Obligatory Vacation Post 2

One of our NJ days we headed to NYC. 

Quotes from Mimi about NYC:

Mimi explaining the "walk" signal to Yoda:"If you see the human blow up, that's when it's time to walk"
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Mimi:"The buildings are so big"

Me:"Try not to make it obvious that we are from out west."

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Mimi"What's 'NY'?  It's everywhere!"
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Mimi, while waiting for the bathroom in Penn Station in a very long line:"New York has a lot of people"
Other people in line *snicker*

 Cause sometimes 7 lanes just aren't enough--sheesh.

 We drove to a train station to take a train into the city. 

Yoda has been asking to ride a train for months.  Just a few minutes on this train and he was done.  

On the subway, we were in the back of the train.  Yoda wanted to see the caboose--subways don't have cabooses, this was tough for him to understand, but then we showed him that there was no more train behind us and that we were IN the caboose.  He was pleased...

 Hot dogs in Central Park

 Central Park Zoo

The day was crazy--hot, made hotter by visiting the tropical house. 

 Such a pretty and tiny zoo. 

 Watching the seals. 

 Polar bear making an appearance.

 Mimi LOVED the owl. 

Next we went to the Met, and I got to see my BFF Rebekah!
Rebekah:"I want to see me on your blog!"

The Parker and Mimi loved the museum, I didn't think they would.  Egypt, the armor, the musical instruments.  I was pleasantly surprised.  

After the Met, we walked outside to see a group of street performers.  I didn't get a picture of the show--I figured that it would be on youtube, and I was right (I'll post a link later if you're curious).  But I did want a shot of the kiddos and Rebekah watching them.  A couple hundred tourists were captivated.  

 We did a kids' walking tour of NYC with lots of playgrounds, statues to climb on, the Met and the zoo. 

 Here's a difference I've noticed about NY/NJ vs. Ohio:

In Ohio there will be other parents waiting in line to get a photo of their own child climbing on the statue.

In NY/NJ a guy will yell out "Take care of your child!"

Truth.

 There were less yelling strangers at this sculpture, and yet it may have been taller...hmmm...

Alice in Wonderland

 Hans Christian Andersen

 Giant Slide that I rode on almost 20 years ago with the kiddos that I babysat for. 

 A better shot of how pretty the zoo really is. 

 Waiting for the train track announcement.  How many times have I done this?  Seems like a ton, and so long ago. All the commuters wait in this area and stare at the big board to see which track their train will be on.  It used to be so much more dramatic with flipping letters and numbers.  Now it's just a silent, digital board.



Here's a video of the old one, at the end it actually says "Maplewood"! 

 The ride home Parker and Greg fell asleep and Yoda stayed occupied with his cars--it was too dark to see outside by this time of night. 

 On the drive home we saw some pre-4th fireworks.  It made the drive back to the beach house very nice.

Don't despair, there's more...

Yoga for Children

Mimi finds yoga-for-children relaxing, sheesh this girl is wiggly!  Here she is introducing this to Yoda. 

More vacation photos to come--I know you can't wait :)

Obligatory Vacation Post 1

Greg:"You know it's a good vacation when you forget your password when you get back"
Me:"We drove through 8 states and the District of Columbia"

Our vacation started off rough, a freak storm blew through and knocked out power to most of the area, we didn't loose power at first but we did have a giant branch fall down in our back yard.  It was too big to leave while we were gone, soooo we spent a few hours the night and the morning before we left cleaning it up.  (And a few more hours chopping up the wood once we got back home, if you're curious.) 

Here's one angle, it doesn't look that bad now, but it sure freaked me out, and delayed our trip a little.

75 mph winds+patio umbrella=broken patio umbrella...


But we pushed on, packed up, and started driving...

Lots of pillows, blankies, and dollar-store-distractions. 

 First, West Virginia, I'm surprised that we drive through it too.

 Then Pennsylvania--I've always loved Pennsylvania, especially on the drive from BYU to NJ, because it means we're almost home.  It's so pretty, I still love it. 

 A week at the beach house

 Jumping in little water holes

 Throwing sand

 digging more holes when the waves wash them away

 getting wiped out over and over and over and over and loving it

 charging into the waves again and again and again and again

Just as we were leaving I remembered to get a picture, not pictured were Jill and Chris, darn!
Loads more photos to come:deep sea fishing, NYC, DC, and so much more...

Last of Mimi's Menus

This week we made:

Diego's Meatball Mountain Range (or Spaghetti and Meatballs with broccoli).  I actually made the meatballs instead of just warming up frozen meatballs from Trader Joe's.  They were quite tasty, maybe I'll make them again sometime...maybe :)

        That was followed by Fish in the Pond Tortilla Soup,  See the goldfish crackers swimming in the soup?

Mimi's Menus

I always think I'm going to teach my kiddos how to cook, but they seriously have as much interest as I do in cooking--which is very little.  Maybe Dora and Diego can help. 

We found this book at the library and they've been picking out things to make..

First we made Baked Potato Rescue Boats, a.k.a. Twice Baked Potatoes with cheese, cheese and broccoli.  Yum...

Here's Diego and his rescue boat, just in case you have no idea who Diego is or his boat, for that matter :)

And as I said last time, we made Horchata and Spanish rice. 

Most recently we made Birds' Nests

a.k.a hash browns with an egg-over-easy, topped with cheese (of course) and cherry tomato halves.

Yoda ate tomatoes ONLY. 

More to come, I know you can't wait...

What to do in NYC

While talking about things to do in NYC, I mentioned that we could go to the Bronx Zoo.
Parker asked:"What's a Bronk?"
Me, in my head:"we need to take Parker to NYC more often..."
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Mimi was pretty tired the day after visiting the local water park from open to close.  So tired that she fell asleep in the family room.  I thought it was so cute I had Parker take a picture.

 Me:"Don't take a picture of her back-side, take a picture of her face."

(photo censored)

 Me:"Ahh, don't take a picture of part of her head and mostly pillows!"

That's better

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Greg had a happy father's day (I hope).  We found a good/easy recipe for Spanish rice.  So to continue with the theme, I made him Horchata (a drink made from rice and cinnamon, he had it on his mission in a Spanish speaking part of California). 

We like the cook book so much, we've made and are going to make a few more of the recipes, we'll keep you posted...

First Day / Last Day

My sister asked if the kiddos were out of school yet and I realized that I had not yet posted their last day of school photos.


Here they are...

 Parker on the last day of 3rd grade...

 Parker on the 1st day of 3rd grade

 Mimi on the last day of Kindergarten

 Mimi on the 1st day of Kindergarten

 Mimi's darling bus driver let Yoda on the bus the last day of school.  She rode bus #86, so Yoda often asks to see this picture by yelling "86!"

The fun thing is that back in 2009, Parker rode the same bus with the same driver and she let Mimi sit for a minute too. 

 There are lots of reasons that I don't home school, and here's a couple of them, both Mimi's and Parker's teachers were so great this year.  I loved working with them.  I didn't get a picture of Parker's extra-help-teacher, but he'll have her again next year.  Also super.  I could never do the amazing job that they do.

  If you're wondering what's on Parker's face, he met up with the rough bark of a tree while playing with Nerf swords with friends.  I've been putting scare gel on it to keep it from scaring, and he's mad.  He'd like to have a scare, he hasn't told me why though. 

 I made a very low-tech surprise for them to find when they got home. 

 "Welcome to Summer"

 Water balloons

 It took them a minute to catch on, but they finally got it.

 We invited the next door neighbors and they had lots of fun. 

This Week

Most of the day I've had to remind myself that it's not the end of the week, it's only Tuesday!  It's been a long week already.  No real reason, I just worry myself ragged.

In an attempt to relax myself I was just sitting and saw this, I couldn't believe how cute it was, so I took a picture and then felt like sharing.  

Sprinkler time is all about fun, and relaxing...