Posts Tagged ‘new york’

My Week(186) in iPhone Photos

Sunday, May 25th, 2014

I’ve been doing these weekly posts since I was pregnant with Caroline. She’s now a fully functional human (well, unless you try to stop pushing her on the swings, then she is a hideous raging monster beast) and I’m only a few weeks away from another baby. If the entire internet self destructed tomorrow, these posts the things I’d be the saddest to lose.

Sunday:

sunday1

This was pretty much the only awesome stroller we DIDN’T take home from New York. It’s really awesome.

sunday2

Caroline made herself right at home.

sunday3

It was so great to have E with us in NYC for the first time.

Monday:

monday1

Reading Spiderman books to Doggy. Obviously.

monday2

Bubble machines are priceless. PRICELESS.

monday3

Someone is still exhausted from New York.

Tuesday:

tuesday1

She thinks the a/c vent is tiny stairs for tiny people.

tuesday2

Another Tuesday, another non-stress test

tuesday3

They can find their way around the hospital without me now.

Wednesday:

wednesday1

OFFICIALLY SUMMER

wednesday2

Weirdoes

wednesday3

Swam all the way to the deep end by herself

Thursday:

thursday1

How one child gets so many scrapes and bruises (and almost never mentions them) is beyond me

thursday2

Cute kid. Trashed house.

thursday3

Performing at the spring Science Fair. He knew all the words.

Friday:

friday1

Enjoying her tiny rain-proof house at Stroller Strides

friday2

God bless iPads. Seriously. SERIOUSLY.

friday3

Well earned cheeseburgers after our appointment.

Saturday:

saturday1

I dunno, it’s a wall. I liked it.

saturday2

The best food in the world.

saturday3

Motherhood: when your nice relaxing bubble bath is ruined by this thing staring up at you.

I have too many things to do and not enough time to do them all, so I am mostly doing nothing. Besides editing pictures. That is both fun and able to be done while I sit on the couch and watch this Star Trek movie. Again. There’s a tribble! I love tribbles! Tomorrow I am making a pie, which should count as more than enough things for one pregnant lady to do in a weekend. Maybe I will make two pies, just to be sure someone besides me gets to eat some.

My Week(185) in iPhone Photos

Sunday, May 18th, 2014

This week felt really, really long. But in a good way. A full way. Something about going away for the weekend to Mom 2.0 changed things at home – maybe we ALL needed a break from each other – and we’re all happier to be around each other. Despite spending an awful lot of the week in various waiting and exam rooms, we ended it in NYC proving our kids are really good sports (we made them walk everywhere) and really fun (when they aren’t driving us crazy).

Sunday:

sunday1

These are my “before” flowerpots, but that didn’t stop her from trying to take care of them.

sunday2

She asked for purple flowers to plant (I don’t even know what these are).

sunday3

Mother’s Day at Chili’s (again) calls for finger guns

Monday:

monday1

Freezing, FREEZING cold water

monday2

The gingers are unphased by cold

monday3

So excited about her chocolate frog she forgot to take the plastic off.

Tuesday:

tuesday1

She tied that all by herself.

tuesday2

Thank God for iPads (during my NST)

tuesday3

Wishflowers

Wednesday:

wednesday1

Pweeeese we swim some more Mommy? Pweeeeeese?

wednesday2

We bought cat food and paper towels and batteries at Walmart. She is hugging the batteries.

wednesday3

Fawkes Phoenix is Evan’s new BFF

Thursday:

thursday3

Looking pensive about the rain

thursday1

In case you thought they were GOOD at posing for pictures.

thursday2

Sleeping Beauty

Friday:

friday1

What is this weather even??

friday2

Next year, SHE is going to be coming home on that bus.

friday3

Another day, another visit to L&D

Saturday:

saturday1

When you get the Metro-North seats with the power outlet, you get to play Angry Birds all the way in to the city.

saturday2

Shake Shack is actually as good as everyone says.

saturday3

I think our last family picture (selfie or otherwise) was in October. We heart NYC.

And now I am literally going to crawl upstairs to bed because my left hip is broken (out of joint? sprained? can you sprain a hip?) and I can’t walk. I finally found my sense of direction in New York, but unfortunately it was because we walked EVERYWHERE. I’m pretty sure even the gingers are going to sleep in tomorrow.

Although I did get a super awesome new stroller that’s inspiring me to get back to Stroller Strides. Maybe if my hip pops back in we’ll actually make it this week.

A Frozen Adventure in NYC

Thursday, November 14th, 2013

Is it ironic that we’ve been so busy doing totally bloggable stuff that I haven’t actually blogged any of it? I need to get better about posting things sooner, since right now it looks like I’m going to put the kids Halloween photos up some time around Thanksgiving.  Although at this point I’m mostly still updating the blog because it’s the only baby book I have, not because anyone is reading. When you almost never post it turns out all your readers get bored and wander away.

Maybe I’m also blogging because sometimes it still leads to super cool stuff, like an invitation to see the new Disney movie Frozen in NYC on Monday from Samsung and The Moms. I’m getting to be an expert at taking the kids into the city alone and they had Veterans Day off of school so of course I jumped at the chance.

Disney's Frozen

We took the Metro-North into the city and got lucky with one of the fancy new trains. I plugged in my phone in our own private outlet and the kids played games on the tablet the whole way in.

Processed with VSCOcam

Processed with VSCOcam

 

I got a little bit lost on my walk from Grand Central to the theater, but it was a pretty nice day and the kids were happy to ride in the stroller. My arms are KILLING me from pushing that much weight around for an hour. I convinced them to get out and walk in the park, but then had to hustle them back into the stroller every time they saw a playground. And then we got held up when a construction foreman with an amazing Irish accent who wanted to chat with me and the gingers about Santa and how blessed I am to have redheads. It was actually not at all creepy or weird, and is exactly the sort of thing that always seems to happen to us and I love it.

We made it to the Samsung/Frozen event just in time to get some popcorn and give the kids a chance to try out the new Galaxy Tab 3 Kids Tablet. Caroline would have stayed out there playing all day if I hadn’t convinced her there was candy in my purse to eat during the movie. On our way in she practiced her step-and-repeat pose, for when she is famous some day.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Kids Tablet

Samsung Frozen The Moms

She’s a paparazzi pro already

frozen in 3D

3D glasses in 2013 are way cooler than the blue/red ones I remember growing up.

 

This was the first movie I’ve seen in 3D where I actually wore my glasses the whole time. Even the kids liked it, and they usually take off their glasses within 30 seconds at the mini-theater at the aquarium. It made the already deep-looking (do you know what I mean by deep-looking?) animation pop right off the screen (and there wasn’t a ton of things flying out of the screen at my face, which is why I generally don’t like 3D). I was surprised Frozen was sort of a princess movie, since I hadn’t seen much marketing for it with that spin, but it was definitely the kid of princess movie even the anti-princess crowd can get on board with. It was easy to tell it was made by the same people as Tangled, but the snow and ice made it feel original. The music is sort of opera-like, with lots of talking-turns-into-singing and songs that really tell part of the story. I really, really liked it. I might take the kids to see it again when it’s released, especially because they both keep begging me to see the cute little Mickey Mouse mini-movie they played before the main feature again. Of course I like it a little extra because one of the two main characters is a ginger, but even if she wasn’t a ginger the story would be fresh, fun, and beautifully animated.

After the movie we stayed for the Q&A with Idina Menzel, where I couldn’t think of a single Q because I was too starstruck that she was in the same room. It was ok though, because there were plenty of NYC stage kids there who were THRILLED to ask her adorable questions about being on Broadway. And then she sang for us and I almost died. She’s so pretty.

idina menzel frozen

After our event we met my friend Sara (Aunt Sara to the kids) to go to a giant candy store/restaurant but it was closed so we went to one of the many Greek diners where the menu is 40 pages long. Caroline ate a giant cheeseburger and Evan attempted to eat this giant doughnut but failed.

Processed with VSCOcam

By then the kids were absolutely insane, hopped up on soda and sugar from their movie treats and exhausted from a busy day, so Sara walked us to Grand Central and we caught an old train home, which meant no charger for my dead phone. Luckily the people who made room for us to sit down were super nice and their 5 year old played with Evan and Caroline the whole time. We made it ALMOST all the way back to our house before Caroline fell asleep (Evan never did) so they slept like rocks and I lay on the couch and moaned about how old I am and how exhausting it is going to NYC alone with 2 kids. That’s not going to stop me from taking them back for Christmas stuff though – we still haven’t done FAO or the big Toys R Us or seen the tree or the Macy’s Santa. Having kids makes things like movies and Christmas way more fun.

Big thanks to Samsung, The Moms and Disney for the invite! We will happily come back for more movies any time! This is not a sponsored post, we just had a really good time.

 

Happy 30th Birthday Cabbage Patch Kids!

Thursday, October 10th, 2013

A couple weeks ago the kids and I took the train into NYC to celebrate a special birthday with some old friends – the Cabbage Patch Kids turn 30 this year and boy do they know how to celebrate!

cabbage patch kids 30th birthday 1-Lightroom edits resize13

The same people who organized the amazing Playdate in the City last fall threw this party too, so my hopes were pretty high – and absolutely exceeded. It doesn’t happen very often, but this is the kind of thing that makes being a blogger seem like a super cool job.

The party was at the Eventi Hotel, which was a few blocks from Grand Central Station. I was lucky my friend Sarah was going too, since she was smart enough to look up walking directions BEFORE showing up in NYC. Plus she had her daughter Avery with her, and my kids looooove “Baby Avery”.

1-Lightroom edits resize14

Caroline might be the only 2 year old who LOVES people dressed as giant characters.

cabbage patch kids 30th birthday-7

The party had an adoption station where each child got to pick out a Cabbage Patch Kid that the “nurses” opened up for them to start loving right away. Then there were stations where you could listen to a story about where the Kids come from, learn how to change their diapers, get a Cabbage Patch makeover, rename your baby (Each CPK comes with a unique name and birth certificate but we had new ones printed with the names Caroline and Evan chose – Peanut and Emme), take the Oath of Adoption (Caroline doing the Oath might have been the cutest thing ever), and other fun stuff.

I MIGHT have strongly steered Caroline towards the red-headed Kid, but it wasn’t exactly hard. “That looks like me!” she said. Why, I didn’t even notice! (I totally noticed.) There were also boy Kids, but Evan chose a blond girl and insisted that was HIS baby so I couldn’t argue.

cabbage patch kids 30th birthday-11

cabbage patch kids 30th birthday-13

cabbage patch kids 30th birthday-12

cabbage patch kids 30th birthday-14

“Peanut” came with a bowl and food, so Caroline spent the rest of the party force-feeding her.

cabbage patch kids 30th birthday-15 1-Lightroom edits resize19 cabbage patch kids 30th birthday-29

cabbage patch kids 30th birthday-30

cabbage patch kids 30th birthday-32

Diapering her baby. Even the “nurse” thought it was adorable.

Of course, what would a party be without food – and cupcakes?! Caroline was thrilled that scrambled eggs were on the brunch menu, since she ate two giant plates full of them. Evan ate bagels and “cupcakes”, which were actually corn muffins, until he realized there were ACTUAL cupcakes.

cabbage patch kids 30th birthday-18

The punch was orange juice and Sprite with cherries in the bottom. I think I drank more than the kids. And how cute are all those details – custom cups?!

1-Lightroom edits resize16

Party animal!

cabbage patch kids 30th birthday-21

We need to work on her table manners. And sitting.

cabbage patch kids 30th birthday-8 1-Lightroom edits resize15 1-Lightroom edits resize18 cabbage patch kids 30th birthday-26 1-Lightroom edits resize17 cabbage patch kids 30th birthday-27 1-Lightroom edits resize20

It was so much fun seeing the display of vintage Cabbage Patch Kids and the new Cabbage Patch Kids Celebration ‘Kids in honor of their 30th birthday. Does that make you feel old or what? I remember desperately wanting the a Cabbage Patch Kid when I was little, and how exciting it was to see the new ones come out every year. I’m such a fan of vintage toys that are still going strong, since you know in another 30 years our grandkids are going to be feeding and changing and tucking in their Cabbage Patch Kids too. Best part – they still smell EXACTLY the same as they did when I was little.

In addition to Peanut and Emme, the kids brought home a couple of Cabbage Patch Kids Cuties – one dressed as a rabbit and one dressed as a kitty I think. They’re the perfect size  for a preschooler, and ours have come with us lots and lots of places since we adopted them. I wish I had hidden a couple more in my bag for stocking stuffers.

It was a really fun day and totally worth the train ride plus the craziness that was dragging two kids and a bunch of balloons through the city because my children insisted on bringing them ALL home.

Huge thanks to our friends at JAKKS Pacific for letting us attend the party and for our very own Cabbage Patch Kids.

1-Lightroom edits resize21 cabbage patch kids 30th birthday-39

cabbage patch kids 30th birthday-45

My Week(151) in iPhone Photos

Sunday, September 22nd, 2013

It’s feast or famine this week: some days a took a ton of pictures, some days I took almost none. I think my real problem is I need yoga pants with pockets, so I can keep my phone with me all the time.

Sunday:

Processed with VSCOcam

I guess this weather is OK.

Processed with VSCOcam

Super excited to hang out with Daddy

Processed with VSCOcam

Sunday = Football

Monday:

Processed with VSCOcam

Sharing

Processed with VSCOcam

Park to ourselves

Processed with VSCOcam

Nicely done, kind-of-sketchy-park, you look extremely respectable.

Processed with VSCOcam

We made it down this aisle without buying ANY candy. It’s a Stop and Shop Miracle!

Tuesday:

Processed with VSCOcam

Cat as still life

Processed with VSCOcam

I live with a bunch of weirdos.

Wednesday:

Processed with VSCOcam

Picture day at school mean cool kid clothes instead of the uniform

Processed with VSCOcam

I WANNA TAKE THE PICTURE! – tiny selfie addict

Processed with VSCOcam

Newborn session set up

Thursday:

Processed with VSCOcam

This is the only picture I have from Thursday. I can’t remember a single thing we did.

Friday:

Processed with VSCOcam

Rapunzels.

Processed with VSCOcam

Newborn set up on Friday (in my own room, where it was ONE BILLION DEGREES…but the baby loved it)

Saturday:

Processed with VSCOcam

I feel bad for the person whose job it is to keep these tables clean.

Processed with VSCOcam

Birthday cupcakes for the Cabbage Patch Kids!

Processed with VSCOcam

Watching trains from the train

Processed with VSCOcam

Passed out on the Metro North. It was a busy day!

This week is going to be bananas (B A N A N A S) so apologies if you’re staring at this post forever and/or for the extremely photo heavy posts I might put up instead. We’ve done a lot of fun stuff over the last few weeks but I’m having a hard time finding actual WORDS to talk about them instead of just letting pictures do it. But a picture is worth a thousand words, so really I’m writing like, 20,00 words a day. YOU’RE WELCOME.