Spring Break

We had some visitors over Spring Break.  Jenn and her kids and Flossie and her kids decided to come visit--at the same time.  They all arrived Sunday evening.  The house instantly went from the normal loud to INSANE.   Monday we decided to stick around  the house since Jenn had driven 18 hours and Flossie had driven 10 (she has stopped to spend the night, but didn't sleep because Carson was up all night sick.).  We have a fantastic yard; 1.25 acres of grass with some super big trees.  We also have some junk (brush, old boards, etc) left over from the previous tenants.  This combined with their imaginations was all the kids needed to decide to build a tree house.  The girls could be seen trying to push an old piece of plywood, bigger then they were, up this old ladder they found, through the branches to rest in the tree.  After many tries they got it there only to realize, thankfully before they sat on it, that it was not strong enough to hold their weight.  They then dragged the ladder across the yard to another tree where the branches make their own platform and declared this their tree house.

Rufio was also a huge hit, Madeline and Ella were fond of putting him on a lease and running him around the yard.

In the afternoon we headed to the park at Katie's school.  It is just a short walk from my house.  We had the misfortune of running into one the boys from her class (in Katie's words; "one of the ones who is always being rude to Miss Pensiero").  I'm not sure how the drama started but it escalated till Ella gave him a much deserved trip and other people reported to us how our daughters were acting.  While we were secretly proud of them for standing up for themselves, we decided this might be a good time to leave.  Cooper getting hurt confirmed our decision and we headed home.

Addy, Ella, Carson, Sam, Maddie, Alisa, Marcus and Max



The next morning we loaded up all the kids and headed to the train station.  (We left Jax and Caden home with a babysitter.)  We took the train into Grand Central Station.





Scotia, Me, Marcus, Sam, Alisa, Addy, Madeline, Carson, Cooper, Ella, Katie, Max, Jenn

And then took the subway up to the Natural History Museum.



The kids were pretty impressed with the dinosaurs.

Addy posing with the stuffed bear in the background--she loves bears.



When the kids started to get too rowdy we headed over to Central Park to look for lunch.  I love that out of all the things to do in Central Park my kids just want to play on the rocks.







After a long walk we sat down and enjoyed some hot dogs and then continued on our way looking for the Carousel.





What is better than a carousel ride to end the perfect day.

The train ride home was a little less exciting, Marcus and Addy both fell asleep on me.



Wednesday we headed to the beach.  The weather was perfect Spring weather.





Of course my kids found the rocks again.

That night after we put the kids to bed we had a little girl time and made Vietnamese spring rolls-delicious.

Thursday Flossie and her crew had to leave.  Jenn and I decided to head to the Bronx Zoo.

It was fantastic. 





We found a nice little grassy spot for lunch and settled down to eat.  Partway through Jenn leaps to her feet with a look of horror on her face.  I follow her eyes to see Sam in the bushes with his pants down around his ankles.  He needed to use the bathroom and though he was hiding, he did not realize that his little bum was right up against a fence where EVERYONE was walking by. 

The kids were so excited that they got to ride on two carousels in one week. 

Another highlight was the butter house.  Katie was standing still and a butterfly landed on her arm.  All the other kids were so jealous and spent the next 20 mins trying to get a butterfly to land on them.

Marcus copying Katie hoping for the same results.

And, then with some help from us, finally...

Addy wouldn't let us put one on her, she wanted to get it on her own merits, so she left without holding one.

After the zoo everyone headed home tired and happy.  Jenn and the kids took off early Friday morning.  It was the perfect Spring break/vacation.  Where else can you do NYC, the beach and the Bronx zoo all in one trip!