Week in review

This past week was just a three day-er because of Rosh Hashanah so the girls were able to rev up with a long park night on Wednesday followed by a rainy morning Thursday baking muffins for friends who came over to keep us company.  The girls were mostly in a good mood, but by afternoon I realized I'd missed my window of opportunity to make them take a nap. They were alternating between hugs and adorable cuddles and punches and kicks to the stomach that sent one, then the other, wailing. Oh yes. This long weekend was off to a shaky start.  Then Friday we managed to make the most of the sun by venturing out to Central Park to meet up with Irene and her two, while Yene and her two just happened to bump into us making it a Sunnyside take over in Manhattan. Elisa has become totally smitten with baby Valentina while German has taken a shining to Elisa. Poor Carolina is left vying for attention which never takes much, but man these kids are always changing things up. After hot dogs and pretzels, ice cream and a little walk, we made our way to the stone slide at Billy Johnson playground. German had never been there before so I asked the girls to take special care and show him how it works. By the second time, he was a pro. Then the kids made different combinations to slide together and I tried my best to get one (or two) not-so-blurry photos with my cell phone. Yeah, I know, it's not a camera. But with two kids on my own in the city, I just didn't feel like dragging the good one. And in the end, we got a few nice shots to remember the day by. Saturday was the Farmer's Market/playground followed by a movie at the probably soon-to-be defunct Sunnyside Cinema. Elisa had been asking to see Dolphin Tale 2 for a while, so it was time to suck it up and pay the matinee price of $5/each and see it. Surprisingly, there were lots of cameos by real actors but that didn't do much to save the maudlin animal drama. No, it was pretty cheesy. But by the end, they showed some real documentary footage of the actual aquatic center in Florida where children with prosthetics go to meet the dolphin who has a prosthetic tail and it was really touching. Finally something to cry about! Nacho returned later that day and on Sunday we started the final day of the weekend with a bouncy birthday party for Elisa's friend Grace. It was a new place in Astoria which seemed to have plenty of space for all these crazy kids. And the weekend wouldn't be complete without a quick trip to SGP where the changing leaves on the big maple made sure to jump out at me as if to say, see, it really is fall. With temps in the 80s recently, it wasn't much feeling like it. But okay, I'm a believer. And the girls are loving all the time at the park after school. So yeah, a new week starts and I'm hoping that with Nacho here til Thursday I'll get a bit of a break. I need it.