A Decade

 

1 Love

2 kids

3 college degrees

4 surgeries

5 years without a car

6 jobs

7 trips to California

8 apartments

9 callings (in the LDS church)

10 years of marriage

Santa Cruise

This year the Circle Line was having a special cruise with Santa. 2 hours on a boat that travels around the lower tip of Manhattan, giving you amazing views of the city, the Statue of Liberty and many bridges from the Hudson & East rivers. Admission was minimal plus a donation to Toys4Tots. We met some Marines, ate cookies and milk, got to sit on Santa's lap, and enjoyed the cruise. The boat had a lot of indoor space, and we chose to sit on the upper level where we could go outside occassionally.  The weather was actually really great- in the upper 40s and clear- so it was a really enjoyable afternoon.

We finished the afternoon walking around Manhattan a bit.  We saw this sign, which I love:

And during our walk we passed the Chelsea Garden Center where you could buy this tree:

for the one-time low price of $200!

We walked through Times Square and then headed up to one of our favorite pizza places, Mariella's, which has been featured on Oprah.  I have to say (and I think I've said this before) that we knew about it before she and Gayle did.  And we agree that it is some delicious pizza!

Thanksgiving

(Forever catching up on the blog)
This year we stayed in NYC for Thanksgiving.  So I figured it was a good time to take the girls to the parade, which I haven't seen live since I was a little girl.  Matt stayed home (he doesn't care much for parades), but Laura was in town and came with us and we also met up with Jess&Noah.  We arrived at 8:40 AM, 20 minutes before the start time, and found a spot right up against a barricade where the kids could see a lot of the action.  We were actually stationed just north of the starting line, so we only saw the floats & balloons that were lined up waiting to join the parade, but the kids were tickled pink (except for Lexi who was quickly complaining about being cold because she wouldn't take my advice at home while getting dressed to go) and we saw many awesome balloons pass right in front of us.  Including a small incident between the Energizer bunny and a Smurf- for some reason, the Bunny needed to pass the Smurf in line and they got slightly tangled up together leaving the whole crowd anxious... many cheers erupted when the Bunny successfully passed the Smurf and then joined the parade on Central Park West.








(Laura and I get emotional at parades.  They are so wonderful!)






We also got a glimpse of Jessica Simpson (she stumbled on her float when it suddenly lurched forward), and Joan & Melissa Rivers. And some Disney star we were unaware of, but all the tweens surrounding us were excited about. And of course, Santa Claus, ushering in the Holiday Season.


Dinner later that day was hosted by my mother- all my siblings were there, which was wonderful! And we also celebrated Allie's birthday one more time.






And earlier in the week, Ella's preschool class had a Thanksgiving feast which I was able to attend...

Allie's Birthday

We spent Allie's birthday roaming around ChinaTown and SoHo. Starting with a little playtime at a big park and food from a favorite dumpling house.  Then the girls "helped" Allie open some gifts.


Then we attempted to see Clifford the Big Red Dog at the Scholastic Store, but that was sort of a bust. We ended up just perusing some books.


And finally a stop at Sephora to get Allie a gift. Ella was interested in the open pots of makeup and smeared her face with various colors of foundation & eye shadow. An employee saw her and offered to give her a little method to her madness:

Weekend Away

Last weekend we took a little trip to CT to spend some time away from the city with friends.  We stayed in a hotel, jumped on the beds, went swimming, visited Dinosaur State Park, ate, went swimming again, talked and talked and talked.  Good times! (and not a single photo of all of us... how did that happen?!)

Monkey Business

This was my most recent project... packaged and delivered to baby Elliott.

Car Cover

While down in SoHo last week, we walked past this car.  This brings knitting to a whole new level, if you ask me. Yes, that cover is knit. Or crocheted.  In any case, it's yarn. 

Halloween

I don't have many pictures from Halloween this year, sadly.  We started the week by attending a party in SoHo hosted by MommyPoppins and held at the Blurb pop-up store.  It was wonderful!  They had professional photographers Stomping Ground Photography, cake pops, yummy food, a soap craft hosted by MADE, and storytime hosted by Scholastic (we missed that, sadly).  We only took a couple of photos outside the store, and I don't particularly care for the angle.  Alexis was Princess Leia and Ella was Cinderella.  Alexis got lots of comments walking down the street and on the subway.  I think she was a little self-conscious about it.  She kept saying, "Why are they talking to me? Why did they say that?" when people called out to Princess Leia.  Here are the photos from Stomping Ground Photography.  They did an awesome job! (FYI, they do school pictures, mostly.  Wouldn't it be amazing to have these as your kids' class photographers?!)




our family outside the Blurb store.


working on their soaps:


Last week, I was called to the activities committee in our ward and had about 2 weeks to plan a Halloween party.  It turned out pretty well, I think, and the other 2 ladies on the committee were so supportive and wonderful and did so much work, too.  (That's right, only 3 of us to pull off an activity with 2 weeks of planning).  The kids had a great time, which is the most important thing, and they all got to trick-or-treat around the church.  We had carnival games, and food and music and a costume parade and lots of fun.  Good times!  Ella chose to go as the Little Mermaid (aka Ariel) for this party.... but again, I'm not sure I have any photos.  I was too busy running around trying to get things done.



Oh! And we carved some pumpkins, too.  The girls drew the faces on and the parents carved.








Happy Halloween!