We’re lucky enough to call New York’s Chelsea neighborhood home. It’s diverse and energetic, always up for a good time. Particularly when June rolls around and Gay Pride celebrations kick into high gear. Lauren once said that we live in the most beautiful place on Earth because it’s full of rainbows. An astute observation from a then-4-year-old kid, who noticed that hundreds (if not thousands) of rainbow flags flutter above our neighborhood storefronts.

One of our neighbors co-hosts the J.P.Morgan-sponsored Pride event held in the Central Park Zoo every year.

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The kids look forward to the end of June every year, which marks both the end of school and the Pride event at the zoo.

Usually the Tropical Zone is open, but for some reason, this year, it was closed. But I do have a few pictures of the blazingly warm pavilion from last year. The Tropical Zone houses all kinds of exotic animals, from rare species of birds, to lemurs, and more creepy crawlies than I’d typically like to see in one sitting, including Pythons and Tarantulas.

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And the birds…there are the most beautiful species of birds in the Zoo. This was Sam right before the husband and wife pair in the background got into a huge marital spat and accidentally cuffed him in the head with their wings.

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Maybe it’s not such a bad thing that it was closed this year.

But we did have our regular Sea Lion show. “The seals, guys, the seals!” I called as the trainers got ready for the show. At which point a well-coiffed man in front of me exclaimed to his daughter “aren’t you excited for the SEA LIONS?” Apparently zoo animal classification is critical to some people. Not to me, ballpark is good enough.

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Can a weekend start poorly when you’re baking Almond Joy brownie bites?

I have scientifically proven that it can.

First my brownies gave me the middle finger when they came out of the oven and broke in half during the pan extraction process. I had to dig out some Hello Kitty polka dot mini cupcake wrappers to save them from the compost heap. Fortunately they were edible.

Lauren, who is nut allergic, wanted to know why on Earth I’d made brownies with nuts in them. After explaining that they were for a dinner party that night, she broke into tears, begging that I make a second nut-free batch of brownies.

So now, instead of enjoying the first 50 degree day of the winter, we were trapped inside like brownie lab rats, testing our dedication to the sport of baking.

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And of course, when we make food, I must photograph. Because that’s what this food blog has done to me.

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Yes, those would be my feet. I’m either perched on a chair, lying on the ground, or climbing onto my countertops to get my food shots. Maybe I’m doing it wrong. If so, please tell me because I’m spending a lot of time cleaning my countertops.

After baking all morning the kids started to pace like a pack of anxious wolves; they were ready to enjoy some sunshine. Our sunny day didn’t disappoint.

And I was eager to enjoy a little of the great outdoors myself. Forgetting that everyone swarms to the park as soon as we get a glimpse of warm weather, I suited up for our visit in a pair of stretch iridescent snakeskin pants, a yellow sweatshirt, and a wool vest that I bought in 2001. Witnesses will corroborate. Upon seeing friends and acquaintances in their skinny jeans and leather boots, the obvious choice was to run for the hills, which I did under the guise of a dog walk, leaving my husband to look after the kids.

With a quick fist bump to my girl, Jack and I took off.

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Goodbye

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Looks like we have another storm coming in this morning, the skies are cloudy, snow is falling, and this, just after what happened with Winter Storm Pax last week. 

We went from this on Wednesday morning….

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To this on Thursday morning….

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I woke up early on Thursday, and as with any snowstorm, was eager to get outside and walk Jackson through the snow. Must be my Canadian roots, I love the snow.

We walked over to the dog run in Madison Square Park, in the shadow of the Flatiron building. It was dark and cold, but at the same time peaceful.

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Jackson

Another Halloween post? Bear with me, because I couldn’t do the holiday justice without a little post-date wrap-up.

Heading into Halloween is always a bit of a challenge. This year was no different. Starting with the wrong outfit that came in the mail. I had ordered an Ariel crown from some untrustworthy online store that I found in a Google search and they sent me a pair of angel wings instead. Not the worst issue, they could have sent me worse. So I decided that for the first year since my early 20s, I’d dress up for the holiday.

The problem is that the kids fought over those wings for two straight weeks.

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Finally, older sister prevailed, convincing her younger sister that she was in fact rocking it like Beyonce in her original bee costume. Problem solved.

Lauren and Emma

Sam was over the moon about his Werewolf costume. Here, we have the many faces of Werewolf. Confused wolf (1), affable wolf (2), helpful wolf (3), and scary pantsless wolf (4).

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