Labor Day weekend

Friday showed up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 4:15am, proving that the phrase TGIF is utterly useless when you're a mom. At least Will is nice and happy first thing in the morning and there is coffee. Major perks. I can also pawn the baby off on Steve sometimes depending on how often I was up throughout the night. I never sleep as hard as I do when I know that Will is full of milk and being handled by a perfectly capable someone else that is not me. We stopped at H-Mart before meeting friends at a playground. Will was thrilled to snag the coveted and highly sought after buggy seat.

I tend to make the same face when I get that first whiff of kimchi in the morning.

H-Mart actually sells tons of meat that is already marinated in various Korean sauces and since I know not what I buy, it's a bit like a lottery feeling every time I cook it up. Will this be spicy? Sweet? Garlicky? Give us all diarrhea? Who knows! How exciting! This time I bought sweet meat (haaaaaa) and it tasted almost exactly like our favorite beef and leaf's pork. Sam and Molly, children who previously only ate rice and pickled radishes in Korea, suddenly could not get enough of the meat and Steve and I were left wondering who these children were and where did all the beef go? Ah well. At least we've found a meat they enjoy that doesn't involve the word "nugget". Gonna mark that down as a win.

On Saturday we headed down to the commissary at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn and to let the kids play on the playground that overlooks the ocean. Except we got to the playground and it was closed for renovations. Womp womp. We were hanging around watching the cars on the interstate and bridge when all of a sudden, Molly got stung by a yellowjacket!

Her thumb quickly swelled so we went to the px to get some benadryl. If there is one thing I hate giving my children, it's benadryl. It doesn't have that "desirable" effect on them like it does on others... they take it, their reaction goes away, they get drowsy, they get angry that they're drowsy, they fight the drowsy, they're now tired and angry and eventually they fall asleep. Except the sleep only lasts 20 minutes and then they are drowsy, angry, and groggy. It is JUST as fun as you're imagining. Anyway!

On the bright side, they were having an infamous case lot sale at the commissary so naturally we bought 12 boxes of macaroni and cheese and 437 Clorox wipes. I'm that germaphobe mom that just doesn't give a shit come dinnertime. Hey!

After a family walk/jog/bike ride down by the bay, we had dinner and baths and everyone went to bed SUPER early. Because sometimes the kids just need to catch up on sleep, right?

And maybe I had bought some Binches at H-Mart and we ate a few while we watched Seinfeld SO WHAT. We are adults and this is the stuff you're allowed to do when you're done adulting for the day.

Sunday morning, we met up with our first friends in Korea!! They were visiting New York and had time to get together, so we met up at Central Park. Molly was SOOOOOO excited. Sam was too but Molly was really over-the-moon at the thought.

Are they not the cutest???

We girls got to go off on our own and take a carriage ride. Not only was it fun, but it was very informative too!

Did you know you could own a 2-bedroom apartment at the Plaza Hotel for a cool $4mil? Molly and Sofia seem to be considering it.

The girls and Scott the horse (failed to catch the driver's name whoops)

We met back up with the boys, who by this time had been mistaken for a very good-looking gay family complete with Will attached to Steve in the Ergo. We made our way to the Carousel.

The center of the carousel was so detailed, not to mention the 57 hand-carved horses! When people wonder what the collective "they" did before the Internet, I would assume it was something time-consuming and beautiful like this.

Before long, Sofia and family had to get going. Molly is still talking about when Sofia can come play at our house. I wish we only lived a few feet away from each other still!

As we learned during our carriage ride, these rocks are the only things that are native to Central Park. Can you spot Sam?

We stopped to see this upcoming art display before heading back to our car. Riveting.

We had to make a slight detour on our way home via the Bronx because I stupidly agreed to pick something up in-store from Target and our Target ran out and redirected me there. Interesting place for sure. Almost as interesting as all of the hysteria surrounding the hurricane.

Tropical storm warning this weekend

The craziest part to me was not the clear blue skies, but the complete lack of rain in the forecast. Yet the weatherpeople were pretty adamant that this was going to be bad. So far we've had cooler temps and a very lovely breeze. Not the hurricane weather I am used to, but I'll take it.

After our picnic car lunch and Target pickup, ring pops were handed out and then Sam passed out hard.

That afternoon we ended up at a local park to ride bikes and play on the playground. Sam decided it was now or never with the sprinklers and got himself completely soaked.

Every playground here has some sort of water feature and my kids have avoided them all like the plague this summer. They shut the water off today (Tuesday) and Sam came around on Sunday.

Caravan back to the car

Actual Labor Day started out slow and easy. It was still windy from the "hurricane" so we went to the park down by the bay to fly a kite that our neighbor had given the kids. This neighbor isn't known for his niceness or generosity so it was a strange gesture to begin with, but the kite looked very nice and how hard could it be? Turns out, very hard. We never got the stupid thing to fly (pretty sure there were a few missing pieces...). But Steve did get a very thorough sprint workout in and Molly got to ride her bike in circles for awhile, so overall it wasn't a total waste.

Molly found a sharpie and decorated herself with some nice new semi-permanent tattoos. A lovely addition for someone attending a new school in two days. Speaking of which, TWO DAYS. The first day is only an hour and a half and the next day is a half day and then Monday is off for a holiday but TUESDAY is a FULL DAY. In TWO DAYS I will have a slight break and then on TUESDAY I will be free. FREE. FREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

It will definitely be weird without them around 24/7 but I'm looking forward to hanging out with that tiny baby by himself for a bit.