Summer in the City

I apologize for the hiccup in blog posting this week.  I know the grandmas were searching for a second weekly post the last couple of days.  The truth is, I did in fact write a midweek post but I've been holding off on publishing it because it's all about our new apartment...and although we've signed a lease I don't want to jinx it until we have keys in hand.  We still don't have copies of the lease with the landlord's signature on it, so just in case...you'll have to wait.

Although it feels like it, we haven't spent the entire last two weeks JUST apartment hunting.  The kids have been in Spanish language summer camp for the last week, just until noon.  A couple of the afternoons we were able to sneak away for mini-adventures.  We had a play date with Holden's friend Jake and explored the duck pond in Central Park.  We saw no ducks, however, but lots of Box turtles.

We also had Maeve over one afternoon to take full advantage of our last month of having a pool in our apartment building.  The kids swam for 4.5 straight hours.  They slept well that night.

And we even had a rainy day on Thursday so the kids and I did our best impression of real New Yorkers by loitering too long in a cafe.

Ella is reading a guide book of Israel she found on the shelf.

Kevin and I even got a date night in.  We went to see some music in the hip neighborhood of Brooklyn, Williamsburg.  A little punk, a little folk.  Fun night checking out a new area and hearing some talented musicians.

I got some good cooking in this week.  We continue to get our farm box on Wednesdays and continue to love figuring out what we can do with the ingredients.  It's like Iron Chef every week with secret ingredients.  This week I hit a homerun (in so far as both kids ate every bite).  I told Ella it was a Martha Stewart recipe, to which she replied, "I thought so."  Seven years old.

It is poached eggs (using our farm fresh eggs) in tomato sauce.  For my and Kevin's portions I also sauteed up the Swiss chard from the box and put it on the toast before putting the poached eggs and sauce (like an eggs Florentine).  Even the ribbonned basil on top is from the box.  Highly recommend for an easy weeknight meal.

And this week alone, Kevin has had dinner with a friend from San Mateo, Brian, who was in town for business and I got to enjoy a girls night out with my friend Leslie (also from San Mateo) who is in town for her husband's work.

I'm telling you, if you ever have to move away from home but are worried about getting homesick, move to New York.  You'll never be alone.