Happy Birthday Grandpa Steve!

Today we celebrated Grandpa Steve's birthday with a FANTASTIC brunch at Cousin Aya's house.  She is quite the cook.

Sylvie has decided that being with her little cousin is about the best thing in the world... in the abstract.  In practice she's still working on her sharing skills.  Aya, for her part, was glad to share her super-cool kitchen set with Sylvie.

The group has started to disperse - Emily and Zach headed back to VT yesterday, Aunt Amy got on a plane today, and the rest of the crew heads back to Ohio tomorrow.  Sylvie is sorry to see them go.  As she woke from her (much needed) nap this afternoon, the first thing she asked was, "Daddy, Thanksgiving over?"  When I confirmed, she answered, "Oh.  I like Thanksgiving."

Happy Birthday Grandpa Steve!

Thanksgiving

Phew.  So that was quite a Thanksgiving!

First thing's first: here's the bird.  Brined over night in a mixture of OJ, apple juice, salt, brown sugar, nutmeg and cloves, and then grilled for about four hours, this baby might look a little charred, but it was muy delicioso and garnered rave reviews.  Dad is thinking this recipe might be a keeper.

Syl enjoyed a third straight day of non-stop play with her aunts and uncles and with cousin Aya (she's napping as I type this now - finally - the day after).  Not-so-careful observers will notice that Sylvie's favorite thing to do with any number of relations is to demand inversion, swinging, and all manner of rough-housing.  She's a wild one.

After a huge dinner, the group witnessed (and participated in) the debut of Melissa's new karaoke machine (birthday present from her loving husband).  Performances varied in subjective quality, but nobody lacked for effort.

More in the November 2010 Gallery...

Have to admit, this set freaks me out a little bit...

A bridal gown came as part of the Emily/Naomi dress up box spectacular.  Sylvie seemed to understand exactly which poses to strike in order to achieve maximum freak-out effect for her dad.

"Hey!" said the Turkey, "this is my day!"

Thanksgiving started out for Sylvie with a little bleed-in of her birthday.  Aunts Emily and Naomi collaborated on a most excellent dress-up box that they unveiled this morning.  Syl is over the moon.

Fam'bly!

Sylvie has been very excited these last couple of days with the steady arrival of her Ohio family.  Last night all gathered for a pre-Thanksgiving feast featuring Grandma Lynne's BBQ.  Aunt Mary (a big fan of said BBQ) joined us for dinner.

The place was a madhouse, as Uncle Pat in particular had Syl quite literally climbing the walls.  And of course cousin Aya is almost able to keep up now - she's quite the little walker.

By the end of the night, Sylvie was tuckered out from a day of play - as was her mom.

Happy Birthday Mommy!

"Mommy Melissa's" birthday isn't until tomorrow, but we celebrated yesterday so as to be able to do the event justice.  Sylvie sent Mommy to the spa in the morning for a massage, and then managed to talk Daddy into driving to Mommy's favorite restaurant to surprise her with some take-out sushi for lunch (Daddy just does not get that).

Mommy opened presents after lunch - a lunch which included some shared blueberries, which explain Mommy's gothic-looking "lipstick" in a few of the photos!

Granting a birthday wish

Then last night Aunt Mary came and stayed with Sylvie, while Daddy took Mommy out to her favorite city restaurant for dinner.

Mommy reports total satisfaction with her pre-birthday celebration.

My new favorite shot of Sylvie and me.

In Europe, they call it football

Syl woke up this morning with soccer on the brain (Madeline may have put the idea in her head last night). So we took her ball over to the park and did some running around.  She has the dribbling thing pretty much down - though any little distraction and she leaves the ball behind.

Got the basic idea.

The approach

Lining up the shot...

GOOOOAAAAAAAL!!!!!

Pretty troubling that at 3 years old she's already better at soccer than her dad ever was. That's a low, low bar, but still.