Jack & Spencer's World

In November, I had the pleasure of joining Spencer with his preschool for the Big Apple Circus. For those folks not in NYC (which is probably almost everyone reading this), the Big Apple Circus has become something of an institution for the under 10 set in Manhattan. Or perhaps the parents of the under 10 set. The circus is held under a real tent at Lincoln Center. The tent is nice, but it's actually a tent and it's set up each fall for a couple of months. In fact, one of the tents may be the same one used for NYC fashion week. The show is very cute - catering perfectly to the audience: there are contortionists, all sorts of jugglers, dogs that do tricks, magicians with various slight of hand tricks, trapeze artists, and various other animals. We sat next to Spencer's friend Nicholas. The two of them shared a tub of popcorn that they probably could have sat in. All in all, everyone had fun.

This Saturday, we took the boys to their first football game. A nail-biter between two collegiate powerhouses: Cornell at Columbia. Ok, collegiate powerhouses is an extreme exaggeration given that both teams entered Saturday's game with a 0-8 record. Yep, a combined 0 wins in 16 attempts. On the positive, one team HAD to win. Columbia's stadium is at the northern tip of Manhattan. We took the 1 train up to 215th street and then walked a quick 5 minutes to the stadium. The stadium is on the small side, but pretty nice. It reminded me of Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill - likely because Columbia's colors are virtually the same as Carolina's - though the blue is a bit lighter. The stadium has a great view of the Henry Hudson Bridge (seen above the visitor's side in the picture below). And, as a reminder that we're in Manhattan, there are train tracks for Amtrak and MetroNorth running very close to the athletic fields. It's not quite the same as the train at Ya...

This morning,  while getting ready for work, I hear the boys giggling in their room. Then I hear Jack say, do it again but don't put it in the toilet this time. Oh boys!

For apple picking. Which this year also included tomato picking, eggplant picking, and grape eating. Last weekend, we headed to Barton Orchards located about an hour and 20 minutes north of the city. The name sounds quaint and country like but this place was designed for lots and lots of people. As we entered the property, we learned that not only does Barton Orchards offer apples, but starting in July you can pick just about any fruit and vegetable that can grow in NY State - blueberries, strawberries, tomatoes, corn, beans, zucchini, squash, peppers, eggplant, peaches...and about 20 different varieties of apples. Now, I didn't even realize that there were so many different varieties of apples until the last few years. Likely because I have never purchased apples that much. Before we had kids, I'd occasionally buy apples and then eat 1 and let the other 3 sit in my fridge for likely weeks eventually tossing them in the garbage. Now, we go through a lot of apples (and ba...

On Saturday, September 21, we all headed up to Yankee Stadium for the game. This was my birthday present to Justin - pretty good seats for one of the last home games of the season. Even though the Yankees were almost out of post-season contention, it was still exciting. As prep, the boys got special gifts - matching Derek Jeter #2 t-shirts. They were so excited! (Thank you Grandma for the great gift). We then headed out to take the train to the Bronx. Yankee Stadium is pretty impressive. It's this big ballpark in the middle of the Bronx. It's imposing. It's all Yankees. It's pretty everything you'd expect it to be...and then probably more. Walking from the train station, Jack and Spence started to get even more excited. As we entered the stadium, Jack comments "this is awesome" and he's right. The lower level is adorned with larger than life banners of former players. There is Yankee stuff everywhere. We got to our seats, which I had to adm...