Off We Go...Again

We headed off to Manhattan today. It has been a very busy Spring Break and today added to that. All in good ways. After an uneventful LIRR ride followed by subway ride we started the day off with having breakfast tea at Alice's Tea Cup-Chapter I.

We had a pretty big breakfast. The kids ate it all up. It was delicious. The tea was yummy. Perfect way to start our day. 

Afterward we headed over to Central Park for a bit. I brought along bubbles for the kids to play with.

 I tried to get the kids together for a group photo. These are some of the better ones.

 I think this may one of my all time favorite photos of the three of them together. All three of them laughing at me.

Now that we have a membership to the American Museum of Natural History we decided to take advantage of it. Even though we had visited earlier in the week the kids wanted to visit again. There were a few exhibits we didn't see on our earlier trip.

Leah has been helping Louis learn about our solar system, aside from trains and dinosaurs, Louis' other favorite topic is space. AMNH has a special exhibit right now called "Beyond Planet Earth:The Future of Space Exploration.

While I sat to feed Gabriel, Leah and Louis walked around while we waited for our turn to go into the exhibit. They loved all the information about reptiles and other related creatures.

'Beyond Planet Earth' is a walk through exhibit with various components. Leah loved the section on the moon.

 There is a wonderful computer setup which allows you to move around Mars and check out the planet. Louis's favorite planet, so we spent a lot of our time on it. Definitely will have to come back to do this again.

 Leah working on Mars.

We went upstairs and stopped in to see the dinosaurs. Leah and Louis went from kiosk to kiosk to see all the different stages of evolution and to read more info on the development of the dinosaurs and other animals. They are so perfect together!

At this point the kids were restless and hungry so we headed back towards Central Park. We grabbed some hot dogs from the halal food truck, sat and ate.

Louis wanted to climb rocks so we went over to the Ladies Pavilion. Great rock climbing with nice views of the pond. Louis is an excellent climber, takes after his sister. I remember Leah climbing the same rocks when she was his age. She led him carefully up and made sure he had a good footing.

 We stopped at a playground. Leah and Louis played in the sandbox for the most part. Hard to get Louis out of one once he finds it. A few of the other moms and nannies made comments about how great Leah is with Louis. How she was one of the few kids above the age of 4 and she didn't seem bothered by it. She wasn't. She loves it.

Earlier in the week we had stopped at the Alice in Wonderland statue but we weren't able to spend any time at it so I promised Leah we would go back. Leah and Louis climbed up okay. They were fine up until Leah lost her footing coming down and Louis followed her. They both got a little banged up but it was much better than it looked. Both were fine afterward.

It was an early day for us. We headed out after this. Usually we're in Manhattan until the evening but we had gotten there at 10 am. It was a long day. The kids do so well when we travel together. We get into the swing of things and with Leah being well experienced with traveling in NYC? It is surprisingly smooth and easy with just myself and the three of them.

Mom & Daughter Day

We definitely needed a day just to ourselves. Both Leah and myself felt like we were missing some time with just the two of us. We decided to head into Manhattan for a day of wandering and then eventually meeting up with my friend Jen and her family. We didn't have a specific plan, just felt the day out. It was a good Winter day for walking around. Cold but not windy.

We started off with heading to Central Park. We walked through and ended up at the Central Park Zoo. We have made good use of our membership to the WCS zoos. Definitely going to renew our membership in June.









On the way out of the park by the Children's Zoo we stopped by the Delacorte Musical Clock. Waited for the half hour and the wonderful show. Leah loved it.



We headed out of the park and walked crosstown towards Alice's Tea Cup:Chapter II for dinner. It was a 30 minute wait but it went by pretty quickly. Leah ordered their 'Wee Tea'. Comes with her choice of drink, she chose a pot of their Berry Bunch Fruit Tisane Tea. It is a blend of flowers, hisbiscus with fruits and berries. Very tasty. She chose their buttermilk scone served with clotted cream and preserves, chicken fingers (no surprise) and their delicious chocolate mousse.



Everything was good. We weren't rushed, took our time.

Following dinner we walked down to Aunt Lindsay's to see if she was around but she was out and then headed over to visit my friend Jen at a local hotel in Rockefeller Center. Jen and her husband Keith were going to be on the Today Show the following day on one of their weightloss segments. Leah has never met Jen's daughter Mairi but you would've thought they were best friends since birth. It was a great visit.

Circus Fun!

Leah loves the circus, as do I. This year we decided to take Louis along to the Big Apple Circus. Matt isn't the biggest fan so it was just the three of us.

Leah at the fountain at Lincoln Center.




Leah and Grandma the Clown


So cute!

Tea Time with Leah

We went to Manhattan today. Leah, Louis and myself. We took the LIRR to Penn Station and headed uptown to Alice's Tea Cup-Chapter I for brunch. The meal was delicious and Leah enjoyed being there.







After brunch we walked up to the American Museum of Natural History.

Leah spent nearly 3 hours on the 4th floor going through the exhibits one by one. She was very curious about the different geological eras & the common ancestors among living animals.









We met my friend Jasmine & her newborn baby boy Ethan on the 4th floor. We walked through the rest of the museum and visited the minerals & rocks last. Leah's favorite. She is showing a great interest in all things geological. She has always liked playing in the dirt :)





After the museum we walked around and bought dinner at the Shake Shack at Columbus & 77th Street. We took our food over to Central Park and ate it on a bunch by the lake. After eating Jasmine & baby Ethan went off to go shoe shopping. Leah wanted to stay a bit longer so we went to one of the playgrounds so she could running around.

Around 7 in the evening it was time to head home.

A good time was had by all.