Chase-Salerno Family Events

We had a good visit at the FASNY Museum of Firefighting last week, and the kids got to play “fire brigade” and to dress up with some gear. Quinn especially enjoyed the stairs between floors, and as you see below, Declan enjoyed “driving” a rig to an emergency.

Later that week, we enjoyed a playdate at Declan’s friend Joshua’s farm, complete with a resident pig, horses, milking cow, goats, dogs, an iguana, and some chickens. Quinn loved snacktime….her first Oreo!

Finally, Declan suggested a family outing to Chuck E. Cheese one evening, and he had a blast! Quinn had lots of fun, too, especially climbing up and down the slide in the toddler area. When I asked D what he liked best about Chuck E. Cheese, he said enthusiastically, “I *love* the pizza!” Too funny, especially since he was so busy playing games he probably had about two bites while we were there.

D to the rescue!

Q working out climbing-while-wearing-hat

Meeting one of Joshua’s goats

Playing with Joshua

Quinn’s favorite part of the playdate…..

First time at Chuck E. Cheese

It’s getting warmer outside, and we’ve been able to spend so much time on our playset this week! We’ve also been out and about visiting with lots of friends and family.

Sap season is over, and Mike pulled our spiles out of the trees. Now we’re looking ahead to embarking on our garden and getting ready for chickens!

Declan made up a great game we can play inside – balloon baseball!

Papa tries to get a bite of Quinn’s cookie….good luck, Papa!

Quinn gives Grandpa’s hedgehog a kiss.

Declan and buddy Liam push Quinn on the swing.

Quinn prepares to go down the slide while Declan looks on in his 3-D glasses. Check out her cool top all the way from buddies Mathias and Diane in France! Her t-shirt reads, “Un jour mon prince viendra” (Someday, my prince will come.)

We had such a fun, full week that I’ll break it up as I review each pic. Enjoy!

I moved a couple of ride-on toys in front of the tv so Quinn couldn’t stand in front of the screen and block it while Declan watches. Well, it worked! She can’t stand in front of the set anymore….she SITS in front of it by climbing over my barriers and sitting inside. Declan joins her sometimes, I thought this was a cute shot. Declan loves his flashlights!

We visited Grandma and Grandpa up in Schenectady this week and had dinner together at their house. Here’s Quinny getting to know Stella.

We had fun at the nearby playground with our buddy Joshua after Clay Class this week!

Grandma came down and met us at the ice rink in Saugerties, then we went out to dinner together. Quinn LOVED “walking” with Grandma and kept going back for more!

So a while back, I bought a dollhouse kit to build with Declan. “Any idiot can put together a few pieces of wood,” I thought. Well, it turns out that *this* idiot doesn’t really understand ANY of the directions, so we keep asking Mike for help. Here’s father and son working together on it, another “NOT my project…” as he says. He’s so good at this stuff, it’s amazing!

We made syrup!!! Last weekend, I ended up boiling it too long (I was waiting for it to become the consistency of, well, syrup!) and it hardened in the bottle. Mike reheated it and added a little more sap and measured the temperature very precisely, and got it into a “real” syrup state which we could actually eat the next day for breakfast!

All told, six gallons of sap and around one tank of propane rendered us between 1.5-2 cups of yummy, homemade syrup. With all of the recent warm weather, our snow is melting, which made our sap collection bucket tip over at some point, so we lost 6 gallons back to nature. As spring rapidly approaches, the trees are putting out less and less sap (we’ve been getting up to 2 gallons a day from the four trees we tapped, and this weekend it’s only been a few cups) so our sugaring season looks like it’s ending soon. I’ll boil up the last few gallons we have this week, and then we’ll look ahead to shifting gears and preparing for our chickens!

Pictures of our breakfast feast with our own syrup!

….for sap, that is! We are boiling the sap outside as I write this on Sunday night. We’ve all tasted a tiny bit and it’s starting to TURN INTO SYRUP! YIPPEE!! I can’t believe it. But we’re not there, yet. We’ve boiled around 6 gallons and there’s still a ways to go. This year we’re borrowing Mike N.’s propane burner, and I think we’re going to end up using the whole tank. Next year, we’ll plan ahead and have some firewood set aside.

On a whim, I took the kids to Poughkeepsie last week, and we met Mike at “Soul Dog” (a hotdog restaurant) for lunch, then we headed over to the Children’s Museum. Quinn loves to explore on her own now, which makes for a busy mommy going back and forth making sure both kids are doing alright. It was such a beautiful, warm day! What a contrast to the crazy snowstorm we got hit with this weekend – over one foot of snow in New Paltz! (The good news was the the cold weather yielded more sap!)

“…NOT my project…”

Declan operating the robot arm at the museum while Quinn looks on

Quinny at the museum train table

Declan decorates his party balloon as we celebrate the return of the prodigal son in Sunday School

Quinn heard that buddy Luca (2 wks. older) is walking now, so she’s been pushing her wagon all weekend! She cries when she hits the end of her path so we’ll rush over and turn it around for her. Here she is first thing after she woke up this morning.

Today the kids made and decorated cookies in honor of St. Patrick’s day (recipe for no-chill easy roll out sugar cookies, below). Thanks to Grandma for the awesome all-occasions cookie cutters!

Then they started playing “Diego” and it morphed into “Backyardigans.” Livi wanted to play “Monster” Backyardigans and Declan wanted to play “Secret Agent” Backyardigans. Declan played Pablo and a monster, Livi was Uniqua, and yours truly was Tyrone. There were some serious negotiations about what they would play, they spent a good amount of time talking about it. After I tried singing some clever songs about rescuing them in Backyardigans style, I was relieved of my duties and I moved to the next room to prep for decorating the cookies. Right about that time Quinny found the chocolate chip bag and dumped it all over the small table and floor (Oh, *that’s* why you were so quiet over there…). That was one of her happier random grab-and-dumps.

Today’s craft was decorating a small jar with as-close-as-I-could-find-to-rainbows stickers and planting grass seeds, with a gold bow tied around the top.

Thanks for bringing lunch over, Mo! The perfect ending to our morning together.

Rolling out cookies

Quinn in a chocolate chip zone

Livi covering her seeds with some dirt

D pouring some water over his seeds

The kids dancing to Quinny’s musical birthday card from Aunt Linda, Ian, and Kyle

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Easy Roll Out Organic Sugar Cookies

2 1/2 sticks organic unsalted butter
1 heaping tsp. sea salt
1 organic egg
1 tsp. baking soda
2 c. organic sugar
5 c. organic flour
1/2 c. or more organic milk

Mix butter, salt, egg, baking soda, sugar and flour. Add only enough milk to get dough into a ball. Try not to add too much milk. Dough can be rolled instantly and does not need to be chilled. Roll and cut with cookie cutters; bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Easy and delicious!

So, it occurred to me a few weeks ago that, hey, we live in the woods….lots of trees….some of them are bound to be maple….duh….we could make maple syrup! (Mike heard this idea and the first thing he said was “This is YOUR project!”)

I talked to a guy who does this in his backyard, bought 10 spiles (taps) and hooks at the local Agway and waited for the weather to warm to above freezing to get started. On Saturday afternoon, I went out and did a thanking and appreciation ritual to the trees we’d be tapping and began drilling my first hole. After taking a really long time to get very far, the battery died, Mike came out and replaced it, and adjusted the drill to go in the *forward* direction, not reverse, the way I had it. The subsequent trees went so much faster! After we drilled in the holes, we hammered in the spiles, hung up our coffee cans on the hooks (thanks Mike and Nikki!) and four trees later, we were finished. (Mike N. had to show us which ones were maples and we weren’t sure after that point, plus we’d run out of coffee cans.) I didn’t actually feel confident that I would get much since I had no idea of what I was doing, so I was completely amazed to see our sap buckets holding (gasp) SAP today when I went out to check them! The bucket on the tree closest to the driveway was completely full, and the other ones were around halfway full. Mike fabricated a cool filtering system as we poured the sap into the big bucket and sometime soon we’ll be cooking it up. With a ratio of anywhere between 1:20-1:50, we don’t expect to yield much this season, but it’s fun and we’re learning a lot!

Drilling the first hole!

Anything coming out yet?

Surprised and thrilled to actually have sap to pour into our bucket 24 hours later!

What a wonderful first year for Ms. Quinn! In addition to embarking into the world of solid foods and crawling, she has graced the media in a variety of ways. During these past 12 months, Quinn appeared in the newspaper and on television for her elimination communication/natural infant hygiene/diaper-free experience, and she was mentioned on a variety of websites for her unique and special birth story.

An easy-going traveler, Quinny has spent time with loving family in Florida, Georgia, and New Hampshire, and she has two rounds of frequent flyer miles under her belt.

Her favorite activities in the world are climbing up and down stairs, taking baths/showers/going swimming – anything to do with water, and playing with Declan. (When Declan’s not around, Mommy and Daddy are tolerable substitutes.)

She grew from 9 pounds, 6 oz. to 29 pounds this year! Her dark rich head of hair never shed but is now shades lighter and shoulder-length.

She bobs up and down to music and is very chatty, although no discernable words yet. Her typical mood is energetic and happy, she likes to spend time exploring on her own but also likes to regroup with Mom when she needs a break.

Quinn had her first fever on the eve of her 1st birthday, and these past two nights, she has never slept worse in her life! She is *loud* when she protests about being prevented from doing something she wants, such as chewing the remote or investigating the dogs’ eyes by trying to poke her finger inside.

We feel so blessed to have Quinlan and Declan in our lives, and to have all of you surrounding us with your love and care. “Huzzah!” as we enter into our second year together as a family of four!

Our birthday princess at one year……

and way back, at one week old!

Playing with birthday balloons from godparents Aunt Tracey, Uncle Jim, and Baby Luca

Enjoying more balloons at her family tea party last Saturday

Her favorite birthday present – climbing up and down the stairs around a million times

Declan at one year

Three years later, helping baby sister blow out her candle

Declan has so much energy! Here are some of the things that have been going on this week. (With Quinny turning one, I want to make sure big brother gets his due before I plaster her pix all over the upcoming birthday blog entry!)

He had so much fun at buddy Joshua’s birthday party (4 yrs.) on Sunday. It was held at a local gymnastics studio and the kids got to play on all kinds of cool inflatable equipment, a foam cube pit, and a trampoline. Declan takes clay class with Joshua and we know the family through our parenting website. The gym hosts a parents’ night out event every month for his age group, where he gets dropped off for a few hours for a gymnastics playgroup while Mom and Dad go out for dinner or something (Quinny in tow…you have to be potty-trained to do the program). He can’t WAIT to go back!

We also got another dumping of snow, and *this* time it was perfect for building snowballs, snowmonsters/creatures, and igloos. As I showed Declan how to roll balls to make bigger ones for building, he said, “I’m going to make a terrifying dragon snow creature!” We also made a snowmonster, complete with parsnips (well, we were out of carrots and these parsnips were on their last legs…). It turns out Declan choreographs his snowball fights. “Try to get me, mommy!….No, throw it higher so you miss….You missed me!….Now I’ll try and get you!” and we run in circles and then if he keeps missing, I’m supposed to stand still so he can get me. Last night, after coming home from some errands, it was dark out, but Declan wanted to build an igloo. “You give me the blocks, mom, and I’ll make the igloo.” Um, ok, how do you know how to build and igloo? I wondered. He started out by making a circle with the blocks of snow I handed to him (really just large assorted chunks, “No, that’s too small mom, but it’s OK, you can try again…”) and then he said, “Hey, have you ever seen a triangle igloo? Or a heart igloo?” Too funny. We were out there for a long time (Quinny in the backpack) making a gigantic pile of snow for his igloo. He said that he wouldn’t be putting a door on this igloo since it was a “super duper LazyTown igloo” (a reference to a favorite TV show of his, and he sang the theme song as he was building).

On our way out yesterday, Declan insisted on making detailed maps to mark where we were going. I just kept yammering out various landmarks and directions (“Mom, are we turning this way (gesture) or this way (other way)?”) while he drew. When I had assembled our stuff to leave, I saw that he had drawn 3 pages of complicated maps, including roads, signs, stoplights, all kinds of stuff. Then he crossed out each feature as we passed it in the car. All of this was totally his idea.

We also enjoyed a nice visit with Grandpa and Gumpa this week, and Declan took in his traditional game of pool. He “chalks up” after almost every time he waits his turn (he examines his cue stick and says, “Hm, I’d better chalk up!”. He’s getting much better at hitting the white cue ball to hit the other ones, but he still moves all of the balls around the table to optimize his shots.

He was so excited to get a shot of himself in mid-air in this foam cube pit

Snow creature under construction

The “snow monster” (not to be confused with the terrifying snow dragon “huggy muggy” creature nearby)

Our little cartographer

“Chalking up” while Gumpa takes a turn

Frisbee fun with Grandpa

The kids had fun doing sand art today – coloring pictures with colored sand, and Livi played a couple of matching games with tool cards and transportation cards. Then they played “Dora & Diego.” Declan said, “Dora, there’s a monster coming!” Livi replied, “Oh, Diego, you say that all the time!” Too funny. Declan explored the house and assessed the upstairs as “safe” but was still cautious about monster possibilities downstairs. Livi took a bathroom break, and Declan was impatiently waiting to save an animal, as well as stopping Swiper (they both chanted together, D in the living room, Livi from the “throne,” “SWIPER NO SWIPING” until Livi proclaimed Swiper as all done). Then, “Alicia” (Livi) came into the kitchen at one point urgently asking for “Diego” to help an animal in trouble! “Diego” (Declan) said, “I’ll be right there! I’ve got to finish baking these cookies!” Alicia protested, “But there’s an animal in trouble!” Declan said, in kind of an annoyed voice, “I’m *com*ing…” Their play is punctuated at some point by “Map! Map!” As they talk out a route to the ice cream store, and they’re both delighted to discover they both love mint ice cream! Declan then invited Livi to sleep over, she graciously accepted, and now they’re back to saving some animals.

Livi had so many presents for Declan today! A note in a real envelope, a piece of candy, his sweatpants that she had borrowed last week (“Look mom, she gave me sweatpants!” “Those are yours, Declan…” “Yes, mom, Livi gave them to me!” Uh, never mind…), and a Backyardigans CD! They danced around, Livi kept saying “This is my favorite song” or “This is my favorite part.”

The best part was witnessing their tea party. First, they had a pretend tea party, then they had a “real” one for their snack: decaf Earl Grey (they insisted on having cream and sugar for their tea, with beautiful decorative sugar cubes) and chocolate peanut butter chip cookies, along with hotdogs and mac & cheese for lunch. Yum!

Livi and Declan’s sleepover turned out to be part of their playtime. Both of them just went potty (“It’s the middle of the night, we had to go!”) and then snuggled into bed in separate rooms, each cuddling their doll’s characters (Declan/Diego; Livi/Dora). Then they “woke up” and watched Dora on TV.

Making sand pictures

Discussing the “Backyardigans”

“Tea for two…and two for tea…”