Central Park Zoo with Sheridan

The next day we went to the Central Park Zoo.  Here are a couple of shots of my life in NYC- this is how I travel... no car, just a stroller and scooters for the girls & the subway.

 

Ella likes to convince adults to do kid things- like run around the sea lion pool over and over.  You're such a good sport, Amanda!

 I'm pretty confident that this a shot of the ever elusive sloth.  He is usually hiding and I have had the luck of seeing him once before.  This shot is of the roof of the indoor tropical exhibit at the Central Park Zoo and it is very far from where we were standing on the floor... really hard to tell if it was indeed the sloth, but I can't imagine what else it would have been hanging upside down.

The snow leopard was having a hard day.  She was pacing a lot and making all sorts of noises.  One of the docents told us that her boyfriend was on the other side of the fence and she was frustrated that they couldn't be together.  You see, they're hoping to have a snow leopard cub and these two big cats have been feeling quite amorous lately.

 

Ella and Alexis both have a flattened penny collection so Ella was sure to get another one during our visit. 

Beautiful Central Park.  Even on a drizzly day in March.

Chelsea Market

At the end of March, our good friend Sheridan came to visit NYC.  She lives in Utah now, and can you believe she WON a trip to NYC.  So I spent a couple of days downtown with her and Amanda (her guest, and another of our friends).  We started with a trip to Chelsea Market- a great destination for a rainy day.

We browsed in this cookie shop because the cookies were so adorable!

 

The owner thought Ella was so sweet, so he gave her a cookie.  So nice!!!

Then we stopped to watch the bread baking at Amy's Bread.  These guys have some skillz the way they throw that dough around and remove it from the oven with a huge long wooden paddle- scooping it out several loaves at a time and sliding them onto these metal racks without losing a baguette out the other side.  Amazing.

We got some lunch-- Thai noodles for me and soup&salad for Sheridan.  Then she let Ella take some photos....

Then we stopped at Posman Books which is a charming little book store.  We hung out in the kids section for awhile reading books and letting Caleb get some time out of the stroller.

 

 We had to have something sweet, of course, so we opted for some crepes.  I got a sugar&lemon crepe and Sheridan and Amanda opted for Nutella crepes.  Yum!

And finally, I let Ella toss a whole roll of pennies in the waterfall/well feature.  Good times.

Great Wolf Lodge

During our mid-winter recess in February, we spent a day with our good friends, the Horeys, at Great Wolf Lodge- an indoor water park and hotel nearby in Pennsylvania. The minute we walked through the doors, Alexis was ready to jump in the pool.  Her swimming skills have really blossomed over the past two years or so.  I didn't get too many photos because our camera was in the locker most of the time, but there are a few to share.

Caleb was an incredible trooper.  He is such a good sport and game for just about anything.  His favorite was the wave pool where he could sit in the shallow end and feel the waves lap at him- it was also shallow enough for him to crawl around a little and splash.

Here are the dads and kids in the pool near our home base chair setup.

Ella had a great time on the water slides.  She was so brave and did some of the "scarier" rides- water slides through the dark and also the one that is like a drain- you spin around and around and around a basin until you drop down through the drain at the bottom into the lazy river.  I got to go on several with her in these double tubes.  And some she did by herself.  Alexis liked some of the rides, but preferred to stay in the swimming pools, wave pool & lazy river.

Caleb had just started crawling and was so happy to find some puddles near our chairs to splash in.

After playing all day long we rounded up the kids and headed to Friendly's for some dinner.  The kids were so happy, which was good because in typical Friendly's fashion the service was SO. SLOW.

And then sleep hit them HARD on the way back home.  It was an awesome day and they still ask when we'll be able to go back.

Lexi's Math Competition

Back in February, Alexis was chosen, along with 2 others, to represent her class in a 2nd grade math competition.  All the classes in the school participated- about 9, I think.  They sat up on the stage and the teachers put a question up on the overhead projector.  All the kids had to figure it out and then the person sitting in the middle of each group was the official answer for the group. 

Ella had some fun taking a few pictures while we waited through the questions.

And then, would you believe, Alexis & her classmates WON the competition.  They were so excited.  And the cheers from her class in the audience were deafening.

Here she is with one of her best friends, Alexi.  Isn't that a hoot?  Alexis and Alexi!

Rockland Bakery

In February I had the chance to go visit Rockland Bakery (in Rockland County) for the first time.  Have you been?  It's wonderful!  You can go right into the production area.... you grab a paper bag & some plastic gloves and then you go in and choose what breads you'd like to purchase.

Here are some donuts coming out.

All the bread is just sitting on racks and you can browse and choose at your leisure.

It was a girls morning out to celebrate Lynn's birthday- pedicures & brunch (that's why we're all in flip flops in February).

Then you can go into the store section where they will slice your bread for you if you'd like and also choose from among all the sweet delicacies.  All of their products are wonderful!!

For Matt's birthday this year the girls made him another candy-gram letter.  Ella and I bought all the candy and then Alexis and I wrote the words.  Goofy, I know, but we have fun.  When Matt unrolled it, Ella kept asking when we would get to eat all the candy... and when we told her it was Daddy's candy for his birthday she asked, "Can we do the EXACT SAME THING for my birthday?!"  I think she asked that question two more times over the next couple of days.

And then I made a lemon cheesecake with lemon curd.  From scratch.  It's super labor intensive, in case you were wondering.  More so than I remembered.  But it was delicious!

Happy Birthday, Matt!  We're so glad you were born.

Caleb's Tricks

Here are a few tricks Caleb has been working on.

Blowing Raspberries

Laughing- he is usually most laughy in the evening hours and sometimes his sisters can really get him going.

Knocking down the block towers we build (and laughing hysterically).  We would tell him to "wait" while we built it, which made him laugh so much.  Then he'd knock it down and would howl with laughter when we said "Boom!".  I have never seen him laugh so hard.  It was infectious!  We were all laughing and having a great time.

Crawling!  He's crawling faster and faster every day and has a little "run" crawl when he wants to get somewhere extra fast.  I can't believe a little person can move their arms and legs so quickly.

We are really enjoying this little man!!  He is a happy addition to our family.

Caleb & Ella

Here is a little video of Caleb learning early how many girls like it when boys play with their hair.....from January.

Caleb reaches 6 months

Caleb was 6 months old in January.  So hard to believe how fast the time has gone!  He was 18 pounds 2 ounces and 27 inches tall.  He was still not interested in solid foods at all- in fact would close his lips tight and turn his head when he saw the spoon coming toward him.  He was not sleeping more than 4 hours in a row at night and sometimes would even wake every 2 hours.  He started moving this month- army crawling and getting up on his knees and rocking a lot.  He was able to mostly control his torso enough to sit quite steadily.  He cut 2 teeth on top for a total of 4 teeth.  During the day he is a most agreeable and happy baby.  His smile is absolutely adorable.  He is wonderful and we love him!  (and I love this photo of him and Aunt Allie because he does that little grin a lot---and I think she looks beautiful). 

My father gave him this adorable stuffed dog for Christmas and this was his honest reaction to it.  He was so happy about it!  So cute!