Pure Joy in the Ticket Booth

Hello Everyone!  I have been slacking on the blog lately but we had family visiting and just too much going on!  I have a ton to catch up on this week but I thought I would post a video for everyone to enjoy because I love it so much.

The girls birthday party (which I still have yet to blog about) was at Chuck E Cheese this year.  All Brooke talked about was going into the ticket booth to get the "magic ticket".  She saw this on TV and has been obsessed over it for quite some time.  Well this was her lucky day because she got to go twice since Madeline was not old enough to go.  We told Brooke to shove the tickets into her shirt to save them and she didn't want to, but ended up doing this in the end.  Oh and she ended up getting the "magic ticket" so she was thrilled.   We had bets she would cry once she got in there but she proved us wrong and LOVED IT! 

I'm Versatile!

I was so excited when Melysa at

awarded me with the
Versatile Blogger award!

I love awards! I mean who doesn't, right?

The Versatile Blogger award is awarded by your fellow bloggers and is a way
to recognize newer blogs that you really like.
And it's a great way to share those blogs with your own followers!

Thanks Melysa! 

I have to share 7 things about myself
and then
I get to award the Versatile Blogger award to 7 of my fave and growing blogs!


So 7 fun things about me:

1.   I only eat from little spoons.  I cannot eat from big soup spoons and will avoid it at all costs. 

2.  I once was on Entertainment Tonight.  I was at a movie premiere and Dustin Hoffman pulled me out of the crowd and interviewed me on the red carpet!

3.  I have lived in 5 states in 10 years.

4.  I am a total night owl.  I cannot go to bed before 10 pm and I rarely sleep through the night.

5.  I have to shower once a day.  Sometimes I shower twice a day.  I love my showers!

6.  I have kept up with this blog for a year and a half.  This is quite impressive for me because I frequently start projects and NEVER finish them.  I know sometimes it can be boring and ordinary, but sometimes its good to have a life that is boring and ordinary :) 

7.   I cannot eat tomatoes on sandwiches or hamburgers.  I can eat them in another other form (bruschetta, salsa, cooked in a dish, etc).  My husband thinks I am a crazy person. I also have other food quirks but have moved past a lot of them! 

and I am awarding the Versatile blogger award to the following great blogs:

1.  Callie at The Parker Family 

2.  Meghan at A Healthy Serving of Updates

3.  Keeli at Laughing Mom of Three

4.  Carrie at Life in the Soupbowl

5.  Beth at Life with the Windel Boys

6. Monika at Lipgloss and Legos

7. Evelyn at The Littlest Things

Make sure that you pass this on to blogs that you love :) 

Happy Easter!

Sadly, we really slacked on the picture taking this Easter!  The girls had a great time!  Loved finding the eggs hidden around the house and all of their goodies!

In the afternoon we headed to Uncle Eddies and Aunt Margaret's for dinner.  Our photo shoot failed there as well :)  Curtis and I didn't even make it into a picture! 

Easter Egg Painting!

Today we colored Easter Eggs.  This is the first year Madeline participated and she loved it!  I gave her a whisk to put the eggs in and dip them into the dye.  That worked for a while but then she saw how Brooke did it and quickly pulled the egg out of the whisk.  I did LOVE using a muffin tin for the dyes though.  It was perfect! 

Of course after all of this, all of the eggs were dyed in under 10 minutes.  It's still one of my favorite traditions though! 

Our visit to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Brooke has been begging to go to the Statue of Liberty for about 6 months.  Only my 5 year old would be obsessed about a national monument LOL! 

We decided to surprise her and not tell her where we were going on her birthday.  I bought the tickets for the ferry in advance.  I HIGHLY suggest doing this since we only then had to wait in the security line and skipped the ticket line.  Another tip is to go early.  We got there around 9:30 and walked right on the ferry.  When we left around 1 the ferry line was at least 2 hours long!  Crazy!

So we drove to Battery Park and parked a few blocks from the ferry.  On our walk there you could see the Statue so we pointed it out to her and showed her.  She was so excited! 

Here we are on the ferry ride!  It was cold :(

 

Here is the Freedom Tower.  It's getting pretty tall!

 

Here is Brooke in all of her Lady Liberty glory!  She was loving it!

and of course some more pics with the statue:

Then of course my girls had to have a snack right that second.  So they got to have a mini picnic on the grounds of Liberty Island:

Unfortunately the statue and museum are closed for renovations so after a quick stop at the gift shop (where Brooke purchased a snow globe and a mini statue) we were back on the Ferry and headed towards Ellis Island.

Once at Ellis Island we had lunch.  After that we realized that Ellis Island is not a trip for little kids.  It was really informational, but Curtis and I decided it was much more our speed so we headed out. 

Here are  the two pics from that stop LOL:

 

By some miracle, Madeline fell asleep in her stroller.  This has not happened since we was 6 months old.  Maybe even earlier! 

We had a great day and I am glad we are going a lot of this while we live in NY and can easily do day trips to see fun things! 

Happy 5th Birthday Brookie!

Brooke is 5 today!  I cannot believe how fast these 5 years have gone by.  She's really turning into a little kid vs a preschooler.  She asks very intriguing questions and keeps me on my toes mentally.  She is still dancing every week and loves her dance class.  She is also learning to swim. Brooke begs to try many different activities (acting, ice skating, and soccer to name a few).  I am thinking next year we might branch out and try something new! 

Here is a walk down memory lane!

Just a few days old: 

6 months old:

1 year old:

2 years old:

3 years old:

 4 years old:

 and finally 5!

The night before her birthday, she cried that she didn't want to be 5.  Then the night of her birthday she said she can't wait to be 6!  Here is hoping to another fun filled year.  Kindergarten will be here before you know it!