Carving our Pumpkins!

Well I totally slacked on Halloween this year. I have no idea where my decorations are and we skipped the pumpkin patch this year. I normally am all about pumpkin carving and I buy a fancy kit and do some intricate design.  This year we used a basic knife and a basic design.  We did manage to carve our pumpkins tonight and they turned out great!

Getting ready to go! 

Putting these kids to work.  Amazingly mommy was the only one who got her hands dirty...

The finished product!  Not too bad. 

Couldn't resist this pic of Madeline showing off her belly!

The girls are SO excited for Halloween now.  We are keeping our pumpkins inside until Halloween night so they don't rot out in the heat before then.  It's strange living in the heat again during the Fall!

American Girl trip #2

Brooke had received some money for her birthday and was dying to buy her first American Girl doll. Knowing how indecisive she is, I had her go online the night before and pick one out. This really did not work out well. After an hour of browsing online, we narrowed it down to four dolls. 

After walking through the entire store for an hour, Brooke narrowed it down to McKenna and a doll that looked like Brooke. Then became the internal turmoil of having to choose. Now she was not asking for both, just very torn over which doll to choose. Soon she was in tears sobbing on the floor of the store.  Luckily, a very nice man who worked there came over and talked to Brooke about each of her choices and what the differences were, etc.  Then once she said what she chose, he quickly took the other doll away and out of her sight.  This man was good.  I am guessing she is not the first child to have a meltdown inside the store LOL! 

Here we are on the LIRR heading into the city. 

First subway ride!

Standing in front of the McKenna display

Here we are narrowed down to two dolls.  She sat here for a good 30 minutes trying to decide on her favorite.

Soon she was crying.  Devastated that she could not choose. 

Here she is!  Finally happy with McKenna out of the box!

Dance pictures!

Here are Brooke's dance pictures for this year.  How did she get this old???? I think they turned out pretty well if I do say so myself!  She just loves dance and I hope she continues with it!

May Happenings

I can't believe May is almost over.  Time is flying!  Here are a few things we have done this May.

We went to the Merrick Fair this month.  The kids love it and we can walk to it so its an easy outing for everyone!

The kids loved the carousel of course!

We all went on the Ferris Wheel together and then Brooke rode the roller coaster alone.

Brooke got her face painted too!  She was devastated when we had to wipe it off.  

This is a random pic from JC Penney.  We went to pic up our birthday photos and Brooke spotted this comforter and declared her love for it.  NOT going to happen but she begged to have her picture taken with it so we would remember it....

Since its warmer out now we are able to go for walks at night to get ice cream.  Having an ice cream place (two actually) within walking distance is both awesome and terrible at the same time LOL.  I must say this picture was a mild success!  Now we just need to work on Madeline actually looking and smiling at the camera at the same time! 

Brooke channels her inner Carrie Underwood

My girls love Carrie Underwood. Wonder where they get it from?

Brooke's recital preview

Here is a brief clip of Brooke's costume and dance recital dance!  She is so excited!  It's a little blurry but you get the picture.  Next week we have pictures and get our matching pom poms!

Birthday Party Palooza!

I am way late on this post. I know.  April was the craziest month for us by far.  As the kids get older our schedule gets so full! 

Brooke and Madeline had a joint party at Chuck E Cheese on March 31st.  Brooke invited some of her friends and Madeline had a few there too ;)  They LOVED it.  I know these parties are chaotic but my kids had the best time ever.  Plus I didn't have to do anything but show up with cupcakes.  HUGE BONUS!  Everyone was happy! 

Here are the two birthday girls before the party started:

some action shots of Madeline:

Then  came the birthday celebration.  Each girl got a crown and got to sing and dance on stage:

Cupcakes were a HIT. 

 

Then of course came the ticket booth.  This might be my favorite picture ever taken:

 

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! 

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!

A trip to see the Easter Bunny!

Somehow Easter is sneaking up on us and I figured this week would be better than next to go visit the Easter Bunny! Yes, I pay $25 to get these pics taken, but I love looking at them every year to see how the kids have grown :)  Luckily there was no one in line and Madeline did not even freak out!  Score!

Here is our pic from today!

 And for comparison, here is last year's photo!