Marni's First Date

Marni has found her Pre-K soul mate. His name is Ishaan and he came over the other day for a play date. They both had been counting down the days until play date day. It's all that either could talk about.

Marni has already told us that they kissed each other on the lips in class. She also told us that Ishaan promised to buy her a musical jewelry box and that she was going to buy him a light saber.

I guess that's the dowry.

Tickle-Me Shepard

Tickle-Me Elmo has been hanging around the house for a couple of years now. He was popular for a while just after we bought him. But he's spent most of his life languishing, batteries dead, on a high shelf somewhere.

For some reason, he caught Marni's eye a week ago. And so I brought him down off his shelf, dusted him off, gave him fresh batteries, and handed him over to the kids.

It was like Hanukkah all over again. He fascinated Stella, frightened Marni, and entertained both... all over again.

Then Stella got it into her head that she wanted to imitate Elmo's cool moves. And so she and Marni did. Stella did an exceptional job of capturing Elmo's subtle movements.

Enjoy the video...

Overheard #34

Marni's new boyfriend from Pre-K (Ishaan) is coming over for a play date later today. They are both VERY excited about this. When asked what their plans are for the play date, Marni replied... "We're gonna say bathroom words together."

On the Slope

The Shepards jumped into Goldie and headed up to Westchester on Saturday for some sledding with the Imhoff/Stefanoff gang.

Other than a few runs down Nana and Papa Shepard's driveway, I've never sledded with the girls (although they did some sledding in Albany without me). And I'm not sure that I've gone downhill on a sled since childhood.

We headed over to Croton Point Park and quickly got into the swing of things. I did a run with Stella. Lots if fun. And then the 6 girls were off on their own, sledding down the hill in every possible configuration of partners and sledding devices.

Stella/Jessie
Marni/Jasmin
Stella/Jenna
Marni/Stella

And so on, and so on, and so on... Stella and Marni were living large. Covered in snow. Laughing. Running. Playing. Throwing snowballs (Marni: "Don't you dare throw that Daddy!").

After a couple hours, toes began to get cold and the sun began to dim.

Hot chocolate and warm cookies at the Stefanoff compound. Then, after a stop for dinner at the girls' favorite restaurant (Applebee's), we headed for home.

As you can see from the photo below, the girls were a little tired after their winter adventure.

(This post contains video that can only be viewed from the website.)

Overheard #33

The family was at a movie theater to see "Yogi Bear". Before "Yogi" started, there was a Road Runner cartoon. When it was over, Marni leaned over to me and said (about Wile E. Coyote)... "That guy never wins!"