tree hunting

Saturday was went tree hunting at Powers - don't you love that cheesy grin?  Grandma scored a tree.  We have yet to get ours a week later...

 warm enough for no mittens, hats or boots! 

the post party sugar crash...

Happy Birthday Lane!

Talk about a busy birthday!  The highlight of the day was going to meet Clifford at the library.  After meeting Santa a few weeks ago we weren't sure how it would go over.  Turns out Santa is way more scary than Clifford.  I'm sure that will change once he figures out Santa brings toys!

For the quiet birthday dinner at home we skipped the frosting on the cupcake - it was too close to bed time and another clothing change was not an option today.  Pajama's were the end of the line!

He knows what "hot" is and how to say it, but I guess flame is not "hot" yet in his mind. 

Today was not the day to teach that lesson.

he's got the cake thing down at this point - look at the smile -

he knows what he's going to be stuffing in his mouth next!

mmm, mmmm good!

for the record we did sing and he did eat all his cake - don't ask about dinner.  I'm sure the cats are enjoying the treats left behind for a midnight snack!  Cats like carrots right?  ha.

Birthday #1

Guess who's 1???

 The first birthday is lasting a really long time.  The first party #1 was the Friday after Thanksgiving in Rochester.  Turns out Lane loves being the center of attention.

He had no problem figuring out what to do with his cake!

Not sure why he's using a spoon, but it works. Chocolate everywhere!

Must be Uncle Greg was showing him how to use the spoon?

Thanksgiving

lots of family gathering going on...

the meeting of the cousins-cousins (our daddies are cousins and our mommies are cousins so we must be cousin-cousins right?)

Lane is almost a year and Ada is 9 months - he isn't sure how another child ended up in Rochester as he is usually the center of attention.  He did just fine sharing and had fun playing with Ada.

sometimes pictures make us squirm - so do all the aunts and grandma's

thumper with Aunty Linny

the daddies with their grandma and her great grands

The bottom line for Thanksgiving is we ate lots of great food prepared by chef Greg and his wonderfully talented assistant Jean.  You all know the assistant does all the work right?  Ok, I'm not sure who did what I just know it was a fabulous dinner and I didn't get any pictures of the cooks!  The babies had fun swapping germs and we hope to see them again before the kids are in school.  Living coast to coast makes travel a challenge and we all know how much fun it is to travel with little children (feel free to remind us after Christmas Julie!)

kissing lessons

Didn't think he'd be needing one till he's 21, but it turns out Lane needed some lessons in how to kiss yesterday.  It started Monday night with me being bit several times, never on the face thank goodness, but bitten none the less.  After the second or third one I figured out he was kissing me.  You know kisses hurt right?  First lesson to be taught.  Kisses are not meant to hurt.  He laughed at me when I screamed after each kiss.  Screaming obviously won't get the point across that it hurts.I mentioned it at school on Tuesday mornign that he bites me when kissing.  Turns out I am not the only object of his affection. Ms. Nina is too!  She had been stopping him right before the bite part.  We discussed the kisses turning into something more and being used when he's mad against other kids.  Since I scream and get mad if he wants someone to get mad he might start biting.  So no more screaming when he bites.  A new type of kiss has been introduced and it works.  We knew his kisses weren't meant to hurt beacuse he's happy when he does it.
The new kiss.... a nose bump!  They did that yesterday at school and this morning I got a nose bump instead of a bite when I got him up!  That was a quick lesson.  He was so proud when I did the nose bump.  Of course he had to follow my nose to get it right because I couldn't figure out why he was putting his nose in my face.  Then when I let his nose touch mine he laughed at me and we did it several more times.   At drop off this morning I asked about the nose bump and she laughed because it worked.  We are hoping this ends the biting kisses.   
Next lesson...  not pulling mommy's hair because he all know that's funny.  Makes her scream.  I must scream really funny or something?

how many trips to the CIA...

can you take in one long weekend?  Appears the answer is 3 and it would have been 4 if they were open on Sunday maybe?  Jean, Greg and Helen are here for the weekend and they went on a tour Friday afternoon to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, then we all went back Friday night for dinner with them at American Bounty and then on Saturday morning we went back to browse in the store.  I was hoping for another treat of some sort, but the bakery was closed.  I did score some really good tea, but no baked goods.

This is more of a picture of the restuarant - right before I got the lecture about "no flash" allowed.  Golly gee.  You will see that the plate in front of Greg has been polished off...  Caesar salad I think?  The table you sit at does not turn over during the night so getting is pretty tough - we made reservations back in September for a Friday night - nothing was to be had Saturday night at that point. Very popular and now we know why.

 Saturday we managed a couple outside shots when we made our return trip

The food was out of this world at dinner and I had a few new things I'd never heard of or tried before.  Fois gras (ok stop gagging if you really know what it is - I didn't at the time!) and farro.  I'm now reading what fois gras is and it's probably good that I didn't know much about it at the time.  It was very tasty little bite of yum.  I'm sure this will bring P-E.t*A running.  It's a culinary school so I'm sure they are treated well or they wouldn't be serving it there.   Uncle Greg much enjoyed it as well.  Farro is a grain and was much like like a large risotto.  Creamy Butternut Farro with carmelized pumpkin and onion with arugala on top.  Very good! The salad was also excellent with grilled figs, blue cheese and pecans.  Yummo.  Overall a great dining experience.  Oh wait...  dessert.  Lemon meringue pie with the most yummy meringue ever.  Almost like marshmallow toasted on top. The melting chocolate cake was also yummy.  Way too many yummy's here....  There was lots of rolling into bed that night.  Fully bellies.  Didn't eat much until the next night.
Saturday night we hit up Cibo Noche down the road in Marlboro and had another great meal - found out he's a CIA grad.  Homemade pasta's and chili-lime salmon were hits.  The topper for dinner was nitrogen ice cream and sorbet.  Yes, nitrogen can be used to make some pretty stinking good icy treats.  The chef/owner came and sat down with us to see how we liked everything and we got the low down on how it's used to make the icy treats.  oh my.  We had pumpkin ice cream and Lane ate my serving!  Jean got broken cannoli's and that was mighty yummy too.   The whole experience was great because we got the family room.  Huge table for 10 filled the whole room.  Lane was on his best behavior and chowed down on the pasta - just a little left behind on the floor...
So in between some intense shopping at Toys r Us and the outlets ....  and eating we did manage to take a walk in the orchard.  And Greg is making a Sunday chicken dinner at home tonight.