We flew JFK to SJC on 9/28 for our big west coast trip, culminating in the Long Overdue (as they named it) wedding of Annie and Jimmy.  We got our rental car and headed into the city to meet up with Shane for lunch/dinner at the Ferry Building.

The next day Jody and John prepared a delicious brunch for us at their beautiful apartment in Berkeley.  Thanks, guys, it was yummy!

Then we drove up into the hills for a ride on the Redwood Valley Railway, aka the Tilden Steam Train.

After that we fed some animals at the little Tilden Farm nearby, and then we drove down into Berkeley and fed ourselves at Top Dog.

Our last stop of the day was at this “Adventure Playground” that Jody recommended, where the kids could hammer, saw, and paint.  It was pretty cool!  And no one got hurt!

The next day was Monday, and we were meeting up with Jody for a trip to Muir Woods.  But first we went for some coffee, and admired these Lyft bikes (nice work, Reece!).

We picked up Jody and headed to Muir Woods to see some redwoods, which was one of Blaine’s top goals for this trip.

They were beautiful!  The kids were also impressed that it was in forests like these where the Endor scenes were filmed in the Return of the Jedi.

After that we had a tasty lunch at a fish place (I believe it was called “Fish” actually) in Sausalito.  Then we planned to stop and walk out a bit onto the Golden Gate Bridge.  Unfortunately the convenient parking lot right by the edge of the bridge was closed for repaving!  So we parked way down at the bottom and got to enjoy these beautiful views during the long walk back up.

On the way back out to Berkeley/Oakland, we drove through the city and enjoyed one of the highlights of my trip, driving down Lombard Street.  It was so much fun!  The kids were less enthused.  We had dinner that night at a well-known pizza restaurant near our vrbo, called Zachary’s.

Tuesday was our last day in San Francisco, so we decided to drive back into the city for another one of the kids’ top priorities: riding a cable car.

After our ride we went to visit the Cable Car Museum, which turned out to be Blaine’s favorite thing from the entire trip!  The museum was actually the place that operates the cables for the whole system, so we could see the big wheels turning and all the pulleys underground.  Very cool!

Then we went for lunch in Chinatown.  Sarah was getting pretty good at using her chopsticks!

After lunch we walked through the city over to the Exploratorium, which was packed full of cool science exhibits.

We had dinner that night back out in Oakland with Jody and John, and celebrated the kids’ birthdays early with some brownies a la mode.  It was so much fun seeing you guys, thanks for showing us all the sights!

We have been enjoying the Fall so far!  On 9/8 we all went on a hike at Saxon Woods.

Then we had lunch at Walter’s, and examined this old fire truck parked out back.  The plaque said it is a 1927 Seagrave 75ft Aerial Ladder Truck.

At back to school night at Chatsworth I got to admire Blaine’s self-portrait.

In Sarah’s classroom I saw this neat picture she drew of our recent hike at Saxon Woods, with the two snakes that we saw!

And here is her self-portrait, which I swear is uncannily similar to one I drew as a child.  Sadly I have not yet been able to find that picture to do a side-by-side.

On 9/14, Sarah and I went to Larchmont Day (Blaine was feeling a little sick so stayed home with Andrew).  Sarah’s number one priority was getting her face painted.

On 9/15 we went on another family hike at the Rye Nature Center.  Unfortunately it was a brief hike, because shortly after this photo was taken Sarah and Blaine were running around this pond and Sarah started screaming when her shoe got stuck in the mud!  I was afraid it was a snake or something.  🙂

Sarah was not happy!

Blaine has been wanting to see a football game, so we decided to check out a Mamaroneck High School game on 9/20.

The kids were most interested in the tiger mascot!

To make the game even more exciting, Blaine lost a tooth!  It was his top right incisor and he’d been wiggling it for quite awhile.

On 9/23 the kids wanted to have a lemonade stand, so we got everything ready and sold lemonade during the after-school rush.  We took our neighbors’ idea and donated the proceeds to charity (Mercy Corps).

Lastly, here is a preview of our Halloween!

Sarah was so excited for her first day of Kindergarten!

And Blaine was only slightly less excited about second grade!

It’s hard to believe they are both in elementary school now!  For the next four years they will be together at Chatsworth, just down the street.