Governors Island

We had a glorious day on Governors Island with the kids and grandpa. We started out a bit late ( as usual..) but made it to Pier 6 and jumped on the 1:00pm ferry. About 10 minutes later we were on the Island along with quite a lot of other people! I say this because although I live so close to "THE CITY", I have never been on Governors Island or really felt the need to see what it had to offer and these droves of other ( non touristy looking people seemed to be on it). Sure, there were some tourists but it felt almost like the city dwellers going to their back yards, with their picnics, bikes, wine, novels etc. 

The main reason I wanted to go was to see this Vintage French Carnival called Fete Paradiso which had opened up a few weekends earlier. It looked like fun and I have been trying to get the kids out doing something of substance every weekend before the snow sets in and we begin winter hibernation!

Anyway, we had the right idea because the day was lovely, we cued up for the ferry early enough and while we waited had ice cream and enjoyed the site of the city (Freedom tower beyond..). Evalie has become very friendly since she became a walker so she was walking ( running basically) up and down the pier greeting her fans the people on line. She chased some pigeons and then got startled when they chased back...

On the Island, there aren't any cars, so everyone walks or rides bikes ( which you can rent if you haven't your own). There is a large well manicured lawn which had some kid friendly art installations. The 3rd Annual New York City Poetry Festival was in full swing along Colonels row, there were really good smelling food carts ( or maybe I was just so hungry..)

We took the long way to get to the carnival and just when Arielle started to get inpatient ( if your have kids you know this happens rather quickly..), we saw the logos chalked into the road..so as we followed these little carousel horse we found Nolan park.

after some rides, we had lunch at Le Gamin...

and a few more rides..

Played in this recycled-cloud by another ambitious architecture student ( yawn..)

and we were done.

Nigeria Trip // Day 8-Lagos grandma's party

The main reason we all hauled ourselves over to Nigeria in the first place was for my grandmothers 90th birthday celebration. We had all agreed years ago that we would all go home to visit for it so when it arrived we got ready and went home. It was a surprise for my grandmother and really nice for us all to spend a concentrated 10 days together seeing as we live so far away from each other and only get together every so often fro weddings or graduations. 

Grandma's birthday party started out a bit slow for us because we had partied a little too hard the night before, not going to sleep until after 2:30am and having to be up and dressed by 8:30am. I realized when my alarm went off at 7:30am that I am no longer the spry youngster who could stay up late and get up looking and feeling great. I felt like I had been through a storm so I went back to sleep. I heard a sound and opened my eyes to my mother standing over me fully dressed telling me she was leaving without us! I jumped up and started trying to scramble myself and my daughters together but it just wasn't happening. Mom eventually left with my husband, cousin and nieces but myself and my three sisters were still trying to get ready. When the driver returned to get us, we rushed out knowing we were late but hoping everyone else was on Nigerian time (to be fairly tardy is customary and expected) as well. We arrived 45 minutes after scheduled time for the start of the service and walked in with our heads down but others came after us as well. 

There was prayer, blessings, singing, communion and rejoicing for grandma and this was only the beggining. When the service ended, we served lunch, the traditional party food of Nigeria, Jollof rice and chicken. I went into the back to change and feed Evalie and suddenly heard this loud music, we glanced out the window there were a troop of Abang dancers performing vigourously. The colorful outfits, drumming and cowbells filled the courtyard of my aunts house and soon enough everyone poured outside to join in. My grandmother was brought out in her wheelchair to see the traditional efik dancers and you couldn't capture the joy she had, you had to be there. Even though her eyesight is failing and she cannot walk very well, she was able to dance in place and she smiled for the first time in a while, she was very happy surrounded by her kids and their kids and the kids. Honestly it was over 100 degrees outside but we just couldn't go in. We stayed out and danced, the kids danced too. It was absolutely amazing. 

The crowd was filled with family and friends, many generations of the family all at once together celebrating the woman without which we wouldn't exist. 

When we finally tired out, we went in and took a break to cool off. My mom and aunt changed grandma and the little girls. Once everyone was changed, we headed to the Pattaya Restaurant for the dinner party. The place was nicely decorated and very quickly filled up with people from grandma's church, friends of the family, a lot of us and then grandma arrived and the party began.

The restaurant was located in Victoria Island so as usual we got all cool and refreshed but then sweaty in the car ride over because for some reason the cars can't handle the heat in Lagos. The Pattaya venue was air-conditioned so we got some relief as soon as we got in. Evalie was miserable by this time, she just didn't like the heat one bit.