claire's new york birtday partay!

so like i said earlier, claire told everyone she was having her party in new york.  well, don't know how i'm going to top that for next year?  but we were able to exchange those christmas spectacular tickets afterall and best of all we got to see it on none other than claire's birthday, which of course only added to the queen's request for her party.  our tickets were originally pretty high up, but i was told that any seat in the hall would be perfect.  that all the seats had a great view.  well, i would never have imagined that our seats when we exchanged them were center stage, fourth row.  i was worried b/c any seat i've ever had on the floor was terrible b/c if you are not in the first two rows you are straining your neck to see the show.  but the stage here was elevated and the floor sloped down, so even the kids had no problem seeing the show. 
radio city music hall was beautiful, inside & out.  the show was all around us.  there were singers everywhere, organ players, an orchestra, and a wonderful audience that was captivated by the show, so no disturbances.

claire loved the ballerinas, dancing dolls and teddy bears that were part of the skit of 2 boys finding the perfect gift for their sister (now how is that for a coincidence 2 boys, 1 sister, gift), but of course claire was really tickled pink when she saw santa.

hunter loved the 3D show in the beginning, we put on our 3D glasses and watched santa land at radio city.  his eyes lit up when hundreds of santas came out dancing at one time. i really wish santa would teach me that trick then maybe i could have the mounds of laundry & dishes done while i scrapbook and watch desperate housewives.

seth was just amazed by the rockettes timing and loved the soldiers falling.  they made it look like slow motion falling one into another, it was amazing to watch how they did it.

we (adults) enjoyed it as well, i just kept thinking what discipline it must take to put on a show like that.  it was full of entertainment - music from an orchestra, organs, singers, dancers, storyline and i loved the manger and the birth of jesus re-enactment at the end - it was absolutely beautiful.


after the show we headed out to times square once again to find what else but chocolate.  first stop M&M WORLD!  in times square.  like really this place was 3 stories, you could probably total up all the m&m's that my family has eaten in their lifetime multiply that by a gazillion and there was still more in that store.  there were walls of m&m's that all the kids had to do was grab a bag and start dumping whatever color fancied them.

 

this is about the closest we got to the statue of liberty b/c of the cold weather on the water.  at least if she crumbled to the ground, it won't melt in our hands and it would definitely taste yummy.  i know corny - b/c like it's not really made of chocolate, really it's not.

for the entire trip, claire was an issue when it came to picture taking.  i know she will definitely not be a model, b/c she doesn't take pictures on demand, which poses a problem later in the week again.

this was just too cute!

of course across the street was more chocolate that we just had to investigate.  and with a sign that included reese's, clint was definitely in like flynn!

the store was a lot smaller than i imagined, so don't be fooled by the signage outside.  but it was full from top to bottom with chocolate.  we decided a variety of chocolate would suit us, so we got our bucket and spun the chocolate wheel.  we were real chocolate factory workers as we watched the chocolate pour out the spout into our bucket.  all that hard work was rewarded in chocolate, now how's that for a "rewarding" job.

now if you know my kids choco milk is their favorite; something we even made up a song & dance to in order to get this liquid bliss.  well when claire saw this giant bottle of chocolate syrup with an o so familiar label she yelped with joy and then almost cried in agony when she found out it was just a money bank.

after our trip, we decided to just go home and get some dinner in.  i walked down a few blocks to big nick's burger & pizza joint and we had some of the best italian food.  this place was so rinky dink, it's style was eceletic and so many languages were being spoken there i thought i was back in the newark airport again.  the food was very reasonably priced as well with the price being under $40 for all 5 of us.

now, we couldn't have claire's birthday without a cake and how convienent, there was the crumb's bakery one block down on amsterdam.  so i snuck out and walked in to this deliciously quaint bakery and was greeted by the most interesting bakers.  they were funny, sweet, and i could tell they loved their job.  i of course wasn't going to get any specialty cake, b/c i'm sure i needed to order that in advance, (shame on me if i didn't know that being a baker's daughter) so i settled for a cake on display and boy i'm glad i did. 

the lack of a fancy schmancy cake was made up by the melt in your mouth 5 layers of chocolate cake and buttercream icing for only $25.

and i tell ya, their cupcakes were huge, enourmous and wow the variety was absolutely ridiculous.  if they didn't have what you were looking for then all i have to say to you is, "you are too dang picky".

claire was truly satisfied with her cake and loved every bite!  and that ends her "new york birtday partay"

to be continued ...  (can i just say as i typed those little dots i wonder why do we type those dots when we want to pause or continue something and why three and then all of sudden a thought came into my head that i must share, you know how when something is revealed and we hear the music dun, dun, dunnnnn, well like i said it's a thought)

where we left off

so we left off on monday evening ... well of course after this crazy day we slept in and i think the kids were still a bit jetlagged from the crazy trip.  i woke early to just sit on the windowsill (which btw was like 10' long and 3' deep) to write.  i was inspired by the landscape, the sun, the busy bustle, & the snow.


we didn't get out til lunch so we ate in our room a late breakfast.  took the subway downtown again to this time none other than TIMES SQUARE - wow!!!

the kids loved it, b/c the billboards were so gigantic (note to self:  build vocabulary to include other words than gigantic).  very flashy and tall buildings really had their heads spinning.  it was a bit slushy in the streets due to the snow melting near the buildings, but wasn't hard to get around.  the crowds of course were crazy with tourists, some frustrated, but hey HELLO it's christmas & new york people - deal with it.  even my two traffic light town, gets a little more crowded around this time of the year.


so, of course our first stop had to be to TOYS R US!  this thing is, no i won't say gigantic, massive (i'm working on it - i need a thesaurus), i'm talking three floors baby!  there is a ferris wheel in it along with a big barbie house and 200 ft. jurassic park dinosaur (well at least that's what hunter said).

this guy was pretty scary, claire wanted nothing to do with him! she was "scary to him".

Lego people everywhere!

Really cool stuff, everywhere, up, down, and all around!

i was able to do some "santa" shopping while clint took the kids on the ferris wheel (they are on the scooby doo one)





and boy was it difficult narrowing it down to items that would fit in the plane and being able to hide them from them as i carried giant bags of toys convincing them it was for our godchildren.  the lines were crazy, but i passed the time talking to a lady who worked in the city and was from jersey.  it was probably the first real person i small talked with since getting there.  she actually thought i was from the area or the bronx, b/c of how i said certain words.  the tourists were so grouchy that i'm glad i was able to meet up with a friendly person.


We stayed there so long that it took most of the afternoon and we were getting quite hungry.  earlier in the year, i did a "little" research on nyc and found this jewel near times square, so we stepped on in to a live "off broadway" show in a diner, Ellen's Stardust Diner.

forgot to take a pic of the outside of it, so i borrowed these from another site.  it was a subway train you entered into and the diner was just adorable.

it was fab!!! the waiters and waitresses sang all around the diner, it was quite entertaining, delicious food, but a bit expensive.  but we enjoyed our time nonetheless.  the singers were so good, i told clint that maybe we could move to the city, i could write on my windowsill and he could sing here.  perfect, right? 
we had a great time here, listening to christmas songs, old songs, and new.

we loved this song, sorry about the video, this is exactly why i don't normally film.





and i know crazy as it may be that's it for tuesday, but wednesday was quite interesting - stay tuned.

so, most of you know ...

that we took a trip to NYC for Christmas and since november it's been a whirlwind planning for the trip and going.  it was quite an adventure, so to avoid repeating myself to everyone here's the story of

The Gautreaux's take New York
by storm (literally)!

friday morning seemed like any other typical morning, we ate breakfast, went off to school, i volunteered at seth's school reading for a winter activity, came home finished cleaning the house and packing for the trip, flipped on the news and voila biggest blizzard to hit the northeast in years headed to new york.  now really what are the chances.  we never go on trips like this, was i supposed to take this as a sign.  so i called continental, sure enough flight cancelled from new orleans, la to newark, nj.  continental rescheduled us to a different flight that worked out arriving at pretty much the same time saturday, but on a bigger plane going to houston, tx then on to newark, nj.  no problem right.  we went to bed with visions of new york and rockettes dancing in our heads.  got up real early, headed to the airport, checked in, bags - no charge - awesome!  got to the gate to find out our houston flight was still okay, but they closed all flights to the northeast.  what did that mean we would be stuck in houston.  now i have nothing against houston, but i've seen it enough times and don't really want to spend my holiday there.  so matt @ the gate tried really hard to reroute us.  he did a great job, he was of course a little taken by our sweetie, Claire, who kept insisting that she was having "a new york birtday partay"  and we were scheduled to see the christmas spectacular @ 9AM on sunday. 

the only flight he could get us on was from houston to dallas and then dallas to newark the next day arriving at 11PM.  we took it and later found out thank God we did, b/c some who didn't get on that flight were stranded for days.  so we got on the plane to houston with the kids being very excited about their first plane ride.  each picked a flight to be on by the window.

Hunter's eyes lit up at take off and Claire was in awe about how high we going up.

So we landed in Houston that afternoon, stayed overnight at the hilton with nice little overnight packs from continental and then woke up to get back to the airport again, off to dallas, then on to newark.

not so bad right ... well didn't expect that radio city would tell us we couldn't exchange our tickets or get a refund, but our hotel was more than gracious to assist us anyway they could.

so that night we arrived in newark, nj in 2-3 feet of snow.  the kids while waiting on the shuttle went out and play in the snow.  well the shuttle never showed and we had to get a refund and take the bus, not realizing they would just drop us off at the bus terminal and we would have to get a taxi to the hotel @ 1AM.  needless to say when we arrived all i was thinking of was getting rid of all our luggage, it was a pain in the neck to lug that around (10 bags, jackets, 1 stroller, 1 booster seat, and 5 bodies).  the taxi driver and bus driver before almost wrecked.  so, it was a nice surprise to arrive and get a discount of $45 off our bill a night.  this hotel rocked, hotel beacon is great, very friendly, helpful staff, wonderful location in upper west manhattan.  our room was great, the bed divine, though we were really tired that night, so it might have been some delerium setting in.

there was the beacon theater next door, deli's all around, starbucks on the corner, 24 hour pharmacy around the corner, central park 3 blocks down, and so much more.

we had a kitchen as well in the room and it worked out great with the market across the street.

though, i need to mention this market is like no market or store we are used to.  you know how you always get one of those recipes that you can't find the ingredients for, well i'm telling you this market had all of that.  The Fairway Market took some getting used to and though i couldn't walk out with more than a few items b/c of walking (as i was informed by one man who looked at my basket 1/4 full and said "wow you have a lot there, not walking I suppose.", i preceded to put things back when i realized.)  we did great and saved a lot.  prices were not as bad as i thought, maybe $1-$2 more than we pay.  i thought everything was quite reasonable for nyc, but i seriously had to improvise when no one could tell me where the velveeta cheese was. (their cheese section pictured above)

our first day of course had to be spent in the snow, so we walked to central park.  the kids were amazed by the buildings and how some people lived "underground".  the buildings were beautiful and i could have just stared at them for hours.

we got to central park and of course had to start throwing snowballs and making snow angels and claire really got into it, but could only manage to throw snow.

I don't think you can go wrong with any shot you take in central park or

anything involving snow for that matter.

caught these along our walk, so then as we exited the park, we looked right and saw the american museum of natural history, so we walked on in to soak up some of the warmth (it was 17 degrees our first day, but still doesn't compare to our cold here).

 

we probably should have spent a whole day and night here, but the kids were worn out as you can see from the pics.  this was the coolest display, the whale was gigantic.  it was really difficult getting a good picture b/c the lighting was so different in each room and i'm definitely no pro.  the museum had 4 floors to it, but the boys favorite part of course was the dinosaurs.

of course last but not least we hunted this one down and he was quite popular, b/c everyone was taking pictures in front of him.

DUM, DUM WANT SOME GUM, GUM

after we breaked from here and learned to never eat inside of a museum again (too expensive and stale).

we walked back to the hotel.  seth and i ventured out for awhile and found a few stores and this along the way.  how beautiful, trees on the street?

after we came back we made our first trek of many to the famous 72nd sub station and rode the subway.  though it was a bit scary b/c of the busy bustle and fast trains, it was thrilling to the kids and when we got on the street and showed them the grating and told them that the trains were right underneath us, that just heightened the experience.  it was actually pretty easy getting around and we didn't once feel unsafe.

took the subway downtown to the rockefeller center and the sights were absolutely gorgeous.  we didn't get to ice skate, b/c the lines were crazy long by the time we got down from the top of the rock and it was getting pretty cold.

now i have to say the best thing about the top of the rock was the line, strange as that may be, the lines in new york usually go by quick and they entertain you along the way.  it began with the swarovski crystal chandelier, up the stairs and into the line around the center exploring all the history.

i can't imagine being this high and not being scared.  they are just chillin like 800 feet in the air.  while we walked around we took a picture on one of these and below us was a computer simulation of people working on the skyscraper the kids loved that.

we then got into the elevator to go 70 floors up to the top of the rock and boy was that more interesting than we anticipated.

it was definitely cold way up there and when we went to the top, top i had to hold onto my hat.  i'm not big on heights but this was actually done where i felt safe.  the glass surrounded the entire perimeter.  we then explored more inside and hunter loved this part.

try as i might i couldn't get a photo of this, so i stole one, but when you walked in, it picked up where you were and labeled you with a color.  the entire room responded to sound & movement with lights and sound.  definitely, one of the coolest things the boys saw.

hunter also said he loved the crystals.

the entire center would probably take days to tour, it's a like 50 of our malls in one.

we then headed home to the beacon to rest once again.

so that ends day one

to be continued ...