Mark’s Family – The Mothners

Max’s Pirate Party

Max is 4 1/2, and we are officially 6-months behind on our blog posts. But Max’s 4th birthday party needs to be documented. For the first time since his first-birthday blowout, we had a full on party with friends, a pirate party in Central Park. With new-found post-weaning energy, Brittney turned into a Pinterest mom and made themed food including a watermelon ship, ‘squid dogs’ (hot dogs with noodle tentacles) and banana pirates.

The kids made hooks, eye patches and mustaches, and got tattoos.

Julie napped and chilled in the stroller looking cute.

When it was time for the cupcakes, we discovered they’d been stolen by Pirate Pete and hidden away with his treasure! The kids found pirate Pete behind a tree, then he trained them to be true pirates and gave them their first clue and a piece of the treasure map.

Each clue led to another one and a piece of the treasure map. The last clue was in Max’s pocket, which amused him very much. They put together the map and found the treasure!

And a treasure chest pinata & the stolen cupcakes.

Real pirates have chocolate mustaches.

Julie was very fussy during the singing of happy birthday, but then we realized she wanted her own chocolate mustache.

Pete turned out to be a very nice pirate and Max just wanted to snuggle with him at the end of the party.

It was so nice to celebrate with family, friends and buccaneers. A hearty thanks to Mark’s Aunt Ruthie and Uncle Stan for representing family at every one of Max’s celebrations.

Six months later, Max is still talking about the party and how he wants another pirate party next year. Ahoy to that!

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Thankful for: Animals!

We are thankful for animals! We saw so many at the Lion Country Safari, including lions, gorillas, gazelles, silly ostriches, rhinos and snuggling zebras through the car window.

Then got up close with giraffes.

We rode on a camel.

And on some lions.

And a carousel, cars, trains, and a ferris wheel while we were at it.

Max took his petting zoo duties seriously and petted every goat in the pen.

Both kids were so brave, Max especially, getting close to pretty birds.

Thanks grandpa for forging through the heat on this adventure. The kids loved having him with us. Now Grandpa, close your eyes for this pic of Julie’s new BFF.

On the way out we were very intrigued by these turtles ‘wrestling.’ They kept going and going and going…

So much fun to learn about all the wonderful creatures in this amazing world with our awesome kids.

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We are thankful for Florida!

Since it is below 20 degrees and snowing right now in NYC, we like reminiscing about our lovely Thanksgiving in Florida. We had much to give thanks for, including warm (if not always perfectly) sunny weather and fun, loving, helpful family to celebrate and play with.

Thanksgiving day we hit the beach, windy but warm. The kids loved building and destroying sand castles with cousin Anna.

Max liked writing his name in the sand, though he rubbed it out before I could get a picture. Writing is hard for his hands but he is coming along nicely.

The water was cold with a strong current but the kids braved the waves. Max, inspired by Anna’s fearlessness, wanted to go pretty deep (with his mom’s help).

Though after a bit Julie just wanted to snuggle with Daddy and eat prosciutto.

And watch the low-flying seagulls.

This is just one of the many fun experiences we had with Mark’s family – more photos coming soon!

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Summer: NYC Cousins

Though most of our family is far away, Max and Julie have some second cousins in the city. In July, we met Brittney’s very pregnant cousin Lauren and her son Oliver for a playdate at the Natural History museum. The kids liked watching a movie about global food in these cute fruit chairs (and we got to sample some pickles – almost as good as the Jensen/Boggess-canned pickles we grew up on) .

The splashing and playing with trucks n in the sprinklers outside the museum (even though we forgot our kids’ swimsuits).

A few months later, we got to meet Oliver’s adorable little sister Millie. Julie was very interested in the ‘ba-bee’ (and really wanted to poke her eyes , so we didn’t get so many photos).

We all visited the lovely Central Park Conservatory Gardens where we saw pretty flowers (and a wedding we did our best not to let the kids interrupt).

We found a beautiful butterfly.

The kids had lots of fun running in circles after each other and trying to get into a truck of gardening supplies. Max was a little traumatized when the gardener started hosing down some flowers and tried to stop her.

Running around Central Park's beautiful Conservatory Garden

Mark has a cousin in Brooklyn, so we headed out to Prospect Park for a picnic with his son Andy. The boys enjoyed the enchanted forest they found (or Brittney’s camera lens was dirty).

The kids love playing with cousins and we wish we had more close by. We just discovered that a long lost cousin of Mark’s lives in our building with her 3-year-old son…more details and pics of Max and Julie with another fun 2nd cousin coming soon.

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Boys/Girls Weekend

In June Mark and Max took their first boys-only trip to Florida to visit Mark’s parents. Max loved reading and playing with Grandpa.

Which meant that Brittney and Julie got their first girls weekend! Here the ladies are eating lavender and sage olives, sipping mocktails and listening to a violin/piano concert on the Met’s balcony. A kind woman noted how sophisticated our baby was, then Julie farted and started sucking on her toe.

Max had fun swimming in Bubbe’s pool with Aunt Becky (who he couldn’t get enough of), Poppy and his cousin Ryan.

Swimming all by himself (with a little help from water wings).

Meanwhile Julie and Brittney caught up with lots of girlfriends, listening to music and shopping. We spent the morning dancing to drums in Bryant Park then met up with my friend Rachel at a craft fair at Lincoln Center.

Every girls’ weekend needs a dance party. We found one on the pier. Julie spilled water all over her clothes so she could boogie naked.

Spilled water on her shirt so she could get naked at a dance party on the pier

Apparently hula hoops are the new glow sticks. Julie is skeptical (and tired – we may have been out past bedtime with no Daddy to worry about us).

Back in Florida, Max devoured a blue cupcake at Bubbe’s (PS Mark needs an iPhone).

Back in Florida, a blue cupcake from Bubbe

The girls continued their musical adventures on the dance floor of a jazz age lawn party on Governors Island.

Mark was so sad to miss all the fun costumes (and the dance lessons and subway-bus-ferry ride). If he had been in town we could have had a fabulous vintage picnic like this one. Julie was stuck with some cantaloupe in an un-1920’s take-out container.

Max was a great traveler and we all decided one-on-one parenting is a whole lot easier than two-on-two parenting (or of course one-on-two). His brown bear and Uga stuffed animals have been taking lots of pretend plane trips to Florida since he returned. He is very excited to get on a plane tomorrow to visit Brittney’s family gathering from around the world in Utah (minus Mark but plus Brittney, Julie and Aunt Ashly) where there will be lots of boys and girls to have more adventures with.

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