It's all down hill from here

So many things happening for our family right now, it's hard to capture it all. One biggie is Anderson starting Kindergarten. He was so ready and wanting to start, but his nerves really got ahold of him. I appreciated how STA gave the Kinderkids a chance to go for 2 hours the day before the big day. After camp, he felt great. Whew... I can't believe he is in school everyday now.... Here he is before and after his haircut. Summer hair gone, school boy hair, hello!


Look at these sweet kids. They were fired up to go. They all really had a great week - Ainsley Grace and Lexi both LOVE their new teachers! That is such a good feeling.


Here is the sweetest 4th grader on the planet. She no longer wears a jumper. Just a skirt and saddle oxfords. Now she has gym clothes that she changes into for PE. Wow. Her teacher is a fabulous lady and Lexi has already fallen for her. Her teacher's son is a Monk and is sharing such beautiful stories with the class... This is going to be a fabulous year for her.

Ainsley Grace wanted a "real ballet bun" for her first day. She is so excited for her 2nd grade year. She is the big kid at the school because the campus she is on is for PK thru 2nd. You should see her binder and everything she has to keep organized. It seems too old for her... But, she is doing it beautifully already!

Here he is, the big Kindergartner. He already came home with two stickers for being quiet when others were talking. He told the teacher, "my mommy says I'm a very good artist." The teacher agreed that he was. He loves his batman backpack and his super cool lunch box. I already did Lunch Duty once and he was such a good boy. LOVE HIM!

The first week of school is over and all went well. It should be smooth sailing this year.

Here is Stan on his first day of his last year of Law School. Seriously. I can hardly type it without glazing over.... Wow. You are almost there honey.


Nuff said.


Whit says, "peek a boo!!!" ;-)

Happy Birthday to Us

What a way to celebrate two significant markers in our lives. Me turning 40 is hard to believe. Alexandra turning 10 is even harder for us to believe. Daddy was so sweet to offer this opportunity to us and we were sooo HAPPY at the thought of doing this trip. We were thrilled doing all the planning and had a complete ball the 5 days were spent in NYC. Thank you Daddy. We are so grateful for the opportunities we have had in our lives so far. So grateful and thankful. Here is a glimpse into the FUN we had!

Here is the most excited girl in the world, sitting at the airport anxious to get on the plane!


This trip would NOT have been as fun without Nadine picking us up, treating us like royalty. Hanging out with us and making everything so fun. After she whisked us off from the airport she wasted no time in taking us fabulous New York City restaurant on the Upper East Side. What a way to start off! After lunch, we hit The Plaza to visit the Eloise store. CUTE.


Then, my fabulous sorority sister Andrea who lives in NYC met us in midtown and walked us around Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral (to light a candle), the American Girl store, then dropped us off to go to the "top of the rock!" Thank you Dicastro!


Top of the Rock. Outstanding breathtaking views... Perfect way to kick off the first day...




After the top of the rock, we headed for Times Square and walked to our first Broadway Show! The Addams Family starring Brooke Shields. Lexi LOOOOOOOOVED the show. It really was fantastic, the quality of the production and singing blew her away! Of course we had to fight our way in to bring the baby, but we got in and I was praying Whit would be good. He was, OF COURSE!!! :-)


We got home LATE that night. But, that did not stop us from staying on track the next day... Sort of. We had a crazy adventure getting to the Statue of Liberty.

They only let 300 people get into the Crown a day and 3000 get into the pedestal. Otherwise, everyone just goes to the island and walks around and that's it. I was unable to purchase crown tickets - BUT I did purchase the LAST available pedestal tickets - but the catch was we had to leave from NEW JERSEY Liberty Island at 8am to go into the Pedestal....

Well, getting from the Upper East side to downtown to take a ferry to New Jersey Liberty Island ended up being quite an adventure. Let's just put it this way...

Woke up early, but not early enough to get breakfast OR COFFEE (aghast!), blisters, emergency flip flops from CVS, running, wrong train, right train, more running, wrong pier, running, right pier, wrong ferry, 2nd wrong ferry, running, 3rd wrong ferry, right ferry, but wrong timing leaving from New Jersey so we went back to NYC then back to New Jersey, basically the last ferry we just rode for a while until they took us where we needed to be - just a couple of circles.... At least there were great views and I had a place to change the Whit's weekly dirty diaper!

But, all's well that ends well and we made it, not at 8 of course, at 9. But, they honored our tickets even though we were late... Whew! Was all of that worth it in the end???!!! YES IT WAS!

All of a sudden, she appeared. Liberty Enlightening the World (did you know that was the actual name?) was beautiful as ever and it was very exciting taking that final ferry to her.

Here was the original torch. Lexi read that the original torch used to beam out red, white and blue lights... Once we climbed up to the top of the pedestal, if you look up, you could see the spiral staircase that led you all the way to the crown. Lexi reeeeally wanted to do this. :( Stan and I actually did this before we had kids... It was really cool.


2 views from the top of the pedestal.


Here we were returning back to NJ.


Are you wondering what that last picture was?? Well, we had a major mishap on the ferry ride. "Lexi has been diagnosed with Dorito ear. Dorito ear is a disease where Doritos get sucked into your ear. Her first sign was in New York when she was eating Doritos and they ended up on her ear."

Here is a photograph of the 911 memorial in New Jersey. It was beautiful. Everyone on both sides seemed to be scrambling to get them finished in time.... We didn't get to see Ground Zero because it was still under full construction.


After we returned from the SOL we walked to Little Italy for lunch. We ate at Lombardi's, America's FIRST pizzeria. YUMMY!!! I put a tiny dab of pizza sauce on Whit's tongue. He frowned and then all of a sudden his face lit up with a smile. It was so funny. Lexi LOVED the picture of Mona Lisa holding a pizza!


Well, AS IF all of that was not exciting enough, now we are to the MOST EXCITING PART OF THE TRIP. Seriously, if you know me at all, it was so much fun I don't have words. Stan says he planned it and takes credit for the whole thing and I officially give him credit.

So, as we were boarding the plane in Dallas to head to NYC, we were in the back of the line and I looked up and saw Juan Williams getting in line to board the plane. If you do not know that name right off then you clearly do NOT watch enough Fox News and I don't like you anymore and just stop reading my blog. ;-) Of course, I watch Fox constantly and when I looked up and saw him I instinctively said, "Oh, Hi!" as if I knew him since I practically do - His face is in our house every night... He looked at me and said, "Hi." So of course I kept talking and he was the nicest guy in the world. In the end, he offered to take us on a tour of the Network....!!! :-) I could NOT have been more excited or happier.... This made the whole trip!! FUN FUN FUN!!!




After I floated down from cloud 9, we were ready for dinner. We ate at an insanely great restaurant called Tao. Ugh, it was sooo crazy good and Nadine ordered for us. Even Lexi loved her Asian Fusion Dinner. Thank you so much Nadine. If you ever have the opportunity to eat with Nadine, no matter the cuisine, just let her order for you. Seriously. After that great day, we walked home versus taking a cab and Lexi and I had a ball window shopping and just being together... What a fantastic day.....

The next morning Amy arrived!!! :-) My dear sweet friend Amy flew all the way to NYC just to spend a single night with us to celebrate our birthdays... We had so much fun together. First we went and saw our second Broadway Show, Chicago. She showered Lexi with attention the entire time as I kept Whit quite during the 2nd show... Afterwards, we grabbed a cab and met Nadine at a really cool place called Beer Garden on Pier 17. It overlooked the Brooklyn Bridge. WE HAD A BLAST!! Fantastical Views... Just fabulous fun.


"NO SLEEP TIL......!"


I think Lexi had 40 shirley temples on this trip. She was in heaven. At dinner that night, Nadine got a good picture of her lovin her shirley's! ;)


Sunday morning we woke up, had breakfast at a great local diner and Lexi and I walked to Mass at a beautiful old church on the Upper East Side. Such nice people!


Afterwards, we fought the rain and we went by the Guggenhiem. Such a cool building.


We made our way down to Dylan's Candy Bar! Such a great place for kids - Lexi had a ball getting bags of candy for her brother and sister....


After Dylan's, Amy took a cab back to the airport.... Goodbye Amy, I love you girl!


After Amy left, the rain really started coming down hard, so we took that as a sign that we should go home and rest. We had a great afternoon hanging at Kate and Adam's fabulous home. Here is a picture of the posh house we got to stay in.... Thank you K&A for being so generous - it made our trip even better getting to stay in style!


On our last day, we decided to take a PediCab through central park.


Lexi infront of the "Friends" fountain....


Here she is in front of the original "twin towers." You may recognize it from Ghostbusters. "Ray, if someone asks if you're a God you SAY YES!"


Our "cab" driver was the nicest guy and took a million pictures of Lexi for me... It was so cute.


New York City. We came and we conqured. It almost beat us that one day, but we came out on top. I'll see you in two years.... In the meantime, Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday to us, Happy birthday Mommy and Lexi, Happy birthday to us!