It’s not even time for Thanksgiving yet, but I feel like Santa Claus just stopped by and stuffed my stocking… in today’s mail, I received a $10 gift from the Historic Chester Business Association to use for local holiday shopping.  I just bring the postcard in to one of the select Chester, NJ stores between now and December 24th and I’ll save ten bucks on a purchase of $30 or more.

Downtown Chester is gearing up for the holiday shopping season with a full slate of upcoming events:

• Chester’s Holiday Lighting Celebration on Saturday, November 29th.  Holiday lights come to downtown Chester compliments of the Historic Chester Business Association.  Shop in a winter wonderland of illuminated snowflakes and colorful banners.  Enjoy strolling carolers, free horse and carriage rides, clowns and great shopping and dining in the classic Chester Holiday tradition. Elvis The Elf will be in town from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm.
• Holiday Shopping with Strolling Carolers.  Sunday, November 30th; Saturday, December 6th; Sunday, December 7th; Saturday, December 20th.
• Holiday Shopping with Strolling Carolers and Free Horse and Buggy Rides.  Saturday, December 13th.
• Holiday Shopping with Strolling Carolers and Elvis the Elf.  Sunday, December 14th.
• Holiday Shopping with Strolling Carolers, Free Horse and Buggy Rides, and Elvis the Elf.  Sunday, December 21st.

I don’t think I’ve ever been on a horse and buggy ride, and London and Maddie love horses (despite London’s allergies), so we’ll try to do our holiday shopping in downtown Chester on December 13th or 21st.  I’ll be the blonde with the Canon Digital Rebel and the two dancing girls.  We’ll hope to see you there!

My little girls are growing up…gone are the days when Maddie would cling to my leg and refuse to take part in birthday party activities at local Morris County, NJ venues, unless Mommy would go down the giant slide, hold onto the parachute, or cut up her pizza into little bite-sized pieces. Now that Maddie and London have reached the first and second grades at Mendham Township Elementary School, the birthday parties are fewer and farther between than the good old days at Westmont Montessori, when it felt like someone turned another year older every weekend. These days, the parties tend to be smaller, frequently same-sex or just best buddies, and don’t feel like such grand productions. Oh…and like the dad in Finding Nemo, I have to accept that my little girls have reached the age of the Drop Off.

This past weekend was more hectic and social than usual, as two of Maddie’s first grade classmates had birthday parties, and the girls all had such a good time that I wanted to share two perfect “hometown” venues with my loyal Roxy’s Best Of… readers. You can read about Saturday’s party at Florham Park Roller Rink over on Roxy’s Best Of… Morris County, New Jersey. Friday’s party took place at Stuff A Roo & Teddy Too in Chester, New Jersey.

Our Friday afternoon started with a Girls’ Day Out at the Clearview Chester Cinema. The girls had the day off from school for the NJEA teachers’ convention, so London, Maddie and I met up with their adopted third sister, Abby, and her mom, my good friend Susan, to see Disney’s High School Musical 3: Senior Year on the big screen. I remain surprised at London and Maddie’s broad (age) range of interests… while the teen angst of the third film in the G-rated Disney HSM trilogy was completely lost on them, the music and dancing made the movie a must-see for our crew. The three girls have already incorporated several of the new songs into their girl band’s song and dance routine. At the other end of the age spectrum, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that 6-year-old Maddie was filled with incredible anticipation of her friend’s birthday party at Stuff A Roo.

After the movie, the girls practiced their dance movies outside the theatre while Susan and I caught up on our girl talk. Then it was time for the Drop Off… no longer a time to weep but a time to dance. London and I brought Maddie in to Stuff-A-Roo and she quickly blended in with her girlfriends, who were all deciding what type of animal to stuff and take home with them. Turns out that penguins were the popular choice among the eleven girls, but Maddie’s never been one to give in to peer pressure. Maddie and her friends had an awesome afternoon outing and probably weren’t aware of the difference between the sweet local feel of Stuff A Roo and Teddy Too as compared with the dreaded chain store sensation of a Build-A-Bear party. As a local mom, however, I found Stuff-A-Roo so much more civilized, cozy and safe and was thrilled to avoid a trip to the mall. I left my contact phone numbers with the birthday mom in case of emergency or meltdown, and London and I headed home for an extended play date with Abby and Susan. When we picked her up at the end of the party, Maddie had a little cradle with a white poodle in her arms and she just couldn’t wait to tell our whole family all about her new friend, Maggie. Maddie and Maggie had quite the weekend together, including a visit to Grandmom’s house.

Stuff-A-Roo Party Information:

Children choose from a wide variety of animals for either $16 or $18. The kids play in the play area until everyone arrives, then the real fun begins. Each child chooses his or her animal and makes a wish upon a star, which is placed inside. The Stuff-A-Roo fluffs up the stuffing in the stuffing machine, and stuffs the party animals to each child’s liking. The party guests go over to the art tables and name their animals on their birth certificates, which they color and decorate. All animals go home in cradles, and the birthday child gets a special surprise in his or her cradle. To add a little more creativity to the birthday stuffing, Stuff A Roo offers two additional craft ideas: name collars with letter beads for the animals for $2, or create a t-shirt for the animals with fabric marker and stencils for $5.

After the stuffing and crafts, it’s time to sing “Happy Birthday” and celebrate with a pizza and cupcake picnic. Parents bring in all needed supplies (e.g., pizza, birthday cake, plastic tablecloth, forks/spoons and paper products).

Stuff A Roo & Teddy Too, 54 Main Street, Chester, NJ 07930. Call Rebecca or Maureen to schedule your party at (908) 879-7978…and don’t forget to tell ‘em Roxy sent you!

It has been a while since our family has taken in a new movie at the theatre. The sunny summer weather happily kept us on the beach in Bay Head, NJ and away from the tenplex, though we went out when we were back up north in Chester, NJ one evening in July to see American Girl Kit Kittredge (and her famous treehouse) in action.  Disney’s High School Musical 3 came out two weeks ago, but we’ve been busy with Halloween and school activities until this afternoon.  The girls had the day off from school for the statewide New Jersey teachers’ convention, and you can bet London and Maddie couldn’t wait to see Troy, Gabriella, and all of their favorite Wildcats in action on the big screen.

Believe it or not, I haven’t read a single review…not in the newspapers, not in the blogosphere. I did see a story in the Star-Ledger about local teen Max Ehrich who is the youngest dancer in the movie, and the girls were on the lookout for him (if you’d like to play along, look for the #4 Wildcats basketball team jersey with “Patrick” on the back) in the Wildcat dance routines, but he was hard to spot.

I’ll let you know ahead of time that you’re in for a rave (five of them!)…from London, Maddie, their adopted third sister Abby, my good friend Susan, and Roxy here.  All three girls said they liked High School Musical 3 better than the first two HSM movies…maybe it was seeing it on the big screen, or the new slick dance productions?  They’re already begging me to download the soundtrack to my iPod so they can add the new songs to their band’s routine.  “Which part did you like best, girls?”  “We loved….ALL of it.”

As Susan whispered to me as we sat behind our daughters in the darkened theatre, Troy was looking very buff… allegedly Disney had to cut a Troy shower scene to keep their “G” rating… and his dance moves have improved over the past three years.  Naughty Sharpay was at her most fabulous, with an interesting new sidekick named Tiara Gold.  The storyline hasn’t changed much…there’s a new “Spring Musicale,” this time featuring the entire senior class, as well as a couple of new underclassmen who may be keeping the hope of a High School Musical 4 alive, but from both the moms’ and girls’ perspective were not strong enough to pull it off.  Troy, Gabriella and the rest of the Wildcats face the end of their senior year and the teenage angst that goes along with prom, college choices, and saying goodbye.  And yes, there was quite a bit of corny Disney-style launching into song at every turn.  I still can’t help wondering who Disney’s target audience for the High School Musical trilogy really is… while I know our teenage babysitters saw HSM 3 on the day it came out (more raves), when I was in high school I would have been insulted by the Disney take on an emotional and challenging stage of life.  Teen idols — Andy Gibb, Shaun Cassidy and Leif Garrett for me – started around the 3rd or 4th grade and ended well before high school, replaced by scruffy rockers like Bruce Springsteen.  Maybe things haven’t really changed…I know a lot more 6-7-8-9-year-olds than high school letter jackets were in the theatre with us.  For two moms and their dare-I-say tweens, High School Musical 3 was a fitting end to the high energy, eminently danceable trilogy. I just hope London and Maddie and their peers aren’t disappointed when they reach West Morris Mendham High and find out that our drama department doesn’t spend millions on sets and costumes.

Rex stayed back at the home office to finish up some work on a small yet attractive transaction for a buy-side client, and missed out on all the movie fun.  London and Maddie reported back that he would have to catch up when it comes out on DVD.  High School Musical 3 is showing for at least the next week at Clearview Chester Cinema 6 and at a theatre near you.

Clearview Chester Cinema 6, 169 Route 206, Chester Springs Mall, Chester, NJ  07930.  Phone:  (908) 879-4444.

Do call ahead for showtimes.  Rex, London, Maddie and I happened to stop by the theatre on Tuesday when the girls had a half-day off from school, and it turns out there is no such thing as a weekday matinee anymore… maybe only in the summer when the kids are out of school?  I did check online and was relieved to find the 2pm Friday High School Musical 3 matinee.

Last week, I had the good fortune to chaperone Maddie’s first grade class trip to Stony Hill Farm in Chester, New Jersey. The first graders, teachers, and a handful of moms and dads boarded the school buses in front of Mendham Township Elementary School at 9:00am on Tuesday, October 21^st and made the quick trip to Chester. Our group was escorted into the barn for an educational session about farming that I found fascinating. We learned a great deal about growing corn, feeding livestock and the difference between straw and hay, raising and protecting bees (honey bees and other native bees), and the importance of supporting our local farmers. As many of the first graders seemed distracted, kicking the straw and stirring up dust (aaaahchooo!), I worried that our farm guide’s expertise had been lost on the kids, but I was thrilled later that night when Maddie put all of the information into her own words to share it with Rex and London at the dinner table that night.

At last it was time for pumpkin picking! Our class boarded the hay ride and headed out into the Stony Hill fields to pick our own pumpkins from a great-looking crop. Each first grader and chaperone found a unique pumpkin (some classics, some greenish, some hard and gourd-like, etc.), and Maddie picked out a nice one for me to bring home for London. My girls brought their pumpkins along on their Friday night “late-over” at Susan and Mike’s, and transformed them into painted creations while Rex and I rocked out with Joan Jett at the Mayo Center of the Performing Arts in Morristown, NJ.

While we made it back onto the school bus just before the rain started and our class didn’t have time to check out the corn mazes, Rex and I may try to get the girls back there before the end of the Fall season. “VOTE ‘08″ is the theme for Stony Hill Farm’s eighth annual Maize Quest corn maze, a 10-acre cornfield maze adventure exploring 10,000 feet of pathways cut through 300,000 living cornstalks in a life-sized maze of maize (the Native American word for corn). Visitors explore the pathways in the shape of an elephant, a donkey, and the words “VOTE ‘08.” With younger kids, I’d recommend exploring the corn maze during daylight hours, but for the more adventuresome, Stony Hill Farm offers Flashlight Nights in the Maze on Fridays and Saturdays. Afterwards, you can shop for local farm fresh produce at the Stony Hill Farm Market.

Stony Hill Farm Market, 15 North Road, Chester, NJ 07930. West of I-287, between I-78 and I-80, just east of Route 206. Phone: (908) 879-2908. Open daily. Please don’t forget to tell ‘em Roxy sent you!

Boo! I posted a couple weeks back about our family’s trip to Alstede Farms in Chester, NJ to pick out our pumpkins for our annual pumpkin carving evening with our good friends Hope and Michael and their four kids.  Friday was the big night, and the kids were all really creative with their carving designs.

London found a design in one of those pumpkin carving booklets that come with a set of tools. She carved a flamingo and a palm tree that she calls “Summer in the Fall.”

Maddie went with a free-hand design and the traditional scary look.

Our family never lets the Fall season slip by without a trip to Alstede Farms in Chester, New Jersey. When we first moved out here in October 2003, we invited our best friends from New York City’s West Village to come out to see how country folk live in the Roxiticus Valley, including pick your own pumpkins and a hay ride at Alstede Farms.  Once the girls started pre-school at Westmont Montessori, there was always a pumpkin picking class trip to Alstede Farms, and Westmont even had the end-of-year school picnic, complete with pony rides, one year.

Today, as we were heading back from our beach house in Bay Head, we realized that we have our standing annual pumpkin carving date with my best friend, Hope, and her four kids, set for Friday, October 17th, but no time to pick pumpkins before then.  So we quickly unloaded the Suburban and headed out to Alstede Farms.  We didn’t really want to head out on a hayride to pick our own, so I called ahead and learned that Alstede Farms has plenty of pumpkins pre-picked and ready to take home from their shop at the front of the farm.  What we didn’t realize until we arrived was that Alstede Farms has become a destination… a wildly popular pumpkin picking carnival!  The parking lot was packed, but we found a spot and headed down to the market to pick out our pumpkins and sample the seasonal ice cream cones:  apple pie, pumpkin, and green apple caramel flavors.  Rex pulled a large wagon over and the girls loaded it up with six perfect carving pumpkins.  Once we had the pumpkin collection in the back of our Jeep, it was time to climb the giant hay bales, where I took these photos just for you.  The I snuck back to the little stand for a bag of six apple cider donuts…Rex and the girls had some for dessert tonight, but I saved mine for breakfast tomorrow.

Alstede offers Harvest Moon Hayrides from 6:00pm to 10:00pm on the following dates:

• Friday, October 17th and Saturday, October 18th
• Friday, October 24th and Saturday, October 25th

Pay one price ($14 for children 12 and under, $16 for adults, under 3 for free) includes a night-time corn maze (bring your flashlight!), the harvest moon hayride, country music, a campfire, and unlimited hot and cold cider.  You can also pay by the pound for “pick your own pumpkins by flashlight” and purchase a Smores Roasting Kit.

Speaking of corn mazes, you couldn’t get me out in the corn with a flashlight (think Stephen King’s “Children of the Corn”), but Alstede Farms has an awesome corn maze — the Iron Mines of Chester Corn Maze…I’m going to try to scan the map and share it with you tomorrow.

Alstede Farms, 24 Route 513 South (Old Route 24), Chester, NJ.  Phone:  (908) 879-7189. Please don’t forget to tell ‘em Roxy sent you!

London and Maddie are likely to miss out on what looks like a good time, since we’ll be headed down to our beach house in Bay Head, New Jersey for the Bay Head Halloween Parade, but for those of you sticking around the Greater Roxiticus Valley (Mendham, Bernardsville, and Chester, NJ) for the weekend, check out A Miller’s Halloween, scheduled for Saturday, October 25th from 1:00pm to 3:30pm at Cooper Mill in Chester, New Jersey.  Spooky stories are planned at one o’clock and 2:30pm, as well as arts and crafts including pumpkin decorating and a corn husk doll craft, games and surprises.  Wear your costume if you dare!

Is it wrong for me to wish for rain in the Roxiticus Valley next weekend so that Chester’s annual Harvest Celebration/Pet Costume Contest and Parade, scheduled for Saturday, October 11th and Sunday, October 12th will be rescheduled for the rain dates — Saturday, October 18th and Sunday, October 19th?  Our family is headed away on a trip to Duck, North Carolina, next weekend but we don’t want to miss all the fun going on in Chester.

I’m also trying to find more information about the pet costume contest and parade.  While it was originally shown on the Historic Chester Business Association calendar and in their print directory, it no longer appears on their web site.  While the Fall Harvest Festival is on the calendar for both days, I would have assumed that the pet parade would only be on one of the days.

Since we moved out to the Roxiticus Valley from New York City’s West Village in October 2003, Rex and I have tried to find all the best “country” kid stuff for London and Maddie, particularly when it comes to having fun outdoors.  The girls weren’t very big when we first went apple picking at Riamede Farm in Chester, New Jersey… I remember Rex picking up two-year-old Maddie so she could pull a few apples from the branches of one of the trees.

Last year, London and I went apple picking with her Brownie troop and brought home enough apples to bake two beautiful pies.  I believe the apple picking badge one of the very few that are sewn, rather than stapled, onto her Brownie vest.

Riamede Farm features 34 varieties of apples ranging from traditional classics to heirloom specialities to modern favorites. Some apples are very sweet, such as Galas and Delicious. Some apples are very tart, such as the Winesaps and Greening. But every apple has its own unique taste and half the fun is to apple taste to find a new favorite. The early varieties begin to ripen during the first week of September when Riamede opens for the apple season. The rest of the varieties ripen over the course of the next six to seven weeks. Weather permitting, Riamede is often open into early November.  You can call Riamede at (908) 879-5353 for the current apple variety picking report…their telephone message will always tell you what is ripe and being picked on any day.

Riamede Farm, 122 Oakdale Road, Chester, NJ.  Phone:  (908) 879-5353.

The bad weather this past weekend prevented a trip to our beach house in Bay Head, New Jersey, and the on and off rain kept us indoors most of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  We did, however, manage to get out on Saturday afternoon for lunch at Redwoods and a visit to Country Nursery in Chester, NJ.

On Saturdays and Sundays in October, kids can tiptoe through the spooky Halloween maze (if you dare!) and participate in free pumpkin painting from 11am to 3pm.  Our family has tried the Halloween maze several years in a row, and each year London and Maddie chicken out when the monsters tell them to “turn back!”

While Rex and I picked out some small pumpkins for our fence posts and ended up buying an evergreen tree, London and Maddie got started painting and decorating their pumpkins.

Country Nursery, 290 State Route 24 in Chester, NJ.  Phone: (908) 879-5471