Holiday Train Ride

Last Saturday we headed downtown to ride the Holiday subway train. At the NYC Transit Museum, they maintain many old/vintage subway cars that you can see and climb aboard anytime you visit the museum. But at Christmas time, they actually bring the cars out into service to a select number of stations on a few Saturdays. (See this link for all the information if you're interested).  We were excited to check it out and it proved to be a very fun trip! We rode the regular ol' subway down to 2nd Ave (on the F/M line) and waited patiently for the Holiday train & not-so-patiently for Aunt Allie to arrive. Then we spent some time exploring the train as it sat in the station. Then the conductor yelled "All Aboard!" and so we climbed aboard. At each station the conductor and other train employees (in each car) would shout out the station we had arrived at and what the next station would be and then yelled "All Aboard!" again before closing the doors. It finally occurred to me that these old cars would not have an intercom system like we do today, or a dinging bell to warn of closing doors. It was such a fun trip "back in time" experiencing the subways as my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents did. When we got to Rockefeller Center where we intended to get off, the girls (& the adults, too, quite frankly) were insistent that we ride it a while longer. So we ended up riding all the way to Queens Village where we picked it up for the return trip to Manhattan. One thing that made it so enjoyable was that every single person on the train had a smile on their face and there was just a cheerful feeling in the air. Most people were there because they intended to be and because they love trains. The conductor and the engineer and all the employees were so nice & friendly. They left all the doors between the cars open, so there was a cool breeze blowing through and you could see all the way down the train. We changed cars a lot, as each car was a different model & had its own charm. The ride was loud & bumpy. But it was awesome. This will definitely be a Christmastime tradition for us as long as we live in/near the city.

No air conditioning in these cars! Just some ceiling fans & open windows.

Here are the approximate arrival times of the train in each station. This schedule is for A train.

Such a bumpy ride! Can't hold the camera steady!

LOVE the vintage advertisements for everything from the city destinations to national products to war bonds to who will be Miss Subways?!

The conductor used to stand between the cars! Nowadays the conductor can be found inside a designated compartment in one of the center cars of the train. In these older subway cars, the doors were operated by levers on the outside of the cars at about the shoulder height of this conductor.

ETA: I received an email from my grandmother reminiscing about riding the subway years ago in NY. I loved what she said so much, I had to include it here: "I remember riding in all of those kinds of subway cars.....different style seat coverings, handle grips, advertisements.......the whole nine yards.  I can still remember how it felt to be standing, hanging on a strap, in summer with the perspiration dripping down inside my clothing and on my forehead with only fans and slightly opened windows to create a breeze.  New Yorkers are really a breed apart."

Fall Decor

I'm not really a big home decorator, mostly because I don't really have the budget for it or the space to store out-of-season decor. But we've been trying to have seasonal decorations on our door (that we make and can throw away afterwards) & our one windowsill space in the living room. Here's a glimpse of our fall/harvest decor.

We made this corn wreath by "painting" with bubble wrap.

And here are the leaves we collected at the zoo & on a walk home from church. We stuck them to the window with contact paper- they were so beautiful with the light behind them.  The candles were a purchase from the beeswax/honey vendor at the local farmer's market displayed in the Tiffany candlesticks we got for our wedding and the mini gourds were leftovers from Halloween.

I didn't take a single picture of our Thanksgiving trip.  But it was so wonderful!  We went to Western NY to be with my family on Seneca Lake.  The girls had a wonderful time at Nanny & Pop-pop's house.  We ate and ate and ate some more. All day. Every day.  Matt& Allie ventured to Wal-Mart on Thanksgiving night. We shopped at JoAnn Fabric on Black Friday (good thing I had a team of people with me working all the lines! I saved over $100 on my purchases).  The girls participated in the Fredricksburg Branch Primary Program bringing the total number of kids to 9.  All the kids did such a nice job making it lovely program!  We took a trip to the delightful Ithaca Farmer's Market.  And I dreamed about moving there someday.  Anyone know of an ESL teacher opening in Ithaca??

CANstruction

We recently celebrated Allie's birthday with her by eating dumplings from our favorite joint in ChinaTown and then heading over to the World Financial Center to get a look at the CANstruction exhibit. From their website: "Canstruction, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that holds annual design and build competitions to construct fantastic, giant sized, structures made entirely out of canned food. In each city after the structures are built and the winners declared the creations go on view to the general public as giant art exhibits. At the close of the competitions all of the food used in the structures is donated to the local food banks for distribution to community emergency feeding programs."

There were some super creative entries!  Prepare for a photo overload.  I was going to only take photos of my favorites, but they were all so amazing!

We also got a glimpse of the new Freedom Tour being built at Ground Zero. We did not get to see the WTC memorial, so we'll have to go back another day just for that...

Fall Arrived

Although this photo makes it look like spring, this was taken on November 3rd in Central Park. The weather has been really mild, except for a fluke snowstorm on October 28th when we got 6 inches or so (I think).

A couple of Saturdays ago we went and saw Hansel & Gretl at a local children's theater. It was a fun show where the kids got to sit right up front next to the stage in tiny little kid chairs and were asked to participate and even get up on stage and dance a couple of times. Photos came out super blurry which was a little bit of a bummer.

And more fall photos! The leaves are largely gone now, but the weather remains quite mild- forecast says a high of 60 degrees today, December 4th.

Ella is in this last photo- can you spot her?

And the winner is....

Each month, the zoo sends out a member newsletter and includes a scavenger hunt with several questions. When you follow the hunt, you can find out the answer to the questions and then email them to member services. All the people who answer correctly are entered into a drawing for a stuffed animal from the zoo store. For the June/July hunt, Matt's name was drawn and we won a plush tiger with baby. For the September/October hunt, Ella's name was drawn! And she won a plush tarantula. She absolutely loves it and has hardly put it down since it arrived in the mail.

A Comparison

There is a contingent of people that always wonder who the baby looks like. Matt's response is usually, "the baby looks like herself/himself." I have no idea who our kids look like, but I do think they look similar to each other, in the baby stage anyway. But I'll let you decide, dear reader. Here they all are at 4 months.

ALEXIS

ELLA

CALEB

First Carousel Ride

We went to the zoo last week and Caleb took his first ride on a carousel.  In the Dung Beetle seat.

The Elephant In The Park

While in midtown the other day we came across this elephant statue in Columbus Circle.

4 Months

Caleb is 4 months old. Where has the time gone? With each child the time seems to pass faster and faster. At 4 months Caleb weighs in at 16 pounds 13 ounces.  He is in the 80th percentile for weight, height and head size.  He looks more like a 6 month old.  He is starting to roll over a little, but only about half way.  He's not quite sure what to do with his arm in order to get all the way over.  He brings his hands together in front of him and is starting to reach out to grab things.  His grip is so strong and he's pulled out lots of my hair because I can't get it out of his little fist.  He is smiling and laughing daily and starting to babble.  He has 2 little bottom teeth! They appeared on November 8th.  He is a sweet little guy who is very agreeable and goes along with pretty much anything we have to do or place we have to go. He was sleeping 8 to 9 hours a night, but then he got a terrible cold and could barely breathe, so his sleep was disrupted.  Add to that his teething and he's currently waking at least twice a night again, sometimes up to 5 times.  This too shall pass, right? 

We recently had our family pictures taken.  I'm still anxiously awaiting the proofs, but our friend/photographer sent me this little preview. I love these 3 little people so much!

Halloween 2011

A couple of years ago, Alexis coined the phrase "the candiest day of the year" when referring to Halloween.  This year, Ella said it was the "best day ever."  And a few days after, Ella was sitting on the ground sorting her candy when she said out of nowhere "Sometimes life is not so hard. Cuz of the candy."  Amen, sistah!

This year Alexis dressed up as Laura Ingalls Wilder (we've been reading her books and watching some Little House on the Prairie), Ella was a princess (Belle from Beauty and the Beast), and Caleb was an adorable little lion. We met up with friends and trick-or-treated our way through some neighborhood businesses to meet up with more friends for more trick-or-treating.

We ran into some people who loved our costumes and wanted to take a photo together.  The father (off to the right) was shocked to find out Lexi was only in 2nd grade and knew who Laura Ingalls was. That's my girl! (I've loved LHotP since I was at least 7, if not younger than that).

Here are the kids at a local Chinese restaurant getting their fortune cookies!  We also stopped in a Dunkin' Donuts and got free donut holes.  Other businesses had all sorts of great candy.

After hitting the local businesses, we visited a few apartment buildings where we have friends.  Tenants who were welcoming trick-or-treaters had a paper pumpkin on their door so we knew which doors to knock on.

Then we'd all cram in the elevator and go to the next floor.

What a great night!  The kids made out like bandits.

And a little video of Ella's excitement.  While we were waiting for our friends to catch up (Ella was a super fast trick-or-treater trying to get as much candy as fast as she could), she was standing on the sidewalk looking around and spontaneously yelled, "Best! Day! Ever!"  I tried to get her to recreate it in this video, although it's not exactly the same.