FAO Schwarz

Last weekend we headed up to FAO Schwarz with Nana and Pops.  All I can say it that the store is amazing.  The girls and I have been to Toys R Us and it is not nearly as impressive, although it does have a ferris wheel in the middle of the store.  But FAO Schwarz has such a huge selection of toys, it is mind blowing.  I loved the store and plan to go back just to take more time browsing.  Nana and I were only there for about 45 minutes and had to head of for an appointment but the guys stayed longer with the kids.

Rachel loved all the stuffed animals, she petted and hugged each one.  When we asked her what her favorite toy in the store was she said the stuff animals.

Here we are checking out a train set.  I think Brian and I liked it more than the kids.  :)

Rachel at the art station coloring away.  

Another photo I love.  Rachel and Brian on the subway.  She is clinging to him and the pole for dear life and he is on his phone (looking up the subway schedule).  She is getting more comfortable on the subway but at times it still pushes her comfort zone.

Our Dear Pops

Here is Rachel and her Pops on Thanksgiving Weekend.  One of my favorite photos from the weekend.  It shows what a truly amazing Pops she has.  Rachel tends to be more quiet and reserved than her sister Luna.  So often times she does not get the attention that her sister gets just because she does not demand it like her sister.  As a Mom you wonder how this will affect her and her little personality.  It is so easy to give attention to Luna, she asks for it and tells you exactly what she wants.  Rachel on the other hand will not always ask out right for it and if you say no will easily play by herself for hours.  

Luckily, Rachel has a Pops that wants to know her and love her as she is.  Here is our dear Pops on his hands and knees playing Cars. One of Rachel's favorite games.  They were crawling all over the floor, which is not easy for me in my 30s only can imagine what it is like in your late 50s!  I love how he is loving my girl and meeting her where she is at.  We are so lucky and blessed to have such a wonderful Pops in our life.  WE LOVE YOU POPS!

The High Line

The High Line is a public park built on an freight rail line.  It is elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side. We spent one afternoon walking the park with Nana and Pops.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm.  It  is a busy well used park with some incredible scenery.  We enjoyed our afternoon soaking in some sun and views.  NYC is a beautiful city!

Swedish Marionette Theater - Central Park

Over Thanksgiving weekend we went to the Swedish Marionette Theater in Central Park and watched The Three Bears Holiday Bash.  It was mostly for the girls but all of us adults tagged along too.  I have to say as an adult it was fun to see the puppets move but there was not much of a plot line :)  Rachel on the other hand cried when it was over saying "I want more show."  She enjoyed it!

There was definetly some thing enchanting about the theater and set.  When the lights dimmed and it was just about time for the show to begin there was something magical in the air.

The show is geared toward kids and they all seemed to love it.  The puppets were fun and some even glowed in the dark.  After the show they brought a puppet out to show the kids how it worked and how they make it move.  Which was interesting to see.

Over all this is something we will come to again if we have friends visiting with kids but probably not something we will come back to just us.  It was fun to see it once.

Here we are waiting for the show to begin. 

Nana and Pops waiting for the show to begin. (They had to sit in the back because they are soooo tall)

We Did It - The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Thanksgiving morning we spent watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  I loved it!  It had that magical holiday feel to it for me, remembering all the times I watched it on TV, or at least parts of it on TV. I don't think I ever sat and watched the whole parade on TV.

We had Brian's family here visiting for Thanksgiving and they were all ready to give the parade a try.  I was nervous about it.  Before they came I did a bunch of research and knew to get a front row/fence seat you had to be there by 6am.  Then by 8am the crowds would be so thick you can not leave your spot or if you do you will never get back.  The parade starts at 9 and goes until 11ish, which if you get there at 6am that is a long time for the kids to be sitting in the same little area out in the cold.  I just was not sure how they would handle it all. 

We watched the weather leading up to Thanksgiving and it was looking just about perfect for NYC in the fall.  It was going to be sunny and highs in the 50s, we could not ask for anything more.  We were all game to give it a try.  So Thanksgiving morning alarm clocks were set for 4:30am and 5:00am.  We were all out the door by 5:30 and caught the subway by 5:45am.  We were to our spot on the ground a little after 6am.  Here is a photo of Brian with the girls in the DARK enjoying our Thanksgiving breakfast of muffins.

After that it was just waiting.  I brought some books and toys for the girls but of course a movie on Brian's tablet what was the best.   Rachel entertained herself with a plastic fork (love that kid).  One of my big concerns was the bathroom, where would the girls go there was no way we would make it until noon with no potty.  Leading up to the parade I talked to a nanny friend about my concern with the potty and asked her what she would do.  Most nannys rarely spend time in the apartments they are out and about with the kiddos.  So they have to have some type of solution when they are potty training and of course she knew right away what we needed.  She recommended a little portable potty that folds flat and I bought it online.  Did we have to use it?  Only once :)  But when you need it you need it.  Let's just say one of my girls did her business right there in the middle of that crowd.  It was one of those moments you dread as a parent but I was grateful for a very helpful Nana and Daddy (thank goodness for family).

After all that excitement the parade began. The parade route is about 4 miles and we were only a couple blocks from the beginning so it meant for us the parade started just about at 9am and was over around 11.  Had we been further down the route it would have taken a lot longer to get to us.  The girls were able to be right at the fence and us adults were a little further back.  

The girl's view of the parade, through the fence.  When they got tired they were able to sit on the curb which was great.  Parents who were further back had to hold their kids the entire time or put them on their shoulders.  It was so nice the girls could just sit or stand.  Toward the end of the parade it got a little crowded up there with kids, a number of kids had pushed their way through but it was as good as seat as you can get along the parade route for the girls.

In the photo you can see how thick the crowd was.  Toward the end of the parade the girls started to get tired but there is no way to get out, so they just sat on the curb and waited.  They did great over all, 5 hours outside waiting and standing is hard for a 2 & 3 year old.

Here I am covered in confetti.  They throw a ton of confetti the whole time. Rachel had so much fun picking up the little pieces off the ground.  Luna had fun getting high fives from all the clowns and other characters.  The weather was perfect and the kids did not complain once of being cold, so we dressed them well.  It could not have been a better day for the parade.  The blue sky was a beautiful back drop of the balloons.

Buzz Lightyear was my favorite balloon, he was huge!  I would have loved to see him going between two of the big buildings.  We were by Central Park so one side of the street for us was just trees.

The girls loved Hello Kitty.  She was pretty cute coming down the street.

Then it was over....we headed back to our apartment to have a wonderful Thanksgiving feast!  It was a truly amazing Thanksgiving Day.   I just hope the kids will have some memory of it :)  Thanks to Nana and Pops for visiting us, giving us the motivation to get out there and do the parade and for making our Thanksgiving so special, we love you!

More Randomness

1. It has been so warm here, in the high 60s. Our apartment is up high and has lots of windows so it is staying in the 70s without any heat.  Often I have to open the windows to cool it off.  The other day I was braiding Luna's hair, which always makes me sweat and I had to turn the AC on!  Mid-November and I had to turn on the AC (as soon as I was done braiding I turned it off).  Here is Luna's hair style for the week.

2.  I am still doing my boot camp which I love!  It is in my top 3 things I love about NYC.  It is really the best and such a good work out.  When I am walking back to the apartment at 6:30am I feel like I have already accomplished so much and everyone else is still sleeping.  So far all the workouts have been outside, if it rains we go to a covered pedestrian overpass, the people driving to work get a little workout video on their way :)

3.  Next week we have our first relatives visiting us! Brian's Dad and wife are coming for a week.  I am so excited to show them our life here in NY.    They are adventurous and want to attempt the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.  I have been reading up on it and it is crazy you have to be there by 6:30am to get a spot along the parade route.  The actual parade does not start until 9am.  I am a little worried about how the kiddos will do, bathrooms are a whole other issue.

4. Safety- I have a lot of people ask me about safety.  If I ever am worried for my safety, etc.  The area we live in is very residential and there are lots of families.  By lots of families I mean LOTS of families.  So it is safe, people look out for each other.   When I go to other parts of the city, I have to be much more street smart.  But in our neighborhood my biggest safety issues are keeping the girls away/aware of traffic, elevator safety, and scooter/stroller safety.  Otherwise we are good to go.

5.  We joined a community center that is about a block from our apartment (everything is about a block).  It is a wonderful facility.  They offer all types of kid classes: tumbling, Spanish, French and music.  They also have a couple of indoor play spaces for the kids, which will be critical in the winter months.  But the best part of the community center is the indoor pool!  Last week we swam three days in a row!  Luna is finally getting independent enough in the pool that at the end of it she is exhausted.  One day we swam for 2 hours!  Luna came home and took a nap and had no problem going to sleep that night!  That is unheard of in our house, normally if she naps during the day she takes forever to fall sleep.

6. Yesterday I got a Brazilian blowout.  I have always wanted to try one and saw one on Groupon for super cheap so I decided to go for it.  The only thing I was not prepared for is that I can not get my hair wet, wash it or put anything (clip, ponytail holder, hat) for 3 days!  Of course it poured rain today.  By Friday it is going to look pretty bad.  So far it is stick straight, we will see how long it lasts :)

7.  I am still loving NYC.  I think I love it the most out of everyone in our family.  Just love it, just wish it was not so far from the West Coast :)

Our Apartment Shrunk

We have a good size apartment for New York standards.  With that said, I don't think it is even 1000 square feet. It has two bedrooms, two baths and a family room/eating area.  When we signed the lease on the apartment I was a bit overwhelmed with the idea of moving our family from a 4 bedroom house to a little 2 bedroom apartment.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that it is plenty of space for the 4 of us.  We use every square inch but it works.    

This week we had some work done on the apartment.  They replaced the floors.  When we moved in the floors made this popping noise and we thought it would get broken in as we walked on it more.  But it did not, it still was popping.  So the building management agreed to replace the majority of them, the high traffic areas.  So that meant I had to move everything from the high traffic areas to basically the bedrooms.  They were hoping it was only going to take 1 day but it bleed into 2 days and it really crunched the little space we did have.  

The girls and I (Brian is out of town this week) were basically banished to the bedrooms which were full of dining room chairs and other odds and ends that got moved out of the way.  It was not fun to be in the apartment.  It was also hard to keep the girls off of the new flooring.  I think Rachel got fed up and asked to go to bed, she was in bed by 6:15pm :)  What I realized was that this is about as small of an apartment I think I could do.  Which was an important lesson for me because at times in my head I was putting us in a 1 bedroom and seeing if I thought it was do able.  This week I learned it is not!  But our little two bedroom apartment is just perfect for us and I have to say much easier to clean :)

The floor in process.  

Staging area in the hallway.  They did all the cutting out there :)

Eating dinner at the kiddo's little table in our entry way, they loved it!

Oh yes I did!

I bought the book!  And it is a signed copy!  We have enjoyed a few dishes from this book already, although the chicken noodle soup recipe is not in the book :(  I should have asked before I bought it but if I had I probably would not have bought it and then I would have missed out on the Chocolate Malted Milkshake!  It is delicious, I look forward to it at the end of the day :)

Yarn Extensions

When I took out Luna's beads last time she was very upset, she loved having beads in.  When I talked with her about braiding her hair again she said she wanted beads.  I am thrilled she loves her beads, they are a lot of fun.  So course rather than stick with something I have done before I decided to try something new!

I have wanted to try yarn extensions for a while but to be honest I have been scared to actually do it.  Recently I have been reading up on how to do them.  Going in I knew it was going to be a huge time commitment and another new skill to learn.  But the time commitment was really what was deterring me.  Some people report taking around 10 hours to complete these.  It did not take me THAT long but still this was the longest style I have ever done.

Not sure how I feel about them, it was a learning process and at the end I still did not feel like I really had it mastered.  Usually by the time I finish a new style I am pretty confident of what I need to do and it just becomes practice.  But this style is one I am still trying to figure it out.

Over all it is fun to see Luna with long hair.  I have no idea how long it will last, some people report that they can last 4 weeks or more.  I don't think mine have been done that well so they likely won't last that long.  We also ran out of beads about three quarters of the way through it, again it is hard to predict how many beads are needed.  Next time I will have a better idea.  I guess I need to go online and shop for some more beads :)

Wearing her hair down.

Ponytails!

I am officially a hair stylist :)

Luna's Preschool Halloween Party

Luna's class had a Halloween Party on Monday.  The kids got to dress up for the day.  They enjoyed some Halloween activities and a special treat.   I love this photo of all the kids in her class, they all look so cute.

Here is a photo of the "bug" treats the girls and I made for the party.