NYC - Part II

Ellis Island:
You can't go to the Statue of Liberty without going to Ellis Island (You already paid for the ferry ride). By this time in the trip, we were exhausted by long lines and huge crowds, but the kids were still fascinated by small models of old villages while Aukai and I gawked at 100 year-old portraits of immigrants.

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FAO Shwartz:

OK, so there are two awesome toy stores in New York, and while Toys

'R Us does tote a ferris wheel (yes, inside the store), you can't beat the charm of FAO Schwartz (now also owned by Toys 'R Us). It has some of that local toy store feel . . . wrapped into a 2-story, gigantic floor plan.

You know it is our kids because they are crossing the red tape to poke each other with the dragon's tale.

Our favorite part was this giant piano from the movie "Big."

When we got to Batman action figures, Ashton said "Mommy, this is Batman." Then pointing to the Joker he said, ". . . and this guy is Batman's mommy." I'm not sure how I feel about that.

NYC - Part I

So after living in Rochester for 3 1/2 years, we finally made it to 'the city' for a dear friend's wedding. We had a blast, both at the wedding and during the following days as tourists.

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The Wedding:

Unfortunately my pics of Anna's wedding didn't turn out (poor camara, low light . . . it happens). Just imagine bouquets in subtle lab glassware, elegant draperies, and killer dance music in a refurbished warehouse. Oh, and Isaac spending half the time dancing with Anna's niece (adorable).

For more info on Anna's Wedding, check out her blogspot: http://doctorwhimsy.blogspot.com/

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The Statue:

The kids were fascinated by the Statue of Liberty . . . and with all the tourist antics. On the way back Ashton saw a guy dressed up as Spider Man . This was his story about it:
"Umm . . . some aliens came down to Earth, and then they saw Spider Man and they said "What the Heck" and then they got in their ship and ran away."

Smart Aliens.

Atlanta

How do you have fun flying to another city to take an exam? Take your husband and go to the world's largest aquarium the day before.

P.S. Thank you to the Scoresbys and Yermans for watching our boys!!!

My Little Monsters

Aukai and I just started some sort of creative activity each morning with the boys. This morning they wanted their faces painted as a dinosaur and "dark blue monster." (With Ashton, everything has to be "dark blue.") Isaac and Ashton spent about 5 minutes scaring themselves as they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws. They then went to show off to their sweet friend next door who quite decidedly did NOT want to be painted like a monster.

She's done it again

Zion made this whimsical 8-layer birthday cake for an eight year old girl. Her parents were out of town getting medical treatment for her brother, so Zion wanted to bring her an extra-special surprise. The flavor is white cake with raspberry syrup and milk chocolate truffle. Each layer of cake is a different color inside.
Zion had lots of helpers. Two friends came in the morning to learn how to make cakes. I came in the afternoon to help with the best part: rolling fondant and decorating the cake. Thanks Zion!

 

Peach Picking

Last week, Aukai went on a 50 mile bike ride with the scouts, leaving the boys and I home alone. What's a girl to do? Grab her two wonderful neighbors and go peach picking, of course. We had a blast, and the boys LOVED having their friends along. Unfortunately, my camara died after only a few of pics, but here are some that turned out well:

 

 

 

 

Classic Isaac

Grandma gave Isaac a compendium on insects, affectionately known in our house as "the bug book." Isaac LOVES the bug book. He poors over it and stays up at night looking at the pictures.
Isaac now knows more about bugs than I do. He loves repeating, in his best super-hero voice, phrases like "Mom, this bug is the Master of Disguise!" or "This spider is an eight-legged shredding machine." Move over batman . . . it's pretty hard to top that.
A few days ago, Aukai was eating lunch with the kids when Isaac ran to the screen door and yelled something to our neighbors. Yesterday, we found out why.
After a grasshopper narrowly escaped the up-close-and-personal inspection of our little friends, their mommy explained that the grasshopper "flew away." This launched a heated debate about whether grasshoppers jump or fly. Suddenly Isaac swung open the screen door, mouth full of PB&J, and yelled, "Actually, some grasshoppers can fly!" He shut the door and ran back to finish his sandwich. That's Isaac for you . . . ridding the world of injustice and, umm, misconceptions about bugs.
As Annie said: "It was just classic Isaac."