Our First NYC Adventure with Kids

Zach travels a lot with business, and we get to reap the benefits of his frequent flying and hotel staying! We decided to take the girls somewhere, and we thought why not NYC at Christmas time. So we booked our flight and hotel, and began the adventure. It was definitely a different experience with two little ones who still require naps and early bedtimes, but we had fun!

The girls were so excited to fly, they were bummed that it was such a short flight! I think I was too a little, it's fun exploring airports especially when you get to stay in the sky club (free internet, drinks and snacks). The girls do amazingly well with traveling, so it's quite enjoyable! Ellie also seems to love staying in new places, Ainsley just wants to make sure she is with us. They had fun exploring our hotel room and jumping on the beds!

The first day there we arrived early afternoon, got settled (Doubletree in Times Square), took a LONG nap, then ate some not so good Chinese food and went to the Disney store in Times Square. We let the girls pick out one thing under $10, Ellie chose a Minnie Mouse camera and Ainsley chose a stuffed, pink Minnie Mouse. They loved it! After the girls went to bed, Zach went out and discovered the reserve coffee at Starbucks in Times Square. It's a special coffee roast, and brewed a special way:

The second day we went to the Children's Museum of the Arts to the special toddler time. They played, colored, painted, sang, and banged on the drum. It was so much fun, I definitely recommend this place.

Playing with playdough

Painting

Playing with flubber. Ellie loved it, Ainsley wouldn't touch it.

Craft time, Ainsley trying to keep clean (she does not like to be sticky).

A video of a tiny portion of the singing/story time:

Storytime with CMA in NYC from Laura Hanlon on Vimeo.

In the ball pit.

Goofing around.

After the museum time was over, we ate lunch at this great little coffee shop (can't remember the name). We met a few guys who were grad students thinking about developing an app for kid videos, we got into a lengthy conversation with them that was quite nice. After our warm, yummy lunch, we headed to High Line Park. We read the book The Curious Garden a few months ago, and thought we would find the garden mentioned in the book. It was winter and the flowers were gone, but it still had a very peculiar appeal to it.

The park overlooked west side Manhatten:

The girls loved the benches

Chairs to enjoy a rest, a good book or the sunny days

Place that overlooked a street under the park

We finished the day with a nap, Chipotle (one of our favorite restaurants), and then venturing to see some Christmas lights in the city. There were gigantic toy soldiers, huge Christmas ornaments, TONS of lights, and it was beautiful.

Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center

Under the tree

Christmas trees in the city

Radio City

The third day, it was Ainsley's birthday!

We started off with FAO Schwartz. It was a hit. The girls loved playing with all the toys. We let Ainsley pick out a reasonable gift, she choose a Melissa & Doug wooden necklace kit. They had fun making necklaces later that afternoon in the hotel. We also let the girls pick out some candy, which they gobbled up in less than 10 minutes! Oh and I can't forget the PIANO. The girls loved running around on the big piano and making music, and they also highly enjoyed the professional piano dancers. It is very entertaining and highly enjoyable by us all!

Here is a video of the professional piano dancers:

FAO Piano Dancers from Laura Hanlon on Vimeo.

Outside FAO Schwartz

Trunkis, which they LOVED playing with (and ended up getting for Christmas, thank you Coco and Chucko)

The Big Piano

(They had much more fun than it looks like in this picture. They weren't happy about making them pose).

We had heard from many people to try this restaurant, Serendipity (it supposedly had the best dessert ever, frozen hot chocolate). We braved it, waited over an hour, and ate some delicious food ending with the famous frozen hot chocolate. It was amazing.

Enjoying our frozen hot chocolate (sorry, we didn't notice the purple cup RIGHT in the way of the beautiful drink)

We ended the day with a nap, some NY pizza for dinner, and the M&M store.

It was a wonderful trip experiencing a different side of New York City with the girls. Something we will remember always. (Although I can't deny that traveling with kids who need naps is difficult.) The faces and joy that these girls had with such a new and different place was definitely priceless. I am so blessed.

Ainsley's 2nd Birthday

Our baby girl is 2 years old! I cannot believe how I don't have a baby anymore and how fast my two girls are growing. Ainsley has developed a sweet, loving, free spirited, yet stubborn personality. I absolutely have loved watching this little one grow.

Ainsley loves:
-to eat. everything.
-to sing.
-to suck her thumb.


-to do whatever Ellie does.
-to be goofy.
-to pray. for everything.
-baby dolls.
-to organize or stack anything and everything.




-to be without any clothes!
-to lay in bed and cuddle with you in the morning
-to be held by mommy or daddy, definitely not by Ellie.
-to color and paint.

-to poo poo in the bathtub. we love that too....
-to jump.
-to read books, by herself.
-to find gum in anyone's purse, including the stranger at the library.
-the iphone, especially people's photos on the iphone.
-her face painted.


Ainsley does not like:
-bouncy houses, although she enjoys the trampoline.
-being thrown into the air.
-the chick-fil-a cow or any other dressed up character, including Santa.

I absolutely ADORE and LOVE this little girl. She is nurturing, loving, easy-going, goofy, smart, and joyful. She can easily light up your day and make you feel warm. I love watching her discover and explore this world, I look forward to the many days ahead. What a joy and blessing she is to our lives. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AINSLEY!

Family Photoshoot

I have got to share these AMAZING photos by a TALENTED photographer and friend, Phil Matta. I HIGHLY recommend him, let me know if you want his contact info. Click on picture below to view all.

January 13, 2012

First Airplane Ride

The girls and I went to Texas to visit my sister. It was Ellie's second plane ride (first was a visit to visit my other sister in FL when Ellie was 6 months old), and it was Ainsley's first plane ride ever! Zach was able to fly with us to Atlanta because he was traveling for business, but I did the rest of the trip there and back by myself!

The girls were wonderful fliers. We had two flights to Houston and two flights back to Raleigh, they slept on one flight each way for the while flight. It was amazing. I had a little rough time carrying Ainsley, our luggage, my huge tote, and keeping track of Ellie. I would easily do it again, it wasn't too bad because they loved it. Well, I guess Ainsley might disagree with me a little bit, she wasn't a fan of take off or landing. She survived with no tears, only words of concern and death grips on my hand.

Excited
Being silly
Asleep:

Coming home



Blessed to have children who travel well. Here's a little video of our first flight as four:

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

October Beach Trip

First trip with our small group to the beach. It was pretty cold. Enjoyed some wonderful time with our friends, Phil and Christie, Jonathan and Miranda, Jake and Elizabeth, and also our wonderful hosts Eric and Lindsey. It's such a beautiful house that we stayed in, and the owner is very gracious and hospitable. I love the beach, any time of the year.

Girls playing before the day starts (photo by Elizabeth)

We did play on the beach. I stayed covered up the whole time, but the girls dug in the sand and the men braved the water. Here's Ellie with the shovel (photo by Phil Matta).

Ainsley hanging out in the house (photo by Phil Matta).

Enjoying a moment of rest in the sun (photo by Phil Matta)

The group on the beach, it was windy.

Missing...

Some of you might be wondering if I'm still alive, I wanted to ease your minds. I definitely have been missing from the blog and I wanted to let you all know that we are are all well here. The blog has just been on the last of my to do list. I hopefully will get back in the swing of things soon. Don't loose hope in me!

Playing at Nana and Papa's

The girls LOVE playing at Nana and Papa's house. They have the kitchen and train set from when I was their age, along with other toys, new and old. They can spend hours in the garage playing with them. Here they both are on the train set:And here is Ainsley doing what she spends most of her time doing, playing and lining up the ice cream.
It really makes me laugh how long she will do this, how particular she is when lining them up, and how she just keeps doing it and doing it over and over! I wonder how much this is developmental and if it will show up later down the road as part of her personality. We will see.

Happy Dog

My Lucky Day

I found 3 four leaf clovers! Crazy.
(sometimes I still get excited like I am a kid)

Sassy Ellie

I might have told her to put her hands on her hips. Other than that, the rest is completely her (outfit and all). Hopefully she won't be this sassy at 16...

Sisters Reading Together

It never fails. I just love when they read to each other.

Sisters Reading/Singing from Laura Hanlon on Vimeo.

My Little Pebbles

Carpet Art

I would have to say it turned out pretty well...

I had painted my toes and instead of carrying the polish all the way back to my bathroom, I decided to be lazy and put them on the fireplace. I had the thought that it would be bad if I dropped them, but thought that wouldn't happen because I would be the only one touching them. I had 3 polishes, 2 clear (base coat and top coat) and 1 hot pink. I went to put them away later that evening, and low and behold DROPPED ONE! Which one did I drop? Of course the one that would do the most damage!!!! Tried to remove it, but only made it look worse. So above is the result because that looks better than some orangey-pink mess. I do have to say it's somewhat growing on me...

Ballerina

Disclaimer: Some pictures on the blog are from my camera, meaning that they are not very good. Be happy that you get to see some! I just don't lug around or pull out my big camera all the time. Remember, it could be worse. The other option would probably be no pictures at all :)

VBS

Ellie went to Vacation Bible School for the first time this summer! The Summit was having VBS at night, so we decided to go to another church for VBS during the day. She had a tough time dropping off the first day (she had never been to this church before and knew no one in her class), but after that she was very excited to go each and every day. It was weird for me not knowing what all was entailing her day and what she was learning, so I definitely had to check it out a few times (by attending the large group time) and ask a bunch of questions to Ellie (and eventually the teachers since Ellie only confused me). She had lots of fun, and Ainsley and I had some fun time as well. The week sure did fly by and keep us busy, but it was completely worth it.

Here is a picture I got of Ainsley one day when we got to spend some time, just the two of us. Look how big she is getting! What a cutie :)

New Beds!

We have put the girls in the same room... in BUNK BEDS! Ainsley has now officially moved up to a twin bed, and she's doing FABULOUS.

Ellie is on the top

Ainsley is on the bottom

The ladder is not attached, mostly because we don't want Ainsley going up and down, but it also keeps Ellie from going up and down which creates a lot less frustration for everyone.

The girls love sharing a room, and do so pretty well. They both go to sleep fairly quickly, depending on the night and if people are over, however they do like to talk to each other before going to sleep. They wake each other up when one wakes up before the other after nap or in the mornings, but they mostly get enough sleep (usually 1.5 hours at nap and 12 hours at night). I have some really good sleepers!

We all are loving having them together! It gives Zach an "office" during the day so he doesn't sweat like a pig in the garage, and in the winter he won't freeze like an ice cube! This also makes us one step closer to being ready to bring home our baby brother! The crib is all his, whenever his time comes to be welcomed into our home :)

Zach's Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY! We are so, so, SO thankful to have such a wonderful, handsome, intelligent, faithful MAN in our lives. I continually feel that I never show Zach how much I appreciate, respect, and love him enough... EVER. He is such a great father and caring husband, I knew I needed to give him something to show that.

I kept it a surprise, well mostly. I was struggling in deciding exactly what to do. The options included: zip lining, tickets to Circus de Soleil, or something better. I figured out what this something better was by looking at the bucket list we created about a year ago. As I was looking into this something better, he walked in and caught me. I thought it probably was given away, but I still played it off.

I told Zach that we would be eating breakfast out for his birthday and then dropping Ellie off at VBS before he went to work. I had asked him a few days before what his morning schedule looked like, which he then told me was mostly clear. Well I found out the morning of his birthday that he decided to fill it up. BAD! I had scheduled his surprise for the morning of his birthday, so I flipped out a little bit on him. Awful birthday start, but he forgave me quickly and rescheduled his calls (secretly thinking he might be getting what he caught me looking at). After breakfast and on our way to his surprise, he asked what he was doing. I told him to guess in which he responded with sky-diving (not his surprise). I completely led him to believe he was right, and he immediately started freaking out. Zach has never wanted to go sky-diving until a few weeks ago which he made a comment he wanted to. So I played off that until he started to sweat, I then felt bad and told him his surprise... A FLYING LESSON! He was completely stoked and we headed to the airport.

The plane:

The pilot:

Zach has taken a huge interest in flying since he travels a TON. He used to have a tiny fear of it when he first started traveling for business, but once he overcame it, he became VERY interested. He would watch videos, research, and have discussions with pilots about his new found interest. He has expressed multiple times how he would love to be a pilot, hence why it was an item on his bucket list.

Here are some shots from his flight:

downtown Raleigh:

RBC Center:
Landing:

Zach loved it. He now can say he has flown a plane, although he's not quite sure how he like handling a big machine thousands of feet off the ground. I think I scored a few brownie points here, but I am so glad Zach enjoyed his gift and felt loved and special.

We ended this special day, upon his request, with a cookie cake (complete with the only candle we had that I could find):
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LOVE!

Ainsley's Favorite Questions

I have mentioned how Ainsley loves to ask where everyone is. I had my camera out and ready to capture her asking one day. Here is the result. Pay attention to what she calls Ellie, and also Zach's long hair!

Script:
Me: What did you say?
Ainsley: Where's Daddy?
M: Where's Daddy?
A: Yea.
M: He's back in the bedroom.
A: Oh. Where's mommy?
M: Where's mommy? Where's mommy?
A: Right here, there.
M: I'm right here.
A: Where's Ellie?
M: Where's what?
A: Where's Ellie?
M: She's sleeping.
A: Where mommy?
M: Right here.
A: Where's Annie?
M: Where's who?
A: Me.
M: Where's Annie?
A: Yea.
M: Right there, right there!
A: Where's Ellie?
M: Ellie's sleeping.
A: Oh.
and then the rest...

July 4th Celebration!

We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE celebrating Independence Day. We tend to take advantage of what this day actually means, so I'll take a moment to really appreciate a few things about being an American. What a huge blessing it is to live in America where we are free to talk about our faith, free to worship and attend church, free to pray, have many kids, have many opportunities such as schools and jobs, and the list goes on...

We had quite a busy weekend celebrating the fourth of July! We had a cookout with the neighbors, where we stayed up really late to get in some fireworks.

Saturday, we went to a celebration in Fuquay-Varina. There were kid rides, bouncy things, music, and awesome fireworks. Ellie and Ainsley both rode the elephants and both LOVED it! Another late night, but we had a lot of fun with our friends, the Dortch's!Not sure how Ainsley ends up getting a picture with Katie and not mommy, maybe mostly because mommy is the one behind the camera all the time! On Monday (July 4th), we tried to go see the Durham bulls baseball game with our small group from church but it was storming, so we decided to go to dinner instead. The game ended up being cancelled, so it worked out well except so many restaurants were closed and we were driving around Durham in about 4 different cars trying to find an open restaurant we ALL wanted to eat at. We ended up at Cheesecake factory at about 8:00pm with a 30 minute wait. Another late night... although I did get one picture with the girls AND me!! It's terrible, but at least it exists!


It sure was a busy weekend, but we had lots of fun. HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Back Porch Improvement

We have made our little back porch a more comfortable spot! We bought new furniture, a few plants, and I made a few pillows.


Doesn't it look cozy?? It is MUCH better than the before and much more enjoyable!