Book of the week - The Nutcracker

I was looking for a nice children adaptation of the famous story "The Nutcracker" to introduce it to my boys. And the other day I found this one. In each page there's like a mini-theater in which the characters appear as if they were dancing. 

I found this adaptation a little complicated for F who's 5 years old (P, of course, was just interested in the pictures). He enjoyed a lot the book, but when I finished reading, he looked a little bit puzzled and hadn't really understood what had happened to the Nutcracker. So we went back page by page and I just retold the story with my own words. But I still think the book was worth it, because of the rich illustrations and the way it was nicely written.

Maybe next year I can take F and P to see the ballet, now that they have been introduced to "The Nutcracker". 

Advent Calendar 2012

Last year, I got a little bit frustrated about all the great ideas of Advent calendars that I was finding on the web. It's not that we were out of them (we had 4), is just that I wanted something more special and not as commercial as the ones we had.

So, this year, I decided to create my very own Advent calendar. And, I must say, I'm really really proud of myself. For someone, that didn't even know how to switch on a sewing machine last year, I modestly think that I did a good job.

Hope you like it!

The Weekender - Amazing video on Sandy's visit in downtown Manhattan

Hurricane Sandy on Bikes in NYC from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.

By watching this video I just feel that I was in another place when Sandy passed by. Unbelievable that this happened in the same city I live in! My streets were, of course, dirty and wet, but nothing compared to that.

Have a nice weekend!

What to do with the kids now?

With almost every school in New York closed, parks closed and almost any outdoor activity out of the question, it will be hard (but not impossible) to find ways to entertain the kids over the coming days. Here is a short list of some ideas on where to go with them. Hope it will help!

Museums:

• American Museum of Natural History - reopens Thursday November 1st;
• Children's Museum of Manhattan - reopens Thursday November 1st;
• Moma (they offer some family programs over the weekend) - opened normally;
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art - reopens Thursday November 1st (they offer some daily family programs, check their website for date and time);
• Whitney Museum of American Art - reopens Thursday November 1st (they also have some family programs);

Shows/Theaters/Concerts:

• The New Victory Theater - reopens Friday November 2nd;
• Puppetworks - normal showtimes on Saturday and Sunday;
• Movie Theaters - most of them are operating normally. Check Fandango for more information;
• Jazz at Lincoln Center - Family Concert: who is John Coltrane - Saturday at 1pm and 3pm;

Happy Halloween!

We've survived Hurricane Sandy. Not sure I'll survive Hurricane F&P inside my house. F's school is closed for the rest of the week and there are good chances that P's school will do the same. The city is in total chaos. But we were very lucky and our region was not affected.

Since all our Halloween plans have been cancelled for the day, we are now trying to find alternatives. Most of the traditional parties in the city have been cancelled as well. The best bet would be to do the trick-or-treat in the building, but the kids are not very excited about this alternative. We may head to one of F's friend's building or we may try, like we did last year, East 78th street.

Anyway, Halloween started early this morning. The kids decided to wear their costumes as soon as they woke up. This year P decided to be the lion he didn't want to be last year and was happily roaring all around the apartment.

Since we were forced to stay at home during the last few days, we baked and decorated some Halloween cookies that F was suppose to give to his friends at school today. We'll have to postpone that. In the meantime, take a look at the cute cards that we ordered from Meema Design for this Halloween.

Hurricane Sandy: How to help!

Not everyone was as lucky as we were. 

So if you want to help, here are nice options to do so: 

• To volunteer send an e-mail to: nycservice@cityhall.nyc.gov with your name, e-mail address and borough. Someone will contact you.
• The red cross is also looking for volunteers and donations: http://www.nyredcross.org
• Another way to volunteer: http://newyorkcares.org
• Volunteer sign-up: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dG5JTldNeTRMTFhPTVFYWE1rYl9CWnc6MQ#gid=0
• Other ways to donate: 
• https://donate.salvationarmyusa.org/disaster; 
• http://www.aidmatrixnetwork.org; 
• http://www.thethinredline.org/relief-fund.html; 
• http://feedingamerica.org; 
• http://www.worldvision.org; 
• http://%20www.savethechildren.org
• To register for assistance: http://www.disasterassistance.gov

There are also other ways to help out locally. If you live close to a shelter, check if they are in need of clothes or toys for the kids. Some of them had to flee their houses and didn't have time to take their belongings with them. I'm still looking around my neighborhood, but a friend has already told me that in the upper west side, there is a shelter at Louis Brandeis high school (west 84th street), where there are kids between 3 and 10 years that would very much appreciate anything to distract them (crayons, paper, stickers, toys, books, etc) and there is another one at Hunter College.

List of shelters in New York: http://www.nyc.gov/html/misc/html/2012/hurricane_shelters.html

If you hear of any other ways to help, please let me know, so that I can keep updating this post and we can try to reach out as many people as we can. 

Thanks!

The Weekender - Colorful fall

I haven't made up my mind yet on wether spring is my favorite season in New York or fall is the winner. Both seasons are so colorful. It's like living inside a painting. And biking in the middle of all those changing colors is absolutely priceless.
Have a wonderful weekend!