Scooter Parking

This is the entrance hallway at the girl's preschool, aka scooter parking.  In the city, once kids graduate out of strollers they move onto scooters.  You see these every where in our neighborhood.   

Luna does not like to walk, at all, we go a block and she starts to complain.  Her scooter is a life saver.  She loves it and will ride it all over.  She will even attempt to do tricks, which usually means standing on one leg or putting one arm in the air.   

Rachel also loves her scooter but needs very close supervision.  If you happen to pass us on the sidewalk you would most likely see me jogging next to her and saying something along the lines of "Rachel look ahead, look at where you are going."  Then you would see me grabbing on to the handle bars to slow her down or stop her at a road, which would result in Rachel telling me once again that she is a big girl and does not want my help!  

Fun times :)

Visiting Rachel's Classroom

This week I had the priveldge of going into Rachel's classroom for an activity.  The teachers let me pick what I wanted to do.  I decided to read the book A Mother for Choco by Keiko Kasza and then do a little craft with them.

This book is well loved here at our house, sometimes I am not sure by whom more, me or the girls.  It is a lovely story of a little bird, Choco.  Choco is looking for a mother who looks just like him but can not find one.  Finally a bear asks to be his mother even though she looks nothing like him.  He finds a happy home with his new mother bear.

After I read the book, each child made their own Choco.  They all had fun gluing their birds together and I loved helping them.  I enjoyed seeing Rachel in her classroom and getting to play with her friends.  So glad I get to do things like this with my girls.

Staten Island Children's Museum

Last weekend we headed over to Staten Island to visit the children's museum.  This was an outing I had been waiting to do but did not want to do it alone with the girls.  On Monday, Brian had the day off from work so we decided to give it a go.  

Half of the adventure was just getting to the museum and back home.  We took a bus to the Staten Island ferry terminal.  Then we caught the ferry over to the island.  From there we took another bus which dropped us off about .5 mile from the museum, so we did a little walking.   Door to door was about an hour and 15 minutes.

The museum was having a free admissions day and to say it was crazy is an under statement.   They had a limited number of staff working and with so many kiddos each exhibit was torn apart, nothing was where it should be.  I was disappointed, it has been over run by the kids.  The girls loved it and did not seem to notice how messy it was.

We spent about 2 hours there and it was all Brian and I could take, it was so loud.  It was time to head home.  An hour and half later we were back at our apartment and completely exhausted, all of us.  Overall I am glad we went but it was a one time adventure for us.

Brooklyn Bridge

Well we are back up and running here in NYC.  My computer crashed last week and I have been doing without.  So that is why I have not been blogging.  But luckily I married a computer genius!  He ordered a part off Ebay and fixed my computer!  So now time to update the blog.

Last weekend we decided to walk the Brooklyn Bridge.  The bridge is beautiful and you get amazing views of Manhattan as you walk across.  We continue to have a warm winter here in the city (which I am loving).  Here we are in mid-feb and I am not even wearing a coat! It is wonderful!

Here we are looking back at lower Manhattan.  Still no coat, although the girls are in coats.  They could have cared less about the bridge.  They were more excited to get to the other side to go on the carousel.

Once we got across the bridge into Brooklyn we stopped at The Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory for a little treat.  Daddy loves ice cream and so do the girls. :)

Looking back at Manhattan, the Brooklyn Bridge is to the right.  Beautiful, beautiful day!

Then the girls took a ride on the carousel.  It was fun, the girls wanted to go again but Mom and Dad can only handle it once. :)  It was a lovely day, both Mom and Dad were exhausted by the time we got home.  Some day I want someone to push me all over the city in a stroller, it would be a lovely way to see the city. :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!  Today we celebrated with a Valentine themed tea party.  We spent the morning getting ready for our party.  The girls made and decorated place mats.  Then they helped me make banana bread.  Every thing was either a heart or pink.  Luna loved it and melted my heart when she said "This is the best day ever."   

At school the kids exchanged Valentines with their friends.  After school the girls could not wait to get home and open all their Valentines and CANDY.  It was a sweet sweet day.  I am so thankful I get to stay home and enjoy precious days like this with my girls.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Hair

Today was another hair day at our house and we went with a heart in honor of Valentine's Day.  The hair blog I follow was the inspiration and I put my own little twist on it.  I am not nearly as skilled as the women who writes the blog.

We started last night, I washed her hair and did the parts.  I was so excited to do Luna's hair today, I was thinking about it as I fell sleep last night. In the morning all I really need to do was braid.  It made the whole process much more do able for us, both Luna and I. She did not get tired of sitting and my hands did not get tired of working.  Total braiding time was 2 hours...in my world not too bad but as I type that I realize how crazy that would have sounded to me 2 years ago.  We have come a long way :)

The style turned out beautiful on her.  Luna kept asking to see the heart and she was pretty excited when I showed her it in the mirror.  Although she wondered how other people would see it if they did not have a mirror :)

My hope is to get two weeks out of this style but it depends on a few factors.  One being how many times we go swimming.  Swimming is really tough on her hair but we all love it so we go at least once a week.  The other factor is how well the ends hold up.  I am good at braiding but I have a hard time finishing the ends.  But for the time being it is lovely and prefect for Valentine's Day tomorrow.

Front view

Top view

Neighbors

I know in past posts I mentioned that our apartment building is like a dorm for kids.  There are kids every where which has both positives and negatives.  But for us it is all positive.  With a total of 6 apartments on our floor there are 7 kids ages 6 and under.  Out of those 6 apartments, 4 had their doors open this afternoon.  All the kiddos where wandering from apartment to apartment playing.

Luna just loves it, loves it!  Rachel at times joins in but some times chooses to play by herself.  I love it when they play in our apartment.  I love to hear them playing their games and working out their disagreements it just makes my heart smile.  Today they were playing family and going on a helicopter ride to Fire Island and then to London.  ADORABLE!

Below is a photo of 6 of the kiddos on our floor, each with their special blankets.  Each one could not wait to show me their special blankets so I could not resist taking a photo of them.

Reading Chart

I know that in previous posts I mentioned that I was teaching Luna how to read.  I  am using a book called "Teach your Child to read in a 100 easy lessons."  She is doing really great.  The lessons are easy you just have to commit to the time it takes to do them. I am amazed by how well she is doing.  

Now 100 may not seem like much but to me it feels like it is lasting forever.  To help us stay motivated I made her a reading chart.  After I put this up I looked at it and thought WOW we have a lot of lessons to go.   Luna on the other hand is all over it.  She knows exactly how many more lessons until she gets to go swimming or have a tea party.  She loves it.  

I was telling Brian the other night that under each of Luna's rewards mommy needs a reward (ie. getting my nails done).  Then the chart may not look as over whelming to me either :)

It looks as though next week we will be having a tea party, I will be sure to post photos.

What we did today

Today after school I pulled out this Birthday present of Luna's.  I had been saving it for a "rainy" day, today it was snowing so close enough in my book.  To say the kiddos were excited was an under statement.  They pretended they were Bob the Builder and were painting the house.  After 3 hours of painting it was time for Cooper to head home and the girls to go to bed. 

Tomorrow more painting.

Bags of Clothes

The girl's school had a clothing drive last week.  So I took the opportunity to go through their clothes and pass along what we no longer needed.  We ended up with about three large bag fulls.  Then I had to figure out how I was going to get it there.  Luckily, Rachel loves to ride her scooter to school.  So I just loaded up the stroller.  We were a hot mess on the way to school.  Me pushing the stroller and the girls on their scooters.  We were all over the place but we made it, and that is what matters.  :)

Happy Birthday to Me!

This weekend I celebrated my 35th Birthday! It was an amazing weekend! Leading up to my Birthday I had no idea how we were going to celebrate. All that Brian had told me was that it was a surprise. Now I am not one for surprises. I prefer to think about the up coming event and relish in the idea of it. But Brian was not budging, he was not going to tell me what we were doing no matter what I tried.

Friday night, after the kids were put to bed. Brian was supposedly going out for drinks with a friend. I said goodbye and had fully planned on being asleep by the time he got back. Well an hour later I heard the door open and he was back. I went out to say hi, see what was going on and guess who was with him. Two of my girl friends from Boston, Michelle & Shawnacy! They had taken the bus down from Massachusetts to visit me for the weekend! It was great, although I must say I was in a bit of shock and my reaction was a little stunned. It was not until the morning the next day that I full wrapped my head around it all.

The girls were surprised as well to wake up with visitors sleeping in our family room. :) But they quickly adjusted and were asking if Miss Michelle or Miss Shawnacy wanted to play with them. Brian made us a nice breakfast in the morning and then we headed out for the day.

We were ready to start our day. The first stop was 1/2 price tickets and got tickets to Mary Poppins for the evening. Then we spent the day walking around lower Manhattan. We had lunch and treats out and about. Then after a little down time at the apartment we were off again. We headed to the 9/11 Memorial, which is beautiful and humbling. From there we headed up to Broadway for dinner.

Brian had made us reservations at a restaurant. We enjoyed a leisurely meal and 2 hours later were off to see Mary Poppins. The show was great, so sweet and the music was wonderful. We got back home around 11pm and were exhausted. As I like it, we lived life fully.

Sunday morning, Brian once again cooked us a lovely breakfast. We had a leisurely morning and then it was off to church. After church, it was time to say goodbye. So sad to see them go but so thankful for such a fun weekend.

Thanks for an amazing Birthday, Michelle and Shawnacy I could not have asked for a better weekend! Thanks to my amazing husband who loved me so well this weekend and took care of the girls while we enjoyed the city.

More Hair

Monday was another hair day at our house.  I tried out a new style on Luna. Last week we had braids in all over so it took me an 1.5 hours just to get the braids out, so I need an easy style that I could do quickly.  So This is what we ended up with, if we get a week out of it we will be lucky but it will be easy to do the next style since there is not much braid work here.  Daddy said he really liked it which means it is a hit because he is pretty conservative when it comes to hair styles he likes. :)

This is a photo of Brian and Luna walking the streets of NYC.  I just think Luna is the cutest little thing.  She loves picking out her own clothes and we never know what we will end up with.  Check out the vest over her coat :)  This day she was so colorful and plain adorable!