deck stairs

the deck is still very much an on-going project, but getting the stairs in was a huge step. here are too many photos of them.



hennie wrote her name and did handprints


bolted stringers

facepaint

Chickpeas has been having color days - the kids dress in, say, all blue for the day and when we pick them up they've had their faces painted and have put on a play for themselves about blue things. when hege picks her up, Carolyn the afternoon teacher always gives Mette a little of the daily color for her cheeks.

otto's coney island birthday

Otto turned 5, and since he is a train enthusiast, his birthday party was a long train ride to Coney Island for a morning at the beach. 15 kids and parents met at Lisa (Hege's boss, and friend at Chickpeas) & Keary's house in Park Slope at 10am and headed out for the cat herding. we cleared our subway car in 2 stops, and continued down to the Surf Avenue stop amid one continuous, high-pitched squeal of joy.

jack, rachael, & hennie on the F train

lisa had made every kid and each parent a sack lunch. ours was fresh mozzerella, tomato, pepper, fresh basil, and pesto on a sourdough roll. it was impressive preperation.

beach patrol

hennie and I found a horseshoe crab, barely alive. so we prolonged its death throes by taking it back to the group and parading it around; hijacking the entire party for a heartfelt march to the surf to return the dinasour to the ocean. i noticed that the thing had obviously slipped into extinction before we were halfway across the beach, but i said nothing and layed it down far out enough that the first retreating wave took it away. I yelled out - "Look at him swim!"

i think i've commented at length in previous posts at how strange a place coney island tends to be

after the party broke up a few of us walked over to Astroland for a few rides, which was a pretty nice way to end the early afternoon

hennie, bishopp, & roger (mette tried one ride. actually, mette tried half a ride before the operator had to stop it and allow hege in to rescue her)

hennie & bishopp winding down with a hotdog

more Dia

some other various pics from the grounds around the museum

DIA beacon

we rented a van the last weekend mother was here and drove up to Beacon, NY. its a very small old mill village on the hudson river thats lately become an outlet for a few manhattan comtemporary arts galleries/foundations. Dia is the main institution that moved entirely out of its chelsea building and into an abandoned factory up here - a 200,000 sq. foot complex. it was fantastic - their collection of mostly 60's-70's minimalist and conceptual art is perfect there - plenty of room to wander aimlessly and mull. the girls were bouncing everywhere and loved it. they seem to do unusually well in art museums, we are very happy to see.

the day started with a 2 hour drive along the river in pouring rain so hard it was almost outrunning the windsheild wipers. Hennie threw up all over herself and her carseat as we finally pulled into town - she gets carsick fairly easily. we went straight to a diner and ate a long slow lunch and the sun broke thru as we headed to the museum.


below blinky palermo

the room of richard serra arcs was amazing, and hennie came and found me in another gallery to tell me to come; she wanted to show me something. i enjoyed them much more than i thought i would.

we spiraled down into the dark interior of one, with mette growing increasingly skeptical. but she held out long enough for me to snap a photo.

outside after the rain












leaving town for the drive home

fathermother

on the subway


mother spent a lot of aftternoon time babysitting & one day met up with Rebecca for lunch

easter morning

we started the morning in the backyard. hege & mother had made easter baskets and the girls 'discovered' them (left by the Easter Bunny) by the backdoor when we went out.