New York, New York!

I had never been to New York, but it was on my list.  Well, the stars aligned and Dave and I were able to take a quick trip a couple of days before Thanksgiving.

2 things made it possible:

1)Dave had a one day meeting in New York City for work, which equaled a flight, hotel room, and ground transportation at no expense to us.

2)Dave's parents were visiting us in Chicago and SO kindly agreed to watch the kids for us for two days while we were gone.  How often do we have babysitters available for us to take a trip?!

It was a super quick trip, just two days, but I really wanted to go to NYC and this was a perfect way to wet my whistle.  I've already got ideas about what I want to do the next time I go and what we should do when we have the girls with us.

So about the trip:

Dave and I took a 6am a flight and got to NY in the morning.  Dave had to go directly to a meeting and would be doing work stuff until 8pm that night.  This left me a whole day to myself.  So I started out on 5th Avenue, stopped by Bryant Park and then over to the Rockefeller Center, where they film the Today Show.  There is also a huge mall there, so I shopped around for a while, walked into a the filming of a tv show on the street, and ate a delicious tri-tip steak sandwich.

skating rink on the plaza at Rockefeller Center

Look who I met in NYC!

I might mention that it was FREEZING COLD, so I tried to spend time indoors as wells as out.  After lunch, I headed over to Radio City Music Hall to watch the Rockette's Christmas Spectacular.  I had originally hoped to see a Broadway Show but it was a Monday, which is a blackout night for most shows.  Fortunately, Dave mentioned that I should check into seeing the Rockettes and viola, tickets were not only available but on sale for 50% off!

AND...I was not disappointed.  The Rockette's are awesome and their Christmas show is definitely spectacular!  I can't tell you how much I loved it.  It is such a visually stunning show.  The hall itself is gorgeous, the costumes are beautiful, the dancing, music, lights, and 3-D effects are fabulous.  I would definitely see it again and I for sure want to take my girls.  It is such a family friendly event, it would be a perfect holiday tradition.  The show ended by snowing on the audience, it was so fun to just be covered in confetti.

Crystal Chandelier in foyer of Radio City Music Hall

Nativity scene from the show

Rockette's Christmas Spectacular

Confetti selfie

After the show, it was starting to get dark and colder, so I took a cab to Times Square and checked into our hotel.  It was nice to put my feet up for a while and warm up my chilled bones.  After a short rest, I decided to walk around Times Square and find a place to eat.  Dave came back to the hotel too and then had to go out again for a business dinner.  He walked out with me and then we went our separate ways.  I made two food stops.  The first was to a hole in the wall pizza joint on Broadway for some authentic NYC pizza.  The second stop was at Junior's for New York City's "most fabulous cheesecake".  A friend recommended it and bless her for doing it.  Seriously, this cheesecake is heavenly, it's soooo good.

Times Square

After taking in Times Square, I returned to the hotel.  When Dave got back later that night, we decided to go to the Empire State Building.  It's open until 2am and we figured that we might as well try to do the most we could.  We decided to walk over it was only 10 blocks and we got to see more of the city.

5th Avenue, window shopping

I loved the Empire State Building, the art-deco style was so beautiful.  It just felt, city-glamorous to me. The design and architecture awed me.  Honestly, my favorite part was probably the lobby and the stunning mural.  Although, the views of the city from the top of the building at night were pretty cool too.  Plus its just fun to be up there and recall all the times you have seen this place in the movies.

This is so gorgeous

Notre Dame Football Freeze

So another reason Grandpa and Grandma came to see us was so that they could go to the Notre Dame/BYU football game.  Only problem, the game was on November 23rd and we knew it would be cold.  Little did we know how cold.  In fact, it wasn't cold it was bitter, frostbite, I can't feel my extremities cold.  The windchill factor had us at 9 degrees at the start of the game and it only colder from there.  We prepared the best we could, multiple layers, hand and feet warmers, gloves, hats, blankets, and boots (for some of us), but honestly it still wasn't enough.

After a long drive, made worse by a traffic jam and a 10 year old girl who was a complaining nightmare, we got to campus early which is always fun on game day.  Unfortunately, it was so cold no one really wanted to stand outside so we didn't even watch the team procession or listen to the band play.  We did eat a brat and then headed straight for the bookstore.  It was good to get out of the cold in the bookstore, but it was, as is always the case, packed.  Seriously, wall-to-wall bodies packed.  And honestly, the warm only felt good for about 5 minutes before you started to sweat.  I had to peel my coat, hat gloves, etc. off because I was starting to cook.  The good side, is that it is always fun to browse and shop in the bookstore so its worth the inconvenience of the crowds and having to undress and re-dress yourself!

After the bookstore, we headed to the stadium for the game.  It started out great, we got wrapped up in our blankets and watched ND score a touchdown, but then we started feeling pretty cold.  We braved it through the first half but decided to leave after the half-time show.  Grandma and Ashley couldn't feel their feet anymore.

Grandma (almost completely covered), Jenny and Paige

All smiles at the start of the game, the cold hadn't set in yet!
(Paige, Dave, Ashley, Sydney and Austin (friends from church))

Before leaving South Bend, we had one more thing to do.  GET SOME CHOCOLATE CHARLEY!  Every year, Kelley asks if we can get it in Chicago and the answer is no.  It's made by a South Bend company and they only ship by the case.  I'm pretty happy that we remembered to buy some while we were there!  At least one thing turned out good.  

Visitors!

Hurray, we have visitors!  Grandpa and Grandma Smith, no less!  We have been eagerly awaiting their arrival.  They came to stay for over week and spend Thanksgiving with us.  As always we had a lot of fun with them.  For the first few days they were with us, they got to follow our family routine.  The girls were in school and Dave was working, so I got Grandpa and Grandma all to myself, which may or may not have included some shopping.

On the Friday after they arrived, I took them to downtown Chicago to meet Dave for lunch.  We took the train into the city and were pleasantly surprised to find a cute Christmas bazaar in the main hall of the station.  We then hopped in a cab and went over to Macy's.  We took a quick look at the Christmas windows, because it was pretty cold outside.  I have to say, I'm not loving the look of the windows this year, they went with a "toy, play, puppet" kind of theme and it just seemed okay.

The main reason we went to Macy's was to have a Christmas lunch in the Walnut Room under the big tree.  This is a famous Chicago tradition, and now Jim and Carolyn can check it off their list.  Dave came over from his office to meet us and we were seated right away.  Lunch was good, although the pictures we took weren't too hot, as you will soon see.  Surprisingly, Grandma ordered a hamburger and said it was one of the best she ever had.  Now, I have to go back to try it.  It was a bacon cheeseburger with tomato jam served on a pretzel bun.  It does sound pretty good!

The Big Tree

Too blurry

Definitely need to rethink our positions in this photo...my head looks freakishly
tiny or maybe someone's head looks freakishly big!

After lunch, Dave drove us all home, where we hung out with girls and Grandpa and Grandma played cards with them.  Later that evening we went to Oberweis for some ice cream and even bought some quarts to bring home for later!!

Young Women In Excellence - Superheroes

Every November, we have an a recognition night for the Young Women at church.  It's called Young Women in Excellence and we as leaders try to make it a fun and special evening for the girls.  This year we had a "superhero" theme.

Fortunately, I work with a great bunch of talented and creative ladies who are also Young Women leaders.  Thanks to a team effort, we had a great evening and recognized the amazing girls in our ward.

Here are some details of our program that evening.  First up here are the decorations:

Each Young Woman and her parents received this invitation - a sucker dressed-up like a superhero with cape and mask.

We carried this look onto the table decorations, etc.:

At the beginning of the program, we had each of the girls come up and we introduced them and described their "super powers" or what makes them "super."  We asked the parents in advance to describe what's super about their daughters and this is what we used to introduce them.  At this point, each YW was given a personalized cape to wear.  One of my counselors made/sewed a cape for every one of the YW.  They were so awesome, she knocked it out of the park!

After this, we had a "souper" dinner

Following dinner, we watched a slideshow that talked about what defines a hero and how Young Women can be superheroes too.  It also included all the adult leaders dressed up as superheroes representing the YW values.  This was my part of the program.  It was definitely a project, but I was happy with how it turned out.  Here are some silly pictures I had the girls and leaders pose for:

We ended with talks by some Young Women and our Bishop.  It was a fun and light-hearted evening, I hope our girls had fun!

Ashley, posing by her Personal Progress display

Costume Call

Paige is in the throes of preparing for the Nutcracker.  Just recently she had a full costume call.  Getting her ready in full hair and make-up is a lot of work for momma, but Paige loves it so much, that I'm willing to do it.  And as I see her glowing with happiness in her costume, I realize what little girl doesn't like wearing pretty costumes and getting all dressed up?

Her Nutcracker performances are on December 7th and 8th, which will be here before we know it.  I'm pretty sure it is going to be a crazy and hectic week.  She has dress rehearsals on Wed, Thurs, and Fri and the actual show on Sat and Sun.  Each day she has a 4-5 hour commitment.  We will be living dance that week!

Bowler? Yes!

I know that there have been a lot of posts about Paige, recently, but don't worry Ashley has not been neglected.  In fact, she has been pretty busy herself.  A couple months ago, she came home and said she wanted to tryout for the high school bowling team.  She even went and talked to the coach about it! Dave and I thought it was pretty funny considering Ashley doesn't bowl and really doesn't know how to bowl.  Bowling is a winter sport, so we just smiled and figured we would see if she still felt the same way when tryouts rolled around.

Well as tryouts neared some of Ashley's friends who were going to tryout too, dropped out, but Ashley still really wanted to do it.  When I realized that she was serious about this, I figured we better help her out a little or least take her bowling so she could practice a little.

SO.....I looked up the home bowling alley for the school and saw that they have a pro shop with a pro who teaches lessons and holds a clinic once a week.  Well, I figured this is just what Ashley needed, I mean we have no knowledge of any bowling rules, techniques, etc.  I just wanted her to have a little more knowledge so she could confidently tryout.

So less than a month before tryouts, Ashley started taking some lessons.  In addition, we have been taking her a 3-4 days a week to bowl so she could practice, because the key to improving is practice.  The results are that she has improved her game by over 40 points, is working with a great coach who is one of the nicest people we know, she has her own bowling shoes, bag and a couple of days ago, she used her own money to buy herself her very own bowling ball with finger holes drilled to custom fit her hand!

This is serious business people!

Ashley during her bowling lesson

Ashley's big purchase - her new bowling ball

I do have to give a shout out to Rich, the pro who has been giving her lessons.  Honestly, he is so great and has really taken Ashley under his wing.  Every time she comes to the bowling alley, he comes out to help her.  He has given her some free lessons and a free bowling bag.  He also let her take home one of his bowling balls when she first started until we could decide what the best ball would be for her.  His daughter actually bowled for Ashley's high school last year and took 2nd in state.  He has been really good to her and given her lots of encouragement.

Anyways, the end of this post is just the beginning.   Ashley had her first team practice today for the high school team.  She'll most likely be bowling on the JV team, which is a great start for her.  It's a huge commitment she'll be bowling every day and even on some Saturdays.  It's going to be a new adventure for her and for our family.  We are proud of her for wanting to try something new.  I think it will be pretty cool to watch her games, at least I can hang out in a bowling alley rather than sit outside and freeze in bad weather!

Party Time

For Paige's birthday, she hosted her first sleepover party and we combined it with our Twister/Bejeweled House Party.  She had 9 friends and we settled in for games and fun.  For dinner they ate Mac n Cheese with carrots and dip.  After dinner, Ashley took the girls downstairs to play games like "killer frog" and "red rover".  By the way, if you can get Ashley to help you with parties I highly recommend it.  This girl was so awesome.  She kept the girls happy and busy, definitely making my life easier.  Plus I think all of Paige's friends thought it was pretty cool to hang out and talk with Ashley.

After game time, they came upstairs for cake and presents.  They were all very excited about this.  It seems like nowadays, birthday parties are so jammed pack with activities, that the birthday kid doesn't even open presents at the party.  I think this is sad.  It's exciting for the birthday person to open presents but the gift givers also enjoy seeing all the presents and knowing the reaction to the gift they have given.  Anyways, Paige got some awesome gifts, including gift cards, games, headphones and crafts!

After this, the girls decided to break into three groups and play games in stations.  They came up with this idea on their own and it worked out pretty nice.  The three stations were playing the Bejeweled board game, making bracelets with the Rainbow Loom and playing the Hexbug game Bugs in the Kitchen.  It was pretty fun.  They liked all the games and activities.

After playing for awhile the girls got into pjs and watched a Monster High movie.  Again Ashley was the superstar chaperone and watched it with the girls so I didn't have to!!  At about 11:30 I told the girls they needed to start settling down for bed.  I think everyone was asleep by 12:30am, not too bad.

In the morning, after breakfast the girls played Twister and Just Dance, then it was time to go home.  Pretty painless party.  Thank goodness Paige has good friends and an awesome big sister!