Be still my heart

Tonight at dinner Andrew told me he snuggles Ryan when he asks him to because "Ryan is my favorite thing-my whole family is my favorite thing." Such a sweet comment. My two sweet boys (unless it is bedtime/middle of the night:)

Date night #3!

We made it out to our third date since we have lived here!! Woohoo! We went to a place called Graffiti that my friend Cady recommended and it was delicious. Tiny little tables and tapas, and we will definitely be back! We befriended the couple beside us because you are literally on top of each other. After dinner we asked where we should go to grab a drink (because they lived in the neighborhood) and we started walking towards a wine bar.  It had closed down and then we saw Crif Dogs, which is home to Please Don't Tell, a speakeasy that has been on our list to try out. It was still early so we decided to try to see if we could get in and we did! You walk into this phone booth and dial and wait for the door to open (where that menu looking thing is).  You would never know what it was if you didn't know. Cocktails were $15 a piece, but delicious, and you can get fancy hot dogs because it is in the back of Crif Dogs. Very cool! Only in NYC! Thanks Katie for babysitting!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

I ventured out and made Chris his favorite birthday cake this year. His mom usually makes Peach Cake and Chris loves it, so I welcome it. It didn't turn out as delicious as hers, but we enjoyed it!

Hope you had a great day Honey!

           Andrew wanted Chris to have a pirate birthday, hence the use of the pirate candle again.

Grandma came to visit!

Mom/Grandma got to come up for Mother's Day weekend. We tried to stay pretty relaxed, but wanted for her to be able to experience some of the city. Her first day here we got a little behind but Andrew got to show her some of his gymnastics moves. This was walking from gymnastics to school.

 On Friday we walked down to the zoo and go to meet up with Katie, Carly and Jacob to enjoy a picnic afterwards. The kids loved listening to the guitarist and even put some money in his case "that he was collecting" as Andrew said.

 We stopped to take pictures with the BallerinaMime. She changes positions after every picture. Very cool.

 We got to take our first Circle Line Tour around the bottom half of the island. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and we had a good time overall. The kids were done about halfway through, but they still had fun.

 So many people on the boat, good pictures were kind of hard to get!

 The next day we had family pictures taken. I can't wait to get them back, but here were a few I got with my own camera at the end of the session.

 And of course we had to visit the cool playground at 100th/Central Park West. We will definitely be back!

We made it to the Museum of Natural History on a rainy day for a short visit.

 We just played around the apartment the rest of the time! Hopefully Mom isn't so pooped she can't make it back again next year!

                                      Lounging with FasmaTas in the sunshine

                                             Happy Mother's Day Mom!

                                            Andrew and Ryan had to take a few shots-

                                     So glad you could visit!  See you in SC soon!!

Singer/Guitarist in the making

So, I still can't figure out why blogger won't let me add videos without putting them on youtube. So, if you click here, you can watch Ryan singing his heart out for about 5 minutes. It is long, but pretty stinkin' cute. 

Party, Party, Party!

We couldn't get one by this birthday boy! Andrew remembered that Ryan had 3! birthday celebrations and he was pretty adamant about having two parties. Okay, I said. Then, he decided that the one in NY would be a pirate party and MD would be an angry birds party. Okay, I agreed again. Well, next year will be ONE party! This momma is exhausted!

 The parties were so much fun. The pirate party was supposed to be held at John Jay playground, but the weather didn't cooperate. I called our "community room," but it was $250 to rent with a $500 deposit. And it is EMPTY!! So, I passed and decided we could just do it here. There were 14 kids including babies/siblings and 10 adults. It was nice and cozy.

Thanks to Cady and Katie for helping with the cupcakes! And Mary for helping before the indoor party!

                       Presents at the end of the bed first thing in the morning

                         Daddy made m&m pancakes for special birthday breakfast

                                                         Pirate boat dogs

                                                   Lilly with her three swords

 Chris is under this pile of craziness! He had all the kids chasing him SCREAMING around the apartment

                           Stroller parking-this is the way we do it

                                        Baby Peeeeeter                                  Arrgh Jacob!

Happy Pirate Party!!

Then, we were heading home to Baltimore for a benefit, a wedding, and an ANGRY birds party!

I somehow got the thought in my head that I wanted to make an angry birds pinata. Here was my attempt-

                                  I ended up doing 5 layers…which may have been too many...

                                     Ryan had to help paint while Andrew was at school

                                             Filling the bird with candy

                                                               The final bird!

It took quite a while and some tearing, but the kids finally got the candy!

                                  Every kid took nice, hard whacks, but nothing was taking this bad boy down.

                                     The boys chatting about Cars 2

Angry Bird Cupcakes 

Daddy's shirt

I think we will need a few weeks to recover! Happppppppy Birthday Parties!