this is happening

 Oh my goodness, so much is happening right now but I wanted to at least get on here one last time before the big move and give you an update!

Last week, on Tuesday, Jamie left with the girls and flew to Arkansas. He had to finish up some last minute stuff with our house, jobs, pre-school, etc. Jamie's mom took Audrie and Annie to her house and Jamie flew back to NYC on Friday. Let me just say, I can barely even type that sentence because I AM MISSING MY BABY GIRLS SO BAD!! Lots of tears. Lots.

Ok, in the middle of the crying over my babies, I did enjoy my "single" life for a few days. I took lots of yoga classes, ate whatever I wanted (which usually means sitting on the couch with a spoon and half a watermelon watching reruns of Project Runway), I went shopping, and of course packed.

The packing has been going great actually. It hasn't been very stressful. We've been working on it for about two weeks here and there. Since the girls left we've been able to use their room as the holding room for everything to load on the Uhaul.

Jamie came back late Friday night (well, actually 2:30 in the morning on Saturday in a private car with professional golfer, Cristie Kerr, but that's a story you'll have to ask him about). Then Jamie and I enjoyed a wonderful weekend of "vacationing" in NYC together!

 We made dinner reservations, ate long meals at restaurants we've been wanting to try, went shopping on 5th Avenue, stopped by the Brooklyn Flea Market, rode bikes in Central Park, took a nap on a blanket in the Sheep's Meadow, went to the theater, and even slept til 11am on Sunday! Such the life.

Just when I start to think I'm going to hop the next flight to Arkansas to go hug my babies, because I'm sure they are missing me SO MUCH.... I get pictures from Jamie's family of the girls so obviously miserable at Grandma's house...

So the next few days we will be finishing up loose ends here in the city and saying our final goodbyes to the friends we've made. Saturday morning we have movers helping us load the Uhaul and then Jamie and I drive outta this city for a two day road trip headed to Northwest Arkansas. We get into town late Sunday night if anyone wants to leave their porch light on for us. :)

a few things going on

Dinner with friends!

Row boats in Central Park!

Beautiful boat ride.

Added "row boats" to our list of favorite things to do in NYC.

Walked in the living room to find Annie stretched out in front of the A/C watching cartoons. It's a hard-knock life for this girl?!

Audrie cruising the hood with her friend, Katie.

Audrie's homework last week. (I am loving this whole "Yay, I CAN read" process that Audrie is going through. It's SO FUN!)

Cirque-de-Scooter?

Sweet girlies in the park by our apartment.

Audrie helping me pack. (The girls thought the walls were getting too bare so they colored pictures to tape up.)

Annie had an adorable "graduation" from her school, Wiggles and Giggles. She had such a GREAT year and loved us all celebrating her.

Annie striking a pose before we left for her graduation (in a new outfit, of course)!

Posing for a smile before Annie's graduation.

Audrie's ballet dress rehearsal. Miss Sheila giving them last minute reminders before they went on stage.

Teaching Annie to throw a Frisbee.

Audrie was a quick learner with the Frisbee and played for the longest time.

Annie rocking a cute dress that Samanthe sewed!

Me and Audrie getting a snuggle in at our last family picnic in Central Park.

The Burrows joined us for the picnic.

Tickle!!

More Frisbee!

Audrie and Miss Sheila backstage before the recital.

Me and Audrie as I dropped her off in their dressing room before the performance. Time for the big dance! We were so excited to see her on stage!

Jamie got the beautiful dancer some post-show flowers. She did GREAT! I can't wait to show you the video. Jamie and I both cried when she started dancing. Our sweet girl!

A princess in the subway?

Annie is too cool for school! I love how she is such a GIRL in her pink shade and dresses that she insists on wearing, but still zooming around everyone on her scooter like a little tomboy!

Audrie and Annie had one last playdate in the park before leaving NYC. We will miss our friends we have made here!

My mom sent me a cute cupcake of flowers to my school for my birthday.

 

 

 

Then I got home from work and Jamie got me my favorite things... daisies and watermelon (that he carried 5 blocks from the store)! That's true love.

for jamie

Happy Father's Day, Jamie!

countdown

 Life is such a roller coaster right now! We are counting down the days until our big move while still trying to enjoy the last weeks of our life in NYC.

We have started packing, so that's exciting and bittersweet.

Here are a few random photos of what else has been going on these days... (these pictures are all out of order from over the past month):

Jamie dropped the girls off with me for a few hours one afternoon and I let them run my classes... my students loved it.

We took a trip to Roosevelt Island on Memorial Day and had a picnic with friends.

Audrie and two of her best friends from our neighborhood, Carina and Charlie.

Jamie and Annie on the ferry to Roosevelt Island.

Lady Liberty waving at us from afar.

Our friend Boris teaching Audrie to play baseball.

Our friend Claudia soaking up the sun on Roosevelt Island.

Jamie napping in the sun.

The kids found a Bouncy House on Roosevelt Island.

Picnicking on Roosevelt Island.

Ok- so random- Jamie put his name in a school fundraiser raffle while we were on Roosevelt Island and he ACTUALLY won the grand prize- an electric guitar signed by the band Phish...! The funniest thing was that he had to carry it around all day and on the subway home.

The had bands performing on the island, but once the shows were over the kiddos got up and put on their own dance show.

Getting ready to get back on the ferry back to Manhattan.

Jamie and I.

View of lower Manhattan from the ferry.

Friends, Cash and Charlie.

I'll have to blog more about this later, but Audrie is reading sentences now and IT IS SO FUN to watch her go through this process!! This screen shot is a few sentences I was making up for her on the subway home one night from a late dinner last month. This week she has started reading short books and I just love watching the "reading lightbulb" come on for her as she sounds out each story.

Picnic in Central Park with a group of teachers from my school.

Love this photo of Annie and Jamie!

Audrie made a friend at the park- played with this girl for the longest time.

Then I actually lost track of Audrie for a minute but thankfully found her in the trees. She told me she was "in the forest finding beautiful things for her collection".

I'm pretty sure Audrie was a mermaid in her former life...!

Ok, this is great. The other day the girls told me that wanted to eat breakfast in their carseats, because they had thought of this "grand creative idea" of pretending to eat in a car... I just laughed because they think that is such a silly idea, when they will probably be doing that a lot soon!

Sweet photo of the girls zooming off in the sunset on their scooters and Annie was calling out "wait for ME, Audrie!".

Jamie selling lamps at the Chelsea street fair. He has still been doing really great with this side business! So proud of him.

The girls modeling their matching handkerchief dresses.

Audrie displaying her face paint which she politely bossed the face painter into exactly how she wanted it done. ha! Probably should have made her middle name BossyPants.

Picture day at Audrie's ballet class last weekend. Her recital is next weekend.... can't wait!

I took the girls to their first yoga class (for kids).

Jamie and I had dinner at one of our favorite soul food restaurants in Harlem last week.

And I finally got FRIED OKRA (so hard to find in this city!).

Apologies for this photo... but Audrie has been asking WAY too many questions lately about stuff I'm not prepared to talk about with a 5 year old, so I've been doing my research. Ugh... parenthood is weird!

Took a few of my students on a field trip to Yankee Stadium for a baseball game. Fun! Only 15 more days of teaching in NYC. What a story I have...

Ok, just wanted to catch you up on a few things from our past weeks. So many things coming up in the next couple weeks... Annie's "graduation", Audrie's dance recital, and us leaving this city to start our next chapter in life.

We went to a concert this weekend where our friend Jason was performing with the Broadway Inspirational Voices. One of the many amazing songs they sang was called "Expect the Great"- about why not trust God to work it out in your life? Stop worrying and expect great things to happen.

So I wrote that on our chalkboard in our hallway as our motto for this transition in our life...