First Day of 4th Grade

Emily started 4th grade last Thursday.  She got Mrs. Stewart as her main teacher and Mrs. Newman as her switch teacher.  She doesn't have any super close friends in her class, but lots of people that she knows.  I'm sure she won't have any issues making some new friends.   Emily is excited about all the flexible seating that's available to the 4th graders and also getting to go to the big park for recess.  Here's to an awesome 4th grade year!

 

 

First Day of 2nd Grade

Evan started 2nd grade last Thursday.  He has Mrs. Lewis for his teacher.  His class, along with 1 of the other 2nd grade classes, is trying something new this year.  They are having co-teachers.  So even though he got Mrs. Lewis for a teacher, her will also be taught by Mrs. Gallagher as well.  I'm curious to see how this co-teaching idea works.  Evan is excited that he is now allowed to do the monkey bars on the playground - something only 2nd graders and older can do.  I'm hopeful that he has an awesome 2nd grade school year!
 

NYC Trip Day 4

Wednesday was our last day in NYC.  We had a late flight out though, so we were able to spend the majority of our day exploring the city.

We started our day off early in the hopes of seeing the end of the Today Show being filmed.  We got there about 30 minutes before it went off the air for the day, but by then they had drawn the shades down on the studio and we couldn't even see in.  So instead we popped in the bakery right across from the studio for some breakfast.

After a quick breakfast, we hopped on the subway to go to one of NYC's newest areas - Hudson Yards.  I wanted to see The Vessel.  I didn't buy us tickets to climb it, just knowing the kids would most likely be worn out by this point.  It was a good decision!  The Vessel is right at the end of the Highline, so we decided to check that out and walked it all the way to the Chelsea Market.  The Highline was really neat.  It was an old railroad track that they have turned into a nice walkway / park area.  It was a nice way to see more of the city.

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we got to Chelsea Market, we had hoped to find some good pizza to have for lunch, but they didn't really have any of the typical NY pizza.  So we walked down a bit to find an authentic pizza place for lunch.  Then we headed back to Chelsea Market to really check everything out.

 

   

 

 

   
We walked the Highline back to Hudson yards before catching the subway back to our hotel.  We had been given late checkout, but around 3:00, it was time to head to the airport.  It was perfect timing too because it was now pouring outside.  Thank goodness the rain waited until it was time for us to leave!

We arrived at the airport with no issues for what was supposed to be a 5:40 departure time.  Silly us.  The rain had delayed so many flights and as a result we ended up with a 4 hour delay.  The airport was so jam packed and had so few places to sit, eat, etc.  We made due and luckily the kids were fine just playing on their ipads.  We finally left NYC just before 10 and landed just before midnight. It was a long and exhausting day.

 

   

Overall, we had a great trip.  I think we really fit in so much and were able to show the kids all the major sights in NYC.  I thought Emily was the perfect age to go and she absolutely loved everything about NYC.  Evan, on the otherhand, probably would have been better had we waited a year or 2.  His little legs just got so tired, even with taking the subway a ton.  I told Em maybe in a couple years, we could go back around Christmas time for a girls trip.  I'd love to show her the city all decorated.

NYC Trip Day 3

I think the kids will agree that Day 3 was their favorite.  We took the subway to the Museum of Natural History to start the day.  The kids really enjoyed it.  I actually had to pull them away after just a couple of hours because we still had so much other stuff on the day's agenda.

Evan was most excited about the reptile exhibit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we left the museum, we walked right across the street to Central Park.  Evan had mentioned one of the things he really wanted to do was eat a hot dog from a street vendor, so that's just what we did for lunch.  Then we started our trek through Central Park.  It was huge and we got lost several times trying to find the things we were looking for, but in the end we found a lot of them!  The kids loved running around and Evan really enjoyed climbing all the big rocks.

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

Just as we were leaving Central Park it started to drizzle on us.  We headed back to our hotel to clean up for dinner, but not before stopping at Dylan's Candy bar.

That night we had early dinner reservations at Carmine's.  It was so yummy and Emily was in heaven with yet another Italian dinner.

After dinner, we walked across the street to go see The Lion King on Broadway.  KK was nice enough to treat us all to tickets.  I was worried how well Evan would sit during the show, but he did awesome.  Both kids really enjoyed it.

   

   

   

 

We walked over to Times Square after the show, since Evan and Shawn hadn't walked over with us a couple nights before.   It was still crazy packed!
 

Evan was clearly impressed. . .

Let's try this again.

Now there's some excitement!

 
We had 1 more busy day ahead of us before it was time to head back home.