Old Haunts

Grandma's last few days with us have kept us so busy. On Friday we braved the rain and caught the train into the city with Grandma and the kids. So what do you do with kids in the city on a rainy day? Go to ToysRus in Times Square of course (the biggest toys store in the world). It was a bit mad in there, but the kids had fun and Kit finally got to spend his birthday money from Nanny and Peggy Nan. From there we walked up to Rockerfeller center where we nearly got lost actually IN the RC. I thought we'd be clever and take a short cut out of the rain...And gorgeous as it is in there, it felt a bit like being lost in the mines of Moria! We made it out alive and parked the kids on a bench while Grandma looked around (see the tired kids above). From there Ella and I dragged the weary boys (and probably Grandma too) into American Girl Place. [After playing with the American Girl Dolls next door recently, Ella has fallen in love with them...and me too a little. If you have little girls and don't know them check out www.americangirl.com]. AGP was PACKED and SO GIRLY. The boys did well to sit and wait while Ella and I scurried around in raptures. We are planning a date to the cafe there where we can also buy Ella's doll for her birthday. So cute that we love it together! From there we made it back to Grand Central and onto a slow train to Stamford where we all had a nap...except Ella who prattled to herself the whole way.

Yesterday, once more braving the rain, we went out with Grandma for a walk on a nature trail where we saw a "flock"?," herd"? of deer. Grandma and the kids were particularly excited. I was just freaking out as Kit kept stumbling into the poison ivy infested undergrowth in his shorts. In the end I made him pull his socks up to his knees so I could relax a little. Nasty stuff!

Today we were all up at 6 am and drove Grandma to JFK for her flight to Mexico to see Matt's brother and family who live there. We stated that we should go out more often at 6 on a Sunday morning as there was no traffic, until after we'd dropped Grandma off and were looking for somewhere to have breakfast! We left Grandma with tears in her eyes and drove off to explore our old haunts in Queens. We drove past the kids' school, past our old house and up to Forest Hills. What a great place. Matt and I would both move back there in a flash. It has everything you could need. So we had breakfast at starbucks (all that was open) and then went to Barnes and Nobels (also all that was open). From there we looked around a bit, but we were pushing to find places to go as nothing opened until 11 am!!! And then we did what I think had been Matt's plan all along. We went to his favourite eating place-Nicks pizza. Matt often used to take the kids there on Saturday when I had my pottery class. He was like a kid...so excited to be back and I have to say they make AWESOME pizza "pies". So then it was just the drive home which took at least twice as long as the trip in this morning in pouring rain. It hasn't stopped all day. It feels like the end of September rather than end of August. But that's OK...I LOVE that time of year. It's actually so wet that our Satellite dish is out!

So a bit of a catch up and I wish I had more photos to share.