h&m: 08.06

july 4

we spent the day walking around lower manhattan and the south street seaport before heading back to brooklyn heights for fireworks. it was overcast and windy and once we had to wait under trees in battery park while a rainstorm passed. we counted ladybugs and stayed dry.

the girls looking out on new york harbor

on the staten island ferry

half founding father, half discoverer of america

these masks were around and made for easy pics.

blur

last day of chickpeas

hennies last day at chickpeas wasn't even one of her scheduled days, but hege took her in to have pizza and play. luckily hennie is so excited about starting pre-k at the local PS 172, she wasn't focused on the ending. there was facepainting and pizza and hege said she herself did not cry.

en route

mette got to come too, of course. she'll be starting chickpeas herself after next year.

bishopp & zevvie

sammy, phoebe, jesse, briana, hennie, & bishopp

last book

puppetshow

chickpeas' last fundraising event of the year was a puppet show and concert at a local park-slope church. unfortunately we got no off-street traffic and ticket sales were light. i think everyone was tired at the end of a long year, and many were on vacation. But we had a great afternoon in a very interesting space and the kids all loved it. Lloyd, who is in a band called the Deedle Dee Dees, gave away 'prize' cds at several points during his concert, and hennie won one for her dancing. Its titled "Let It Dee" and is one of the better kids albums i've heard. I can almost listen to it on a semi-regular basis. The puppet show was really really good as well - everything performed by one woman: a variation of Little Red Riding Hood. We bought a CD from her, and its as good as the DDDs. So the fundraiser was worth it just for the new music, really.

sabine, ruby, sophia, hennie, & mia

mia dancing

mette loved it too

hennie, sophia, and bishopp

sammy, zohar, and anika

the group watching puppet show

mette too

we had a very busy week leading up to mette's birthday; demo of the back wall, work in general, and the stress of having a large number of people and children coming over and the place needing to be comfortable and safe. Zan, who we hadn't seen in well over a year, and Garth who's been missing for something like 4, both came to town as well and crashed in the basement.

mette in some new clothes.... i think sent by a grandparent.
(or: Mette, all three feet of her)

Garth and Zan were great with them and the girls loved playing with them, staying occupied while I installed safety gates at the deck steps, set up the back yard and helped hege, who was baking a cake, making potato salad, and a ton of food. G & Z also cleaned our entire backyard for us, which was full of all the construction debris from the wall demo. that was a huge help. sorry that we didn't get more and better photos of us all - garth being a rare woodpecker.

new bathing suits

sabine

jack & sabine on the deck

hege made a very common norwegian cake (bløtkake) with strawberries -essentially a cream cake

david, otto, & keary - we grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and had an ice chest of beer and a mini-keg. so i think the parents had as good a time as the kids.