NYC: Day Two

Waking up in the city is nothing short of amazing.

The city is never quite even when you are 23 stories in the sky.

We woke bright and early on our second day in the city.

There is a Dunkin' Donuts one block up from our hotel on West 48th.

My mom walked down (in her PJs and a coat) and got coffee for us and hot chocolates for the girls.

I had decided against breakfast at The Plaza Hotel before we went to the city.

The reviews online said it was overpriced and there was really no "Eloise experience".

Wrong but I will get to that.

Luckily, we decided to go for breakfast anyway.

We quickly called and made a reservation.  By some magical chance, there was a reservation available.

We quickly dressed, hailed our first cab and we were on the way.

Big and Bug were not in love with cab rides.  We had not prepared them for the crazy driving and the nastiness that comes along with cab rides i.e. their cab driver opened his door at an intersection and hocked and loogie on the street.  *gag*

Fifth Avenue is a whole new world.

Everything is shiny and beautiful and grand and perfect.

We arrived in front of the hotel and I immediately got butterflies.  I am at The Plaza Hotel.  The freaking PLAZA HOTEL!!

We spoke to the doorman who I fell in love with.  He was the epitome of a Plaza doorman.

I walked in and silently gasped at the grandness of it all.  It was beautiful.

This is the floor when you first walk in

Despite all of the beauty, I kept thinking about that doorman.

I needed a picture of my girls with him.  He was perfect and I loved him and I wanted my girls to take their picture with him.

We trudged back outside in the cold.  He happily obliged to a picture.

Be still my heart!!  Look at all of the preciousness.  I mean he even has on a FUR HAT!!

We went back in and looked around.  The Palm Court was beautiful and I was overwhelmed by the fact that we were going to be eating there in just a few short minutes.

We walked around the hotel.  We were on a mission to find the Eloise painting.  We spotted it and  had pictures with it.  {Hint: it is in the hallway to the left of The Palm Court} Next, we had to find the Eloise Boutique.  We made our way downstairs.  We stopped along the way to admire the beautiful sweets.

Breakfast was delicious!  The girls got their very own PINK Eloise Breakfast menu.  Here it is in PDF format.

Bug had the Central Park Pancakes with warm syrup.  YUM!

Big had the Perfect Parfait.  It was not her favorite.  The yogurt was not flavored and she was not a fan of plain yogurt.

Here is the adult breakfast menu.

I had the choice of 3 fresh baked pastries.  OMG!  I chose the seasonal scones,  pain au chocolat & cheese danish.  SO DELICIOUS!!

Mom had cold cereal with skim milk.

Marion {mom's BFF that went with us} had the Homemade Bircher Muesli and her daughter had the adult entree of buttermilk pancakes.

The $12 glass of orange juice {which we did NOT realize cost $12} was amazing.  Like, the best orange juice I have EVER tasted.  6 glasses and $72 later, we still wanted more.  Good thing we stopped ourselves.

After stuffing our faces with the most delicious food, we headed back downstair to shop at the Eloise Boutique.

Eloise is a fictional character who lives in the "room on the tippy-top floor" of the Plaza Hotel in New York City with her Nanny, her pug dog Weenie, and her turtle Skipperdee.

She has always been one of our favorite characters.  Her books & movies are great!

The girls picked out gifts, wrote Eloise a letter and even sat on the plush couch and watched a little bit of the Eloise movie.

This is a DEFINITE if you go to the city with girls. They will love every second of it.

If you don't want to do the grand experience of The Palm Court breakfast, you can always just eat downstairs at The Plaza Food Hall.  It will not disappoint.  Promise.

After The Plaza, we headed across the street to FAO Schwarz.

We took pictures with the soldier that holds the door.  He even suggested that the girls do two poses.  Super nice guy that really loved his job.

Sadly, FAO Schwarz in Manhattan will be closing its doors in July.  So, if you want to jump on the big piano like Tom Hanks or you want to meet the soldier standing gaurd at the door, you better go now.

What else did we do?

Well, the upper east side holds a 3 story candy store known as Dylan's Candy Bar.

Dylan Lauren {yes, Ralph's daughter} opened this flagship store in 2001.

You name a candy, I promise you will find it here.

AND everything is made of candy.  Not.even.kidding.  The STAIRS are even made of candy!

Dylan's portrait made of candy

After our sweet visit, we had to make our way back to midtown.

We had tickets to see Matilda.

We hailed a cab because walking from the upper east side to Times Square is a haul.

When we got back to the hotel, the girls were hungry.  We found a little tiny pizza joint {standing room only} and got them their very first slice of New York pizza.  AND we found Dr. Pepper for them.  {They had been craving Dr. Pepper since we left the South}.

Matilda was wonderful!!!  It was a great show for kids and my girls LOVED it.

We went to Restaurant Row to find somewhere to have dinner.  Restaurant Row is on West 46th Street between 8th & 9th avenues.  It is conveniently located to all of the theaters so it was a perfect time to head down there.  Restaurant Row is a street packed with some of New York's best restaurants.

We decided on Da Rosina... a cute little Italian place.

I had Farfalle Cacciatora.  It was a bowtie pasta with onions, peppers, mushrooms & chicken in tomato sauce.  The girls had Tortellini alla Panna-- a homemade tortellini filled with ricotta cheese in a cream sauce.

After dinner, we were all exhausted.

We walked back to the hotel and tucked ourselves in our warm, cozy beds as the rest of New York buzzed away 23 stories below us.

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UP NEXT: Day Three

Downtown

NYC

As I threw together a book for my mom for her 50th birthday, I decided to share our NYC trip with the "dot com".

New York City is one of my favorite places in the whole world!!

Traveling with children in New York City is pretty awesome too!

So here is our short 4 day trip.

You can spend 4 years in NYC and never see everything you want to see.

It is packed full of the most amazing shops, shows, restaurants, fashion... it's just amazing.

Day One

Day Two

Day Three {will post 6/11/15}

Day Four {will post 6/12/15}

NYC: Day One

Mom & Dad decided to give the girls an experience this Christmas instead of buying tons of toys that they really do not need (and that we do not have room for).

I was excited!

We had talked about Disney (again!) and it was too stressful for me to plan (again!).  How do you people go to Disney with no stress?  I am curious.

So, we decided on New York.  It was the perfect trip for the girls and the grown ups.  We made this a girls trip but realized the day we left that Beau and my Dad wanted to go too.  Next time guys!!

The girls have had a running list of things they wanted to do when they went to New York one day.

Well their "one day" became a reality.

I had everything planned out and organized but not overly scheduled.

I thought it was best to divide the city up by Midtown, Upper Manhattan, and Lower Manhattan.

Here is what I had NOT prepared myself for... flying.

Flying was an experience.  I will have a post of tips for short trip flying with children.

I had only flown once before this trip and lets just say, next time I will be more prepared and more medicated.  Serious.

I sent this to Ryan when I landed.  #abouttohaveapanicattack

So here is our first day in the city.

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Day One- Midtown

We arrived at LaGuardia about 10:30ish.  Car service picked us up and took us into the city.  The views from LaGuardia into the city are beautiful.  More than likely your driver will be driving so fast and crazy that the likelihood of you getting good pictures are slim to none.  Save your time, phone memory and SD card memory.  You will have plenty of opportunities to take beautiful pictures once you are in the city.

We love searching for UPS trucks wherever we go.  We followed one into the city.

We stayed at the DoubleTree in Times Square.  It is in the perfect location for a whole city trip.  It is in the center of everything.  By "whole city" I mean, we planned on exploring different parts of the city.  When Sister and I go back, we will just be downtown (but that is a different story *wink*)

Our hotel gave us warm cookies upon our arrival.  We had a drink and our cookie before heading out on the town.  Our room was not ready until later in the afternoon but most hotels will hold your bags so that you can start sight seeing asap.  Check their policy and plan on getting into the city early so you have more time to see things.

We had lunch at Junior's Cheesecake on West 45th St. between Broadway and 8th Ave.

Whatever you do, get their Russian dressing with your sandwich.  It is amazing!!  I had the Matzoh Ball Soup and a corned beef sandwich with russian dressing.  So yummy!  The girls also got a hot chocolate here and it was amazing.  So thick and creamy.

Next we went ice skating at Rockefeller Center.

We did this forever.  It was so fun and the girls didn't want to stop.  There are lots of great shops around there too.  Even if you go when the ice skating rink is closed, you should definitely go to Rockefeller Center.  It is beautiful.

Next was American Girl.  This was a MUST on Bug's to do list.  She had her mind set that she would be buying the 2015 girl of the year at the New York store.  She did and she was so happy.



Prepare yourself... this store is HUGE!  We went to every floor.  Lots of people like to do the bistro but we skipped it because the NYC store can get crazy.  Honestly, I had other eating planned that I knew the girls would love so much more than the American Girl bistro.

We headed back to Times Square and dropped our bags off at the hotel.  We decided to head to the ferris wheel inside Toys R Us on Broadway at 44th St.

Be sure to see the T-Rex upstairs.  Super cool!  He looks so real.

This is where I need to warn you... BEWARE OF THE CHARACTERS IN TIMES SQUARE!!!  THEY WILL ATTACK YOU!!!  IF YOU TAKE THEIR PICTURE WITH THE KIDS, HAVE CASH READY.  THEY WILL SAY "MONEY. MONEY. MONEY." OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN.  NIGHTMARE!  Get those dollar bills ready to shell out.

By this point, I was exhausted.  Oh, AND I needed an adult beverage from the plane ride hours earlier.  We decided to do dinner at Guy's American Kitchen & Bar at 220 West 44th Street between 7th and 8th Ave.

This is Guy Fieri's restaurant and it was so wonderful!

The Vegas Fries are amazing and I also had the Bacon Mac & Cheese Burger.  OMG!  So good!!  Just typing it makes my mouth water.  I also had a few PBRs.  PTL!

Dessert was a few doors down from Guy's.  Ben & Jerry's at 200 West 44th Street.

Ben & Jerry's is always yummy!!  ;-)

That ended our first day.

A few notes.  We walked everywhere.  We only took taxis a few times.  We used the subway to get downtown and to go a few destinations downtown (day 3).  You miss so much when you ride everywhere.  So, prepare your kids for the walking.  I had talked to the girls about the walking and the cold.  They did not complain one time.  They absolutely loved the city!  I feel like letting them know what to expect helped a lot.

Also, be sure to walk through the Diamond District.  It is so very pretty.  Lots of BEAUTIFUL diamonds EVERYWHERE!!  We were so lucky that 47th Street was the cross street that our hotel was on.  We were able to walk through the Diamond District a few times and it was overwhelmingly beautiful each time.

UP NEXT... The posh uptown and a Broadway musical.

Sentence starters.

I am exhausted.  Traveling to and from the beach for less than 24 hours is... a lot.
I wonder what we can do this summer that will be super fun and different.
I hear my husband pounding away on the desktop keyboard.
I see my dashboard FULL of drafts and need to be finished.
I want another glass of wine.  I am just too tired to get it.
I am not looking forward to waking up early for 2 more days of school.

I pretend to be the best at everything.
I feel drained.
I touch the keyboard lightly.  Opposite of how Beau types.
I worry about dinner.  What am I going to cook?
I cry when I am angry.
I am exhausted.

I understand that the day is almost over.
I say AMEN!
I dream of a fun, relaxing summer vacation.
I try to have patience.
I hope we can go to the beach soon after the girls get out of school.
I am exhausted & excited.

That time Beau took Bug for a haircut.

We were late... like always.

We were supposed to have been at softball practice 2 minutes ago and I still have to drive the 6 minutes to the field.

Bug has a dilemma.  She doesn't know if she wants to go with me or her Daddy.

I push for her to go with her Daddy.

He was running to get a quick haircut and Bug needed a trim.

Tears.  Screams.  "I just don't know what to doooooooooo!"

"You need a trim.  Go with your Daddy."

I threw her in his truck, threw Big's bat bag in the car and we were off.

Emma called while her Daddy was getting his haircut.  "How did your haircut go?" I asked.  "Good!  I will send you a picture."

Then I get this picture in iMessage...

Is that Jim Carrey or is that... Bug?

I had a brief moment of panic.

She has... bangs.

Not the normal "long-layer-swoop-bang" we normally have.

She.has.bangs.

She looked like Lloyd freaking Christmas.

Yes... from Dumb and Dumber.

You don't believe me?

Gulp.

It's just hair, I kept telling myself.  It will grow.

We got home about the same time.

Ryan walked in.  Bug walked in.  Both very proud.

"Buggy I LOVE your hair."

I immediately had to wash it and restyle.

I was determined to make her look more like Emma and less like Lloyd.

Shew!  MUCH better!  I worked with it.  It turned out fine.

So Bug, when you need therapy and a story goes back to bangs when you were 6... blame your Daddy.

We know discuss how they look like Taylor Swift bangs.

Check it...

MUCH better than Lloyd.

I am a softball mom.

Say what?

I am a what?

Yes, I am a softball mom.

Big was asked to play on a team this softball season.

She is very athletic (she gets that from her Dad) and very competitive.  Naturally, she jumped at the opportunity.

In a few short weeks, I have almost learned the rules of the game.

I learned what a RBI is.

I learned what "choke up on the bat" means.

I know how to repair helmets, face masks, gloves.

I picked out the cutest socks for her to wear.

I cheer when it is appropriate but never too loud.

I brought snacks and mini water bottles for the team one night.

I picked out tons of Under Armor headbands for her to wear.

I know what batting order means and that Big bats 4th.

I have seen a mom spank her child on the field.

I have seen parents climb the fence in excitement.

I have watched parents lose control and cuss in front of 7 and 8 year olds.

I am slowly learning this game now that the season is almost over.

I always said my girls would NEVER play softball.  I wanted them to be dancers and cheerleaders.  I was wrong.  I had to eat my words again.

I can tell you one thing I will NEVER eat my words about... softball mom t-shirts.  Proudly displaying Big's number on my back with "BIG'S MOM" written proudly above it.  Nope.  Never.  Not going to happen.

I love you something serious Big, but softball mom t-shirts is where I draw the line.

And don't even get me started on the car stickers.

NEVER.

Happy

Scrolling through my Facebook news feed, I came across the quote "There are so many beautiful reasons to be happy."

It made to stop and really think about happiness.

Happiness.

What is it?

Happiness [hap-ee-nis] 

noun

1. the quality or state of being happy.

2. good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy.

Growing up, happiness was in the simple things.  So I asked myself the question, what simple things make me the most happy?

Here is my part of my list.  Happiness is...

* The sound of my kids getting along

* When I find a bottle of wine in my refrigerator

* Getting a new Anthropologie catalog in the mail.  It is so crisp and smells so good.  I hate to even crack it open for the first time.

* Extra sauce on a pizza

* The sound of the waves

* Finding miniature seashells

* Cold coffee

* My husband's beard

* New sheets

* Finding a ladybug

* Salt air

* Chocolate

My list of the happiness could go on forever.

I look at the life we have made in the last 9 years and I am just... happy.

Simply happy.

9-1-1 is only THREE numbers!!

Like usual, I whipped into carpool on a wing and a prayer.

I silently said 8 profanities before even making it into the actual parking lot.

I scoop up the children and rushed home like we had somewhere to be.  Rushing all of the time.

On the ride home a conversation happened...

Bug: "Mom, I need your cell phone please."

Me: "Why?"

B: "Because Ashlyn gave me her phone number and I HAVE to call her."

M: "You're 6.  When did you start acting 15?"

B: "I need your phone."

M: "Negative."

B: "I need your phoneeeee."

M: "Nope.  You can't call her right now.  She isn't even at home yet.  We just left school".

B: "GIVE ME YOUR PHONNNEEEE!!"

M: "Silently saying more profanities... What's her number????"

B: "Here.  She wrote it down for me."

M: "Umm.  Yeah.  That's not a phone number, Bug."

B: "YES IT IS!!"

M: "It needs 4 more numbers to be a phone number."

B: "You are WRONG!  9-1-1 is only THREE numbers and it works.  Ashlyn's phone number is SIX numbers.  It HAS to work."

Bug never did get up with Ashlyn.

Forgetful parenting

Beau decided to take vacation last week.

It would have been awesome if the kids had been out of school but... they're not.  So, we did a lot of back and forth from home to the beach last week.

My bad parenting skills were put to good use when I let the girls skip school Friday so we could go back down to the coast for another long weekend.

We made it to Havelock and decided to stop for dinner.

We have passed by this restaurant a million times.  Thursday night we decided to stop.  Crabby Patty's is a cute little seafood joint.

Before ordering our food, Bug gasped.  I quickly turned to see what in the world was happening.  

"THE AR PARADE IS TOMORROW!!!!!!!"

Good job, Hailey.

Awesome.

In my frenzy to get to the beach, I forgot EVERYTHING written neatly in my planner.  AR Parade included.

So, Bug missed her last Kindergarten AR parade.

Worst.parent.ever.

**Sidenote: Beau asked her if she wanted to go back home.  Of course she said no but I still felt guilty that she was missing it.

On the bright side... all parents are forgetful.  Let's just take a moment and thank the good Lord that I have never forgotten something super important... like my kids.

I was talking to a mom the other day and she told me a story of forgetting her child.

There is a 10 year difference between her two children.  She was accustomed to only having one child when child number 2 came along.

She said that her youngest was a baby.  The baby was in a stroller and the mom took her hands off of the stroller to pay for something at a register.  She paid and left only later to realize she had forgotten something important... HER CHILD!!!

See... some people forget important events like AR parades and some people forget their children.

It happens.

Summer Reading.

Spring break rolled around.

I jumped on Amazon and found a few books that I had been wanting to read.

I was all, "This is going to the best spring break ever."  "I am going to read ALL of my books."

Too bad, I barely picked up a book.

I spent the majority of the vacation watching my children wade deeper and deeper into the water.  Me & Beau would frantically wave them back.  They would ignore us.

I had flashbacks of my Mom doing the same thing to me and my sister.  We would wade out deeper and deeper.  Mom would stand up waving us back.  We would giggle, wave to her and keep swimming.

Karma is a bitch people.

Anyway, my spring break reading has now become my summer reading.

Here's what I have on my list so far:

- To Kill a Mockingbird (spring break reading)
- The Glass Castle (spring break reading)
- Dear Carolina- a girl I know from my hometown wrote this book and I can't wait to start reading it!
- Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
- An Abundance of Katherines
- Sharp Objects: A Novel
- The Adderall Diaries
- All the Light We Cannot See
- Hands Free Mama: A Guide to Putting Down the Phone, Burning the To-Do List, and Letting Go of Perfection to Grasp What Really Matters!
- We Were Liars
- If I Stay

Just curious... what is on your summer reading list??

My own little summer vacation

Preschool graduation was a few weeks ago.  That means I am officially celebrating my summer vacation.

The girls do not get out of school until June 10th so I am definitely trying to enjoy a few weeks of "my vacation".

I have a very type A personality and to be honest I could be a little OCD.

I don't nap.  I don't relax.  I am always on the go and never give myself time to breathe.

Lately, I have tried to be more laid back.  I have tried to have a little more patience.  I have tried to be more unstructured.  I have tried to promote less self-induced stress into my life.

So today, I will try not to jump out of my skin. Today, I will try not to want to rip my face off.  I will try to "go-with-the-flow".

I am slowly learning that minutes make up hours.  Hours make up days.  Days make up years.  Years make up our existence.

I am learning how to enjoy those minutes... starting with my own little summer vacation.

(PS- 9 days left of my own summer vacay!!)