Eww….

The first morning we were here I jumped in the shower.  I was washing my hair and saw something scuttle across the shower floor.  It was a COCKROACH!!  EWWWW.  I screamed and yelled for Rusty to come get it.  Like the brave man he is, he calmly picked it up and squashed it.  Pretty sure Halle is totally traumatized.  She now refuses to shower in our bathroom.  Me?  I’m used to cockroaches.  I lived in Hawaii :)

And here is one of the many, many rats that haunt the subway tunnels.  Surprisingly the kids weren’t grossed out at all.  They wanted to bring him home for a pet.

Happy Birthday Rusty

Rusty is so lucky—he got to spend his birthday in the greatest city on earth.  I got up early for my morning run with an ulterior motive in mind.  I had researched the best bagels on the UWS and was led to Absolute Bagels on 107th and Broaday.  That would be a perfect little 4ish mile jog, so I set off to bring the birthday boy the best bagels around.  I got to the store and it smelled delicious.  I ordered our breakfast, and pulled out my credit card to pay.  Uh oh….cash only.  Luckily there was a bank right around the corner.  BUT…I didn’t know my credit card PIN, so no cash for me.  I was sad to return home empty handed.  But wait!  This is NYC—there are new treasures to be discovered on every corner!  On my jog home I ran past Dunkin Donuts.  Not the NY institution I was hoping for, but they would take my credit card.  Sold.  We enjoyed our breakfast at our little glass table and Rusty went to work.  This is where our next covert mission began.  Rusty also loves Black and White Cookies.  Again, I did my research, and it came down to William Greenberg on 82nd and Madison and Nussbaum & Wu's on 113th and Broadway.  The west had already failed me once today so I decided to try my luck on the UES. (And I’ve been dying to get in touch with my inner Blair Waldorf).  On our way the kids wanted to ride the Carousel in Central Park.  We made the trek to the Carousel and it didn’t disappoint.  Blake named his horse Galaxy, and it was love at first sight.  Here’s how he felt when we left….

Just some scenic pics from the park:

The kids found this cool rock that doubled as a slide!

We plan on having lots of picnics in Central Park this summer.  Here’s a picture of the first one:

Finally, we made our way to William Greenburg.  And we bought a lot of black and white cookies :)

Josh and Halle have dubbed the playground on 81st and Central Park  West the “Metal Park” and it’s Josh’s favorite.  So, we walked and walked back to the west side and burned some energy at the park.  Blake took a nap. 

The next part of the birthday adventure lead us to Little Italy for dinner.  Rusty didn’t have anywhere specific in mind, so we wandered into Fiat.  Which I’d give a solid “good.”  We shared a veggie Panini. On the way back to the subway, Rice to Riches caught Rusty’s eye.  It touted 20 different kinds of rice pudding.  Me, I can take it or leave it, but Rusty quite likes rice pudding and so he wanted to give it a go.  We got 2 flavors,  hazelnut and caramel.  I have forever changed my opinion of rice pudding.  THIS WAS SO YUMMY!!! 

The kids had prepared a birthday party for Dad complete with decorations, so we got home, “opened” presents (UPS in NYC is a whole other post….) and sang happy birthday, minus the candles.  (But not for lack of trying.  I went to about 5 places looking for them.)   

Happy Birthday to the most handsome, motivated, amazing man I know!

Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum is practically in our backyard, so I went ahead and got the family pass.  That way we can go at our leisure, and take our time in exploring this amazing place.  For our first time there, we just hit the highlights.  Dinosaurs:

The Whale:

Not my finest photography moment, so here’s one I swiped from the web:

We ate dino nuggets and the disgusting museum cafeteria, and I just about died when we walked out of the museum and straight into the Shake Shack.  How could I forget that?  Rookie mistake.  Trust me, it won’t happen again :)

I think many a fun afternoon day will be whittled away exploring all the nooks and cranny’s of this amazing museum!

NYC adventure begins!

“New York City, here we come!  Yeehaw!!!” –Blake, as we left our house in Erie.

We made it safe and sound to our new humble digs on W86th and Columbus Ave, NY, NY!  We had quite the adventure getting here!  As you can imagine, packing up a family of 5 for an entire summer requires a LOT of luggage.  We had planned on using skycap so we didn’t have to haul our many many suitcases through the airport, but as luck would have it, DIA is under construction and there was only one drop off point—on the very outside lane, on the opposite end of the airport from where we needed to be.  So, we got creative, and got a workout as we trekked through DIA. 

The kids were amazing on the plane. Blake had a nice little nap on my lap, Josh looked out his window, played with his toys and ate a million snacks.  Rusty and Halle had a nice quite ride a few rows back.  At Laguardia we hopped in a taxi and sped to our new apartment.  Both the boys thought the taxi was GREAT.  To enter the apartment, we have to enter an extremely long code 3 different times.  It’s rather arduous—what happened to a good old fashioned key? 

The apartment is great.  I’ll have to post some pics soon.  1000 cozy square feet, but we don’t plan on being here much anyway.  My major complaint is the lack of counter space in the bathrooms (read: there is NONE). Major apartment victory—We have a private back patio.  It’s so awesome. Other than that, it’s a cute, fun little place and the kids think it’s a grand adventure to live in an apartment. 
We quickly go settled and went to explore the neighborhood.  First stop: Central Park.  We’re only a block and a half away from New York City’s Playground. We are all so glad to be close to the park.  Just like at home, the kids have to name all the parks we visit.  This is “Best swing” park

And of course, our first dinner HAD to be authentic NY pizza.  YUM!

The next day we headed out go Governors Island.  Thanks to the threat of rain (which never appeared) there were NO crowds and we were able to enjoy having the island practically to ourselves.  Best part for me: Enjoying to view of the skyline, and of the Statue of liberty from our awesome “bike.”  Halle was our driver for most of the time, which made the ride kinda like a rollercoaster Best part for the kids: the free ferry ride over, and the snowcone from the mister softee truck.

The kids LOVE tire swings, and this was the biggest one I’ve ever seen!

Dom and Amber happened to be in the city for a work conference, and so Amber and I got to go running in Central Park early Saturday morning.  It was nice and cool and there was a misty rain falling.  PERFECT.  Also, later that night, we met them at Juniors in Times Square for dinner, and DELICIOUS cheesecake.  We headed over to Broadway and saw Rock of Ages.  The 80’s music was amazing—the narrator hilarious, but overall it was just racy enough that I don’t think I could recommend it in good conscience . It was such a fun evening and we are so glad we got to hang out the with Dom and Amber while they were here!

Then next morning it was off to the Manhattan 1st Ward at the Lincoln Center.  It’s amazing to get to go to church in the same building as the temple!  The chapel is on the 3rd floor, and the temple is above.  The building is spectacular, just as beautiful as can be.  The outside is simple and clean, the lobby incredible, then you walk into the church foyer, and BAM—that same purple carpet and strange textured wallpaper you’d find in anywhere chapel USA.  Nice to know the church is the same everywhere .  The ward was so friendly and welcoming to us.  I didn’t quite know what to expect when we got there.  I half thought we’d be shunned because we weren’t real” New Yorkers.  I couldn’t have been more wrong.  We had throngs of people introducing themselves to us, letting us know about events going on in the ward, and helping our kids feel welcome and happy in primary.  Cute little Halle was so scared and she cried through most of sacrament meeting.  But after Primary she was all smiles.  All the kids had a great time meeting their new teachers and classmates. 

We spent the rest of the day exploring more of Central Park.  We walked through the beautiful Shakespeare Gardens, and climbed Belvedere’s castle.  The kids loved that it overlooked Turtle Pond, and we had fun spotting turtles in the water.

If the first few days are any indication, I’d say we are going to have an adventure packed summer!  I’ve dreamed of living in NYC since I was a teenager, so this is all a dream come true! 

A dream come true

I scored a deal on Living Social, and was able to make one of Halle’s long time dreams come true.  Horseback riding lessons!  She took 4 lessons, and loved every minute of it.  She rode Dancer, and Chocolate, learned how to groom them, tack them, walk, turn circles, and even trot!  She had a wonderful time, and the boys and I were kept entertained seeing the baby foal, baby goats, chickens, the cat, and rabbits at the farm. 

Blake Sleeps

Blake is in the process of giving up his nap.  He REFUSES to sleep in his bed in the afternoon, but he’ll fall asleep almost anywhere else.  Here are some of the random, and funny, places I’ve found Blake sleeping:

Middle of the living room floor.  4 other kids running and screaming around him.

In the car.  This is his FAVORITE place to snooze.  Doesn’t matter the time of day. 

In my bed.  This is at 8:30 in the morning.  He wakes up around 6:30, and by 8:30 he’d already run himself ragged! 

At the zoo.  We’d given the kids some cotton candy, and he zonked mid bite.

He had a stinky diaper he neglected to tell me about, so he had to sleep on his stomach.

This is at Josh’s preschool mother’s day party.  There were 14 crazy preschoolers, moms, and lots of noisy siblings running around.  He slept in the beanbag for over an hour. 

This one is my absolute favorite.  We’ve been packing up the house in preparation for the big move, and he fell asleep inside one of the packing boxes. I have never laughed so hard! 

Halle’s poetry

These two poems totally capture Halle’s cute personality.  My favorite is “I wish.” 

I Wish
I wish I had a brown and light brown wiener dog.
I wish I could go outside without putting on sun screen.
I wish I had a Barbie whose head wouldn’t fall off.
I wish I could go to Hawaii and surf the waves.
I wish college was not so far away.

And this is the one she wrote for Mother’s Day:

If It Weren’t For You
If it weren’t for you mom, I would never have clothes.
If it weren’t for you mom, I would never get in trouble.
If it weren’t for you mom, I would have no dinner.
If it weren’t for you mom, there would be no one to take me on a date.
If it weren’t for you mom, we would get to do whatever we wanted to do.
But if it weren’t for you mom, I would have no one to love!

2nd grade Mentoring

I had the fun opportunity to be a Mentor in Halle’s class for a few weeks.  Basically, parents could pick whatever topic they wanted to teach the kids, plan some fun lessons and activities, and then the kids were able to sign up for whatever class interested them.  There were sports classes, science classes, vets, gardens, baking, etc.  I chose to do “Crafts for your American Girl Doll.”  I had 5 little girls in my group, and we had a blast making crafts for their dolls.  We made sleeping bags, tutu’s, tea sets, and duct tape dresses.  For one of our meetings we got to go on a field trip.  So, Jamie and I planned a cute little tea party, and the girls all brought their dolls to my house and had a fabulous tea party.  Good food, cute decorations, dolls…..what more could a girl want?  I’m so glad I did it!  I had a great time hanging out with Halle and her friends. 

Grace, Halle, Berlynn, Anna, and Quinn