storm + halloween

A big oak tree fell in our yard during Hurricane Sandy ... and hit our gas line ... when we heard the hiss and smelled the gas we scooped up sleeping kids and made a speedy exit to our neighbors house across the street.  Firetrucks + firemen soon arrived and shut off the gas and aired out our house and within an hour we were back in bed to sleep through the rest of the storm.  Now for some unexpected projects: tree removal and garage repair.  BIG TREE FELL is a new favorite phrase around here, and it did not put a damper on halloween, which was very festive and our beautiful flower and busy bee were very excited about the whole event.

almost friday

Tree branch was removed from our roof on Tuesday - yay!  Hope no more hurricanes come our way anytime soon.  

Nate tries on Abigail's pink John Deere hat.  We think he looks pretty sporty.

Abby remembers that this hat is hers.

Nate says, "Yo, I need a haircut."

And on another recent morning....Abigail catches up on her New Yorker reading.

Happy (almost) Friday!

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!

baby brunch

We had lots of fun with friends on the day that Hurricane Hanna blew through . . .

Look at this fearsome foursome....

Overhead action view...