When You Wish Upon a Star...

I think Alyssa has been wishing to go back to Disneyworld since we got home. I had forgotten how magical a place it is for such little ones. We were able to go for about four days, and we really did have a great time. Here are some pictures. We didn't take too many, because we were too busy having fun!

Thanks again to Dan's parents for coming, so Dan and I could spend some date time at Disneyworld!

North Pole Express

The Essex Stream Train is an exciting train to ride on any time of the year. It is an old coal burning locomotive. But at Christmas time, it becomes the North Pole Express, going all the way to the North Pole!

Every car has an "elf" that entertains the passengers throughout the ride. They do a musical version of "The Night Before Christmas", sing carols, and play games with the kids. Elves even serve hot chocolate and cookies made by Mrs. Claus herself!

One of the best parts of the North Pole Express, is when it stops at the North Pole to pick up Santa Claus. He comes onto the train and gives the children a very special gift. Every year the sleigh is decorated with bells. Santa gives all the bells from last year's sleigh to the boys and girls on the train.

Alyssa and Abigail both love their bells. It was such a thrilling night for them. I hope we can repeat it next year!

Thanksgiving Leftovers

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went for a walk down Greenwich Avenue, the main shopping area near our house.

McArdle's Florist Shop was decorated as Santa's Workshop. They even had live reindeer! I don't think I've seen live reindeer before.

The inside of the store had beautiful decorations for Christmas.

Abigail especially was entranced by the lights.

After the flower shop, we stopped at one of my favorite toy stores. Alyssa had a great time playing with some dragons and a three headed dog.

Speaking of dogs, we gave Sophia and Garibaldi some leftover turkey. They didn't seem to know what to do at first. As you can see, they eventually figured it out. Is it sad to say it took a while? I'm glad they had a fun Thanksgiving, too.

Thanksgiving Fun

I have been wanting to go back to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade ever since we moved to Connecticut. I went every year when I lived in New York. Last year when we were getting ready to move, I thought I had missed my last chance because Abigail was due the week before. There was no way I would take a 1 week old to the parade. Strangely enough, we ended up staying in Connecticut, and moving an hour closer to New York City! So this year, we finally made it down to the parade. Our friends, the Butlers, came too.

We didn't get quite as good seats as in previous years, but there was open space for the kids to run around. And we still got quite a good view of the balloons.

Thanks to Dan, our photographer.

After the parade we walked leisurely through the park, and let the kids climb some of the huge rocks. Then, realizing we would probably miss our train home and have to wait an hour in Grand Central, we ran! And we made our train.

And we then made a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Abigail is 1 Year Old!

My beautiful little blond hair blue eyed baby has turned one! We had a small party for her. Small in part because several families were dealing with sick kids and couldn't come, but it was definitely fun!

Alyssa loved hanging the streamers with me. Really, I love hanging streamers, and they always stay up longer than necessary.


Somehow we ended up with a bear theme for her party. It wasn't a conscious decision, but sort of evolved through the planning process. So, we had to have a bear cake, right?

And here is our little birthday girl.

Alyssa loved the streamers, but Abigail couldn't get enough of these hanging decorations.

One of our party activities was to read the board book, "We're Going On a Bear Hunt". And then we did go on a bear hunt! Abigail's teddy bear was missing, and we had to read and follow clues to find out where he was hiding. The kids really had fun racing all over the house. Although they were momentarily distracted when the search led through the play room...

Here is Abigail eating her piece of cake. I should have taken an after picture. She had frosting smeared all over. So cute! Or video would have been even better. I think it took her less than a minute to eat the whole thing.


Alyssa was great at "helping" Abigail to open her presents. All in all, it was a really fun party. We love you, Abigail! Happy, happy birthday.