Field Trip To Old Sacramento

Carter went on a field trip to Old Sacramento with his 3rd grade class. I wanted to go with him, but just returning from New York late last night, I was worried that something might happen & I would miss it. Carter rode in the car with his friends Daniel & Ryan and their Mom, Kitty. The kids & parents had to dress in period clothing, from the 1850's. Boys wore long sleeve shirts, long pants & hats. The girls wore dresses & bonnets.

It was HOT today, 95 degrees, but they still had a lot of fun seeing what it was like to be a student in Sacramento a long time ago.

Claire's Eye

While I was on a ferry to New Jersey, I got a text from Cory with this picture of Claire's eye. Claire said that it itched really bad. It seems every year her eye gets swollen from either allergies or a stye. Cory didn't think it was pink eye, but we decided to just keep her out of school today since it was so swollen.

* I looked at my blog for 2013 and on April 29, she woke up with a swollen eye and 2 styes. A day apart from this year!! Must be something in the air!!

FHE Made Easy

Guest post - 

With Aly away, I had to come up with some sort of activity for F.H.E. The kids had been wanting to go on a bike ride for days. Instead of riding, the girls opted to have me ride and they went in the trailer (though I think Claire is now to tall). We had a fun ride around the neighborhood, stopping for a while at the local park to let the kids run around and play. Afterwards, we returned home for some icy pops, showers and then bed.

Broadway Show: If/Then

We had tickets to see If/then at the Richard Rodgers Theater starring Idina Menzel. We started walking from our hotel & realized it was going to take us a bit longer to get there than we had planned. We tried hailing a cab, but they were all full of people already. We passed a doorman hailing a cab (actually a Lincoln Towncar) for 2 ladies, so we asked if we could just share it with them. They were very happy to share & the driver took us down to where all the broadway shows are & it was only $10!
We really enjoyed the show. The singing was absolutely amazing!! Idina Menzel was just awesome!
After the show was over we walked a few blocks to Time Square. I was not too impressed with it. Tons of people walking the sidewalks, the building were lined with huge tv monitors showing the latest advertisements. I can't even imagine what it is like at New Years!
We walked back to our hotel around midnight & felt completely safe. We had no problems at all.

Saturday in Manhattan

After we dropped our stuff off at the hotel we walked a few blocks to go & find Serendipity (225 E 60th St.) There was an hour and a half wait, so we put our names down & decided to check out a few stores. We stopped by Dylan's Candy Bar which was such a fun store! There was such a variety of fun & different candy. There was a chocolate fountain & you could buy fruit or marshmallows to dip in the chocolate.
Next we went across the street to Bloomingdale's. It was really busy so we only stayed there for a few minutes. We walked a few more blocks & stopped in at FAO Schwartz. It was a dream store for every child. They had every toy you could ever want. After walking around the store for a few minutes we walked back to Serendipity. We ordered & shared the Madame Butterfly which was farfalle pasta with sautéed artichoke hearts, asparagus and sliced red peppers tossed in a garlic cheese sauce. It was so good!!
For dessert we couldn't decide which flavor of frozen hot chocolate to pick, so we got the original & the salted caramel. Both of them we so delicious!!! I actually liked the salted caramel the best.

Getting To Manhattan

We were rudely awakened by a knock at our hotel room door from Housekeeping at 8am!! We were so tired & told them to come back later. I have no idea why they would come so early!! Since we were now awake we decided to just get ready & head down to breakfast. I couldn't believe how many people were in the breakfast area; at least 100!! It was incredible. I guess there are so many people coming to the city that every hotel  is probably always crowded. We met a couple while eating breakfast & they told us about a really cool tour that they had just done. They highly recommended it, so when we went back up to our room I called them to see if we could do a tour the next day.
After breakfast we packed up our stuff and checked out of our hotel & headed to Manhattan. We had to catch the city bus (which was interesting!!) & then get off about 1/2 hour later & get on the subway. We decided to buy the 7 day MTA pass, which was unlimited for the subway & bus. The pass was $31.00. It took about 1 and 1/2 hours to get from our hotel near JFK Airport to Manhattan. I had no idea it was that far away!!
We got off at Lexington & 53rd, walked up from the subway & were greeted with the amazing views of Manhattan. Tall, tall building everywhere & we could see the Empire State Building in the distance!
We walked a few blocks to 48th Avenue to our hotel; Residence Inn New York Manhattan/Midtown East. Our hotel was beautiful and modern. We were on the 16th floor. Our room had 2 queen beds, a full couch, a complete kitchen with a full size fridge, stove top & dishwasher. We had a balcony with a direct view of the Chrysler Building. Amazing!!

Lending a helping hand

Guest post - 

Today was the annual Mormon Helping Hand. We weren't going to go with Aly being gone but Carter said he really wanted to go (I think creek week sparked the service bug in him). After dropping off the girls with grandma and aunts, we went to the park at the end of Pennsylvania only to be re-routed to Sailor Bar (it was too wet to paint). Once at the proper place, they explained the project, and we jumped in ripping up weeds along the trail. Carter had fun once again.

On My Way To New York City

I flew into Salt Lake City & met Jen there & then we got on the same flight to NYC. We grabbed some Cafe Rio in the airport real quick before our flight left. It was a 4 1/2 hour flight & we didn't land at JFK airport until after midnight. We caught a shuttle to our hotel which was very close to the airport. When we checked in, Jen spent quite a while on the phone with Delta Airlines, trying to fix her return flight home. They made a change to her flight & we were no longer on the same flight home so she wanted to get that changed. We didn't get to bed until 3 am!!

Wink

Kate figured out how to wink & she looks so cute when she does it. On Sundays I find her turning around in her Primary chair & looking back at me. She will give me a smile & a wink.

$1 Scoop Night

Baskin Robbins had dollar scoop night so I brought Claire & Kate while Cory & Carter were at Cub Scouts. Kate picked a berry sherbet & Claire picked lemon. I always pick the same, either mint chip or chocolate chip!

Easter Evening

Aunt Susie had to work today so I volunteered to host Easter dinner at our house with the extended family. We had about 40 people over & everything went smoothly. We had seating in the dining room, living room, family room & 3 tables in the backyard. We enjoyed a delicious meal & the kids did another egg hunt out back. I borrowed Judy's sacks & we had sack races also. Some of the adults played board games & all in all it was a nice evening.