hurricane irene

Soooo... Hurricane Irene.  Last night all was well and the hurricane seemed less dramatic than the forecasts had been talking about.  Around 9:30, we heard a big thump.  Kids were fine, and we saw a big branch outside on the ground and figured that we had heard it bounce off of the roof.  Imagine our surprise when about an hour later we went to get into bed and this was poking through our bedroom ceiling!

 
Let's take a closer look, shall we?  Hmmmm.....

In what must be one of the weirdest freak occurrences of the hurricane, this branch fell off of a neighbor's tree and punctured our slate roof like nobody's business.

Again, a closer look.  This, in addition to an all day power outage led to a few grumpy moments today.  And Abigail's new catch phrase: "Well, that was dramatic!"

Later this afternoon the sun came out, and power was restored.  Ahhhh....  Tomorrow our dear contractor friends who built the portico will come to check out our next project: roof repair.

We are just glad that no one was hurt, that it popped through our bedroom ceiling and not Abby or Nate's and a stroll around the neighborhood reminds us that it could have been much worse.  (And it's also been kind of novel to have become one of the houses that dozens of people out for post-hurricane walks today came by to gawk at....)

About a block away, a neighbor's whole house was crushed...  

Let's all hope for a less eventful week next week!!

hurricane

Live from Hurricane Irene: indoor adventures.  

Abigail taps into hand-me-downs from Emily & Natalie.

Mommy and Abby make a giant batch of blue play-doh.

Jolly dude does his thing.

Po eats dinner.

Nate chases the mini soccer ball.  Abby "bikes to work".

As Abby would say: "The boys stick together."

We're all fine. Kids are sleeping.  A big tree branch just fell in our front yard, but otherwise things are relatively uneventful here. Big winds yet to come apparently.  For now, power is on!

project portico...nearing completion

What a week it has been!  An earthquake on Tuesday, Nate's first molar on Thursday, and now Hurricane Irene on Sat/Sun?!  Oh, and Project Portico was this week too...just about finished, and not a moment too soon with 90mph winds and lots of rain in the forecast for the next couple of days.  We didn't take too many pictures this week, but if we're housebound this weekend, we can promise a few blog posts at least to come out of that.  To all of the lovely trees around our house, we like you standing upright just the way you are.  

Here's a good "before" shot of the front door area:

family bike ride

Several fun family bike-rides lately.  The hardest part is getting the bikes, helmets, people all ready to go at the same time.  Special thanks to Achilles' papa for taking some pictures....

Oh yes, Po came too.

Ready to roll.

PS - note the now historic photo of our front door sans portico. Pics of that project to come soon...

PPS - How could we forget to mention the earthquake???  5.8 earthquake rattled our area on Tuesday.  Sarah was at a meeting downtown on the 9th floor, lots of swaying, and everyone got under the conference room table before deciding to evacuate.  A long metro ride home followed. Jamie was at his office on the 12th floor, also lots of swaying.  After evacuating the building he walked home.  Abby was trying to take a nap, and instead woke up and got pretty excited about the "air quake".  Nate was sitting on the floor playing when it happened and started crying, but as reported by our nanny: "stopped crying when I picked him up and hugged him." Then Nate took a nap. 

PPPS - Do you ever wonder what we were up to 3 years ago today?  On Aug 24, 2008, baby Abigail endorsed Obama for president!

happy birthday nate!

Happy Birthday Nate!  You're ONE!
Mommy had fun making Natester a cake.  Inspiration, as usual, drawn from Smitten Kitchen....

Abby was ready to get this party started.  Where, oh where is the birthday boy?

There he is!

What a big year it has been.... Nate went from this to this:

Jury is out on whether Nate likes cake... he did like smearing it around on his tray, and we think he tried a couple of little bites.  Abigail is a big fan of birthday cake, and knows that big sisters get the bigger piece.  We think Abigail has done a great job in the transition to sharing her house/parents/toys/life with little bro...seems like a long time ago that they were taking the first steps in that journey....

Different present opening styles.  Nate: slow and methodical, tearing tiny little pieces of wrapping paper off, oblivious that there is something inside.  Abigail: efficient and eager, ready to help Nate with opening cards, presents, etc.

Thanks for all of the fun presents and cards that came Nate's (and Abby's) way today!

Earlier in the day, Nate & Abby spend lots of time observing today's progress in Project Portico.  Leveling of old steps and flagstones.

Natester finally decided that scrambled eggs taste good!

Abigail makes a few funny faces....

We all Skype with Grandma & Grandad.

Other fun events of today not pictured here include: pizza dinner, family bikeride, portico contractor's car breaking down in front of our house and requiring a jump start, a fun bath, and many many singings of Happy Birthday to Nate!

what's new?

What's new, you ask?  Well several things.

This awesome train table + tons of tracks, a score off the neighborhood parents listserve:

Nate likes it too.  Pull harder Nate, you can do it!  You're almost standing up!

General silliness continues.

Nate's due-date-twin Rosie comes over for a visit... she turned 1 today (happy birthday Rosie!), Nate turns 1 on Saturday!  The babies are growing!!

Nate goes on his first bikeride - here they are returning from their triumphant ride.  Remember Abigail's first bike ride??

Nate looks pretty chill about the whole thing.  Next up: the new bike seat for Abigail on the back of Mommy's bike....we're all curious to see how this goes!

Farewell front steps and path....you're getting a makeover as part of Project Portico.  Stay tuned.

Today was costume day at Abby's school (part of "Wacky Week")... this was a great occasion to break out the bee costume again!  Last seen here and here.  Happy bee.

Ooooh angry bee!  (PS - Papa was stung by a real bee yesterday!)

crawler

Oh the Natester, and after-dinner friskiness.

 PS - our recent splurge to upgrade our internet connection from "stone age" to "21st century" makes a huge difference with video upload speed - WOW.

weird camera setting

Never really know what pictures look like until you download them...what setting were we on?

Po rides in his Ergo on Abby's back while she strolls around the house.

Nate wasn't a fan of the johnny jump-up before (surprising given his love of jumping), but he is now!  Grrrrrrrr...... 

"vacation"

It must be stated that an 800 mile road trip followed by 11 days of rustic cabin experience followed by the return 800 mile road trip with a 3 year old and an almost-1 year old is not really what you would find in the dictionary when you look up the word "vacation".  Was it a change of pace from our normal routine?  Yes.  Did it allow us to escape the heat and humidity of home? Yes.  Did we have lots of new experiences and sweet moments? Yes.  Was it easy and always fun? No.  Now that we're home, do we feel relaxed and rejuvenated? Not really.  But we do want to share some of the fave memories from the trip with you, our faithful blog readers.

Abby takes to the waters and loved the canoe!

Lots of fun beach time, with G&G too.

Nate loved to splish splash in the water....

Lots of sunsets post-kid-bedtime (usually accompanied by good wine or local Michigan beer).

This peek-a-boo chair never got old.

Nate LOVED sitting in this retro laundry basket.

A chair in the water - why didn't we think of this sooner?

Family portrait, with Abigail blinking (photo blinks remain HILARIOUS to Abigail) and Papa's feet.

With no dishwasher in sight we enlisted a pantsless 3 year old to wash our mountains of dirty dishes.  Results were better than expected but probably not up to public health standards.

Storm is brewing...

Playdate with some (3rd? 4th?) cousins.... Zoe and Hazel

and Charlotte too...

Hitching a ride with Papa and munching on berries.

Swinging at Uncle David & Aunt Ingrid's cabin