United Nations

The following morning Nancy and I had a leisurely breakfast - I love the bagels in New York - before we walked over to the United Nations. Our luncheon didn't start until 12:30 so we decided to take a tour of the UN before our event. Of course there was a long line to get tour tickets and by the time we got ours, the only tour available to us started at 11:55 and was supposed to last 45 minutes. This meant we would be about 10 minutes late to the reception before our lunch. We decided this would be ok, or that perhaps we could sneak away from the tour a few minutes early...yeah, right!
First of all, our tour was a few minutes late getting started and as we went through security with our group, we knew we had made a mistake. The tour guide showed us a model of the UN, a few fabulous pieces of art donated to the UN by various countries and on we went...slowly. We quickly realized that this tour would take much longer than the 45 minutes we had been told, so we thought we would go back the way we came and make our way to our luncheon. We took 10 steps toward the exit and were stopped by another tour guide. We were scolded and told to go back to our group. Nancy and I tried to explain our situation and were sternly told we had to wait until someone could be found to escort us out. So we had no choice but to follow our tour into the General Assembly Hall. It was pretty neat to see this room that I've seen on TV so many times but we were distracted by the fact that we had to get out of there! At this point we found a security guard and asked for his help. He tried to escort us to an elevator but again we were stopped, by our tour guide this time. We were told to wait a the back of the hall and someone would come along to escort us out. So we waited...finally a woman did turn up to assist us the 6 steps to the elevator, where she made sure we got on, and sent us on our way. We took the elevator down, went through security yet again, and found the United Nations Delegates Dining Room where our luncheon for the Dag Hammarskjöld Scholarship Fund for Journalists was being held.

It was exciting being a part of something at the UN - I'm not sure I felt that I completely belonged but at least I could pretend for the few hours I was there. At the reception prior to the lunch we met the director of UNICEF, though I don't think she was in the mood to chit-chat (at least not with us). I would have loved to talk to her. How do you get to be director of UNICEF? It is such a wonderful organization that does so much good around the world. There were plenty of other interesting people to talk to - we spoke to a lovely woman from the Mission of Greece.
When we sat down to eat I was happy to see that I had been seated between two Swedish gentleman. However, I was suprised to hear that I apparently have an American accent when I speak Swedish?! I don't think anyone has said that to me before. We had a nice lunch and listened to the speakers while we ate. The first speaker was the Sectretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon. His most memorable line went something like this: "This is the second time this month that I am attending three lunches without eating lunch and last week I attended four dinners without eating dinner, this has got to stop!" I thought that was pretty funny and I am sure that is what his life is like...making speech after speech. I would get confused about what event I was speaking at and use the wrong notes or something. Good thing he is a professional.
Next we heard from the four journalists who were awarded fellowships from the Dag Hammarskjöld Scholarship Fund for Journalists this year. The journalists are all from developing countries, in this case Peru, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia and Zambia, and have spent 10 weeks at the UN, covering the General Assembly while being mentored by veterans in their field. It is a wonderful opportunity for these young journalists and they gave inspiring speeches. How strange it must be for the woman from Saudi Arabia to go back home after 10 weeks of complete freedom in New York. But of course Saudi Arabia is her home and it is probably presumptuous of me to even say that.

I had such a wonderful time in New York with Nancy, even if it was just over 24 hours. I did miss Dan, Emma and Henry though and was very happy to see them after another easy flight.

New York, New York

View out the apartment window

This week, I got a chance to go to New York City. I went all by myself - no husband, no kids -and met my mother-in-law there for a couple of days in the big apple. This is only the second time I have gone anywhere all be myself since Emma was born so it was a very big deal! The kids were home with a babysitter the first day and Dan stayed home from work the second day (they had a blast!)
Traveling alone feels light years away from traveling with two small children, as anyone who has done it can attest to.
For this trip, I brought one carry-on bag and my purse. If the kids were with me, I would have checked two bags, had a huge carry-on with Henry's carseat attached to it in addition to my ever-present diaper bag.
For this trip, I walked calmly to security, took off my shoes, took my little ziplock bag of toiletries (what a glamorous way to pack by the way!) out of my purse, sent everything through the machine, put my shoes back on and was done. If the kids were with me, I would have made my way to security while trying to carry everything, hang on to Henry, and make sure Emma was close by. Then I would have taken off three pairs of shoes and everyone's jacket, put them through the machine with all our other belongings, tried to keep Henry within arms reach - not an easy thing to do - forgotten to take out my little ziplock bag so everything would have to go throught the machine a second time and I would be sweating by the time everyone's shoes were back on as we would be walking to the gate.
For this trip, I sat quietly at the gate waiting to board the plane. If the kids were with me, I would have chased them around the terminal, trying to tire them out before we got on the plane, while also trying to cause the least amount of disturbance to other travelers. I would have taken Emma to the restroom one last time, while carrying all our stuff and trying to keep Henry from laying down on the public restroom floor - why does he do that!?
For this trip, I read my book during the entire flight, pausing only to eat my freshly baked chocolate chip cookies (I love Midwest Airlines) If the kids were with me - I think you are starting to get the picture - I would be trying to entertain a 3-year old and an almost 2-year old with anything I could think of: DVD player, snacks, stickers, snacks, books, snacks and of course the chocolate chip cookies that would end up everywhere!
Not that I blame the kids at all...they are so young and I think we subject them to a lot of things that are hard from them to handle. At least this time they got to stay at home!

So I got to New York well rested and excited to spend the next two days doing fun things with Nancy.
First we headed to 5th Avenue for some shopping. It was fun!
Next we took the subway to 86th and Madison to look at all the beautiful childrens' boutiques they have in that area. Emma and Henry got some fabulous things. We'll have to do a fashion show when their clothes arrive.
Dinner that evening was at Aquavit. The chef there is Swedish so of course this restaurant is a favorite of mine. The food is devine. I thought it was funny that most of the patrons were men, I suppose it is a restaurant for business dinners and expense accounts. Anyway, I loved my meal!
Nancy and I called it a night pretty early, especially for New Work standards, I'm sure. We had a big day ahead of us. More on that later.

Pizza Night

Notice how the kid portion has many fewer ingredients than the adult portion...

Friday night has become pizza night at our house. Everyone loves pizza, even our extremely picky eater Emma (depending on the toppings of course), so this is a very popular meal. Having tons of vegetables in the house because of our CSA deliveries, pizza is the ideal food - you can put anything you want on it, throw some cheese on top, and you are all set. We love using basil pesto instead of tomato sauce on ours.

Here is my recipe for whole wheat pizza crust:

1 envelope Dry Yeast
1 cup Warm Water
2 3/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Sugar
2 tbsp Olive Oil

Add yeast to the warm water and let sit. In a stand mixer, combine dry ingredients and then add the olive oil. Add water and yeast mixture and knead for about 5 minutes. Let rise, covered, for 30 minutes. Roll out dough (makes two smaller pizzas or one very big one), add desired ingredients and bake at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes or until crust is fully baked and cheese has melted nicely.

Enjoy and let me know how it turns out!

Quiet Weekend

We had a pretty quiet weekend, and boy did we need it! It seems like we are always running from one thing to the next, exhausting ourselves and more importantly the kids. Emma and Henry, while obviously having fun on outings, seem to be especially happy when we are just at home.
We did finally pick up a couple of pumpkins for the front porch - we are saving the carving of them until Halloween, that's become a tradition at our house. Henry worked so hard trying to pick up those big pumpkins - what a little man! He wants so badly to help.

Emma and I went to a family yoga class on Sunday. I have been looking forward to this for a long time! Since I go to yoga 2 or 3 times a week, I thought it would something fun we could do together. Emma was by far the youngest child there but she did so well. She tried really hard to do all the poses - it was the cutest thing. It was hard for me not to laugh when Emma was being all serious about her down dog! I can't wait to go back next Sunday.

I am so bummed the Hokies lost to BC!

Happy Monday!

A happy fall day

Today was such a beautiful fall day - seems like we have had a lot of those lately and it's been wonderful - so the kids and I walked to the park. Henry followed Emma around wherever she went as he always does but when they got to the top of the highest slide, Henry was the one who went down first. Eventually Emma decided that she didn't want to do it at all so she went back down the ladder. She is in a phase right now where she is scared of so many things that she never was before. I suppose that when children are really young they don't understand what could go wrong in a situation but as they get a little older they know they can get hurt so they get scared. Nothing wrong with that as far as I'm concerned. I have to watch Henry like a hawk because he has no fear of anything! Hopefully he will get more cautious as he gets older - but then again, he is a boy so maybe not?
While at the park Emma and I picked a ton of leaves to take back home with us. I strung them all up and hung the garland on the fireplace. I think it looks pretty good - and the best part is - it was completely free!

Emma and Henry each have their own way down...

First Prize!

Halloween started early for us this year. We already went to our first Halloween party and guess who won first prize in the costume contest? The picture probably gave it away - yes, it was Henry! He was dressed as a little golfer, complete with knickers, sweater vest and golf shoes. He also had a cute hat and a golf bag but they weren't so popular with Mr. Henry. Hopefully I can get a picture of the whole ensemble when we go trick-or-treating. Dan found this costume in a catalogue last year but since Henry couldn't walk yet, we thought he would make a better golfer this year. I think it was worth the wait! Here is his prize:

Emma was dressed as a ballerina in a white leotard and tutu. She was adorable! Unfortunately the only picture I got of Emma was while she was in deep concentration doing an art project:

Looks like we are in need of a photo session prior to trick-or-treating to properly document all their dressed-up cuteness. Hopefully the kids will cooperate better then...

It's the little things...

 

I got these little beauties in the mail a couple of days ago and I just love them! Aren't they cute? Next time you see me I will probably be wearing little plastic flowers in my ears.

I ordered them here

Emma's First Field Trip

 

Emma had her turn in the apple orchard too. For her first ever field trip, her preschool class went to the same apple orchard and pumpkin farm that Henry and I visited last week. This time, Dan was home from work so Emma had Mamma and Daddy with her. It was the cutest thing, seeing all those three-year-olds running around, so excited about everything. Almost every child had a parent there so it was just about an equal number of adults and children. First we took a little tour through the orchard and learned about bees and what an apple looks like inside. Then we went into an old barn and saw a "movie" about Johnny Appleseed. This was a little strange...a projector was set up very close to a mannequin's face. When the movie started, it was just a man's face, projected on the mannequin, who then became Johnny Appleseed. I suppose it was pretty clever but I am not sure three is the ideal age for that show... Next we went to pick some apples. It was a gorgeous fall day so the weather couldn't have been more perfect. Everyone filled their bags with apples and then got to pick out a pumpkin. Emma found a beauty that we plan to make into a pumpkin pie together. I've never made one from scratch before so I am looking forward to it! With all the fall activities that we have been doing, you would think that we would have gotten some pumpkins for our front porch...but no...we still don't have any pumpkins that we can carve into Jack-O-Lanterns on Halloween. Hopefully we can get that accomplished this weekend. Happy Friday!

Apple picking with Henry

While Emma was in preschool, Henry and I went apple picking with Mom's Club. We had so much fun! Henry was very excited about all the apples and kept yelling "apple!", "uje one!" (another one!). The apples were low enough to the ground that Henry could pick some himself. He was very proud every time he put one in the bag. Of course he thought they were very tasty, too! When we got home I washed the apples and left them on the counter in the colander. Henry soon figured out that he could climb up on the stool and get one for himself so now he has been doing that all day long. The funniest thing is that he washes the apple before he eats it. I think he just loves running the water in the sink! (I hope he doesn't get a tummy ache from all those apples...I did put a stop to it after about 3...ok maybe 4...)