Kids Night on Broadway

Twice a year, Broadway hosts a program called Kids Night on Broadway.  It allows kids to attend a Broadway show for free with their parents.  I have wanted to see Newsies on Broadway for a year and thought, since M's birthday is in a couple of days, that she would love to see Newsies too.  I had a couple of friends who wanted to see a Broadway show with their daughters also, so we had a girl's night in NYC.  It was such a fun and memorable trip in more ways than one.  We all ended up seeing different shows last night but thought it would be great to ride the train up to NYC and back.  We got our girls from school and hurried to catch the train.  We made the train with a couple of minutes to spare.  Once in NYC, we decided to grab a slice of pizza and then walk up Broadway to our different shows.  Times Square is so bright at night, it almost feels like day!  It was great to see all the lights in Times Square though.

We had great seats for Newsies and M was so excited.  I was grinning from ear to ear the whole show.  It was AMAZING! M loved that they were doing flips, back handsprings, and other gymnastic moves. After the show, we all decided to meet at Junior's for cheesecake.  It had started raining and was getting late and we decided we needed to catch an 11 o'clock train or we would really be getting home late!  We were right in between 2 subway stations, so we would have had to walk about 5 blocks in either direction in the rain.  We decided to catch a cab.  I can now say I have not only ridden in a cab, but I hailed two cabs in about 5 minutes! We pretty much had to run to catch the train on time, but luck was on our side.  We caught the train with minutes to spare.  Trains at night stop at every station along the way, so it takes about 90 minutes for us to get home.  We finally got to our stop, but we were not fast enough getting off the train!  We got stuck on the train!  At this time, it was about 12:30.  It is a good thing that our stop is the second to last one.  We rode the train to the end of the line and had to wait for another train to take us back.  I think the train conductors felt sorry for our little girls who were so tired but such good troopers because they were so nice and sweet and made sure we made it to the right track to get back to our station. While we were waiting in Trenton to take our train back to Hamilton, we met a very nice man who worked for NJ Transit.  He announced over the speaker, "the girls on the train, this is where you need to get off."  Needless to say, we had a couple of NJ Transit workers making sure we got off the train!  We got home super late, but it was all worth it.  M had a great time and thought it was a great birthday present.  Thanks, Nana! I don't know if how either of us is going to wait until the next Kids Night on Broadway!  We already have a show we want to see.

Gymnastics Meet

M had her first team meet on Feb. 2, 2013.  It was an exhibition meet because the girls don't start competing until they are on Level 4.  M started on the Level 3 team in January.  It was so great to be able to see what she can do on the bars, beam, vault, and floor.  She has a lot of talent and really does well.  I usually get to see glimpses of what she can do while I am waiting for her during her practices.  And practice, she does.  M goes to gymnastics 5 hours a week and then turns our living room into a mat every chance she gets.  We video taped her doing her routines.  We have all of them but the bars because our video guy (Brett) wasn't 

paying attention!

Christmas in Colorado

We spent Christmas in Colorado this year.  Brett's mom and stepdad moved there in April and we were excited to see a new area.  After 2 planes and a 3 hour drive from Albuquerque, we were so excited to finally be at Nana's and Grandpa Joe's.  The kids were so excited to have so much snow to play in and found the perfect hill to go sledding on.  They were there quite a few times, until Brett broke one of the sleds!  Brett's mom was so great and bought us all tickets to ride the Polar Express.  I don't think I have ever seen two kids who were more excited.  T loves trains and was in heaven to be able to ride the train.  M was so afraid that she would lose her golden ticket and held on to it tightly the whole way.

We had a great Christmas day.  The kids got so much stuff; we had to ship some of it home!  We had a great day and got to meet some of Peggy and Joe's friends.  The kids had fun playing in the snow, riding the 4-wheeler, and spending time with Nana and Grandpa Joe.  Brett and I enjoyed playing games every night, watching a lot of football (Brett, not me), and seeing new places.  We were there for 16 days and though it seemed like a lot, it went by very fast.  

 

Our return trip to NJ was quite an adventure.  I didn't look at our tickets right and when we got to the airport, realized our plane had just left because the time had changed!  The airline worker was great and got us on a plane to Minneapolis, instead of Atlanta, that was leaving at just the right time for us.  However, we ended up leaving late because the plane was too heavy.  I have never had that happen before, but 6 people had to get off the plane to lighten the load.  Because our plane was delayed leaving, we had to "Home Alone" it through the Minneapolis airport.  We had to go from gate G11 to C5.  Lets just say we made it with 5 minutes to spare.  We were sure glad to be back in NJ when we got home.

Christmas at home

Christmas came early to our house this year because we were spending Christmas in Colorado.  We have a little elf named Christopher and he asked Santa to come early.  M and T were so excited to wake up and have their presents to open.  M got a bunch of American Girl stuff for her doll and T got a Leapster Explorer.  He loves it!  M and T got some super cute clothes from Grandma and Pa and sleeping bags from Mom and Dad.  They love their sleeping bags and requested a camp out that night. I think the pictures say it all!

Friend day in NYC and Boys day out

M got invited to a birthday party at the American Girl store in NYC.  Since it doesn't take much to convince us to go to NYC or the American Girl store, we were so excited to go.  We caught a very early train to NYC and booked it to the American Girl store.  The girls had so much fun having brunch with their dolls.  We then went to see the tree in Rockefeller Center and then headed to Central Park and let the girls go crazy playing on the rocks, while the moms had fun chatting it up.  After Central Park, we took the subway to Bryant Park for ice skating.  It was so much fun, but so crowded.  The girls were so tuckered out by the end of the day.

While M and I were in NYC, Brett and T were having fun at the squadron Christmas Party.  T loves airplanes and so wanted to spend most of his time on the C-17 on display.  He loved going and sitting on Santa's lap and telling him everything he wanted for Christmas.