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

February's Book - Americanah

In February I finished only one book and it was a good one. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah. It gets four and a half stars on Amazon, and has been a best seller since it came out in 2014. It's the first book I read from this author and I was very impressed. She has a nice clean writing style and a lot of very insightful social and race commentary. The book is a love story and a story of immigration and return to the homeland. Adichie is Nigerian, highly educated in the U.S., and writes about African people and culture. For me it was somewhat eyeopening to read this book, and I'm almost ashamed to say that I was so ignorant about current day Africa that it changed my view of it a little. We only hear about the catastrophes, genocides, starvation, and wars, and not enough about the every day life of Africans. I will definitely read more of her books to educate myself, and expect it to be a fun and rewarding educational experience. She has also emerged as a speaker for women's rights, delivering the TED talk (which I've yet to see - but will watch soon, with my 14-year old daughter) "We should all be feminists", the title which was famously taken for the Dior t-shirt, and parts of which were used  for a Beyonce song. I will definitely be interestedly following her career to see what she does or writes next.

Vacation week in Blue and Gray

I'm having fun tonight eating junk, watching the Oscars and rooting for my favorite movie La La Land (which just won its first Oscar, yay!), while looking back at this week's pictures. It was a fun winter vacation (staycation) week, with a heat wave hitting New York. Highlights were one kid getting braces, and celebrating a birthday, doing a little shopping, visiting the Children's museum of Long Island and going to a children's play, taking the kids to the playground and sitting in the sun wearing just a t-shirt, and having the time to exercise (gym x2, jog on the track x1, yoga x1). Another highlight was when one day my husband surprised me with a new coat he found at the Ralph Lauren sale (apparently it was my belated Valentine's present). It was the perfect thing to wear at this mild weather. And lazy as I am, I basically wore the same thing the whole week...until I managed to douse myself in vodka, but that's a story for another day...

I also did a little DIY hack on one of my old t-shirts to make it a bit more trendy with rips and paint splatter. The easiest thing ever: lay down a newspaper on the garage floor, lay out t-shirt flat on top of the paper, crack open an old can of white paint, and go to town Jackson Pollock style, splattering paint and having fun with it. Let dry overnight, put in the wash the next day and voila, a very trendy t-shirt is born. Oh, and for a finishing touch, use dull kitchen scissors to cut some rips here and there.

OOTD x 2

For some reason I haven't worn my fur vest much this winter. In fact, this past Friday and Saturday I wore it for the first time since last spring. The weather here in Long Island / New York was mild, and it was fine to go without sleeves. I had on layers: BR t-shirt, Zara denim shirt, BR cashmere cardigan, H&M jeans. Lazy as I am, I often repeat outfits on consecutive days. (Honestly, who doesn't?) I may change shoes and/or bag, as I did here...first I wore it on Friday with my Uggs and Prada bag, and then on Saturday with Hermes scarf, Kenneth Cole sneakers, and Bottega Veneta bag. 

Santa Monica

Once the work part of the West Coast trip was over, my hubby flew to meet me and we spent a few days in Los Angeles. I had never been there as a tourist so it was fun to get to know the city and see the sights. And did I mention, that I totally LOVE the movie La La Land, which offered a lot of inspiration to see LA. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't the greatest. It was raining a lot in a place where it never ever rains. I mean, Southern California is famous for the drought, right? Well, isn't that just my luck, that the city gets its biggest rainy season for ever when I'm there on a vacation... Well, we didn't let the rain dampen our mood... On our first day in LA we went to Santa Monica, and walked around the famous Santa Monica pier. 

The legendary In-n-Out burger. The burger lived up to the hype, the fries did not. 

Ski Trip to Camelback

I feel a little funny telling you about our ski trip sitting here in California with a view of the beach and palm trees from my room... (I'm here for a combined work and vacation trip).

However, I wanted to tell you about last weekend when I took the kids for a two-day ski trip to Camelback in Pennsylvania. I had planned to take the kids for skiing last winter but then my oldest messed up her knee (requiring surgery, etc) and it didn't happen. My children are now 6, 8 (almost 9), and 14, and I figured that it's now or never. It's much better to learn when you're still in that age window that you're not that scared and learn new things easier. So I did some research about good places with bunny hill and magic carpet for learning (two years ago we went to ski for a day in Shawnee, but  it wasn't an all out success). Based on reviews, and also a package deal that gave you lift tickets, equipment rental and a 90 minute ski lesson, I chose the Camelback ski area, which turned out great. It's a 2 and 1/2 hour drive, although we got stuck in traffic in the Bronx, and our trip took more like 4 hours, but we finally arrived on Friday around 2 pm and were on the slopes at 3 pm.

It took some time to get the right size boots for everyone. 

My daughter's friend was with us. First time on the skis and did great! 

While the kids took their lessons, I got to see if the muscle memory still worked, and went up on the ski lift.. I am not a great skier by any means, and haven't skied much in the past 25 years, but I grew up in Finland, so naturally I did ski a lot when I was a kid. I'm happy to report I came down the hill in one piece, although my thighs were burning. 

These two learned so much in two days. Next time we'll try the big hill! 

The teachers at Camelback were great. Funny and patient, and the group size is not too large. 

The 6-year old is in the perfect age to start skiing. 

She'll be better skier than me with little practice. 

The next morning we woke up to a gray sunrise in the Pennsylvania mountains. We stayed at the Inn at the Pocono Manor, and it was perfect for this type of a family trip. Will definitely go there again. 

The breakfast buffet at the hotel was amazing. 

We stuffed ourselves before heading back to the slopes. 

Day 2 was a Saturday. For future note - avoid Saturday morning/day at all costs. This picture is taken end of day, around 5 pm, when most the people had left. Next time, if we will go on a Saturday, it would be much better to get a twilight ticket. It's much cheaper, and the crowds are gone, meaning no wait for the lifts or the magic carpet in the bunny hill. 

Winter 2017 Backyard Sledding

So far we did not get much snow this winter. But we enjoyed the little we did get. After cleaning up our backyard last fall, we now have a perfect hill for sledding in our backyard.