America the Beautiful

Since I'm so woefully behind, I'm only now getting to our fourth of July celebration that took place on Jones Beach. We went to the beach with my Finnish guests in the late afternoon, and stayed until dark and the fireworks. It was a beautiful day and evening, and a nice memory for summer 2017. Nice at it was, I'm not planning to repeat next year, because leaving the beach after the fireworks took forever. The traffic was completely jammed, a total chaos with cars inching ahead slowly. Good thing we were all very relaxed from spending the day on the beach. The ride home that normally takes about 25 minutes, took 90 minutes. Regardless, it was all good summer vibes and happy feelings.

Date Night Outfits

I am loving my Mansur Gabriel little grandma bag for going out. It's actually called the "elegant bag", and that's exactly what it is. I'm also loving my H&M black high waisted jeggings. Been practically living in them on my days off the past few weeks. 

I have also been wearing this blue sequined top from Anthropologie a lot. Been wearing it when we go out and for work with a blue suit. It's more sparkly IRL. 

I really have to find a nice dress for going out. Not sure why lately I'm having a hard time wearing dresses... I used to love the ease of a dress. 

Long Island Children's Museum

My kids love going to the Long Island Children's Museum and are always as excited to go there even though we've been there a few times. It's a great place for a rainy day, or if you just need to spend some quality time together. Last week we went to the LICM theater for the first time and the girls really enjoyed the play, Princess Frog, which was a musical show based on the Italian fairy tale "The Prince who Married a Frog". After the show the girls ran straight into their favorite room in the museum, the bubble room, where you can actually stand inside a soap bubble.

Scream

Mona Lisa

Lookback

Here's a look back to some of the things that filled my time in October. I'm so behind in my posts for the simple reason that it's just been super busy and life has been crazy. October and then November just whizzed by. Sometimes I wonder how I find the time to hold a full time job in addition to all this other stuff that goes on in my life. Somehow I make it work, and even though it's been really busy lately, it's also been good. I've been stressed out of course, but maybe a little less than usual. Or maybe I've just learned to deal with the stress better. I have enjoyed this beautiful fall and been a little kinder to myself too in the process.

We went to a lovely wedding at the De Seversky mansion at NYIT.

I wore my new Samuji dress for the first time. I saw the dress in the Samuji store in Helsinki last summer, tried it on, but it was too tight. After I came home from that trip, I searched for the dress on the internet, and found it in a store in Canada. A couple of clicks, a little wait, and the dress arrived and I am super happy with it.

At some point in October, I started a new easy scarf project. Knitting is the best meditation and so relaxing. But the project has to be super easy where you can just "go with the flow". This is exactly the case knitting this scarf. 

 We had play dates, and baked Halloween cup cakes.

 The softball season ended and basketball season began. Sundays are still busy!

We carved our pumpkins on the eve of Halloween. 

And of course we went trick or treating! 

The yellows were so amazing this fall. They're almost gone now, but I enjoyed looking at them blaze in the sun. 

I agreed to chair the Finnish School parent board. I've been involved for many years, and helping out with a lot of stuff, but this kind of took the job to another level... Like I didn't have enough on my plate already. But I guess I never quite managed the "less is more" lifestyle. Anyway, there's been a lot of fundraising bake-sales, and here are the yummy cinnamon buns we baked for the school. 

And of course, October is the birthday celebration month. This one turned 14 and we celebrated  few times. The above picture is from the celebration with the friends, a dinner at Maggiano's with her squad.

And this is from the family celebration that took place at Eataly. 

Oh yeah, we baked Karelian pastries a few times at the school too. 

There was a lot of horsing around and having a general good time with the fam. 

What I Love

is my Friday walks. It was a most gorgeous fall day on Long Island today. The sun shone from a bright blue sky with not a cloud in sight, and it was warm with a slight crisp nip in the air. Absolute perfection. I definitely change my moods based on the weather although not quite to the level of seasonal affective disorder, but I was just HAPPY today to be outdoors, to be healthy, to be alive, to live in the moment.

Photographic Art

My brother-in-law Jovon had a month long exhibition of his photographic art at the Barn at the Jedediah Hawkins Inn in Riverhead, Long Island. (I'll do a separate post of the Inn and locale, it was a beautiful place!) Jovon runs a very successful photography business with a large crew taking photos of weddings, events, portraiture, etc., but this exhibition was showcasing his artistic expression. The photos were layered and collaged into beautifully ethereal, spiritual images. It was very cool to see his artistic point of view.

The Barn was a perfect spot for art gallery. We were invited to a little reception complete with wine and snacks. 

My husband with his sisters, nephew & brother

A little art lover

The artist's muse, i.e. my sister-in-law

The artist himself holding court

Wish I had taken some close-ups of my favorites... 

School is Cool

I am very lucky that my kids love to go to school. I was a bit nervous about my little one starting Kindergarten this year and going to school for the first time, but it's been a very easy transition, and she is eager to go every morning. The second grader is happy too, and comes back from school with stories about what she and her friends did during recess. My oldest is in eight grade, and super busy with lots of homework and daily badminton practices.

I have always tried to foster a learning environment at home, exposing my children to knowledge of the classics, art, music, etc. For example, our current bed time story book is the National Geographic Treasury of Greek Mythology. (A lovely book, by the way, with beautiful illustrations!) They love hearing about the Greek gods and goddesses, even though sometimes the stories are a bit hard to comprehend. And I love reading it; I learn things too, and look at the classic stories from a different perspective when I have to explain them to the kids.

I also ask questions every day after school, trying to get my kids to think about what they are learning, and to see the bigger picture.

A few days before school started, the school district arranged a school bus orientation for kindergarteners which was a great way to lessen the anxiety about taking the bus..

Big sister showing the little sister the ropes on school bus. 

High five

The bus orientation had Tigger and Pooh visiting too. 

And then it was time for first day of school. Look at that happy face! 

At least she paused to wave goodbye. 

First school day - It's much more fun waiting for the bus with a friend. 

Ok, here I go... The long journey of education begins.

And there's no looking back!