out and about

The first couple of months that we lived here I always wanted to go DO stuff any chance we got. But now that we've been here for awhile I can finally accept that its ok when we stay in our pajamas all weekend.

But the past couple of weekends we've been out and about.

We took the girls to the NYC Public Library. But it was when Annie was starting to recover from being so sick so I thought she would be ok with getting out of the house. Nope. She melted down pretty quickly so we didn't stay long. Audrie has been asking to go back- they had a really fun children's department. 

So while Annie stayed home with Jamie. I took Audrie to see the musical Pinkalicious (based on her favorite children's book). She was SO excited!

Here we are running to catch our train. (Audrie has become a natural with the subways now. She knows the the "A" train is 'our' train and if we want the uptown or downtown train, etc. It's cute to hear her talk about it.)

Made it to the theater with only a few minutes to spare.

Of course they were serving cupcakes as we sat in our seats!

Cupcakes and a musical?! What more could Audrie ask for?

It was a fun date with my girl.

 

I also had another celebrity moment, because sitting right next to us in the theater was Caroline Rhea and her four year old daughter. 

Our former neighbors from Arkansas, Becca and Kyla, came up to visit for a few days and OH MY GOODNESS they did every single thing there is to do in New York City while they were here. If you have a chance you should totally check out the blog she created about their trip (amazing photos): http://beccakylanewyork.blogspot.com/2012/01/american-girl-5th-avenue-day-1-part-3.html

I swiped a couple photos off her blog:

Audrie was excited to have Kyla here to play with. (Here they are having breakfast one morning.)

 I like this photo Becca took of us getting ready to head out with them to see some sights around town.

We took the girls to Chinatown. Honestly I've only been to the side of Chinatown that is purses and shopping mania, but the more authentic streets with Chinese culture is really awesome to experience. It was funny because when we turned the corner Audrie gasped "It's Mulan!".

We went in a Chinese Mart (nothing like a Wal Mart... ha!), but it was so cool and I found this book that my mom used to read to us as kids.

Audrie bought a Chinese umbrella and loves it so much she sleeps with it. :)

One of the days they were here we went to The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Audrie was really into all the artwork. She kept asking me to read all the placards that tell about the paintings.

I like this photo of Kyla and Audrie pondering the Rembrandts.

I wanted to steal this painting for my living room... (I loved the mom with her two little girls!).

 

It was so great having Becca and Kyla in town for awhile! I still can't believe how much they managed to do while they were here. Truly amazing.

This weekend we are keeping it low key around our house because next weekend is.... Audrie's birthday!!

sweet sweet girls

This evening we were getting ready to go to a friend's house (yes, we are making friends here!) for dinner and I decided to snap a few quick photos of Audrie and Annie before we left. I had them stand on their kid's table in front of our living room window (lots of natural light). I love how these quick little photos turned out!

 Can't believe our LITTLE girl is turning four in a couple weeks. Love her so stinkin much!

 Cheesy little grin (I mean, big grin... she still has the biggest smile I've ever seen on a kid!).

And then there is this one. (Oh, Annie what are we going to do with you??)

 We just adore this girl.

 She gives THE best hugs!!! Such a cuddler! But also recently has decided she likes hitting and screaming NO. Can you imagine this sweet face doing such a thing??

 How can you love someone so much that drives you so crazy?

We can't imagine life without these two rocking our worlds each day.

snow day!

Audrie and Annie both woke up this morning squealing about the snow! It was so cute to see them watching the snow with their faces next to each other pressed up against the window.

 After breakfast we suited up and got ready to head out to check out the snow.

 Annie wasn't a big fan of walking across the steaming subway grates on the sidewalk.

 We don't really have good snow boots for Annie and her gloves kept falling off (need to find some longer ones or some that have those tightening straps).

 I have a huge coat that I bought a couple months ago for my recess duty at school. It feels like I'm wearing a sleeping bag, but it keeps me warm!

 There was about 2-3 inches of snow on the ground. Audrie really wanted to build a snowman but the snow wouldn't pack at all.

 She did manage to make a few snowballs though.

 Annie liked throwing snow at Jamie.

 Audrie made some snow angels.

 It is really pretty snow!

 In front of our apartment we saw these amazing four wheelers/snow plows that were cleaning off the sidewalks. We talked to the guys driving them and they said they had the most fun job ever!

 They let the girls sit on the four wheelers for a minute.

 We stayed outside for about an hour before our faces were so red that we had to go back inside.

 We fired up our Cocomotion (one of the few kitchen gadgets that we brought with us... thought it might come in handy during the cold NYC winters!). The girls loved stirring their hot chocolate with candy canes.

 Somehow Audrie managed to get her sticky candy cane all wrapped up in her hair!

A quick detangle and back to the slurping.

I'm sure in no time we'll be tired of the snow here, but today was a fun snow day in the city!