Empire State of Mind

I found this post that hadn't been posted yet. I had taken pictures off one of my cameras, but not the other. I started this post, and was going to add to it when I took the pictures off of the other camera. Who knows when that will ever happen, so here is part of out trip to NYC...

The dance studio we got to know so well. We went the first night just to find it, so we would know where we were going the next day. I enjoyed watching Lexie dance every day.

On the way back from finding the studio, we saw this crowd of excited people. They were outside of the theater for How to Succeed in Business (starring Daniel Radcliffe). I know seeing a crowd outside of a Broadway show is not odd, but this was during a time the show was not going on. Then we heard people start screaming, "Harry!" We realized Daniel Radcliffe (AKA- Harry Potter) had just walked out of the theater. The last Harry Potter movie had opened the night before, so we didn't think he would actually be there.

There's Harry Potter in the blue baseball hat. (I'm sure he loved having people call him Harry instead of his real name.) He is a very short man by the way.

One of Carter's favorite places was the "The Little M Store." In actuality, it is a huge M&M store, but Carter has always called M&M's "little M's" for some reason. He chose to go to this place a few times.

This is a picture of a jumbotron in Times Square. In between ads, it will show the people hanging out in Times Square. If you look in the center, you will see a kid in a gray stroller and a lady in brown taking a picture of the screen... That's Carter and me. We used about 30 seconds of our 15 minutes of fame :)

Times Square-- I thought this is what all of NYC would be like. I was wrong. It was a lot less crowded and A LOT dirtier than I had expected. But don't get me wrong, I love NY. I wouldn't want to live there, but I am already ready to go back. (Although I would prefer to go at a time other than the end of July when I am 7 1/2 months pregnant and HUGE.-- It was kind of hot.)

Lexie kept saying she wanted to see The Addams Family: A New Musical. To be honest, Monte and I didn't think it would be very good,so we kept ignoring the request. But, we knew we wanted to do more than one musical on Broadway, so we finally looked into it. Monte watched a preview for it on the hotel's Broadway channel and decided it actually looked funny. They went and said it was hilarious. (FYI: Brooke Shields played the role of Morticia.)

This piece of art is in front of the United Nations. It is a puzzle of the world. According to our tour guide, the artist has the missing piece. He will complete the world when there is world peace. Monte took this picture when he toured the UN. What I thought was interesting about this picture is if you look directly to the right of the world, you can see the 9/11 memorial being constructed. World Peace... interesting concept.

Monte and Lexie went to see Wicked. I love this musical! Lexie and I listen to it so much in the car that Carter can actually sing most of the songs. Since we couldn't take Carter to see it, Monte took Lexie to see it because Lexie and I had already seen it in Dallas. (Although I know it is much better on Broadway.)

Fourth of July

We had a wonderful (week of) 4th of July Celebration. My favorite holiday is Christmas, and I have finally figured out that Monte's must be July 4th. We did fireworks almost every night in the week leading up to the 4th. We did save the good stuff until our main celebration, but we had fun all week.

We invited my siblings up for a celebration on the 3rd. We decided that since nobody (except Monte) had to work the next day, it would be better to celebrate on the 3rd. I wish I had taken a picture of the amount of fireworks the boys (and Lexie) blew up. It was insane!

I bought a fun cookbook for kids at our school's book fair, and I found this delicious cookie recipe. Oh my goodness, it was wonderful!! (and very easy) --I'll put the recipe on the food blog if I can remember the password ;)

Carter loved this little firework train. We did them almost every night. This night he decided to play with it for a while before we shot it off. He would push it up the hill and let it roll back to him. (Don't worry, he was not this close to it when we shot it off.)

Okay, now that I look at this picture Lexie is in trouble. Where are her shoes?!

Lydia and Carter were so excited to see each other. They were more interested in playing with each other than in watching the fireworks. By the end of the night, Carter's toy room had been moved outside.

Ofelia, Lexie, Angie, and Zane

(Notice Lexie changed... and put shoes on.)

On the afternoon of the 4th, we went to my parents' house for a cookout. I was in such a rush that I forgot my camera, but we had so much fun. I love hanging out with my family. And of course the food was wonderful!! Later that night, we finished shooting off some small stuff we had left over from the night before and then just relaxed and watched all of the fireworks in our neighborhood. They were pretty amazing!

Carter woke up on the 4th ready to make cupcakes to take to Granny and Poppy's house. This boy LOVES to cook!!

His favorite part is cracking the eggs. He is getting very good at it, too. I only had to take out one teeny piece of shell.

Half way through making the cupcakes, he realized he didn't have his apron on. I didn't think it mattered since he was still in his jammies, but he INSISTED on wearing his apron.



Obviously he was satisfied with is results. Yep, he had a cupcake for breakfast :)