Valentine's Day 2011

This is the first year that Ashley was really old enough to care about the Valentine's Day. We spent the weekend handwriting cards for her classmates and making heart shaped valentines. Ashley did great, she wrote out her name on most of the cards all by herself!

And I couldn't resist the occasion to make some special cookies. I made heart shaped cookies and decorated them with pink frosting and sprinkles.

We made a tray of cookies for Ashley's school teachers,

and wrapped a few to give with cards to all her classmates.

It was a last minute idea and I'm glad we did, because Ashley came home from school with a whole shoe box decorated for the occasion filled with cards and treats from people at her school! Who knew.. glad we brought to school treats too, or Ashley would have felt left out. Now I'm scared.. I'm not sure what we are supposed to do for St. Patrick's Day. Who knows, may be we are supposed to do the same for this holiday as well.. I need a handbook on what you are supposed to do when your kid is in school. I'm trying to learn as we go along, hopefully next year will be better, since we'll know what to expect.

Also, Ashley dressed up so nice on Valentine's Day. She wore a jean skirt with snowflakes on it, with a red top. Indira made her a beautiful ponytail and brand new hair bands that she got her. Unfortunately Ashley wasn't in the picture taking mood, so this is the only picture that I got of her..

It was such a busy day that I didn't even get Katelyn's picture, oh well.

Mike didn't get home until late on Monday, so we stayed in. I made jumbo lump crab cakes with mushroom risotto, chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of Riesling. It was a nice relaxing night :)

Mike got me a giant Valentine's Day balloon. It was so huge it was just obscene! I can just see it being in our house until July 4Th. These Mylar balloons last forever!!

Sergei and Sasha's Visit

Disney on Ice was fun, but as soon as that was over, we had to start getting ready for Sergei's and Sasha's visit to our house the next day. I haven't seen my uncle Sasha in 18 years, and Sergei was here a year and a half ago right before Katelyn was born. We planned some activities along with lunch and dinner to try to squeeze as must as possible into a day without it becoming overwhelming.

First impression, when Uncle Sasha and Sergei walked in, was Wow they are tall! Mike at 6'2", looked short next to them. Uncle Sasha looked exactly the same as I remembered him. We started with a welcome drink of all-American beer, a quick tour of our house and then drove to MJ's to have another drink and check out the Tinton Falls waterfall.


At some point everyone pulled out their iPhones, so I just had to take another picture :)

After the drink, we returned home because it was kids lunch/nap time. While I heated up the Chili, everyone hung out outside. Ashley wanted to go sledding down our slide, but the sled was buried somewhere under the snow in our backyard. We tried looking for it but couldn't locate it. So Sasha took off his shoes, rolled up his pants and set out to look for the sled barefoot, since according to him you'd be able to feel it with the bare feet much easier. Another perfect picture moment, he he :)

He didn't find the sled, but we were all impressed by his "zakalennost'". We ate chili along with some Margaritas. Katelyn flirted with everyone at the table, especially our guests of honor. She really showed off her personally, no surprise there :) We put the kids went to bed and Indira watched them while we continued our tour.

Next we headed to Long Branch, Sasha has never seen the ocean before, so of course he had to at least get his feet wet. Sergei went for a swim when he was here a year an a half ago in June, so Sasha was the only brave one to go in. (The water was in mid 30s.)



We took a nice long stroll down the beach, it looked so different covered in snow and with all of the palm trees gone. Nevertheless very beautiful :)

Next we headed to Party Fair store, because Sergei was looking for a Batman costume for his friend. We didn't find the costume but Sergei did pick up a few unique souvenirs, after which we headed to Red Bank. Original plan was to watch an ice boat race on the Navesink, but the weather did not cooperate. The ice was too thin, so the races were canceled. We walked down to the river to watch the sunset, we walked to Mike's office, and then downtown. We stopped at the Paw Palace Pet Boutique, where Sasha picked up a couple souvenirs for his fur babies. We grabbed a cappuccino at Starbucks, and headed home to get ready for dinner.


I had a big dinner planned, trying to offer food that we like, that's American, but would appeal to everyone. For appetizers I made mini hot dogs wrapped in dough, bruschetta with garlic toasts, crackers with blueberry goat cheese, veggies with dip, plain potato chips as well as my honey roasted almonds. For dinner I had grilled cedar plank salmon, grilled fillet Mignon, and BBQ ribs to choose from. For sides I made garlic potatoes with parsley and string beans almondine and Salat Olivie. We also got our favorite ciabatta bread to dip in seasoned olive oil and fresh roasted garlic. For desert I made chocolate chip cookie pie with vanilla ice cream and fresh strawberries, chocolate pecan pie, brownies and a fruit salad. Joan brought over an almond cake. It may sound like a lot of food, but a lot of it was gone at the end of the night. I have to give huge thanks to Indira who helped me to get everything done. Thanks to the preparations we made before, we had a really laid back kind of night.

Katelyn was particularly smitten with Chuck, she perched on his lap, wrapped in a blanket and didn't want to move, it was very sweet.

It was a great time, great company and the kids were on their best behavior :)

Disney on Ice: Princess Wishes Show

Last weekend, I took Ashley to see Disney on Ice at the Izod Center. It was her first live show. She was really excited, since she just tried ice skating herself for the first time the weekend before and now we were going to watch the Princesses skate on ice! It was an awesome trip. We met there with my friend Irina and her kids Rita and David. Ashley and I both really enjoyed it, she was mesmerized by the princesses, and I was pretty impressed with the skating and the tricks that they did. It was really cool to watch. We'll definitely have to go back to see Disney on Ice again, and may be next time Katelyn will be old enough to come too. Here are some pictures from the day:

Katelyn - 19 Months Today

Katelyn - 19 months update..
My monkey KK provides us with endless amounts of entertainment daily. She’s really a joy to watch. She’s such a happy little thing, even though she can be pretty stubborn if she doesn’t get her way. She’s finally able to hang with Ashley and other “big kids” and do some of the big kid stuff. She likes to play pretend, have tea parties and play with her baby dolls, but what I’m most impressed with is her ability to color. She holds the crayons the proper way and sits with Ashley at the table like a big girl to color. On occasion she still likes to take a bite out of her crayons, and draw on walls (which Ashley never did), but overall it’s a perfect activity to keep her out of trouble. Another thing that she’s gotten amazingly good at is feeding herself. She never liked being spoon fed, but now she can actually hold a spoon or a fork the right way and feed herself her whole meal! I have to confess, lately I spend more time helping Ashley with her meals that I do Katelyn. Katelyn just sits quietly at the table and shovels food in her month. And when she’s finished, she asks to get down, goes over to Ashley, climbs on her chair and starts eating Ashley’s food! It’s a riot to watch! We keep warning Ashley that if she doesn’t eat faster, Katelyn will just empty both of their plates and she’ll be hungry.

Another favorite thing for Katelyn to do is to dance and sing. She’s always humming something, and as soon as she hears music, she wiggles her tushie to the beat! She also likes to play piano. The only thing is that she likes to do it in private, no audience. She’ll go by the piano, open it up, sit down and play. It doesn’t even sound half bad, she’s not just banging on the keys, she chooses the keys carefully and even does some cords with both hands  I’ll have to record her doing this.

Gymnastics and Ice Skating, Oh My!

Ashley has looked like she’s four for about a year already because of her height, but now her abilities are catching up. Since starting preschool in September she’s learned to be more independent and doesn’t need me to hang with her wherever we go. She’ll go by herself to play with kids she doesn’t know and engage in a conversation with pretty much anyone who’ll listen  This new found independence along with lack of physical activity in the winter months has prompted me to sign her up for gymnastics. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go, since she totally refused to participate in a trial dance class back in September, but she really surprised us! We went for a trial class, and she absolutely loved it! So far she’s only gone twice, but she’s talking a lot about it, and practicing on her mini trampoline at home 

We also trialed a “Mommy and Me” gymnastics class with Katelyn, but it was obvious that she’s not ready yet. The rebel that she is, totally refused to follow any instructions and just kept running away and doing whatever she wanted to do. Needless to say, Katelyn will not be returning to the gym for a while, at least until we master some other kind of group activity that’s not as formal as going from station to station as in gymnastics. It would have been ideal to have them do a fun activity at the same time in the same place, but I guess that won’t be happening for a while. For now, I signed up Katelyn for a “Dancing Bears Music” class through Monmouth County Park system. It’s a music class for toddlers where they do all kinds of fun stuff like sing, dance and play. She’ll be starting it next Saturday so I’ll have to update on our progress later 

In other news, yesterday Indira and I took Ashley ice skating for the first time! It was very special. We laced up our skates went out on the rink. I held Ashley up from behind and we went all the way around the rink without falling! I tried getting Ashley to stand on her own, but she was a little scared. I wanted her to have a nice experience, so I didn’t push it. She was done after that one go around and I was fine with that. I congratulated her on not falling and making it all the way around the rink, so she was very proud of her self.  We went home and had hot cocoa with mini marshmallows and five M&Ms which she earned for smiling for a picture. I didn’t get a picture of us on the ice, perhaps next time!

Ashley's 4 year and Katelyn's 18 month Wellness Visit to Dr. Yia

This month we visited our pediatrician for a wellness checkup. Luckily for us in the past year the kids haven’t been sick very much and haven’t had the need to go there. They were on antibiotics only once and that was back in January last year! Overall, a really good indicator that they’ve got good immune systems and can fight off pretty much all of the little germs on their own. Katelyn had the roseola virus this past year and both of them have had a couple minor colds, but no ear infections or upper respiratory infections! Yay for Ashley and Katelyn! 

Ashley weighed in at 36 pounds and measured in at 43 inches tall and a head circumference of 19.5 inches. She’s now tall enough to go on all the “big kid” rides! (Not that she wants to, since she can be a big baby at times) Katelyn weighed in at 24 pounds and measured at 34.5 inches tall with a head circumference of 18 inches. Both ranked in the 50 percentile for weight and over 100% percentile for height.

Ashley wasn’t a fan of Dr. Yia until about a year ago, but now that she’s bigger it’s no big deal. She used to get scared and cry but this time she was very good. She had a nice conversation with Dr. Yia and was willing to do whatever Dr. Yia asked of her.

Katelyn on the other hand just turned into a little monkey warrior as soon as Dr. Yia got near, she clung to me and kicked and swatted her and her instruments as soon as they were within reach. She put up such a fight that at the end of it all we were all sweating, and half the tests couldn’t be completed. Dr. Yia couldn’t check her hearing or get her to lay down to check her belly.

We have a prescription to take Katelyn for a routine blood test that we’ve been delaying; I have no clue how that’s going to work. She doesn’t sit still and to hold her down for more than a second is very difficult. We have to do it before her second birthday, hopefully if Mike and I take her together we’ll be able to manage.

Ashley’s next visit will be for her 5th birthday, and Katelyn will be going back in June for her 2nd birthday.

"Sissy" Love

Ashley and Katelyn have been getting along much better lately. They are finally able to hang out together and play. Katelyn calls Ashley her "sissy", she can't say sister yet. It's very cute :) Katelyn attempts to repeat whatever we say, it's still hard to understand her, but she's getting there.

Last night the two of them were so sweet, they had a "Tea Party" at the little table, an as you can see most of Katelyn's tea didn't make it in her mouth. Nevertheless, they were so nice to each other, they fed each other cheerios, giggled and cuddled :)

Ashley's 4th Birthday

Ashley's birthday festivities lasted a few days this year. She started on Thursday, by bringing homemade cupcakes to preschool to celebrate her birthday.
On Friday, January 7th, Ashley turned for 4 years old! I took off from work to spend a day with Ashley. Ashley and I met up with Mike for birthday lunch in Red Bank for a slice of pizza and ice cream at Zebu, and then walked over to the Hobby Shop store so that Ashley could pick out her birthday gift. It was a nice afternoon. Ashley didn't cooperate for pictures, and I didn't feel like threatening her on her birthday to get a good shot, so this is the best we got..



In the evening we had Ashley's mini birthday cake after dinner and sang Happy Birthday to her:


As if Christmas Breakfast, Christmas Dinner, and New Year's Eve party (all in two weeks time) wasn't enough for us to host, crazy Mommy also threw a Birthday Princess Tea Party for Ashley this past Saturday. I made Ashley a special Pricess Belle cake, as well as different tea sandwiches and other treats to snack on. Needless to say, Indira and I were up until 3am preping everything..

All guests were asked to dress as their favorite princess, and upon arrival had their nails done. We proceeded with a Princess parade, Kiss the Frog game (similar to Pin the Tail on the donkey), Princess in the Pea game (girls sat on pillows and tried to guess if there was a pea under their pillow), and Pinata. We had a Princess Cake (that I made myself) and ended the party by playing a movie for the kids downstairs to get them to calm down a bit. It was a lot of fun both Ashley and Katelyn enjoyed themselves, as well as their guests :)

Here are some pictures:

New Years Party

Even though I have no pictures to share, I have to mention how much fun we had on New Year's Eve. We went house hopping with the neighbors on our street. We started at 7pm and partied at four houses, going from house to house with kids, having drinks and food at every stop. We ended the night at our house, since Katelyn is the youngest and we didn't know how long she'd last. Lucky for us, she made it all the way to 11:30 before starting to self destruct. When we got to our house, I put a movie on for kids to watch in the basement, and they were perfectly happy watching the Grinch until 1:30 in the morning while the grown ups enjoys themselves upstairs :) Ashley and Katelyn both slept in in the morning, so it was a good time! Probably the best New Years we've had in a while :)

The Day After Christmas Snow Storm

On Sunday, the day after Christmas we woke up to some light flurries, followed by not so light flurries with the end result being a major snow blizzard that dumped over 30" of snow on our town. Monday morning it was still coming down, and our heat and hot water heater were not working. It was 60F in the house. Turned out the exhause pipes from the furnace where blocked with snow, luckily as soon as that was cleared the heat came back on :)

Indira's flight to Ohio got canceled, and Dan was stuck at our house until they cleared the roads. Mike was only able to leave the house on Wednesday, which made for a slight change of plans for our week off, however we made the best of it. I made Hungarian goulash, chicken noodle soup, cinnamon buns, and a lot of hot cocoa with mini marshmellows for all. Ashley really enjoyed sledding down the slide that Mike made behind our driveway, and Katelyn joined in the fun as well, except she wasn't nearly as excited as Ashley. We got to play Candyland game with Ashley, and after kids were in bed, myself, Mike, Indira and Dan got to play monopoly and sip on some snowtinis :)

Here are some pictures and videos of what went on that week :)