Kids and their toys

The Stacey and Chirinos 4 and under crowd really like the blow up car. Its the party mobile! My kids really like getting out to the parks - thank goodness, we've done alot of it lately and its been fun for me to explore the area with them. One thing I've noticed about all the parks around here - they are specifically designed for age groups and will often fence off certain areas. As an example, the 5-12 yr. olds have their playground on one side of the fence or, as in the pic with Cliffie and Vi, its across a grassy field from the 2-5 yr. old playground. The swings are typically separated by fences too. Violet loves to play in the swings and she's started to go after the big kid swings now too. She can swing gently on them for a few seconds.

Caution: Stay away from the Cliff!

Cliff meets his match! He was a little bit scared because once up there, he was stuck. I think these fake rocks/cliffs are really neat looking. Side note: this park is one of maybe 2 parks that I've been to where us white folks were the majority. Its cool - I love the diversity of NY.

we love strollers from all walks of life.

Violet loves to push strollers, with our without people or purses or backpacks in it. I recently bought a little pink stroller just for her and she loves it! She loves to push boxes and baskets around the house and I was pretty excited to get this for her 'cause I was 99% sure she'd love it. And she does! Cliffie likes 'em too but not quite as much as baby princess. (We've referred to Violet so much as 'baby princess' that little Rebecca likes to refer to Violet that way as well!)

Why have a jungle gym when you have Richard?

The Church Building and the Temple

The branch meets in a building that has 3 businesses around it on the first floor but we meet on the top floor. It is a bilingual branch that has English and Spanish classes and then sacrament meeting has a translator. We use headsets depending on who is speaking. Most members speak Spanish and only a little English. I went to the Manhattan Temple with 4 sisters a few weeks ago and it was great. I love the Temple! We met around 5:15am and went to a 6:30 ish session. Since its in the middle of the city the temple is quite narrow and I didn't really want to run across the busy street to try to get more of the temple in the picture. Some other time.

Staceys and Chirinos'

We've had a lot of fun playing with the Chirinos family - kids: Brandon, Cristina, Rebecca and Daniel. Cristina and Violet are first. Brandon, Baby Dani and Cliffton are next. Richard is terrorizing the kids in the last 2. Apparently kids like to be terrorized.

more park pix

Violet is really strong. Its hard to take things from her and you can kinda get the idea of how tough she is from this picture of her above the slide. Look out Superman!

In the last one, Violet is with Rebecca who is just older than Cliffton. 'Rebeqita,' as her Mom calls her, just loves Violet. The slide picture with Cliffton has the most unusual slide I've seen. There are a whole bunch of blue rollers that make for a fast and bumpy slide!

Krazy Kiddos

We have been exploring the multitude of parks in Nassau County which covers more of the Western region of Long Island. Here are the kiddos in action! Violet is more of a climber and Cliffton is more of a driver.

Update

Hi Everyone!
We have had quite a change over the last month as we packed up and moved to New York. We've been staying with a very kind family in Malverne on Long Island. The husband is the branch president (local religious leader, basically) in Freeport where we've been attending church and hope to very soon live. We're awaiting an interview to see if we we are approved in person for a coop. apt. complex in Freeport and we're also trying to rent a home in Freeport, which ever works first. We've seen numerous apartments but finding one isn't really the problem. It's been awaiting loan $ and trying to find landlords who so often don't want to rent to families with kids (but legally can't discriminate against that). We've had a hard time finding people who will work with a law student's family who'll be living off of loans for at least a year. Its been tough. NY is tough. But they are some definite sweethearts out here who amaze me with their generosity and love.
Richard is some 2 weeks into classes or so plus his orientation which was rather intense. He is enjoying it, for the most part (who actually enjoys every day of school? If you're raising your hand and saying "me", you should be locked away ;) ). I think he's happy to be learning all about the law and to be doing something that he's desired for quite some time now. I often tell him to kick some law school butt as I drop him off and you know? I believe he does.
I took the kiddos to Jones Beach Thursday. We stayed in a little "creek" just prior to the actual beach which was great for kids. The waves along the shore were huge! They would've knocked me down. Hurricane Earl is supposed to pass close by Friday night but we should only be hit by tropical storm winds and not the actual hurricane. However the waves are getting bigger. I loved the water but I had forgotten how utterly sandy eveything can get that you take to the beach! Especially when you carry not just one but 2 kids across some sections of the beach and then get right down in the sand with them. Cliffton loved to throw the sand at me at first and then I made sure he knew that he could put sand on my legs and not throw it. Violet loved to find trash of course. Seriously, New Yorkers should love us to death because we so often leave parks and beaches cleaner than when we arrived. I am always saying "Violet don't eat that" or "No Violet that's trash; lets throw it away." She's a handful. You either need a lot of energy to chase after her constantly or just pick your battles (and messes) to deal with.

Pics of the kiddos

These are pictures of the kiddos at the Chirinos' home in Malverne, NY. Thanks for the camera Darrell and Loretta! We love you and miss you!