Christmas Outing in New York City

We all took off from school and work on Friday to take a trip up to New York City to enjoy the Christmas sights.  We parked the car in Hoboken and took the Path train over to Manhattan...

When we arrived at the 33rd Street station, we made our way over to Macy's to meet up with Grummy, Pop Pop, and Auntie Alice.  Here is Sean's excited face... what's he so excited about?  Well, Auntie Alice was able to get us passes to skip the line to see Santa Claus!

Both kids were a little shy at first...

but Sean quickly warmed up!

Sean told Santa that he's been good this year and politely asked for a Batman toy and Clare was able to muster up enough courage to quietly request a Pinkalicious doll.

Santa Claus chatted with Sean and asked Sean to leave out some milk and cookies for him on Christmas Eve - and some carrots for his reindeer, of course. Sean promised he would!

Sean gave Santa a big and hug and a kiss before saying good-bye.

We hung around for a few minutes and admired the Santaland lights and decorations...

And then we made our way over to Rockefeller Center to see the big tree and skating rink!

Sean thought it was pretty cool and Clare?

Well, she fell asleep a little bit after Times Square.

We had lunch at Ellen's Stardust Diner, where the waitstaff are aspiring Broadway stars and serenade the customers. The first song we heard when we walked in was a song from the new movie, "Frozen" which Clare so very happy to hear!

She was sad when the song ended and that the next song was NOT another one from "Frozen!" Can you imagine that?!?! So we cheered up by taking selfies and practicing our deepest scowls:

She cheered up considerably once her food came and even cheered and clapped for a few songs. The food was great - typical diner stuff.

With our bellies full, we walked up to FAO Schwartz to see what the kids thought of the huge toystore, but I guess it was Sean's turn to fall asleep!  Clare was wide awake, though and loved looking at all the different toys in display - especially the stuffed animals.  First, she cuddled up to a HUGE puppy but then found one that she could actually carry. But she put him back with his "brudders" since they would miss him a lot :-)

Clare fell asleep not too long after we left the toy store, so both kids missed the Plaza (where Eloise lives)! Oh well!  The last stop on our tour was Grand Central Station - the kids missed out on looking at the Christmas decorations and the astronomical ceiling over the main terminal. After resting here for a bit, we headed back downtown to catch a train home.

Ship Bottom Christmas Parade

We went to the Ship Bottom Christmas Parade on LBI this past Saturday! This was our second time at the parade - the first was in 2011 - and the kids were pumped to see some neat floats and get some candy canes!

This parade has it all - fire trucks!

The Little Mermaid!

Army trucks!

Bagpipers!

Babies in a whale!

DeLoreans!

A funny firetruck!

Saltwater taffy!

Sassy poses:

Pirate ships!

New toys!

A balloon whale!

A wrapped up fire truck!

And of course, Santa Claus!

Santa Arrives on LBI

The Friday after Thanksgiving, we went up to Barnegat Light to see Santa arrive by boat!  We went in 2011 when Clare was a baby but we had to skip last year due to Hurricane Sandy clean-up. Santa was ready to come back this year and the kids were ready, too!

Santa arrives with Mrs. Claus:

After disembarking from the Coast Guard boat, Santa walked up the boat ramp, shaking hands and taking pictures. Then he hopped into a firetruck and was driven a short way down the street where he helped light the Barnegat Light's First Aid Squad tree:

And then the whole group sang Christmas carols with Santa:

After the lighting and singing, the crowd headed over to the First Aid Squad building to get a chance to sit on Santa's lap.  We went over to the fire truck to see what we could see...

And Sean got to sit in the driver's seat!  

We skipped the line to see Santa since we'll be seeing him again soon...

Last week

We had an unusual week last week - the kids stayed with Grummy and Pop Pop over Veteran's Day weekend so Mommy and Daddy could go to a wedding in Virginia.  When we picked the kids up, we noticed Clare had a sniffly nose and sure enough, on Tuesday afternoon we got the call from daycare that Clare had a fever and needed to be sent home.  The pediatrician said that Clare just had a bad cold, but we kept her home anyway on Wednesday since she was obviously miserable.  Luckily Mommy could work from home thanks to Clare's Grandma and Papa coming over to keep her company while Mommy worked.

Munching toast and watching Mickey Mouse:

Clare went back to school on Thursday and Sean's class got to have a pajama party on Friday - they wore their pajamas to school and gathered together on their mats and blankets to watch a movie - Turbo!  Sean was very excited and it was a great motivator for the Pre-K kids to be on their best behavior this week.

On Saturday, we went to Sean's last soccer game of the season - here's a team photo with all the boys and their trophys (and soft pretzels):

On Saturday night, we watched "Star Wars" which Sean really liked, although he had a lot of questions. But he told me he liked all the characters - especially Dark Vader. We all went to bed shortly after the movie so we could be up early on Sunday morning - Mommy ran a half marathon!  Family photo after the race:

After the race, we ate some post-race snacks, had lunch at one of our favorite spots - Fado - and then went back home on the train. Clare fell asleep on the way home and seemed like she wanted to keep napping, so Daddy and Clare stayed home while Sean and Mommy went to a local farm to go to a pie-tasting party!  All proceeds benefited a local food bank, so we happily paid our entrance fee and went about tasting pies!  We were quickly distracted by Santa!  Sean got to sit with Santa and tell him what he'd like for Christmas - a Batman house with Robin, too - and Magneto so Batman can fight him.  Santa thought that was a good idea and gave Sean a candy cane, leaving Mommy to taste pies on her own :-)

After the farm, we went over to our town's playground - Sean took me on several treasure hunts that involved climbing up, over, and into all the playground equipment...

After the playground, Mommy was pretty bushed - and Sean, too since he hadn't napped all day - so we went home to see what Clare and Daddy were doing.  We ended up watching "Finding Nemo" in an effort to rest up for the Monday!