Nutcracker Season

Nutcracker season is in full swing again this year.

Keira is playing a mouse and a clown in the official TBT Nutcracker production at the Winspear Opera House.

Katharine has outgrown the main production, but still helps out the school by dressing up and reading the Nutcracker to groups of kids.

Pokemon Cats

The other artist of the house is Kassidy, whom I am a big fan of.

It isn't technically proficient, but it is super weird.

And I like that :)

Here is one of her latest sketches of a Pokemon cat character.

Neat And Not

Kassidy has taken over one side of Keira's room with the German ladies visiting. 

Those two are like Felix and Oscar. 

Keira likes everything neat and organized, and Kassidy is.. well.. the opposite.

Thanksgiving with the Fr'uncle and Fr'aunt

The frousins weren't there, but there was still a lot of great fun and fellowship to be had over Thanksgiving at the Martel house.

And for some, here is also your first peak of Lennon with his glasses. They are just for reading and watching TV, so they won't show up in many pictures.

Kittens

The girls put on a production of 'Cats' for us this afternoon.

We only saw Part 1 and Part 2. Part 3 was cancelled, apparently due to "creative differences".

Oma and Erica Arrive

Oma and Erica arrived for their annual 3 week visit late last night.

Sherman wouldn't stop barking at first- but then he quickly remembered about all of the hand-outs he receives when they are here.

They are all friends again now :)

Friday in the Park with the Boys

Here are some more pics from my NYC trip with the boys.

On Friday we traveled into Manhattan to meet with some art clients of mine in midtown. After that we walked up to Central Park, climbing rocks and exploring all of the hidden paths. We stopped by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for an hour to check out some art (the boys were mainly interested in Greek statues, medieval armor and African masks) before returning to the park for more exploring and rock climbing as the sun went down. Then we walked down to Broadway and saw 'The Book of Mormon' before heading back to Queens to collapse in our beds :)

Sand Snake

We went to the local beach on Saturday to play around in the sand for a few hours. 

At first we tried to bring Sherman, but he just slunk around and wanted to go home. He hates being more than a block away from the house, and ultimately prefers a lap or a soft bed to anything else. Hard to blame him.

So we dropped Sherman back off at home and returned to the beach. The kids built this cool sand snake while I dozed in the chair. 

All in all, a very pleasant time out.

Happy 1/2 birthday to Kassidy!

We celebrated Kassidy's 1/2 birthday tonight.

Her siblings weren't too amused, but she had a blast!

At least everyone got some cake out of it..

Da' Bronx Zoo

The boys and I spent one day of our NYC trip exploring the Bronx Zoo with Uncle Peter.

The zoo is 265 acres, and Uncle Peter kept up the whole time. But we were all feeling the burn by the end of the day, so we went home right after to sit on the couch and watch baseball and eat Chinese food :)