NYC Days 2 & 3: Into the night

Before I share more about our trip to NYC, I would be remiss if I didn't express the pain I feel for all of the families affected by the tragedy in Connecticut.  I can't imagine the enormous loss they must be experiencing right now.  Death is never easy, even when you're prepared for it.  To have your loved one taken from you without the chance to say good bye?  Well, the hurt goes deeper still.  

Tragedies like this, and Gina's death, continue to remind me that my most important goal as a photographer is to capture the every day moments.  As I've said before, most of our lives are made up of these ordinary moments.  Don't let them slip by without documenting them.  Stop what you're doing and grab your camera.  You'll see in the images I'm sharing in this post that, while some of them scream Big Apple, some of them are quite ordinary.  And I couldn't tell the whole story if I didn't include those small, simple ordinary moments too.

Now on to the photos, which are a mix of big girl camera and iPhone shots.  Last time we went to NYC, we kept things low key at night because Madeline was only 2 1/2 years old.  Being that she's 4 1/2 now, we thought we would attempt some night time entertainment.  That meant keeping things low key during the day.  So the dumplings played with their stuffed animals and watched movies on the iPad.  

I had every intention of doing a wee bit of school like we did last time we visited the Big Apple, but the excitement in the air kept this teacher from focusing! lol

Since we missed seeing the tree at Rockefeller Center the night before, we decided to head over there on the second night.  It was a pretty short walk from our hotel.

I snapped this quick shot of Patrick with the kids on my iPhone.

And then Baba insisted  I pull my big girl camera back out of my bag so he could play photographer and snap a shot of me with the dumplings. Looks like I'll be turning him into a photographer sooner rather than later.

We love eating at Wu Liang Ye for dinner when we visit the tree at dinner time because it's simply delicious Chinese food.  After we finished up dinner, we headed back to our hotel room to freshen up.

And then we walked right back out the door and across the street to the Minskoff Theatre to see The Lion King!

We absolutely loved it!  And I was impressed with how well behaved Madeline was during the show!  She really listened carefully and kept quiet throughout the performance.  I was shocked. lol.  She's always so loud.  The costumes were incredible.  The only downer for me was that the character's lines were too similar to the movie.  It was a little bit different than the movie but not by much.  Oh well.  It was still a winner.

So, as I mentioned earlier, we really thought Caleb was going to lose his top left tooth.  So I snapped this shot of his "old smile" one last time, or so I thought.

Day 3 went on like Day 2....very low key during the day.  Then when Patrick finished up his meeting (oh, I think I failed to mention this part yet; Patrick was in meetings all day), he wanted to head back over to the tree because his iPhone had died the day before, and he wasn't able to capture a photo of the kids in front of the tree.  So we headed back there again....this time in the rain.

We passed by the Fox News Studio as we headed back over to Rockefeller Center.  That's Bob Beckel in the suspenders, and Dana Perino is the blonde to his left.

And since it was still raining, I snapped the dumplings in front of the tree with my iPhone too.

It continued to rain as we tried to catch a cab on our way to the Upper WestSide, but we had no luck, with the cab or the rain.

We stopped to get Caleb a pretzel to hold him over until dinner.  Unfortunately, it was like a hockey puck.

Well, we weren't just going to stand there in the rain and hope to eventually catch a cab during rush hour.  So we walked all. the. way from Midtown up to Lincoln Center in the Upper West Side.  Well, three of us walked..in the rain.  Patrick carried Madeline, and Caleb was a trooper.  We planned on grabbing dinner around there and were thankful that Bar Boulud had a table for us!  I was thankful that the food was delicious...and the atmosphere was loud!  Great.  Madeline fit right in.  I'm beginning to think she was made for the city. lol.  Anyway, after dinner we headed over to Lincoln Center to catch George Balanchine's The Nutcracker! 

By intermission the kids were exhausted, and I wasn't sure if they were going to make it through Act II.  But they perked right up.  Every time Madeline saw a costume she adored, she whispered in my ear that she wanted it.  It was so precious.  Caleb remarked that he liked baseball more than ballet.  lol. He was a good sport.  He did enjoy the storyline; it was just too much dancing for him.  Again, Madeline really surprised me with how well she behaved.  Madeline does not know volume control very well at all.  She's on or off.  So I was so impressed that she actually whispered!!! lol.  Anyway, we truly had a lovely time at the ballet.

And to top off the night, I got to meet up with an old friend from childhood, Alex, and his beautiful and sweet wife, Ileana.  Alex and I went to summer camp together as teens.  We all used to sit around the piano at night as he played song after song, mostly Billy Joel.  We called him our own Piano Man.

We knew back then that Alex was a pretty talented musician, and we had no doubt that he would make it big in the industry.  Well, twenty years later finds him quite accomplished on Broadway. He's won Tony's and Grammy's for his work on In The Heights, and other recent works include Bring It On and Wicked.  Oh, and he's also played for the President, as in President Obama.  Not bad, eh?  We knew he would make it someday, and boy, has he made it.  We're so proud of ya, Alex!

And our trip didn't end there.  We had one more big day in the city!  Stay tuned for lots more photos.  I told ya I took a bunch!

Day 1 in New York City: Museum of Natural History

Since I took lots of photos each day (both with my big girl camera and iPhone), I'll cut to the chase.  We had an early morning flight which meant grabbing breakfast at the airport. Caleb thought teasing his sister with his shark tooth necklace would be a good way to pass the time.

One of Caleb's upper front teeth was very loose. I thought it might fall out before our trip, but I was wrong.  Instead, I found him wiggling the tar out of that tooth with his tongue or fingers during our entire trip.

The dumplings took turns sitting by the window. They love to fly/travel.

Lorna Doone cookies were an in-flight hit.  They always are.

Thankfully our flight and cab ride into the city were uneventful.  And once our bags landed in the room of our hotel, you better believe Madeline was searching for that infamous pad and paper.

The kids loved gazing out the window, and so did I.  We stayed on the 35th floor of the Marriott Marquis in Times Square.  People watching is fun from up there.

I'm kicking myself that I didn't pay close enough attention to this next shot and subsequently placed the window pane right through the "2012" below the ball.  *insert slapping my forehead*

Once we got settled, we decided that we still had some time to hit the Museum of Natural History for a little hands on learning.  It's located in the Upper West Side right next to Central Park.  So the kids gazed out at the expansive park before them and tried throwing fallen leaves over the wall.

Then it was time to hit the museum.

The bonus for arriving so late in the afternoon was that our tickets were discounted.  Woot!  And good thing because we made up for that by purchasing some really silly photos of us with dinosaurs.

We spent a wee bit of time checking out American birds (since we studied them last year as part of our natural history studies), the animals of Africa, and Asian history.  

But we primarily spent our time browsing all the dinosaur exhibits.  The kids used our iPhones to snap their own photos.  And I just kept snapping them doing it.

A nice gentleman offered to take a family photo.  Madeline's double chin smile is hilarious.

These last photos of the dinosaur exhibit crack me up.  We're very open with Madeline about her limb difference.  We talk with her as needed about how to handle people's questions.  One of the responses I told her she could use if she felt like being funny and getting a rise out of the person asking was that she could tell them she (or her brother or whoever) got hungry and just ate her arm.  So here she is at the dinosaur exhibit sticking her missing left arm in the mouth of a dinosaur fossil and pretending that it's eating her. 

And I guess if it's eating your arm, you're at liberty to poke its eye out! lol.

That night we hit Becco's for dinner, right there on Restaurant Row.  We were relieved they sat us waaay before our reservation as it's popular with theater goers.  I had the absolute best stuffed peppers ever, served over fried spaetzle.  Delicious!

Well, to sum it up..our first day in NYC was a fabulous one, and it only got better! And since I don't have the time to be organized right now, I'll be sharing my iPhone photos in a separate post later.

A time to read

Well, it seems like I can't get my act together these days.  I had wanted to share these photos before we went out of town, but that obviously didn't happen.  We actually just returned from a 5 day trip to New York City!  We had an absolute blast with only one major mishap, which was thankfully short lived.  I'll get into all the details in another post, and I will be sure to share some of the many photos I took.

For now, I'll get back to the reason for this post....a time to read.  As you can see, I took these photos of the dumplings at our old house in my favorite-y favorite room to photograph them in.  We loved to read in this room because of all the natural light.  Sometimes we would get distracted when looking out at the oak tree and all the birds that would visit our yard.  And sometimes Madeline had her own way of distracting her sweet brother, too.  Good thing he doesn't mind.

Although I'm going to miss the light in that room terribly, I'm thankful that our school area in our new house has good light too.  It's not as bright as our old living room, but it's brighter than our old school room.  And it's large enough that we now have a little sofa in there (which was last used in Madeline's old bedroom.)  We love to sit on it and read for school now, although we've actually done very little school here since moving (because we actually haven't been home!)  Oh well.  Ya gotta love the flexibility homeschooling offers.  Anyway, I'll be back with more photos to share.  I promise.

We're in!

Big news #1: 

We have our LID for Havi- Nov 9th!  

Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!

Big news #2:

We moved!!!

I was supposed to finish this post up before we turned off our computers earlier this week, but that, obviously, didn't happen. These photos were taken at our old place.  Remember, I wanted to capture the kids just hanging out and enjoying themselves?  Well, here they are pretending to be ferocious lions.  They love to play "animals" all the time.

I loved photographing them at play in our living room because it had the absolute best light in the entire house. (Yes, technically it should probably be called the family room.  But I grew up with only one room for the family, and we called it the living room.  So that's what always stuck with me.)  

I still have other photos I've taken this past month at our old home that I still want to share.  No fear, though, I will try to put up some photos of the dumplings in our new home.  Believe it or not, I still haven't taken a shot of the front of our house.  For real.  lol.  Anyway, I think I better start downloading all those iPhone photos I've taken.  I can't believe how much light this house has!!  I haven't even bothered shooting with my big girl camera too much these last few days because I have found the photos I've taken with my iPhone to be bright enough.  Gasp!

We're still in the processing of moving everything in and helping things find their rightful place.  But the reality is, though our old house was small, we really built in some great storage. Our new house has much more space, but storage just isn't the best...not yet anyway.  It will come, if I have my way. lol

Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.  We will be enjoying ours in our new place!  Oh, and I can't forget to say a huge thank you to our dear friend Shail and his friend Carlo, who are men of steel with hearts of gold and have graciously given up their time these past two days to help us.  And according to them, they're not done!  Say what?  Their hearts are so huge.  They have richly blessed us as they have been the hands and feet of God.  We are so grateful and are deeply humbled by their service.  A million thanks!

Last days, moving, and Thanksgiving Day-ish

Well, my absence from the blog this time means only one thing....we closed on our house last week!  We have spent all week packing things up.  Remember how I said I wanted to capture some images inside our home, one last time before we moved?  Well, I managed to take a few.  The series I'm sharing this time is when the kidlets decided to play Candyland one afternoon.  

They had a lot of fun, and their time together almost always means tickle fights, squishing each other, and giggles.

This room no longer looks like this.  The rug, console table, arm chair and ottoman, and end tables are gone.  I did snap a few more of the kids enjoying the house before the chaos ensued.  So I will post those soon too.  And I have  also taken a handful of photos with my big girl camera and iPhone in my attempt to capture our moving process. But I still need to download those and then find the time to put them together to make a coherent blog post.  Hmm...that might take time.

Anyway, I do think our slow transition will help the kids adjust a bit better. They have been playing at the new house a lot while we unpack over there.  So it won't feel so strange to them when we're finally all moved over.  Now don't get me wrong and think that I'm thinking this will be easy as pie; I don't.  I just think it will be a wee bit easier.  That's all.

We've already met most of our neighbors on our cul-de-sac.  I'm happy to report that two families are big Florida Gator fans, just like yours truly. So we know a few more people who are celebrating the Gator victory this weekend.  (I think big Gator block parties are in our future. he he.)

On the adoption front, still no word on our LID.  I'm a little disappointed that we haven't heard about it yet.  I had hoped that we would hear by the end of this month.  And, although we haven't yet, I'm still hopeful because November still has a few more days before it's over.  So there's still a chance.  And if not, it won't be the end of me.  I have really given complete control of this adoption to the Lord.  I'm at total peace. So it is what it is.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We did indeed eat turkey prepared by my better half.  Then we spent a good part of the day moving things.  Still, turkey made it feel like Thanksgiving.  My sister, Deb, and BIL Andy came on Friday with their kidlets.  Andy helped Patrick move a few things, and my sister offered her opinion on her top choices for wall colors from the sample boards I painted.  Isn't that what sisters are so good for?  I love her!  Caleb and Madeline loved playing with Leah, and the feeling was mutual.  Now if only Joshua could morph into a 3yo who talks and listens, then life would be swell.  In the meantime, we'll continue to chase him down to keep him out of trouble and smother him with kisses.