Birthday Party

This month is birthday month. Chloe and Aidan are invited to three parties. The first (Sarah and Ellie's) was last Saturday. Here are the birthday girls (they're twins):





The party was in Mamaroneck. Lots of physical activity had everybody enjoying the event:



Chloe did some rock-climbing...



...and tried out the parallel bars:



Aidan enjoyed the dancing will all the other kids around:



And here are the remaining pictures.

Bescherung 2

(Bescherung - I don't think there's a good English translation, but it's the event of handing out presents during Christmas in German)



...and it's the second because we didn't bring the presents we had for the kids to Vegas. So we had another present-hand-out-event on Tuesday night. Here are some pics:

Aidan likes his dinosaur and megaphone:



Chloe loves her new baby. It eats and drinks and pees and poops. Sounds like lots of fun...



Anna with her new stand-up freezer:



How did Anna know I was such a huge Seinfeld fan? (It's the complete box set)



And Linda is happy with her Friends DVD's and new handbag:



And here's the link to the remaining photos.

Christmas in Vegas

This Monday we got back from a week-long trip to Las Vegas. We stayed in Anna's parent's house in Henderson. Our activities included a trip to the strip, many family gatherings,a visit of Avatar in IMAX 3-D, and some gambling for Linda and Anna. And of course, all-you-can-eat-buffets.

Here are Chloe and Aidan:



Here's our (real) Christmas tree:



Here's Chloe with her great-grandmother:



Group photo of everybody (prior to Katherine and her family's arrival):



Anna, Chloe and Alissa having a blast (I think because of the tickle-me-ernie toy):



Here are the youngest members of the Hsu/Na/Wang clan:



Isn't that laugh infectous?



As always, here's the link to the remaining photos.

Addition

We had, for a long time, wanted to add another bedroom and bathroom to our house. After extensive consideration, we figured the middle of winter would be the perfect time to do so. As a result, this is how our house is looking right now:



And here the view from our backyard:



We still have our Christmas lights out though to make it at least look a little festive:

Wandern

(That's German for 'hiking')

I used to do that a lot with my parents and sister when I was a kid, and I guess now that I'm a parent I'll do it to my kids...

Last weekend we had as beautiful a Mid-November day as I can remember. So Anna suggested we explore the 'Leatherstocking' trail near where we live.



The foliage was in full force, and we all had a great time.







I'm sure we'll do this again (maybe next year). Here as always the remaining photos I took.

Pinkalicious

Last weekend, we went into the city to see an Off-Broadway show.



We went with Linda, and also joining us were Chloe's classmates Elizabeth and Michael with their brother Daniel and their parents. Of course this was mainly an event for the girls:



Here's Chloe with one of the stars of the show, Mrs. Pink:



Here are the Upton's after the show on the way to a Sicilian restaurant where we had a nice and relaxing early dinner (even though I'm sure it wasn't as relaxing for the other patrons to have five toddlers running all over the place).







Here are the remaining photos.

Catch-Up

So this is the last of my catch-up posts. In early October, my sister was in the U.S. to visit us. Here's her and Linda with the kids:



And here she is trying to contain Aidan:



The other two events were the Harvest Festival of Chloe's school where Anna and I had duty selling drinks:



And lastly, one weekend, Cherry came to visit us, and we had some fun at the playground...



And as always, here's the link to the other photos.

My Birthday

No congratulations please, it's been almost a week. However as I was lazy posting, I'm now catching up and moving back in time. Last Thursday we enjoyed a very nice dinner with our friends Heike, Axel and Lennart.



Afterwards, we went to visit the great Jack-O-Lantern Blaze, which was an outdoor exhibition of thousands of carved pumpkins.





It was a lot of fun, and everybody enjoyed it, especially because the weather cooperated and it was nice and mild. Here's everybody (except Chloe and Lennart who were too short to be on this photo :-) ).



And as always, here's the link to all the photos I took.

Halloween

Yesterday was Halloween. Our neighbours had closed their street for a street party, and invited us. Here's us in our costumes:



We had a great party, and contributed our bouncy-castle for the kiddie's entertainment. Here's a video with Aidan trying to maintain his footing (video taken with my new Canon T1i):



Here's Anna in her full costume:



There were plenty of young girls, so at times the street looked like princess-central:



And here are all the photos I took.

Bad me...

I haven't posted in so long, so here's a Chloe and Aidan photo until the next real post (may be this weekend as we're going to the Fall Harvest Festival of Chloe's school).

How Do You Like Them Apples?

Yesterday we went apple picking to an orchard in New Jersey. We had a good time because the weather cooperated, and we had great company. Here's all of us but Jay who took the photo:



Besides apple picking, there were also many other attractions, including pony rides. I like Chloe's form. Doesn't she look comfortable?



Here are some more random shots:





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And as always, here's the link to all the photos.

It's Only Rock and Roll

During our recent vacation in Ocean Grove, Chloe had a great time playing with our neighbor's daughter Mia. A highlight of their collaboration was this great rock and roll performance, complete with the most amazing sand-shovel guitar play ever...

2009 09 Mia and Chloe Performance from Christian Pache on Vimeo.

Vacation / End of Summer

This year we decided to spend the end of Summer in our house at the New Jersey Shore in Ocean Grove.



Anna's parents were there for the week as well.



We enjoyed a week of going to the beach, having good meals, mostly in Asbury Park, and frequent trips to the playground.



Last but not least, Chloe enjoyed playing with our neighbour's daughter, Mia. Here's them relaxing in front of a DVD after a tough day of playing.



Here are a few more pictures I like:







And here are the remaining pictures.

Orlando Part 2

OK, after Sea World and a week of Angelman Conference, we spent Sunday at the Magic Kingdom.

Here's the proof:



We got to see lots of characters running around the park:



Here's Aidan at the begin of the day:



...and here in the afternoon. "Another ride?"



Chloe checking out what Minnie Mouse has in her fridge:



And here are all the photos.

Orlando Part 1

Our trip to Orlando has been over for a week, and I finally managed to upload the photos yesterday. I'll do a little multi-part posting. I have to stretch the posts about the trip because nothing exciting has been happening since we got back (which is good I guess).

As you know our main purpose of the Orlando trip was to attend the Angelman Conference. However we did a few side trips, the first of which led us to Seaworld. Here's a picture of an impressive water-based creature:



And here's another one:



Oops. I think I linked to the wrong photos. Here we go:



Here's the family while we were watching the Shamu show:



Here's a link to the remaining photos. This link includes the Disneyworld photos. No peaking please as those will be subject of a consecutive post.

Angelman / Disney Preview

We're just back from our trip to Orlando where we attended the Angelman Conference and spent a day in the Magic Kingdom. Here's a photo as a preview to a more detailed posting once I recover from the trip. See if you recognize anybody...

Carnivale

Friday evening we decided to visit a local carnival. The proceeds went to the local fire department, and it was in a beautiful location (by the Long Island Sound in Mamaroneck).



Chloe and Aidan got to go onto a few rides, and they had a great time. The most amazing thing was the difference in Chloe's courage from a few months ago when we went to a similar carnival in Pennsylvania. At that time, she was very afraid of most rides, and would only go if Aidan came as well. This time, she wanted to go on every ride, alone or not. Here's her and Aidan together:



She's almost too big for this one:



And here she's by herself on a rollercoaster:



I also made a video of that very rollercoaster ride:

2009 07 Chloe in Rollercoaster from Christian Pache on Vimeo.

And here are the remaining photos (some taken by me, some by Linda).

Happy Birthday Chloe and Aidan

In a proud American tradition, we celebrated the 4th Birthday of Chloe and Aidan before it is actually happening (they turn 4 on June 30th). We hosted a garden party on Saturday in our back yard. Thanks to Anna's purchasing abilities we had acquired an inflatable water slide and an inflatable bouncer. So only the weather had to cooperate for the party to be a success. Considering that it had been raining for about 2 months straight we ended up super-lucky with the possibly first dry day of this summer.



Our guests were a mix of Chloe's and Aidans classmates, friends and neighbours. All in all we had 15+ kids and their parents. The water slide turned out to be the biggest hit.



All in all, we hope everybody had a great time. We were thankful that so many of our friends showed up. Here's a family picture including current and past child care.



And here is a link to all the remaining photos (some taken by me and some by Linda).

Pepsi Sculpture Park

We maximized a rain-free period of day's Father's Day to visit the Sculpture Park at Pepsico Headquarters in Purchase, NY. Here are a few pictures (shot with the iPhone 3G NOT S).

Vacation - Leg 3 (Duesseldorf)

We spent the last few days staying with my very good friend Matthias in Hilden. I hope he had as good as time as we did, considering that we caused a slight discoloration of his carpet as well as some trouble with his neighbours. The highlight of our stay was that I could go shopping at Peek and Cloppenbug in Duesseldorf, where I can find clothes that fit me well.

But kidding aside, the highlight of our stay was of course the BBQ on Saturday which Kai and Martina hosted. It was great to see so many of my German friends together, and cool to meet new babies and kids.

Here are a few highlights.

Everybdoy's enjoying food, drink and great weather:



Great to spend some time with my goddaughter Jadine (Matthias' little girl):



Matthias looking quite comfortable:



The rest of the photos can be found here.