Marni's birthday festivities started Sunday morning with her first Bounce U party. The girl was all smiles throughout the morning as she got ready and she could barely contain herself once we arrived.
The next two hours were bouncing, sliding, yelling and fun. Only a couple of non-fatal injuries. No blood.
When it came time to eat, Marni took her rightful place on the birthday girl throne. Then there was pizza, soda, ice cream cake... and then it was over.
Later in the afternoon we had a BBQ for the family back at home. Marni and friends got to partake in her beloved scavenger hunt for presents which took them from laundry room to car to freezer to oven. And so ended day 1.
Yesterday was Marni's actual birthday. So the day started with ice cream for breakfast. She then headed off to school with a load of cupcakes for her class.
We finished off the festivities with dinner at the "fire restaurant" (Hibachi) with Laurie-Doo followed by some more present-opening before bed time.
Then our new 7-year-old headed off to bed with one of her new dolls. And happily drifted off to sleep.
Today I introduce a new feature to The Daddy Diary entitled "In Their Own Words".
Over the past year the girls have started making up their own words to describe things. I guess they find it easier than to learn actual words! Stella has penned "hypergenic" and "catakosys". Marni has recently come up with "kookakanis".
"Hypergenic" seems to mean energetic and seems to relate to Marni. "Catakosys" seems to mean having an illness that makes you crazy. This also appears to relate to Marni.
"Kookakanis" is a part of the head or skull that makes you crazy. I think we have a theme here.
The videos below are the girls' trying to explain their home made words. Good luck.
We had no big plans for last Sunday. But the weather forecast was good and I had a hankering for hot dogs.
And that means... Coney Island.
Coney Island got hit hard by super storm Sandy last October. Among other things, the boardwalk was destroyed and Nathan's Hot Dogs on Surf Avenue was severely damaged.
We parked Goldie in front of the still-closed Nathan's. There was plenty of parking. Luckily there's a second Nathan's on the boardwalk and we sat down there for a delicious lunch before we hit the rides.
There was much discussion (arguing) between the kids as to which amusement park we would attend (Deno's or Luna Park). Daddy was the tie-breaker and we headed to Luna Park.
Mom and dad sit back and relax while the kids play.
The smartest thing we did all day was to buy unlimited 4-hour passes for each kid. We put the bracelets on each kid and then sat back for the next 4 hours and watched Stella and Marni run from ride to ride without any need for mom or dad.
We appreciated that.
After their 4-hour passes expired, we headed to our final ride on the Wonder Wheel.
And so ended a great day at one of our favorite Brooklyn destinations. A day that lasted so long that daddy ended up with a sunburn on his head!
On March 23rd the Shepards headed back to our favorite indoor water park, Great Wolf Lodge.
It didn't take long for the girls to get back into the swing of things as we checked into the hotel for the third time in the past five years.
Back in 2008 little Marni would not even ride down the smallest water slide. This year she graduated to the big slides. And the two sisters happily floated down Crooked Creek together, without any parents. Five years ago they insisted that we carry them through Crooked Creek.
The girls with their MagiQuest wands.
This year the girls were finally old enough to enjoy the MagiQuest electronic scavenger hunt adventure that is scattered throughout the hotel.
I think the girls' favorite part of the weekend may have been the robotic yogurt machine.
My favorite part of the weekend was splashing around in the 84 degree water park while watching a little snow storm swirling around outside. I love that!
Our aquatic adventure came to a close on Monday morning and we slowly shopped and ate our way through Pennsylvania and New Jersey on our way to the Hoffmans in Bridgewater for the first night of Passover.
It's pretty cool living only 1.1 miles from New York's newest, snazziest arena... Barclays Center. We've been watching the construction over the past few years, and the completed building is very impressive.
Lisa and I saw The Who there a few months ago. But on March 8th we got to take the kids to their first Barclays Center event... a Brooklyn Nets basketball game.
This was actually a P.S. 39 event. About 300 parents and kids from school attended the game against the Washington Wizards.
What made this night extra exciting was that Stella won a contest that allowed her and some other lucky classmates to go onto the court and high-five the Washington players before the game.
Marni wanted to join her sister, but it all got a little too much for her, so she stayed with us and munched on chicken fingers while we watched Stella greet the players.
She was ecstatic!
Stella rejoined us for the game and we spent the next couple of hours cheering, eating and drinking.
Marni spent the entire night gabbing with her classmate, Alexi.
At the end of the game we bid everyone adieu, jumped on the B63 bus, and were home in our beds within a half hour.
P.S. 39's Valentine's Day Dance took place on February 22nd. This year's dance featured a contest called "Dancing With Our Stars", created by non-other than Stella and Marni's mom... Lisa Shepard.
There were three teams of students, each dancing to a different tune and led by a mashugana teacher.
Lisa was one of the hosts of the contest, and Stella and Marni were in Team #1.
All the kids danced their hearts out. But, in the end, Team 1 did not win.
