New York: Part 2

On Saturday, I scheduled a brunch at the American Girl Doll Place. Andy and Bruce went to tour the city and we walked the few blocks, in the rain, to the store. We bought the dolls the day before because they have a place setting for them!

Happy girls!

Mommy and her girls

Margaret and her girls

Joiner enjoying her surprising good and reasonable brunch with Kit.

Carly with Makena

Just when we thought the food had stopped, they brought out flower pots of chocolate mousse! All before 10:30am!

After a break to get the boys, we headed back to the subway to go to the Museum of Natural History. Joiner was very interested in how the subway worked. She learned which train we would take and how many stops we would have. She especially loved the S train which was a shuttle from Grand Central to Times square. They both loved that they had to duck under the bars as they were free. You could tell they thought they were stealing something. Moria told them the first night to "not look at the crazies and to hold on." They followed her lead. We had the fun surprise of seeing lots of performers. We even were next to one talented guy who was trying to get people to join in on his song. Carly was the only one!

The gang. It was really cold this day, and it would mist rain, so we were all bundled up! Thankfully I had brought gloves and hats for the girls in case we went to the Today show one day.

The museum was so massive. We tried to just hit some hot spots. The North American Mammals was very cool with the dioramas. Here is a Lynx which we thought was cool as that is the name of our soccer team!

Here we are with the Native American exhibit. I thought this picture was better focused.

I gave Carly my camera to capture her own memories. Here are Andy and I by the big boat.

Carly LOVES rocks. She is one of those kids who is always picking up rocks and keeping them in her pocket. Needless to say, she loved the minerals, rocks, and gems exhibits. Here is a big meteor.

Now we are trying to lift the big rock! You can see Joiner is a blur!

I literally have 25-30 of these pictures documenting the amazing array of gems that Carly took. I am letting you off easy with just one!

Letting off some steam in a giant geode.

Onto the dinosaurs. I thought I had posted a picture of the life size blue whale, but it didn't load. It was amazing to see that in scale. To think that there are creatures of that size is so awesome. Such a God moment!

The girls had a hard time understanding the idea of dinosaurs being on earth sometime, but not now. I don't know where they thought they were, but it was interesting to watch them process it. Here's Joiner and Bruce in front of an ancient cow.

Joiner reading the info on this guy or gal.

This display had buttons and told her where in the world they lived.

We stopped to have a snack in this beautiful atrium that looked out on the city.

It appears that I only have pictures of Joiner investigating!

One of our food goals was to have a real New York slice. The girls knew that we were supposed to fold it. Thankfully our guidebook told us there was a good place right by the museum.

Here is Joiner with her giant cheese slice.

Carly with hers. They were so excited to get their own slice. Neither finished it, but it was still a thrill. And Andy and I each enjoyed our slice.

We went back to the hotel to rest for a bit. I was so tired that I actually closed my eyes, which never happens. We got back on the subway to go to Moria's apartment and to meet up with her parents for dinner. Her apartment was great. 300sf with a Murphy bed and everything!

Dinner and the company was great. Here are Joiner and Moria with their dessert.

Carly and Margaret sharing some apple crisp.

Here are the girls before we turned the light off. This is the last picture of Carly for a while. She got very sick after I turned off the light and I realized what a miserable thing it is to have a sick kid in a hotel room. We finally all settled into bed about 1am. I am sure Margaret and Bruce were glad they had their own room!

More to come...

New York: Part 1

For Spring break, we took the girls to New York City. About 2 years ago, Margaret mentioned to them that we should go to New York to celebrate her 60th birthday. The girls took this as a promise and counted down! After much thought, we decided to leave Bennett at home with Gigi and Babby (Bennett calls him Babby, which we all find really funny.) It was a hard decision for me, but it was so smart. It was such a packed 3 days and he would have been miserable.

There was a weird emergency on another plane as we were waiting for our flight.

The gang waiting for the plane

Margaret and Joiner before take-off. We got a great view of the Statue of Liberty as we flew in. I had a picture of Carly, who sat with me, but it didn't load.

Our first view of the city. We stayed almost in Times Square. It was a great location.

Andy, Margaret, and the girls in Times Square.

As we were planning for the big trip, the girls learned about American Girl dolls. They started saving about a year ago. We told them if they saved half, then we would match it. Well, they both saved almost the entire price and these are expensive dolls! This purchase was overshadowing the whole trip, so we planned to go the first day so we could focus. We set off for Rockefeller Center and ate lunch. Here is our first view of their version of "Mecca."

We had made an appointment with a free personal shopper and we had time to mess around. We stopped by St Patrick's Cathedral.

Rockefeller Center

The beautiful windows and sculpture of the Cathedral.

Lighting a candle for Margaret's mother.

More windows

Finally it was time to meet Christie at the American Girl Doll store. This place is 3 levels of dolls, clothes, furniture, books, a doll hair salon, and restaurant! The personal shopper was the best idea. She had asked me what dolls the girls were thinking of when we emailed and she had them all out with their names on it as we came into the room.

They were about to bust!

Carly was interested in the 2012 doll of the year, Makenna. After seeing her, she was certain that was the doll for her! Here she is getting her hair net off!

Joiner was waffling between historical dolls Kit Kitterage and Molly's friend Emily. After seeing that Kit is almost her twin, that was the doll for her.

Christie gave them each their doll and off we went to select clothes and accessories. They each had a big shopping bag and she told them to pull anything that they thought they might want and we could weed it out later. What an order for a 6 year old!

We spent the next 1.5 hours looking at a truly mind-boggling array of clothes and things. We laid everything out in the room. Both girls had a budget based on what they had saved. I put each girl's money on a Visa gift card so they were not in possession of so much cash. Christie would ring it up and give them the total so they could think it over and make a decision. She encouraged them to save some money for other things in New York, as did Margaret and I, but they both spent all they had. They fun thing for them is they got to swipe their card and even sign their name. Here is Carly making her purchase.

Carly with Makenna

Joiner with her Kit

Margaret bought each lucky girl's doll a beautiful dress and I ended up getting them these carrying cases for the dolls and clothes. The cases were worth it as we trudged through the city!

Outside after the marathon shopping trip!

Have your wondered where Andy and Bruce were? They were at a bar! Seriously!

We walked back to the hotel through Bryant Park.

You can see by our clothes that is was a very cold weekend in New York. We were in heavy coats the whole time. Margaret and Bruce have many good friends in the city. We were lucky enough to have Moria join us for dinner both Friday and Saturday night. We set out Friday to go to a restaurant in Little Italy.

Little Italy

Unfortunately the restaurant turned out to be in Greenwich Village. The plus was that we got to walk through Little Italy, Soho, and Greenwich Village. Andy and I were carrying the girls on our backs by the time we stopped to eat, but we had a wonderful meal in the sweetest little Italian restaurant.

Joiner and Moria on the Subway

Carly, Margaret, and I

Bruce and Andy

Times Square at night.

Stayed tuned for more! Breakfast at the American Girl Doll Place is to come...