Big City, 3 - Tourists

We must have heard "Where are you from?" over a dozen times today from museum docents, waiters, subway riders, etc.  I guess we just look like tourists - or it could be because we pretty much just stuck to touristy destinations today.  It was kind of the 'Intro to the Big City Day'.  Our bus ride is great into the city, about 20 minutes.  This morning we headed straight out the exit doors at Port Authority Bus Terminal into Times Square ... yeah, that place is nuts!

We were all just dazed for a little bit.  The kids were quickly acclimated to the chaos, figured out how to quickly cross a street, not stop for everyone that wants to hand you a flier and sell you stuff, etc...

We wandered semi-aimlessly for many blocks, looked at cool buildings, Reed took about a bajillion pictures, we tried to find the Apple (electronics) store and became sidetracked when we found Rockefeller Center.  We had actually intended this to be on the itinerary today, but as I was about to order tickets, found at that kids under 6 can't go in.  Boo.  This is the same reason we can't do the Tenement House Museum.  Oh well, there are just too many other things to do and see in New York to get upset over those ones!  At Rockefeller Center, they were just starting to fill/freeze the rink for the seasonal ice skating - that was neat to see in progress.

Reed was super excited to find that the NYC Lego store was located just in front of Rockefeller Center!

Of course we had to go in!  Lego murals, lego statue recreations of the Rockefeller Center famous statues.  Way cool.

Times Square was overall a massive amount of chaos and advertising, but something we just had to do, if just so the boys can say they were there.  Clay checked out the Element skateboard gear shop, Reed bought some touristy souvenirs.  Fortunately, the kids had no desire to go on the Toys R Us ferris wheel, and I forbade them from going in the M&M store.  This is not the real New York, this is tourist trap central with glorified chain stores.  And after a couple hours, we were all tired of it, so hopped on the subway uptown to the Museum of Natural History.  Before heading in, we crossed the street to the western edge of Central Park and the kids had their first New York hot dog.  And blech - only Blossom liked it, and that's probably because she hasn't eaten bread in months, so the whole thing was pretty fantastic in a way that only a white bread hot dog bun can be.

Back to the museum.  Unforunately, a lot of the really big exhibits (like, the Ocean animals, the huge dinosaur skeletons, etc) were blocked off for some fancy-pants party being held at night.  We didn't see all we wanted to, but did see neat stuff.  We all liked the Minerals hall, the Meteorites hall and the few dinosaur exhibits that were open.  Another thing I particularly liked about this museum is that it is a "suggested payment" museum, so you pay what you wish.  They don't really tell you that, but the cashier didn't blink an eye when I handed him the credit card and told him I'd be paying $30 total.  I think I would have felt a little ripped off, actually, had I paid full price only to find out that the largest exhibits were closed for a private party.

We grabbed a subway back to near Times Square to find a pizza place (the kids insisted they HAD to have New York pizza ... can't blame them), and thankful that is something not hard to find here.  I will say that the kids are already very comfortable with all the public transportation.  Here's Blossom riding the subway like a pro (with Reed feeling very protective of her :)

I think ZB's favorite part of the day may have actually been the subways.  She waved to every passing train, held on tight during jerky starts and stops, and really loved the tile mosaics all around the Museum of Natural History subway stops...

The night ended with Blossom passed out in my arms before the pizza even arrived at the table, and some tired & cranky kids back at the apartment.  Staying up late to wait for their Gram's arrival has not helped the cranky-factor.  Here's hoping for a good night's sleep and a fresh start in the morning!

Big City Trip, 2 - We're Here!

We're here and tired!  A relaxed morning to get everything in order, 2 DC Metro rides into downtown Washington DC, a 4 hr Amtrak ride to New York City, a subway ride to Port Authority Bus Terminal, and a final bus ride to Teaneck, New Jersey, and we've made it! Woo-hoo!  Everyone has been so nice and helpful - offering up directions, random strangers offering to carry bags on escalators for us, so grateful!  That final bus ride was the most crowded, right at rush hour of course...  I'm glad I decided at the last minute to bring the umbrella stroller and not the larger stroller I purchased for the trip.  We are all really looking forward to going out and about tomorrow WITHOUT all that baggage!

Our apartment is great, we've already met the folks who work at the Quiche Restaurant downstairs, and the folks who work at the deli next door.  It was great to arrive in an apartment with beer, veggies, eggs and quiche already in the fridge!!

Here's the few pictures I snapped today during all the public transit craziness:

This is at Union Station in Washington DC.  I dragged the kids outside just so we could see the city before boarding the train, since we really only had to walk upstairs to get from the Metro train to the Amtrak train.  They were not thrilled that we just went outside to see the outside, and really wanted to get back inside and find lunch!

 ZB on the Amtrak trying to get up to Reed's seat. "I stuck! I stuck"  She did a good job of entertaining us, not to mention the other passengers:

 Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey in just 4 hours!

I'll check back in tomorrow with Big City pictures!

Big City Trip, Part 1

We're off on our Big City adventure today!  This has been in the works since New Years Day actually.  Clay has wanted to go to New York City for years.  Reed found a Guggenheim Museum lego set at the thrift store about a year ago, which led to him wanting to see the various art museums and architecture of the city.  So, after lots of planning and saving, and some last-minute stressful changes and re-arranges, we're finally on our way!

The kids and I left home at a ridiculously early hour, which was great in that ZB slept for a solid three hours and the first half of the trip went by really fast.  On the downside, I'm really tired :)  We arrived in Natural Bridge, VA at 8:00 am, before the Natural Bridge park was even open, got permission to hop the fence and had a great early-morning hike to help us all wake up. 

The rock bridge was amazing, and we had the whole place to ourselves which was really nice!

We then trekked along to the Washington DC suburbs to spend the night with Bobby's sister.  ZB was immediately in heaven with all of her cousin's old dolls and toys!

The boys got to play some backyard football with the neighborhood kids, we all warmed up with some of Alison's yummy soup, and now I'm about ready to pass out!  No more super-early morning car trips for me, I think.  Tomorrow, it's up to New York (at a much more leisurely hour)!
Good night for now...

Apples for Sharing

We volunteered at a local apple orchard recently that donates all it's harvest to the MANNA food bank.  A great way to spend a lovely Fall morning!

Because of bruising/spoiling when an apple falls from the tree, they don't want any apples from the ground, and the farmer said I could bring home as many ground apples as I pleased - so we've also been enjoying applesauce washed down with fresh apple juice nearly every day :)

We went with a group that was organized from our Homeschool Co-op.  It always make any job more fun when it's done with friends, it seems.

Our little ZB even got herself on the news from our trip!  Check out the nice story they did on the orchard owner:
http://wlos.com/shared/community/features/potw/stories/wlos_allen-king-142.shtml

Grateful For What We've Got

Hello!  We are so enjoying this end-of-summer.  The weather is cool enough and sunny enough to get lots of outdoor projects done and generally lots of outdoor play!  Of course ZB is happy in any weather, and I thought I should document some of goodness... at some point every day she looks about like this:

The more clothes the better, in her mind!  She is nearly two and a half, which seems altogether too close to 3.  I am loving her 2-year-old-ness!  Putting on 5 layers of clothes to go to the grocery store, insisting on snuggling before she falls asleep (which means squishing our faces together and hugging real tight, until basically she becomes uncomfortable and rolls over), reading all her story books aloud to her dolly, being SUCH a good imitator (no naughty words around this girl, please!), and all her own pronunciations of things are just too cute!  My current favorites are Kreacher the bunny = "treeker" and disgusting = (with a good grossed-out face) "ee-schtus-kin".  What a sweet girl :)

Our garden is really pushing out in it's last bit of warm-ish weather.  One of the fig trees in the front is going crazy for the first time (it is 3 years old).  We get a big bowl-full every day now!  Our tomatoes are finally ripening without rotting, since we're finally having a break from the rainy summer.  And even when the squash bugs ate the leaves of the squash plants, we were still left with 3 good-sized Hubbard Squash.  The one in the photo below had crept up onto a fence to grow, and the top actually grew through the fence, so had to be cut off so I could harvest it (and used right away).  We've already made squash custard, grain-free squash bread and we're having squash soup for supper this week... yum!

Summertime, and the livin is easy

I went out to feed the chickens this morning.  When I got back to the house, here was Miss ZB, all lounged out and enjoying the warm morning with her watermelon breakfast.

At my daily trip to the thrift store today, I found a mega-score (in ZB's eyes at least)... a Mrs. Beasley coloring book!!  A little worn from time, but still lots of unused pages for coloring pleasure.  ZB promptly retrieved her Mrs. Beasley doll and set to work!

Corn Maze

We found a 1/2 off groupon for our local corn maze and organized a field trip with our homeschool co-op friends. 





A lovely day and it was fun to go during the first weekend - usually we go near the end of the season, and lots of corn is knocked over in the maze where new paths have been forged - this was all fresh! 

 The boys loved the maze, while ZB's favorite things were the play box full of corn kernels, the hay wagon ride, the huge slides and the shade tent full of rubber bouncy horse toys :)