Gingerbread House

Ristow has been asking if we can make a gingerbread house as a family. So today I excitedly bought a kit. The plan was to wait till Thanksgiving, but Ristow was so super excited, it was hard to say no. The gingerbread house came with easy instructions and everything you need already prepackaged. We set it up and started decorating.

Everything was great until Ristow decided that the gingerbread man that came with it needed an actual door to go into the house. What the heck, its only gingerbread right? Well after much struggle, Christopher cut out a door large enough for the gingerbread man and the entire back piece cracked and the roof started to cave in. Luckily, the recent experience of re-doing our bathroom came in handy as we plastered and puttied the house back together with icing. Tragedy averted, or so we thought. Turns out the housing authority (Ristow) deemed the structure not up to par and pitched a fit. It was supposed to be bigger and more gingerbread man accessible, it seems. So Christopher and I decorated the rest of the house by ourselves and had a lovely time.

In the end, Ristow settled for a picture of pretending to eat the house and then proceeded to eat the silly gingerbread man's head anyway.

(I think he will fit now!)

The first leaf pile

Today was the first day that there were enough leaves in the front yard for us to rake together a good size leaf pile to jump in. We went out after school and bought a new rake. Ristow was very excited. It was a bit bizarre though, dark by 5pm and still in the 70's, we were out in the yard with flashlights. Raking and jumping, raking and jumping! We had such a good time.

Ristow's two favorite things were hiding the flashlight in the leaf pile and finding it, and then he got paper and tape and made a "diving board" on the step and jumped off the paper into the leaves. He thought he was so cool.

Back from NYC

Well, we are back and recovering from the sensory overload that is New York City. We were able to stay in Brooklyn Hts at Christopher's cousin Jenny's apartment. It was fabulous. We were even able to have dinner with Jenny and her fiance Chris and hit the Brooklyn Museum of Art. We had a most amazing trip. Some of the highlights include; the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, Times Square, The Bodies Exhibit (yes it was pretty awesome) and of course the Marathon!

First the Bodies... It was amazing to see the human body with no skin. They had different exhibits for each system in the body. In one it was just the nervous system with the brain, eyes and every nerve in the body. In some it was just the blood vessels, and others just the tendons. It was truly an eye opening experience. Christopher loved seeing all the muscles that his clients tend to have issues with and to be able to see exactly what they looked like posed in a real human body was fascinating.

Next, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island... We have a wonderful ferry ride over and learned so much; from the construction of the statue to the examinations the immigrants faced upon arrival to Ellis Island. Very educational and inspiring.

The MARATHON!!!... Christopher had a great race. He ran it in 4:04! I am so proud of him. I was able to meet up with my brother's friend Dann who was able to watch the race with me and help me to get around NYC and see different points of the race. I saw Christopher at mile 8 and he was doing awesome! Unfortunately I missed him at all the other spots but none the less cheered loud and clanged my cowbell for all the runners. There were a number of blind runners with guides, double amputees and other inspiring runners to be amazed by.

During the race something blew into my eye. It hurt and bothered me the rest of the day. Finally it was so irritaing and painful that we went to a 24hr emergency eye infirmary. Only in New York would you find a 24hr eye doctor on a Sunday night. They were great and after a few days of drops and such, I am all healed up. Christopher, however, seems to still be having issues walking down the stairs ;) (Great Job Christopher!)

We really loved the city. We felt like pros on the subway by the time we left. But, at the end of the day, we decided that Nashville is more our style. Though a trip back to the city is definitely in order. We have lots more to see!