October Happenings

It's time for the annual tri-ward Chomp-n-Stomp

 with good ol'fashioned grub and games for every little cowpoke.

 And a modern band for the dancin' and prancin'. 

Fall = Friday Night Lights!

Panther Football!

Me wearing John's letterman jacket which is about 20 sizes to big for me.

This is what you find on your phone after your kids have gotten a hold of it:

Ashlyn lost her front teeth, and is missing two on the bottom.  She's a bonafide jack-o-lantern.

All four kids had a dental appointment and all four received #1 scores!  Yeah!

Christian got to play tug-o-war with the wolf before receiving his Bear in Cub Scouts.

 Success!  After 8 months, he's already moving on to the next level. (They had a Halloween pack meeting and wore costumes)

Look at this sad empty, ugly space on the wall.  It used to hold a shiny new TV.

But after a little friend was over and got a little to happy with Wii bowling, the TV is no more. 

 But alas!  Thankfully some people still offer free shipping, and these guys were nice enough to even unload it for me.  Although they wouldn't install it.  Seriously, getting that thing back on the wall is almost worse for me than losing the TV in the first place.

 Madison and Brooke have been playing on the school's volleyball teams.  

They've had fun, have learned a lot, even though they haven't yet tasted victory.

One of our favorite kindergarten teachers had her annual Halloween party again and asked Madison and Brooke to come help.  They had a great time and it was a wonderful party. 

The kids did great in the Primary program.  Ashlyn was so excited to say her line, and even more excited to wear a suit that she said makes her look like "a business girl".  She went and found a matching purse and strutted herself into that chapel like she owned the place.  OK, bad analogy, but you know what I mean.

I received an email from Christian's teacher in the middle of the day which was just entitled "Christian" and I had a split-second of panic as I thought maybe she was contacting me to tell me something wrong he did.

But no, it was just a picture of him reading to the principal.  Phew!  So cute!

I love that she took the time to do that.

Brooke Bites the Big Apple

It's Brooke's turn for a trip to New York! 

To piggy-back on John's [final] annual trip to NY, we left on Wednesday with him, and flew back just the two of us on Sunday.  

Brooke was beside herself excited to see the Big Apple. 

We arrived Wednesday night and checked into our tiny hotel room about 9:00 p.m.

 and she was immediately struck with the view. 

We quickly headed out to Times Square to see a little of the sites...

The ferris wheel inside Toys R Us

 and grabbed a burger at the Shake Shack (our fave). 

On Thursday, Brooke and I took the Subway all the way down to the Financial District.

Looking across to New Jersey

At the 911 Memorial - one of the new towers is behind her, center.

Cousin Angie, who just moved to Brooklyn, met up with us at Max Brenner's near Union Square. 

 Max Brenner's has lots of chocolate.

 After shopping at The Strand (and buying books) and walking, walking, walking we walked up to Macy's and the Empire State Building.

In the lobby of the beautiful Empire State Building

The New York Public Library ... Library Lion! (Children's book reference there) 

 In the NYPL, there was a Winnie the Pooh exhibit with the original toys that inspired AAMilne.

And we walked all the way back to Times Square where our hotel was.  

Our feet hurt!  

The next day we headed out to a different part of town and it was raining.  

We shopped, hitting Forever XXI, which is HUGE at the Times Square location.  Shopping in the morning is definitely a must.  The stores were quiet whereas when we went back in the evening to purchase (didn't want to carry around packages all day), it was crowded and crazy.

We headed uptown to Rockefeller Center, The American Girl Store, some more shopping, and 

the Apple Store...

and of course FAO Schwartz where Brooke experienced BIG without ever seeing the movie.

It was my birthday so we were nothing but gourmet and had a street-corner hot dog and pretzel for lunch.  Something you have to experience at least once in your life, right?

Then we walked over to Dylan's Candy Bar.  A three-story candy store.  What could be better?

We didn't feel like walking all the way back to the hotel so we hailed a pedicab.  A fun experience, but note to self: only use one if you have just a couple of blocks to go, unless you're alone.

There was a dog event next to the harbor where people were totally crazy with their dogs.  There were booths where you could do yoga with your dog (seriously, people were all spread out with the mats). Gives a new definition to Downward Dog.  The best though was this kissing booth. This woman was ecstatic to pay $1 to kiss her little dog.  Whatever!

Saturday we took a boat tour around the entire island of Manhattan (no, that's not the boat we went on!)

The views are great and you learn a lot more than trying to see the city for yourself, plus it saves aching feet.  

Having an afternoon snack at Magnolia Bakery.

In Times Square at night, they had a JumboTron and we were on it.  See us on the bottom?  I have my camera in front of my face.

Brooke and I got tickets to Mary Poppins and it was Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious!  

I recommend it!  We had a great time.

On her bucket list was getting hot chocolate at night.  We decided to after the show since it was our last night, so late and we had to walk back.  The weather was so warm we never felt the need, but wanted to nonetheless.

Experience the city was um, an experience?  Brooke was exposed to stuff she never could imagine.  It shows what a sheltered and clean life she leads in Newbury Park.  Most poignant though was probably the walk back after the show.  Not only was it late, like 11:00pm, but we had to pass some shady looking gangs, a couple of times on almost-deserted streets which was not too comforting.  We were so glad to reach the safety and familiarity of the Marriott lobby!

One of our favorite things is riding bikes in Central Park.  It was the most beautiful day, perfect for a ride, and cycling around the park is the absolute best way to take it all in.  

You'd never know you're in the middle of a city!

 We rode over to Lincoln Center where the temple is located.  It's only two blocks from Central Park in one of the nicest areas of Manhattan.  Of course.  

We had a fabulous trip.  I love our new tradition of taking one child at a time on an adventure like this when they're old enough and hope we can continue it.  Christian is already talking about how he gets to go in three years.  We'll have to be a bit more creative since John won't be doing these long NYC stints every fall anymore (new job, Hooray!).