Knitting Zeal

Springtime in New York

For at least a year and a half now, my five year old son has been asking to visit New York City.  He knows about it from a.) Curious George lives there and b.) his daddy works there about once a week.  Christmas 2012 I gave him a book for kids about visiting NYC, but we delayed going because it just seemed so overwhelming.  Back in March, I had the chance to go to NYC with my husband for a fun night out to celebrate a friend's graduation and move at Café Boulud, near Central Park West.  It was a fun night and I realized how easy it would be to get to the city via NJ Transit, as long as the kiddo was ok with taking a very long train ride. 

Since being a train conductor is one of his life goals, we decided it was a great time to try a day trip to the big apple.  Plus, the weather has been BEAUTIFUL for walking around a city.  We surprised the little guy on Thursday night and told him that we would be getting up early the next day and heading to the train for our day in New York.  He was so excited!  (OK, he still says he really thought he'd get to ride on an Amtrak train, but I promised that will happen some day...)

After a quick taxi ride, we made our first stop at the Central Park Zoo, which despite the movie, does not have the same animals that appeared in the Madagascar movies!  We brought a picnic lunch with us from home and enjoyed our lunch watching the Sea Lions kiss!  The penguins put on quite a show, while the polar bear was snoozing in the shade.  The zoo was really tiny and completely manageable.  We saw every exhibit, including the children's zoo that was a block away, in about two hours. 

We spent the rest of the day visiting toy stores.  First up, the Apple Store on 5th Avenue.  The store is that glass structure.  There is a round elevator and a circular staircase  that goes down to the actual store.  It was mobbed.  Then we headed to FAO Schwartz, which was in the building behind the Apple Store.  In my memory it was much more amazing.  I forgot that Toys R Us owns it.  They did have a massive amount of toys for sale, along with some unique things, like live superheros available for photos.  I let my kiddo pick out a toy as his souvenir.  He chose an NYPD car set and a model Taxi car. 
We walked many many many blocks that day.  We visited M & M World, which was an overpriced candy store that played too loud music and was too crowded (I felt so old there...it was so annoying!)  We had dinner at Bubba Gump's Shrimp in Time's Square, which was really good and had great views of the Good Morning America building.  Time's Square itself was packed.  It was about 4:30 on Friday afternoon and the area was filled with so many people and sights.  It was overwhelming.  The digital ad displays are amazing and overly abundant.  We didn't know where to look first. 
We concluded our trip with a ride on the ginormous, 60-foot high ferris wheel inside the Toys R Us in Times Square.  That toy store was really impressive!  Needless to say, the kiddo found even more NYPD cars that he wanted.  (Other than train conductors, he loves police and firefighters!)  The ferris wheel made be feel queasy, but I survived!  We got to ride in a taxi made out of Megablocks.  My favorite one was the Little Tikes Cozy Coupe gondola! Isn't it cute?
Someone also got to meet the "real" Geoffrey!  The kid's favorite animal is the giraffe.  The zoo didn't have any, but I think this one made him just as happy!
It was a great first trip to NYC for the kiddo.  He can't wait until we go back!  Next time we'll have to visit the Empire State Building.

Spring has sprung with fun!

So now that it's starting to feel like spring weather, my family has jumped into spring mode and has been participating in fun outdoor weather activities.  Here's a little wrap up of some of the fun things we've been up to with the kiddo:

We vistited the Morris Arborteum to check out the cherry blossoms and the Big Bugs exhibit.  The trees were beautiful!!  Someone had fun climbing a few and running around.  He loved following the map to find all of the 11 bugs throughout the gardens.  From giant ants to a floating dragonfly, we found them all.  This huge ladybug was particularly cute.  All of the sculptures were made out of fallen trees and willow branches by an artist from Long Island.  They will be there all summer, so I'm sure we will be back to see them again.
We took my son's favorite form of transportaion, the train and subway, and caught a Sunday afternoon Phillies game on opening weekend.  It was a rather boring game, which they lost, but it was a nice day.  My husband even won a baseball from the opening game! My son made his own homemade sign to cheer on the team.  He loves that he has learned how to print and copies the spelling of words he doesn't know.  I can't always read what he writes, but its wonderful to see his skills emerge.

We have tickets for some summer games, so hopefully we'll see a winning game then!

We visited a local playground with a friend.  Can you see the absolute joy in his face as he ferociously rocks in that little car?

We took the train into Philadelphia for a "surprise" visit to see Daddy at work and have lunch.  We snapped a few photos at the train station for a school project.  He will be star of the week this week at school and we made a poster describing him.  For his favorite place, he said it was SEPTA's Suburban Station.  Not Disney World or Sesame Place.  No, the train station in underground Center City Philadelphia.  He wanted a photo of himself in front of the name of the station.  This is his new smile...his Lego Man smile!  (He even showed me the Lego minifigure he is trying to imitate!)

We had fun at lunch and then walked over to Sister Cities Park near the Parkway, along with a walk to Logan Square/Circle's fountain. 
He had the chance to go back to the Parkway the next day with Daddy for the Philadelphia Science Festival.  He checked out the Philadelphia CSI truck, did some science experiments and even got to climb on a real SEPTA bus, something that he has wanted to do for weeks!  (He has a planned bus route he wants to go on in our neighborhood.  He is obsessed!)

This week spring soccer starts.  It will be his first time playing for our Township.  He didn't want to do the intramural team, so I found an instructional soccer group for preschoolers.  I hope he meets some local kids that he'll be in Kindergarten with next fall!

Happy Spring!

 

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How to make a candy bouquet

For Valentine's Day this past February, I made my husband this candy bouquet, filled with his favorite candy, Reese's peanut butter cups!  We were all sick during February, so I never got around to posting this.  I think it would be a fun gift for anytime of year and would make a fun birthday gift or hostess gift.  

I started with a clear glass vase that I already owned.  I large drinking glass would even work.  I wanted the vessel to be clear so that the foil hearts would be seen, but a solid container with some floral foam inside would work as well to stabilize the skewers.

I bought different sizes of peanut butter cups...some singles, some double packs and peanut butter hearts.  I also picked up a multi pack of iTunes gift cards and some vitamin drink mixes since we were all battling colds that month! I used two sizes of wood skewers, the kind I use for the grill.  Thin wood dowels would work too.  I secured each of the wrapped PB cups and the gift cards on a skewer using clear packing tape.  This seem to work really well.  I slipped the end of the skewer into the inside of the candy wrapper to keep it from sliding down the skewer.  After filling the vase with the foil wrapped hearts, I arranged the skeweres into the vase, much like flower arranging.  I adding some red curling ribbon to jazz it up.  Since it was for my husband, I kept it minimal.  I added some foam heart stickers to the packaging to make it Valentine's themed.  

It was a hit!  And enjoyed!  Thankfully we are all healthier now that it's time for spring allergy season!  

 

Visiting the Reading Public Museum

After stumbling upon info about a Lego exhibit in Reading, I decided to take advantage of a family day to visit the Reading Public Museum last Monday in West Reading, PA.  It's a bit over an hour drive for us, but an easy drive, and the weather was bright and sunny.  Many years ago, prior to parenthood, my husband and I went to this museum to see a traveling Post Secret exhibit there.  This time, the temporary exhibts featured Legos and Jelly Belly jelly beans, two favorites in our house now!

That ant sculpture is one of two ants in front of the museum.  What was fun was the arboretum surrounding the musuem building, which would have been fun to explore if it weren't so windy that afternoon.  Inside the museum we checked out the jelly bean art work....classic art crafted out of Jelly Belly beans!  They were enclosed in glass because some visitors at past exhibits had been caught licking the jelly beans!   The close up of the jelly beans with the white cluster is a close up of the Girl with a Pearl Earring's pearl earring.  It was a really fun exhibit filled with some of my favorite art work copies.  

The main exhibit we went to see was the Lego Castle Adventure.  This was a hands-on exhibit featuring castles and Legos, covering the design and building of castles.  There were many Lego building stations for the regular little bricks as well as tables of the bigger Lego Duplo bricks for younger kids.  It was a really cool exhibit that included an interactive catapult game and a jousting area.  There were lots of Lego castle structures on display...they were really cool!   It was a fun visit!  These two exhibits end May 5th, so go see them while they are still there!

Family sick days

Last week, were really looking forward to the holiday weekend that included Presidents' Day.  Friday was supposed to be mild weather, so I had a trip to the Morris Arboretum planned for the kiddo and I.  The kiddo had a swim lesson and a birthday party scheduled for Saturday. My husband took Monday off so that we could spend a family day together exploring the Franklin Institute. My husband and I were fighting some sinus troubles, but they were manageable, just annoying.  And then the kiddo woke up on Friday with a fever.  Life came to an abrupt halt.

My son rarely gets sick.  Seasonal and pet allergies trouble him, but a full blown cold and a fever occurs once yearly or less.  So when he woke up on Friday morning and climbed into my bed, he felt like a heating pad on high.  He had lots of nasal congestion but thankfully his lungs were clear sounding.  His temp was just barely 100 degrees F, so it wasn't a worrisome temperature, but it was enough to make him lethargic.  For two days he laid on the sofa and cuddled with me.  This is a kid who just plays all day usually.  When he had no energy but to lay there, I knew he was feeling really bad.   

We were all feeling sick.  It was just sad. How does a family deal with everyone being sick?  This is what we did: 

• Clean.  I continuously used bleach wipes to clean doorknobs, sink faucets and even the remote controls to keep the germs at bay.  We ran the dishwasher with the sani-rinse setting too.   
• Laundry.  I changed bed sheets, especially pillow cases.  I also changed the hand towels in the bathrooms and kitchen often.
• Hydrate.  My son had no appetite, but I insisted that he drink often.  He asked for iced tea, so I made a decaf herbal blend of hot tea and chilled it on ice for him to drink.  I also gave him as many Honest Kids juice pouches as he wanted, along with water.  The parents drank lots of hot tea and water too.  I believe staying hydrated really helps with congestion, as well as has a cooling effect for a fever.
• TV viewing.  We usually don't watch TV during the day.  With the lethargy going on here, we took advantage of the on-demand feature and found the first season of Phineas and Ferb and watched almost all of them!  It was a nice way to cheer us up and we all got a laugh even though we felt crummy.  
• Sleep.  My son refuses to nap because he is too old, he thinks, for naps.  He did end up falling asleep on my several times.  He also went to bed earlier than usual each night.  This really helped him.  (I on the other hand got little sleep, as I cleaned, did laundry and kept checking on my kiddo or had to help him when he was up with coughing spasms. My insomnia was kicked into high gear!)

By Sunday, my son was getting better but we stayed home and he just played all day. Monday he seemed to be great in the morning and we took the chance to go ahead with our plans to visit the Franklin Institute.  I still felt exhausted from lack of sleep, but wanted to make the best of it since my son was so excited to see the Franklin Institute for the first time.  It was a mistake to go, as he relapsed a bit by starting to be crabby and the cold air made his cough worse, so I kept him home from school on Tuesday, just in case.  He was so mad that he missed school! (He LOVED the FI though, so much so that we bought a family membership so we can go back again!)

We are all still coughing a bit, but feel much better this weekend!  I'm feeling grateful that we were just dealing with cold viruses and not the flu!

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Make way for the Big Boy room!

My son's bedroom has been through a metamorphis over the past five years.  It went from baby nursery to a big boy bedroom in no time at all!  

When he was a baby, his room looked like this, complete with hand knit blankets and a beautiful crib (that was later recalled due to the drop down side!)

 

Then he grew up into a toddler bed, his blue race car bed.  The blankets were still there, but lots of boy stuff too!

And now, he has a real twin sized bed...the one he'll sleep in until he leaves for college!  We searched for over a year and really debated what type of bedroom set we'd get him.  He wanted a really cool castle bed with a slide, but in the end we decided it just wasn't practical or fiscally wise!  We let him help choose this set from our favorite local family-owned furniture store.  They thought it would take about 4-6 weeks for the furniture to arrive, but we were surprised that it came in under two weeks!  Yikes!  That meant lots of cleaning out and disposal of the old dresser and chest of drawers that had been my furniture.  We had to replace them since the drawers were broken beyond repair.  I had a week to empty out the room and sort through everything.  I was able to donate tons of clothing and baby bedding, along with a bag of unused stuffed animals.  We still have an abundance of stuffed animals, but I think they'll be here for a while.  

My son wanted a construction themed bedroom.  I am still in the process of making that theme happen, but for now he is happy with these cool wall decals I found that have construction vehicles, cones and signs.  I like that they are repositionable and won't harm the paint.  And for $12, when he changes his mind about the theme, they won't be a huge financial dent!  We picked out some construction themed fabric to use for pillow cases and I found some construction themed bedding that will make it on his bed once I get it all washed.  For now he is using his Ikea duvet with trucks and cars on it, and it works well!  

We decided not to get the desk that matched the furniture.  It was huge and would not fit into the room well.  We chose to buy a very small desk from Ikea that fits nicely and was very inexpensive.  If it ends up with crayons or marker stains on it, it won't be the end of the world.  Eventually it will hold a laptop nicely or be a good place to do some homework.  For now, my son is pretending it's his work desk!  He has the best imagination!

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52 Week Project: Week 3 Panoramic photos (on Long Beach Island)

This week's challenge in the 52 Week Challenge was using the panoramic setting on my phone.  I have an iPhone and just recently discovered that there was an option to take panoramic photos.  I am still a bit shaky when panning, so I tend to get a black blobish line on the top of some photos.  I also didn't do all that much that was exiciting...no snow, no fun daytrips...that is until the weekend, which is why this post is not on Friday.  

So on Saturday of this past weekend we took a day trip to the beach.  Not only was the beach a perfect place to take some panoramic shots, but we also caught the sunsetting over the bay near Barnegat Lighthouse!  Here are my shots for this week:

 

Ship Bottom Beach, at 25th St., LBI NJ, 1/19/13

Sunset over the bay, Barnegat Lighthouse, LBI, NJ 1/19/13

 

It was fun to head out to the beach in January!  We were also happy to see the island coming along nicely with the clean up efforts from Hurricane Sandy.  We checked out the bungalow we rent each summer and were releived to see it still standing.  We know it had water damage, but the owners assured us it would be ready for the summer.  

We drove the entire length of the island.  In the winter with no traffic lights it was remarkably fast to drive.  We were saddened to see that so many businesses suffered and appeared to be out of business.  We are hoping that some do come back by summertime.  We drove all the way to the most southern end of the island, as far as we were allowed to go, to Holgate, the part of Long Beach Island that seems to have suffered the most from the destruction of the storm.  Having seen so many photos of the destruction, I though I'd be prepared, but seeing the damage in person was still shocking.  Even after several months of clean up work, there was still so much sand everywhere.  It looked like piles of snow in some places, instead of sand.  Then there were the homes....so many were ruined.  Big beach houses missing the entire first floor, with just the pilings showing where the garages and stairs once were.  Several homes were literally washed off their foundations by the waves and sand.  The trailer park is in the process of being closed permanently since there was so much damage to the infactructure.  The mobile homes looked like someone had knocked over a row of dominos.  

I had wanted to park and walk around to see everything, but there was no where to park with all the sand everywhere.  I took some photos out my window as I drove slowly down the street.  Here are some that I took:

I hope that those homes were just vacation homes, and not leaving anyone truly homeless.  I think it will be a few years until Holgate returns to some sort of normal.  

The rest of the island, while certainly suffering from storm damage, appeared ok.  There was lots of sand on the end of the streets, but when we took a walk up to the beach in Ship Bottom, we were happy to see how much sand was on the beach.  I had feared that the beach would have been washed away.  It definitely seemed somewhat "shorter" than last summer, but it looks like they have worked hard at replacing fencing and moving the sand from the streets back onto the beach.  The kiddo had a blast running around on the beach.  He is our little beach boy.

We ended the day with a visit to the Northern end of the island, near Barnegat Lighthouse.  We got there after the park and lighthouse had closed, but there is a small park area across the street that we were able to explore and watch the sunset over the bay. 

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2012, my year in review in photos

I can't believe another year has passed and it's January 2013.  The month of December flew by, thanks to our family vacation to Disney World and the rush of the holidays.  I haven't even had the chance to get online much, especially to blog.  Here is my wrap up of last year in pictures:

January

A visit to our favorite place, the Please Touch Museum!

 

February

Crafty idea inspired by Pinterest

Completed Summit!!

 

March

 

My favorite photo of the kiddo and his best girls. Getting a taste for spring at the Morris Arboretum.

 

April

Built the kid a playhouse, injuring my elbow! He loves it.

 

May

 

The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival was so much fun! Saw these cute little goats.

 

June

We spent a week at our favorite NJ beach, Ship Bottom, Long Beach Island. We didn't know then that the beach and town would be devastated months later from Hurricane Sandy.

 

July

 

We saw the Imagination Movers three times in 2012, including this time in July at Sesame Place! So much fun!

August

Fun at the Turkey Hill Experience! Ice cream samples galore!

 

September

 

My baby turned FIVE in September! And found out he was going to Disney World in 60 days!

 

October

Some spooky fun at the Morris Arboretum in the fall!

 

November

 

We visited Grover and the gang at Sesame Place in November for the opening weekend of a Very Furry Christmas. Saw the Imagination Movers there again too!!

A fun family day at the Garden State Discovery Museum. Here the boys are encased in a giant bubble!

 

December

We had our first family visit to Disney World! Meeting Mickey was just one of the highlights!

We spent the afternoon on Lido Beach in Sarasota too! Loved being on the beach in December!

The kiddo sang with his classmates in a lovely Christmas program at school! Such cuteness. Happy New Year!!

 

 

Our fun afternoon with the Nutcracker

As one of our holiday festivities, my mom and I took my son to see the Balanchine's Nutcracker performed by the Pennsylvania Ballet.  It has been years since I last saw the Nutcracker, or any ballet performance for that matter, so I was especially excited to see a live performance again.  We were very fortunate to receive complimentary press tickets to the performance from the PA Ballet.  My son had never seen a ballet before, but he has experienced live theater and musicals, so I knew he would be able to handle the performance.  He looked so daper in his "dress" clothes, insisting on wearing a tie instead of the new sweater I knit for him!  

We had the chance to walk around the theatre for a bit before the show started.  We got to wave to the Mouse King and see the orchestra warm up.  Since I had last seen the Nutcracker the set has been redesigned and the costumes updated.  When the Overture began I had a moment of mom-pride when my son leaned over and started identifying the different instruments he was hearing.  (Those baby music classes paid off!) He was enthralled by the performance.  Everything was beautiful!  The Sugar Plum Fairy was performed by Lauren Fadeley, who was stunning.  The battle with the Mouse King and the Nutcracker was funny.  The only part he said he didn't like was the dancer who performed the "Tea" dance.  I love the second act of the Ballet, as it features such great dancing.  Tchiakovsky's score is still my all time favorite holiday music.  Hearing it live was amazing.  

The orchestra warming up

 

While I would have loved to have photographed the performance, it isn't allowed, so we will have to live by memories.  It was a magical performance and I'm so glad my son enjoyed it as well.  I figure I will have a few more years where he'll put up with going to it.  Then I'll have to wait until he is an adult and takes his old mom to the ballet!  

Waiting for the ballet to begin

 

There were many young children dancers in the ballet.  I asked my son if he would like to take dance lessons, but he quickly said no.  He loves to dance, but I think we will stick with soccer and swimming lessons for now!  

Thanks to the Pennsylvania Ballet for a wonderful experience and beautiful performance!

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Disney World at Christmastime

We recently returned from a long planned trip to Disney World! It was delightful to be in Florida during December!  We joked about how we could get used to seeing snowmen decorations while it was 80 degrees out and balmy.  

This trip was a birthday present for my son who turned five a few months ago.  We decided to go at Christmastime so that we could enjoy the decorations and go at a less busy time of year.  The parks were just beautiful and we had a blast.  The kiddo was a great traveler and enjoyed his first plane ride.  He loved everything we did and outlasted us every day!  While the parents' feet were dragging, he was ready to do something else!

I took almost 1000 photos.  CRAZY!  I need to start working on an album so we can actually enjoy looking at them.  I like to use Picaboo to make photo albums....much easier than printing photos and putting them in a book! I made a calendar for our family using our Disney photos and it turned out great!

We were able to capture some great family shots while there and my son had the chance to visit with Santa in the Magic Kingdom.  My son is shy and has posed with Santa reluctantly in the past.  The Disney Santa was amazing with him...spent about 10 minutes with him, chatting, getting him to laugh and hugging him.  The photographer captured some amazing shots.  It was such a nice memory to have.  

While we were at the Magic Kingdom we even had the chance to see some of the ABC Disney Christmas parade being filmed.  It made part of the park really crowded, but then other parts were empty so we got to ride many rides with no wait.  We are looking forward to watching the parade on Christmas day to see it all again!

The decorations at the parks and resorts were incredible!  From enourmous gingerbread houses to twinkling lights everywhere, it was quite a spectacle.  

The Osborne Family lights in Hollywood Studios was crazy.  It was very popular and hard to walk through since there were so many people there.  It was fun to see.  

The castle in the Magic Kingdom was beautiful at night, dripping with icicles!  We saw the Electrical Light parade one night and the Wishes light show on the castle.  It was really pretty.

I'll end with my favorite photo from the trip, one of my kiddo in EPCOT!

Merry Christmas!!