A couple weeks after I moved to Virginia, I went to visit Alyssa in Connecticut. I've always enjoyed visiting her in all her various locations, such as Atlanta, San Fran, and Switzerland. This was my first trip to see her in Connecticut. I was able to ride the Amtrak train, which took about five-ish hours, riding through 8? 9? 11 states? I don't remember. I'm not super familiar with East coast geography yet.
First thing we did after she picked me up was go to Sam's school to see him do some karate. It was fun watching a bunch of 7-year-olds each kick a board in half. Sam did it the first try with his bare foot! Go Sam! Afterwards we went to Baskin Robbins for some ice cream to celebrate Sam's graduation from Ninja Club.
Over the next few days I helped Alyssa with the kids, played games with Sam and Mia, went to the gym, watched "The Bachelor" with a bunch of Alyssa's friends, and helped Alyssa plan for Mia's 5th birthday party. It was fun! We even went to see "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel". It was surprisingly entertaining! haha.
When we visited New York City, we checked out a museum on the lower east side. It was an apartment building that was very well preserved from being closed down in the 30's. It used to be an area where a lot of immigrants lived, so we were able to take a tour of the building and get an idea of what it was like for some of those families in the 1800's up until the building got closed. It was interesting, and our tour guide was.... very dramatic.
Interesting neighborhood where we ate lunch
It was REALLY cold there!
We bought some cool hats to help keep us warmer. Behind us is one of the old historical buildings in the area.
Later we went toward 5th avenue/Times Square area. We found a Lush store where we bought some face and hair masks for later.... Love that store! We also walked around the famous Macy's on 34th street. Once it got dark we headed toward Times Square. We went to the giant Toys R Us, where they have a full sized ferris wheel just inside the door, and took a look around. My favorite was the animatronic T-rex in the Jurassic Park section!
I kind of felt like a dork here
We were able to meet up with Jared a little later and eat dinner with him. It was a fun night! New York is a very cool city.
Mia's birthday party was at the end of the week. She wanted a Wizard of Oz theme. The little girls started out getting whirled up to the attic by a tornado, where they had to use their Glenda wands to pop all the attacking bubbles! (bubble machine). Next, they followed the Yellow Brick Road (construction paper) to munchkin land where they had to eat their way through the munchkin doughnut forest to earn their rings. They continued on the yellow brick road and ran into the candy bomb set up by the wicked witch (pinata). Once they exploded the bomb, they were able to enter Emerald City and receive their ruby slippers to return home. Then it was cake and pizza time, oh yeah. We made an awesome looking cake.
Mia had me draw the characters for the cake. She LOVED them! Especially Dorothy. After I made Dorothy she was playing with it and humming, and apparently it was too much for Sam. I heard him say, "Mia! Just because Hillery makes a paper doll for you, doesn't mean you have to sing about it!!" Haha. Oh, siblings....
And of course, after the kids went to bed we watched American Idol and pampered ourselves with the Lush hair and face masks. Pants on the ground.
Thanks for a fun trip, Lys!
