Laurel: I am originally from Montclair, New Jersey.
We just moved to Riverside nine months ago. We almost moved here five years ago when my oldest daughter was one year old, but decided to stay in Manhattan for a bit longer. We had a second child and three years later after begging and pleading with my husband to have a third child, we got pregnant with twins. My husband said we are going to have four kids, call a real estate agent in Riverside! We moved into our house six days before the twins were born. I am still not sure how we pulled it all off. This last year has been such a blur, but now that we are settled, we are thrilled to be here. It is such a wonderful and special place to raise a family!
We have four kids: a six year old, a four year old, and eight month old twins. It is absolute insanity at our house, but so much fun to be surrounded by all of these little faces. I never thought I would have four kids and feel so blessed to have them.
I don’t know what I would do without our local “go-to” stores: Anna Banana in Old Greenwich for clothing for all four kids is our absolute favorite. Virginia who runs the store is the best! For shoes we love Little Eric, which is where I also went in the city for them. Housewarmings in Old Greenwich has been a fantastic for all of our house needs. It is such a lovely store and the women who own it are moms in town and have helped us with all of the things we needed moving from an apartment into a house for the first time. They also helped us decorate our first Christmas table in our new home.
Our favorite event so far was the July 4th Fireworks in Binney Park. We moved into the house four days prior and it was the night before my scheduled delivery. It was also the last event we went to as a family of four. It was so much fun to be out there having a picnic under the stars while the fireworks went off in our new neighborhood. It was the beginning of a very special year.
Our favorite restaurants are Le Fat Poodle in Old Greenwich and Louie’s in Cos Cob. We are regulars at Louie’s as a family or as a couple eating at the bar. My daughter and husband also go for “daddy and daughter dates”(it’s our six year old daughters’s favorite restaurant).
As far as kid-friendly recipes go, I am going to be honest here, and I am not proud of this, but I don’t really cook. I blame it on too many years in NYC. I would love to say that I whip up kid-friendly organic meals from locally sourced ingredients, but I am just not that mom – I wish I was! Dinner time is crazy here with all the kids. My oldest eats anything and everything and usually has whatever the adults are having. My four year old doesn’t eat anything except peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The twins eat Ella’s fruit and veggie packets as I don’t have time to make baby food from scratch. Hopefully in a year or two everyone will eat the same thing!
Favorite hobbies…I would have to say SoulCycle. I’ve been going for four years. It started in NYC and quickly became an addiction. I love having that 45 minutes to myself to work hard and focus on my own thoughts. It’s a special sanctuary for me. I also recently signed on as an Independent Consultant for Rodan + Fields selling their incredible skincare products. I was a customer first and loved the products so much I wanted to get involved in the company myself. I love having something for just for me outside of being a mom and this is perfect because I can do it all on my own time. I also love grabbing dinner or a glass of wine with girlfriends! I have been so fortunate with the group of girls in my neighborhood who are all wonderful and lots of fun. My absolute favorite thing about living here though is that me and my husband grill outside 12 months of the year (meaning he grills) – maybe its just the novelty of being new to the suburbs but we just love it. He comes home early every Friday and helps me get the kids down and then its our time together for a cocktail and food from the grill.
