FIELD TRIP AT THE BOAT BASIN

fall is here! the air has snapped, everything feels crisp, our shorts have traded places with our scarves... we even busted out our sweaters today. on our way home from the playground we stopped for some cocoa--gotta keep those fingers warm! is the excuse i like to pull out for things like this. 

fall means a new school year, and huck's play school has started up again. and since i get a lot of questions about play school and, you know, since that's what a blog's for is writing about junk, here we be. buckle up, we're talking logistics. 

soooo, play school. there are a lot of kids in my church congregation, and a few years back some of the moms in our congregation decided to organize a little co-op preschool situation. it follows the traditional school year and is organized by age. 

every age group handles their structure differently, depending on the moms involved and their kids' needs. the 18-month and unders are getting together once a week for a play date. last year, huck's 2-3 year class met tuesdays for a short lesson, a craft, some free play, and lunch. this year we're meeting twice a week, the first day for a traditional lesson geared to their age, the second day for a field trip to one of the hundreds of crazy educational opportunities we have rolling around here in the city. museums, interactive playgrounds, story times at various libraries, we're even going to throw in a ferry ride around the harbor and a trip to visit the santa at macy's in december. 

the entire thing is organized and run by the moms, and we each have creative control of the curriculum on the days we host. "there is no paid clergy!" (mormon joke.) we have one google doc where we sign up to host/teach or be the extra pair of helping hands (this year our lessons days are drop-off style. yeah, it's ambitious), and another google doc where we have all of the field trips planned out for the year. our curriculum is literature-based. we start with a favorite children's book and flesh it out from there. we have the structure broken down into 15-minute increments to make it less intimidating for the mom in charge of planning. a welcome song, the weather and season and day of the week, the letter of the day, a book, an activity, some music, then crafting, the snack (my favorite part--hah!), and then free play. it's a lot, and it's wonderful. huck looks forward to his play school days all week long, and every night at bedtime we talk about all of his best play school friends. 

(if you're interested, the days i hosted last year are HERE and HERE and HERE.)

last week we kicked off the new school year with a lesson day about pumpkins and the letter A, and then on thursday, while the last of the soupy summer was still holding on, we hit the boat basin on the east side of central park and rented us some mother effin remote-controlled sail boats. (i've had that mcsweeny's gourd essay i posted on monday stuck in my head all week. so.)

soooooo here are a few photos from our morning of sailing. (is anyone reading this still? i could probably throw out something like "and then my kid was eaten by a crocodile" right here and nobody would notice.)

after our 30 minutes with the boats were up, we parked it on the grass for a quick picnic. huck had such a grand time. he's been hosting picnics with his squishy penguins on the living room rug ever since.

so that's it! life is pretty good when you're a huckleberry and your mom and all ya friends' moms are nutballs.

HEY NATALIE JEAN + LEVI'S // WHAT MOVES ME

i'm thrilled to be working with marie claire to help promote station to station, a public art project made possible by levi's and the levi's make our mark project. station to station: a nomadic happening is a traveling art installation connecting musicians, artists, and creative pioneers to raise funds through ticket sales to support non-traditional programming and exhibitions at seven partner museums across the country, including the MoMA PS1 here in queens, the SFMOMA in san francisco, and the LACMA in los angeles. some of the artists and creatives involved include charlotte gainsbourg, chef alice waters, and the edible schoolyard project. you can read more about this creative endeavor HERE, at make our mark project. 

for my part i was asked to style a few pieces from the levi's heritage collection, and to share a little bit about what moves me.

i am a woman who is moved by much. oh, i have me some passions. my passions have passions; passion babies that multiply like jackrabbits. my heart is easily dispatched. to things, to people, to places or ideas, to everywhere. all over the place. i care deeply, and quickly. i love hard and i trust fast, which can often leave my heart exposed to the elements. more than once i've given my heart to the wrong person, and more than lots i am too vulnerable, too available, too quick to be opened, too difficult to be closed. it happens. it's okay. 

people with restraint are intriguing to me. how do they do that? i'm fascinated by people who seem guarded and careful. i am never careful. but i am always ready. in the end i've found that the love i am giving away is nearly always worth the love that comes back, when it comes back. because when it does, it comes back good.

what moves me is love. my heart is big and it is raw, and when it has something to love and care for is when all of the rest of me makes sense, and when i am at my best. my big stupid heart can be a pain in the butt sometimes, but as i've gotten older i've become more convinced that it was planted inside this chest of mine with pretty good reason. i'd rather be moved by love. that much i know for sure.

this post was sponsored by marie claire. thank you as always for supporting this blog and the companies that support our family.

p.s. on me:

biltmore for madewell hat (old, similar here)

western chambray c/o levi's

play dress c/o sonnet james

mini cowboy boots c/o levi's

american apparel bag

another feather rings

brvtvs bracelet

on huck:

mimi and maximus tee c/o cute attack

zara kids jeans

saltwater sandals

LATELY I'M FEELING // SWEATSHIRTS

one || two|| three || four || five || six || seven

it's like the air cooled down and suddenly all i can think about are sweatshirts. sweatshirts sweatshirts sweatshirts. gray sweatshirts. with raglan sleeves. there are zero embellishments allowed here. well, that little v stitched at the collar, that's kosher. (you know, a good stitched v is hard to come by.) i like to wear mine with the sleeves rolled haphazardly to about bracelet length, and now you know!

i put this little board together inspired by this outfit i wore the other day. you know how when you feel really great in something and it causes all of the atoms on the earth to align for you? your life on this planet suddenly makes sense and the secrets of the universe open. and you're not afraid to walk into bloomingdales that day because you don't feel like they're going to automatically know you don't belong there and give you funny looks.

maybe that's just me. 

i guess this fall is turning out to be a tomboy fall for me. i don't want anything colorful, i don't want anything pretty. i just want dark polish on my toes, super minimal jewelry, the kind of shoes you can kick some ass in, and a really great, simple leather bag. monogrammed. 

TEN DATES // 02 A BROADWAY SHOW

make that an off broadway show.

we'd been meaning to see peter and the starcatcher on broadway for-everrrr. we have such soft spots for the boy who wouldn't grow up, and when we saw that a peter and the starcatcher date was available through HowAboutWe, our new sponsors, we jumped at the chance to finally see it. 

it's no longer on broadway, it's now off broadway at the new world stages, which is probably THE raddest venue i've ever seen. it's literally a multiplex . . . for plays. five shows going on all at once. it felt like such a uniquely new york experience down there.

the show itself is wonderful. i have a pretty low tolerance for broadway musicals--my secondhand-cringe gene is hyperactive--but this one blew me away. the bursting into song was minimal and well-used and the performances were all amazing and seriously. we ate the whole thing up. i haven't heard brandon laugh that hard in months.

so . . . we took a lot of photos in the lobby area during intermission. nights out just the two of us are so rare that we kind of get a little goofy pretty much right away. this has been such a huge blessing, getting to reconnect with that redheaded stinker of mine, so i will happily subject you to ALL of the stupid photos we took together. 

of course you should never take photos inside of a theatre, especially not of the stage . . . which means that as a cardholding ornery person i am contractually obligated to take at least one photo while inside anyway. so, here is that.

this post was sponsored by HowAboutWe, who have a special promo for new members in nyc. sign up for a new membership before 10/31 and get a free 3-hour cleaning from Get Maid. (having your house cleaned for you while you're out on a date? genius.) applies to new members only. Get Maid is available everywhere in manhattan and select areas of brooklyn and queens. click HERE for details.

p.s. on me

h&m shirt (a few years old)

madewell high riser skinny jeans

bass weejuns

bag c/o halston

OCTOBER 02 // BIRTHDAY REPORT

two days in now and 31 feels really solid. i'm liking this. i think 31 might be my favorite. 

i met brandon for dinner at the breslin inside the ace hotel. we ordered a hilarious number of dishes. (get the heirloom tomato salad if it's in season. holy!) we walked all the way home and talked about a million things. and then i ended the night the proud owner of THREE leather jackets (brandon holbrook wins the "most generous husband" lifetime award), a "cake" made of doughnut plant crème brûlées, and a giant-sized scented candle, perfect for giant-sized scented wishes.

(also, birthday nookie.)

henry thought it was his birthday all night long and was positively delighted with himself. he demolished a whole doughnut by himself and seemed pretty pleased with things.

and now i have some leather jacket decisions to make how fun is THAT.

my little brother checked into the MTC for his two-year church mission about halfway through the day and i got to facetime with him during his last hours as a free man while i walked up amsterdam on my way to meet a girlfriend for tacos. it was heartbreaking and sweet to see my little brother get all teary-eyed on the day he starts his mission, dressed all spiffy in his missionary suit and looking like my sweet baby brother and a big grown man all at once. the sweetest part of the day for sure. 

things feel good and simple and my world is positively stuffed with love, and that's just exactly how i figure 31 should feel. i count myself the luckiest. 

and thus concludes the natalie holbrook portion of birthday season.