birthday day

we usually have breakfast with greg before he goes to work. today he had the day off, so we could take our time getting everything ready.

chanda had requested applegate breakfast sausages, fried eggs, english muffins and orange juice.

afterwards, korrina ran off to the theatre to help construct the set while morgana and chanda helped peel the apples for the pie.

it's my mom's recipe and calls for green apples, lemon juice and cinnamon. that's all. it's a deliciously tart pie.

it bakes at 450 for 10 minutes, and then 350 for 30 minutes.

morgana always makes it look very pretty.

since we were having pizza for dinner, i put together a quick marinara sauce. there's lots of yummy things to put in a sauce, but i wanted it simple for the pie. i sauteed onion with a little sea salt, garlic and oregano. then i added two cans of puree, one can of paste and one can of water. very simple. very quick. very good!

after prepping for dinner, chanda and i went out shopping for the wool coat she has been requesting for months now. we went to macy's on 34th street.

they were having a fifty percent off sale, but we didn't find anything that she absolutely loved. one beautiful grey wool coat was too big in the shoulders, another black wool coat had too much fluffy black fur at the wrists and around the hood. we'll just have to keep looking.

on the train to ballet we began the next harry potter book.

chapter one begins "the worst birthday." we had to laugh as it was an incredibly dark day outside and it was pouring rain. it felt like the weather was saying "worst birthday, worst birthday" also.

at ballet . . it's funny for me to see chanda in this shirt . . i remember my friend cathy giving it to korrina many years ago on korrina's 10th birthday. it was a little big on her then, but she grew into it. then morgana wore it . . and now chanda.

finally . . back at home we put the pizza together with shredded mozzarella cheese, sauce, oregano, and fresh basil (the latter is sprinkled on after the pie comes out of the oven). we also had a romaine salad with croutons and caesar dressing (i had made the dressing before we left).

always a few books to be unwrapped . . also, morgana had found a beautiful flower fairies calendar at shelburne farms in vermont when she was there over the summer. she wrapped it up for tonight's celebration.

happy birthday, chanda!

birthday morning

when i've said my evening prayers,
and my clothes are folded on the chair,
and mother has turned out the light,
i'll still be eleven years old tonight.

but, before the very break of day,

before the children rise and play,
before the greenness turns to gold,

tomorrow i'll be twelve years old.

twelve kisses when i wake,
twelve candles on my cake.

(and a ticket to the hugo movie . .)

(. . and yellow roses from her acting teacher).

poetry, math and birthday preparations

we decided to begin a craft hour again. it's been awhile since we've sat down and read and knitted. morgana began a bag for the homeschooling craft fair, and chanda picked up a napkin she had started during the summer. i read from longfellow's hiawatha (what! are we still reading that thing??). yes. and i'm enjoying it more. it was difficult to get into at the beginning. nineteenth century attitudes towards women are not easy for me to read without comment . . m and c were very annoyed with my qualifying . . i'm also not entirely comfortable with his depiction of the native american community . . with the authenticity of it. i'm caught up in being politically correct, but he was writing in 1855 and it's now 2011. when i can let go my twenty first century concerns, then i can enjoy the beauty of the writing. of course, now everyone is starting to die . .

chanda measured off 12 cubits and laid out a rectangular plot of land like the ancient egyptians would do. she determined the length of the cubit by measuring from the tip of her finger to her elbow, and determined the plot by measuring with the right angle and marking the corners.

----

tomorrow is chanda's birthday and we straightened up the apartment, cleaned the bathroom and folded the laundry. we'll make an apple pie and homemade pizza for dinner tomorrow, before going off to her ballet class. we won't eat dinner and have the pie until 8:30 pm when korrina gets home from her photography class. but we'll celebrate in the morning with a birthday breakfast.

abingdon square and chanda's correspondance

janet and i sat in abingdon square park early this morning and sipped our hot chocolates from the chocolate bar. last night was extremely cold, but it warmed up this morning.

back at home, chanda decided to write a few letters today: one to grandma thanking her for a birthday check, and one to her friend telling about the upcoming ice skating birthday party. we also did a math lesson and she practiced her violin before we went uptown for her modern dance class. korrina had a rehearsal today for the play she is stage managing, and morgana did a puppet show for the waldorf study group that meets on monday afternoons. i did a lot of laundry . .

fall foliage and the patrelle fundraiser dinner

in past years i've missed getting photos of the changing leaves. chanda and i were reminiscing about election day 2008. we had been in battery park city for morgana's limon performance, and we walked home along the river. the leaves were still on the trees, and were glistening golden in the light from the street lamps. it was incredibly beautiful.

i was determined this year not to miss out. hence, i've been a bit obsessed with taking foliage pictures.

but it is a good year . .
. . the reds are so bright . .

and the yellows are always pretty . .

this evening, after the nutcracker rehearsal, morgana, chanda and i attended the annual dances patrelle fall fundraiser dinner.
it was held in the library of the house of the redeemer, a beautiful episcopal church on 95th street, just off of fifth avenue. hors d'oeuvres were served (mini pesto pizzas, quiches, tortillas, along with cheese and crackers) and everyone milled about talking and perusing the silent auction items. the singers from the gilbert and sullivan show sang a few songs and then the summer study scholarships were awarded. there were six recipients and the three of us were shocked to hear chanda's name called as the sixth one. it was very exciting, and after chanda picked her jaw up off of the floor, she posed for a picture with mr. patrelle and the other dancers.

and then she posed for one with morgana and i in the fancy bathroom . .

november saturday

we've had several beautiful autumn days. many window boxes are looking very pretty,

the leaves are turning yellow, gold and red . .

and finally falling on the ground. occasionally, i'll observe someone besides myself purposely swishing through piles along the edge of the sidewalk . .

today i recorded an orchestra rehearsal as i haven't posted about it in awhile.

(sitting and knitting and sipping a tea or coffee makes saturday mornings a lot of fun for me . . )

ever since chanda saw the preview screening for martin scorsese's film version of brian selznick's book, the invention of hugo cabret, she has been obsessed with it. first she read the book over and over, then she talked about the premiere (can't we get tickets, mommy!!) and now she's been picking out the posters that are popping up all around the city. she will often scare me in the car by shouting "THERE'S ONE OVER THERE!!" voila! introducing the hugo poster and chanda!

this evening for dinner we had black bean soup with sour cream and cilantro. a delicious soup for a crisp autumn day.

martinmas

glimmer lantern glimmer,

little stars a shimmer,
over meadow, moor and dale,
flitter, flutter, elfin veil,
peewit peewit ticka ticka tick,
roucou, roucou

glimmer lantern glimmer,
little stars a shimmer,
over rock and stock and stone,
wander skipping little gnome,
peewit peewit ticka ticka tick,
roucou, roucou

on broadway

morgana and chanda have been talking for ages about waiting in line for $30 rush tickets to how to succeed in business without really trying. yesterday, i read that daniel radcliffe is leaving the show january 1st. i decided if they were ever going to see it, it should be sooner rather than later . . meaning before thanksgiving. and since i have two birthdays coming up next week, that translated into NOW! so chanda and i woke this morning and headed to 45th street to wait in line. we arrived at about 8:30 am.

by 10 am, when they opened the box office, we were positioned in the front third of the line. we bought two tickets in the second row, all the way on the side. the rush seats are partial view, but we figured it couldn't be too bad.

(she was reading coot club, by arthur ransome, inspired reading by carolyne in england who vacationed with her family just this summer on the infamous norfolk broads that mr. ransome writes about. it's probably chanda's second or third time reading it.)

back at home, chanda finished working on her greek root word definitions.

after schoolwork, chanda had chorus at third street music school. then we took the N train from union square to 42nd street, and walked to the theatre and met morgana. i took a picture of them before they went in and before i left for home. greg picked them up, and it's a good thing he did, as i wouldn't have been happy with the huge crowd they stood in while waiting for daniel radcliffe to leave the theatre. supposedly, chanda sat on morgana's shoulders trying to see over everyone and get an autograph, but daniel ran out so fast and into a waiting car that they missed him. ay yi yi. they did succeed in getting john laroquette's autograph (he plays biggley, the big boss of the show, for which he won a tony and a drama desk award). they said he looked very bored while signing! oh! fans and stars. it's like the i love lucy episodes when lucy and ricky are in hollywood! (oh, and they said the seats were great and the show was AMAZING!)