New York: Days 3-5

On Black Friday we had a full day.  We had Breakfast with Santa, followed by the Lion King on Broadway and we ended the day with a horse drawn carriage ride in Central Park!  We had time to kill in between the breakfast and the show so we spent some time shopping in Times Square!  Lilah loved the Hello Kitty store and both kids loved the M & M store.  The M & M store was pretty cool because they had a wall of different colors of M & Ms where you could purchase by weight.  Several of the mixtures were Star Wars themed.  Both kids loved that!
The kids enjoyed Breakfast with Santa and we all absolutely loved The Lion King.  It's ridiculous how good that show is!  The kids were really excited to see it and I don't think you could have a better first theater experience.

We ate at a fun diner next door to the theater when the show ended and then hopped on the subway to Central Park.  Lilah really wanted to go on a carriage ride, so we did!

The night ended with a quick walk to Rockefeller Center to see this lights again and make a pit stop at Lego and American Girl!!

Rockin' out at the Hard Rock gift shop!

Carriage Ride.

On Saturday we took a bus door on the "downtown loop."  We hit Chinatown, Little Italy and the 911 Memorial/new World Trade Center.  It was a cultural experience to visit Chinatown and the food was really good!  Brian got a mini wedding cake in Little Italy. Unfortunately it didn't taste as good as it looked.  The gelato was amazing though!  I loved the 911 Memorial.  It was really awesome to see.  Brian understands a little bit about 911 and I think it was good for him to see the memorial and the new buildings.

 We intended to end the day at St. Patrick Cathedral for Mass, but Miss Lilah was tuckered out and fell asleep on my lap enroute.  She ended up wetting her pants (ALL OVER ME!) so Mass was a no-go!  We headed back to the hotel and ate New York style pizza in the room!

We did make it to Mass on Sunday before our flight out and I'm so glad we did!  Brian had asked to go and I mean...how can you deprive a SEVEN year old of going to Mass.  Plus Mom and I really wanted to go too...hehe!  The cathedral was breathtaking!  It was just magnificent and unbelievable.  Mass was said by Cardinal Dolan, which was pretty cool! The choir was beautiful. I loved it all!  There were monitors on every pillar so that that you could actually see what was going on because the church is so huge.  It was definitely an experience!

THANKS NANA!!! 

Thanksgiving in New York: First Two Days

This year we spent our Thanksgiving break in New York City!  We were all excited as we had never been.  Brian loves to read and had even done research on some of the  major points of interest.  He cracks me up.

We arrived in Newark midday and a driver picked us up to take us into the city.  We stayed right in the thick of things at the Sheraton, Times Square.  Once we were settled into our room, we headed out on our first adventure.  We took the subway to Seaport area where we boarded a boat to see the Statue of Liberty!  It was a chilly day, but we were inside once on the boat, so it didn't matter.  It was amazing to the see statue up close!  This was on Brian's must see list and he was so cute taking pictures on his own camera.

Yay!  Subway!

A pretty tree in the Seaport District.

Brooklyn Bridge.

Ellis Island.

Pole dancing on the ride back.

Later that evening we headed to an Asian restaurant that our driver had recommended.  It was clearly not a kid friendly location but they couldn't have been nicer about accommodating us. Everyone got a good meal and it was a lot of fun.

Thanksgiving Day meant it was time for the parade. We had reservations at a restaurant right along the route for brunch.  Brunch was yummy and even though the restaurant was made up of pretty much all windows, we decided we'd get more of the experience from the street, so we headed outside.  We were pretty far back from the street so it was hard to see anything on the ground, but we could still see the big floats and feel the excitement in the air.  We had just about decided to head back inside when a very nice woman approached Shawn with VIP badges to a private party on a veranda near by.  This enabled us to watch the parade from a raised location and the view was amazing!  We were treated to more food, water and HOT CHOCOLATE.  Awesome!  Lilah may or may not have eaten every last marshmallow they had...

The parade was an awesome experience.  It's something we have watched our entire lives from our homes, so to see it in person was just amazing.

After the parade we headed to Rockefeller Center.  We saw the tree, although it wasn't lit yet, went to the Top of the Rock and saw the ice skaters. We found out American Girl and Lego are closed on Thanksgiving, but happily, Magnolia Bakery is open!

Brian had a very wiggly tooth on our trip. He ended up swallowing it in his sleep. Oops!  

We went on a window sight seeing tour Thanksgiving night.  It was unbelievable to see the artistry and thought that goes into each window.  One store had scented displays...every window smelled like something different...peppermints, pine trees. It was cool but kind of strange!!

Smelled like peppermints.

Smelled like roses.

Stopped by to see the Rockefeller tree.

Light show at Rockefeller Center.

All of the windows opened.

 We were worn out, but Shawn and I decided to make a quick trip to Times Square at night just to see the lights.  We also found the Hello Kitty store!