Steve Fischer's Random Blog

Category: Victoria

Coby

I thought with a new dog, this might become a “here’s what our dog did today” blog. But having a dog has calmed down and there’s nothing particularly blog worthy.

He’s still super cute. He’s pooping and peeing in the appropriate places (i.e. not inside). He just turned 6 months, so still a puppy and he still acts like one (both good and bad). He makes me get up too early for the first walk (puppy = small bladder) but overall he’s become only a little more work and he’s way fun.

So, the obligatory pictures:

April 24, 2014
Aerial Yoga

Yes, that is a thing. For my wife’s sister’s birthday, her daughter in law organized a group class here.

It looks something like this. Silks are hung and you can stretch, hang, flip, do all kinds of funky things. Needless to say, my girls loved it. Victoria learned to hang herself upside down.

Danielle learned all kinds of moves.

I did it too, but there is thankfully no photographic evidence…

March 31, 2014
Puerto Rico Redux

We didn’t have any imagination with our vacation this year. For the third straight year we went to San Juan. And we had a similarly great time. You could refer to either of the past posts and it was basically the same vacation.

With older girls, there was more night swimming:

We went to El Morro as usual:

The big new thing was a rainforest excursion. We had been meaning to do this in past years, but didn’t find the time. This year we also wanted to check out zip lining. So we rented a car and drove towards El Yunque, the rain forest. First we headed here. We had no detailed information, we just showed up. It was around 11:30 and they told us the next group would zip line at 1:00. So we had some time to kill. They suggested the nearby beach, Luquillo. So we headed over there for a bit.

We ate some great alcapurrias at a local joint and walked along the beach.

And then it was time to zip line. They said you had to be 8, so Victoria aged a year that day. We were worried it might be too scary for her. At first she was a little scared, but she rallied and had a blast.

Tori getting ready:

And she’s off…

Danielle about to go:

And off..

And to give you some sense of how far these lines, go, the video below shows both girls zipping off to a final landing spot you can’t see:

And we followed this up with a hike in the rainforest.

To a beautiful (and very cold) waterfall. Tori is usually my cold water girl, but only Danielle would swim with me.

It was a great vacation…

March 26, 2014
Coby

It has begun. After years of pleading, we got our girls a puppy. We got a rescue dog from the North Shore Animal League. He’s a Terrier mix, 12 weeks old, and his name is Coby.

This is us leaving the shelter. Wish us luck…

January 12, 2014
Tori’s Birthday Party

Victoria got to celebrate her birthday in style at a rock-climbing, obstacle course, general athletic fun place. Below are the obligatory pictures.

We got there early, so Tori and Danielle hung out together

The obstacle course part was well done. They started out small:

And about every 10 minutes, they’d add on something at the end. So next they had to use the springboard to get up on the wall.

It was freezing in Brooklyn that day. Danielle was still cold, though I don’t think vaulting with a scarf is recommended.

Then, as they kept increasing the obstacle course, they took two kids at a time to climb the walls. So the kids were never waiting, they were always moving.

No problems getting to the top.

Danielle’s long legs give her a big advantage.

The usual pizza and cake followed, with some time left over for parachute fun.

And finally a dance party (can’t really tell with the flash, but it was dark with disco lights and smoke).

A very happy birthday for Tori and friends.

November 25, 2013
Birthday Girl

Victoria is 7 today. Hard to believe we were in Guatemala almost 6 1/2 years ago.

Our normal school routine is to get Danielle to school by 7:50, but Tori can’t go to her classroom until 8:15. So we hang out in the cafeteria for a bit. She’s had breakfast at home, so if she wants something else I only let her have healthy stuff. This is both difficult (their bacon has optimal crispiness) and somewhat boring.

So birthday girl got a chocolate muffin today. Living large…

The party is Sunday, more pictures to come.

November 20, 2013
Random Fun

A catch-up kind of post, since I haven’t posted pics of the girls recently.

A couple weekends ago we went apple picking. A little late in the season, but it was a gorgeous day.

Danny likes to climb the trees:

The farm also had a playground. Tori likes to climb too:

And the obligatory Halloween picture. Danielle was a Cereal Killer, Tori a cat and I’m apparently wearing a large rodent as a wig.

Of course, Tori had to try on the wig…

And Danielle celebrated her 11th birthday with 9 other girls. It was a sleepover. Sleep was not actually involved.

Today we are all recovering…

November 3, 2013
Scooter Time (and Theft)

School has started for my girls so that means Citi Bike goes away and I’m back to the scooter. I prefer biking, but when taking my girls to school the scooter works better.

But a couple of weeks ago, we had a bad city experience. Our nanny had taken the girls on a play date. The friend’s apartment was a new building in Brooklyn Heights. If you don’t know Brooklyn, that’s a really nice neighborhood. They had Danielle’s, Tori’s and my scooter (I think my nanny’s daughter Mia was riding mine). They told our nanny that leaving the scooters in the lobby would be fine.

Oops.

Two of the three scooter got stolen. Everyone was shocked. My nanny was horrified. She thought I’d be really mad. The parents offered to pay for our new scooters. But honestly, stuff happens. We’ve lived in Brooklyn forever and never dealt with theft. It’s a huge city. It happens.

The only good part was that of the three scooters, they took the two oldest (mine and Danielle’s). We had been talking about getting Danielle a new one anyway. Mine wasn’t that old, but I’m hard on scooters.

And the new Razor A5 comes in a cool blue. So Danny and I have new scooters. Tori is jealous.

I’m out a chunk of money which is no fun, but it’s all part of living in the big city. With how great our neighborhood is, one theft every 15 years is not that bad.

Now the only issue is that Tori always wants to ride my scooter…

September 10, 2013
Go Cyclones

A friend of ours gave us tickets to see the Brooklyn Cyclones last night, so I took my daughter’s and one of their friends. This is single A ball. The baseball park is at Coney Island and is quite nice.

The Cyclones are a Mets team and they were actually playing the Staten Island Yankees but at the Single-A level, I’m rooting for the home team.

It was a good game. The Cyclone’s pitcher threw a one-hitter for 6 innings with 9 strike-outs. Danielle liked that because they play the Law and Order sound after every strike out and that amused her.

The girls cared more about the cotton candy than the game and we only lasted 7 innings. But a good time was had by all.

And it was jersey night…

Jessie, Vicotria and Danielle

August 30, 2013
Another Fantastic Vacation

Honestly, I could just recycle last year’s post. The weather was fantastic. The same families were in the same houses so Danielle and Victoria had built in playmates. The beach and sunsets are always great.

The gang from the first week:

Danielle, Clara, Madeline, Victoria and Hannah (10,8,9,6 and 5 respectively)

Other friends stayed with us the second week. We hit the local drive-in:

Victoria, Marieé and Cooper

This year even Tori was holding the crabs:

Danielle created elaborate habitats with crabs organized by size:

And fish:

I’m not really sure what Tori is doing here:

But she’s very proud of her new sweatshirt:

As hard as it is, I’ll avoid posting a million sunset pictures. Every night was a great one.

August 28, 2013