Can't wait till summer!!!

We began our day today with Grace's dance recital..

She really did look adorable and she did a wonderful job. She had 3 dances, one tap, one ballet and one jazz. However, the recital was...in a word....painful. It was THREE hours long!! Grace was exhausted and starving when it was all over. Every dance class did three numbers, which wouldn't have been bad, but then they had their solo dancers doing their competition routines. Seriously....6, 7, 8 year olds doing competitive competition solos!! The whole thing was just a bit much for me...a little to JonBenet Ramsey like with all the makeup, costumes, flowers and stage mommas! Not sure this is the kind of daughter I want to raise, or the kind of mom I want to be. I did the whole competitive dance thing, but I didn't start till I was 15(and those of you who know my mother know she was most certainly NOT a stage mother!)...it all seems a little too much, too soon.

She loves her dance class, and seemed to have fun today, so I'm torn as to what to do next year. Some days I think we over analyze how we choose to raise our children and other days it seems like we can't be too careful.

After the recital, we hurried home to meet with the realtor who is listing our house. For those of you who don't know, we are in the process of buying a lot in Sunnyvale that we will eventually build on. We are putting our house on the market now though, because in this market, who knows how long it will take to sell.

We all loaded up and went to Sean Denny's birthday party at WetZone this afternoon. The kids all had a great time, but most especially Mandy! She was so excited about her bathing suit and playing in the water that she cried and cried when I took off her suit to come home!

After the party we came home so Scott could head out to poker with the guys. Nick is in town this weekend and has Shaun, so Thomas, Grace and Mandy played all evening with Shaun until they all fell asleep watching a movie!

Blessings,

Leslie

Happy 6th Birthday Grace!!

Grace turned 6 yesterday! We started her day by going out for donuts before school.

After school Kendall and Hannah came home with us to have lunch and play. The girls made pizza for lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon playing American Girl dolls and talking about whatever 6 year old girls talk about!!Gigi, Judy and Gretta joined us for her birthday dinner and cake.

Blessings,

Leslie

NYC photos

Our last day in NY we started at Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty. From there we casually wandered over to the WTC site. Along the way we found a great street fair where grace had chocolate covered strawberries on a stick and Nick befriended a NYPD officer. When the guy found out what Nick did he sent him to his precinct to have a look around. It was really cool. When the guys there met Nick they sent him upstairs to the NYPD bomb squad!
Afterwards, we headed BACK to Chinatown for a bit more shopping! From there we walked up to Little Italy. I loved it there. I ate the entire time! I really liked all the shops with hand made fresh mozzarella, parmaggiana, proscuttio...it was heaven! This was the best cannoli I've ever eaten!


After dinner we went back to the hotel. Mom and Grace stayed at the hotel to pack while Nick and I went for a tour of the NYPD Emergency Services Unit!!! When the bomb squad guys heard what all Nick did in Iraq, they told him he had to go to the ESU and meet those guys. They made a phone call and got us in to their unit. This is a very elite unit of NYPD officers that handle all high level emergency situations. These guys are some of the most highly trained officers that I've ever met. They are all scuba certified so they can fish people out of the Hudson, they are all trained to repel off skyscrapers and rescue window washers or they said they weekly repel off the Brooklyn Bridge to rescue some EDP who wants to jump. They handle HazMat situations, can use the jaws of life in car wrecks, they carry thermal imaging stuff to hunt for people trapped in wreckage....it goes on and on. Definately New York's Finest!! I learned alot about the NYPD. All of it great except the fact that a beginning officer in NY makes $25,000 a year! They haven't had a contract in 3 years!! There is NO way they can live on that expecially in NYC!! In my opinion, that is an embarrasment to the ciy of NY. They were 3000 officers short last year in their recruiting. Yes, I plan to write a letter to Michael Bloomberg!


We all had a WONDERFUL trip and Grace is already talking about what she'll see on Broadway on her next visit! I "had" to buy a Burberry duffel to get all our purchases home in and about midnight we were out on Times Square looking for Nick another carryon to get all his stuff home!

Blessings,

Leslie

NYC--Day Two!

This morning after yet another breakfast of bagels and cream cheese, we took a cab to Chinatown. We had only planned to spend the morning there, but everyone had such a great time that we didn't end up leaving until around 3:30. We bought so much stuff that we may have to purchase more luggage or ship some home! After we got back to the hotel and unloaded everything we bought I took a picture.......

After we rested we headed out to Times Square to explore the 4 story Toys R Us. We rode the ferris wheel and looked at all the new toys. Everyone was pretty tired by this point so Nick and I went for some takeout while mom and Grace rested at the hotel. We had picnic in the hotel room and are headed to bed early. Grace is begging to see another Broadway show before we leave, so I think I'll see what's available for tomorrow night. We are planning to see the World Trade Center site and who knows what else tomorrow!!Who doesn't LOVE a 7 story Johnny Depp??!!!

Blessings,

Leslie

I LOVE NY!!

Whew!!

I'm writing after two exhausting, but extremely fun days. We left Dallas yesterday afternoon...sort of. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 4:30, we boarded on time, pulled away from the gate and got in line for take off. Then, the captain says that Laguardia is down to one runway and won't let us take off....for TWO hours...and if we return to the gate they will cancel our flight because it wasn't full. Well, two hours later Laguardia clears us, but DFW is closed due to a nasty thunderstorm. So, THREE hours and TWENTY minutes later we finally took off. The rest of the trip here was uneventful. I did worry for a bit when the car service we used had an Iraqi driver, but Nick didn't suffer any flashbacks!

This morning we had a late breakfast, bagels of course, and headed toward Radio City. We took a great tour of the theater and in a wonderful twist of fate were there during Rockette auditions!!! Grace got to see the girls all trying out, in the halls and dance rooms, wearing leotards and practicing for their audition. (Nick also thought that was the best part of the tour!) Then we met a Rockette in full costume, they made a fuss about her wanting to come to NY for her birthday just to meet a Rockette.

Below is Grace lounging in the Ladies Lounge.

After Radio City, we headed to 5th Ave. to the American Girl Store. Since we had been here this past summer, we weren't quite as overwhelmed by this four storystore dedicated to fulfilling girlhood dreams and emptying the wallets of parents everywhere. Two dolls, some books, and several outfits later we were done. We then meandered up 5th Ave. toward Central Park stopping in Trump Tower, Tiffany's and FAO Sharwz.

At Central Park we hopped in a horse drawn carriage and took a ride through the park. The park was beautiful. It was a perfect day..sunny and about 75 degrees. This gave us a great rest from all the walking too.

After this we headed back to the hotel so Grace (& Gigi) could rest before the Broadway show.

While they rested, Nick and I wandered around Times Square. Below is Grace in her new birthday Heely's!Tonight we had a great dinner at a local deli and went to Beauty and the Beast. Grace never moved. She was totally hooked!! I'm so glad that she enjoys and appreciates Broadway. I had a blast just watching her take it all in and wonder how it works!!

Afterwards, we went for dessert. She ordered ice cream...of course...and did manage to stay awake long enough to eat it, but not long enough for the rest of us to finish! Nick had to carry her back to the hotel. She's had an unbelieveable day for an almost 6 year old!

Nick has always liked it when we included food pictures here on our blog..fortunately he was along to actually enjoy them this time!

Matzoh Ball Soup!

Nick enjoying a Rueben!This is my weakness here....PIZZA!!!

Potato Latkes!Egg Salad on Challah!

This is a compilation of what we ALL had to eat today...I did NOT consume all this on my own! However, I did eat so much today that I probably gained 20 pounds!

Tomorrow we are planning on exploring Chinatown and lower Manhatten.

Blessings,

Leslie