NYC Part II

We started Saturday morning off with brunch at Pastis. Breakfast was delicious and its location in the meatpacking district put us close to some great shopping!!


So after breakfast, we headed to the Barney's Warehouse Sale. Granted Barney's sale items would still cost a small fortune, but it was so much fun to browse all of the designer shoes, clothes and handbags!

Since our wallets didn't allow us any purchases at Barney's, we headed to Loehmann's for some affordable retail therapy! Thanks to Valerie's keen shopping eye, I scored an adorable dress for Easter (and thanks to Mom and Dad too who had given me some birthday money to do a little NYC shopping!).

Boy, shopping sure works up an appetite. After heading to Rockefeller Center and finding out all of the tours of NBC studio were booked for the weekend, we grabbed a quick lunch at Dean & Deluca. We were refeuled and ready to go again!

We visited the New York Public Library, and I was thrilled to finally be inside this historic landmark. The architecture was amazing!


Next, we were off to Bryant Park to do a little "star gazing!" This was after all New York Fashion Week, so we were dying to see a celeb!! Can't do that without a little something sweet though, can you???

Fortunately, there was a Crumbs located right across the street. So cupcakes it was!! Here is my chocolate covered strawberry cupcake. YUM!!

I think Valerie and Carrie enjoyed theirs' too!



It started turning cold, but we were determined to make this visit to the tents count! Here we are trying desparately to stay warm!

And here's Carrie trying desparately to get us in that tent!!


Fortunately, our perserverance paid off! Here's a picture of Kimora Lee Simmons and her little girls leaving the park. And although, my camera was not ready at the time, Lauren F. chased down Heidi Klum and took a wonderful picture of her. We even saw Kellie Pickler!!! Now how is that for celebrity!!

Satisfied with our celebrity spottings and half frozen, we decided to walk back to the hotel to thaw out, touch base with our families, and get ourselves good and hungry for dinner!

We spent Valentine's at Rosa Mexicano! It was fabulous. Of course, any meal that starts out with guacamole being handmade table side is destined for great things!

And it wouldn't have been Valentine's if we hadn't ended the day with another dessert:) The perfect chocolate-y end to another perfect day!!

NYC Part I

This past weekend, five of my sorority sisters and I took a girls' trip to New York City. It was a wonderful time of fun, food, fellowship, and more food!!

Valerie and I stayed at The Algonquin Hotel located just a few blocks from Times Square. The hotel had its own cat, and I have to admit that's why we chose this hotel!! Here's Val giving Matilda a welcome hug!

After settling into the hotel and grabbing a quick bite for lunch (and two $5 diet cokes...just a bit of advice...refills in NYC are not FREE!! I guess it's a good thing I learned that at the beginning of the trip!), Val and I caught up with the other girls at Magnolia Bakery.

A cupcake (or two) was the perfect way to celebrate Carrie's (pictured center) birthday! I ate a vanilla cupcake with vanilla icing, and it was divine!!

After a quick trip back to the hotel to freshen up, we all met back at Carmine's for an absolutely fabulous Italian dinner. The meals are served family style, and it didn't take long for the six of us to polish off these yummy meatballs, cheese ravioli and chicken parmesean. We also enjoyed the cold antipasti to get the meal started!

Other than the fact that my luggage did not arrive in NYC with me, our first day in the big city was a wonderful beginning to a fabulous weekend!

Love Is in the Air

For this year's Valentine's cards, I raided the $1 aisle at Target and came up with these cute notecards.
Throw in some animal stickers, a personalized note, and some mini M&M's and voila! The perfect valentines!!We made Triple Berry muffins for the kiddos' Valentine's party.

And white and dark chocolate covered pretzel sticks were perfect teacher gifts! And very yummy to make! I think I consumed more than I gave away:)

Mommy even made some Valentine's for her friends!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

Walker and Kathryn were in for a real surprise when they woke up from their nap today. This box from Pops and Tula arrived on the door step while they were sleeping. Pops had filled the box with some Mardi Gras loot--beads, moon pies, and candy--while Tula threw in some Valentine's treats--candy hearts, jelly bellies, and heart suckers.

Walker got the first look.

The Kathryn joined in.

Then, when the mailman came later this afternoon, they also received Valentine's gifts from Nana and Papa. Walker got fun Disney Pixar Valentine's cards complete with stickers that Walker preferred to use as bandaids. Here he is showing off his "boo boo."

And guess what was on Kathryn's cards???? That's right-- princesses!! Can you tell she's happy!?! She continues to tell me she needs more princess things!

Before bedtime, I let Walker and Kathryn experience their first moonpie. Funny thing, Walker who doesn't talk all that plainly, says moonpie as plain as day! I think you can tell from this series of pictures who enjoyed the moonpie more!

I love this boy! He loves sweets just like his momma!!

Three visits, Two Parks, One Weekend

The weather has been so nice that we hit two parks three different times in one weekend! Friday after school, we headed to the park to meet up with some of our friends and even ran into one of Walker and Kathryn's classmates.

Here's Kathryn with their classmate, Aiden. These two were inseparable the entire afternoon.

Here's Walker just hanging out!

Here we are back again Saturday morning!

We even packed a lunch this go round.

And after naptime, we were outside again! What a perfect way to chase away those winter blahs!

Walker and Kathryn are sporting their adorable hand stitched shirts that Aunt Mak and Uncle Brad gave them for Christmas from this sweet online store. Aren't they adorable!!

The REAL Sleeping Beauty

Spend a few minutes with Kathryn, and you'll quickly find she is obsessed with Disney's Sleeping Beauty. So much so that she likes to sleep WITH her Sleeping Beauty dress. Well, it didn't take this little one too long to figure out, "Why sleep WITH it when you can sleep IN it!"

I went to check on the kiddos before I went to bed the other night and this is what I found...

ABC's

A Little More Than Before

This morning we woke up to even more snow than we saw last week. The bad news is that this time it snowed on a Wednesday which meant no school!! Sad for mommy, but the kids seemed to be enjoying it:)

Here they are first thing this morning eating breakfast and watching none other than Sleeping Beauty. Can you guess who chose the movie???

And this is how it looks outside....

So, why is my daughter dressed like this??? Oh, the life of a two year old. I think the expression on her face says it all!

More Birthday Fun

Saturday, we enjoyed celebrating our friend Caleb's 3rd birthday at Chuck E. Cheese.

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Caleb.

Fountain drinks!! Walker was in heaven!!

Taking a ride in the princess carriage!! Kathryn was in heaven:)

Needless to say, the little ones took a great nap after all of the birthday fun!

Peek A Boo

Look who I found hiding in the guest bedroom...

Let It Snow!

Waking up to a snowy morning...

Playing outside...

Just for fun...