We've Moved

I know it comes as a surprise to some of you that we have moved!  But we did.  And now I feel I can finally shout it out loud!  We bought a short sale and really the bank could have changed its mind up until settlement that it wanted to sell to us.  So, I was a little quiet about it.  I didn't really pack until after we settled, I asked the kids to keep it quiet, and I didn't tell a whole lot of people.  But now I can!  We have moved back into a single family home with 4 bedrooms!!  Tobin and Noah did a great job sharing a room, but I am really glad that they can each have their own room now! 

The other thing is, we are still in the same neighborhood as before.  In fact, we are just around the corner from our last house!  What the kids love about our new home is that we have a hottub!  Tobin thinks it will be the coolest thing ever to be able to invite kids back to our house next year, after a game, to sit in the hottub! 

We had some work done between our settlement and moving in!  I have pictures to show you.  The biggest changes we made were to paint the main level, to sand and restain the floors and to replace the countertops with a granite called, "Black Pearl."   I think it only improved the house.  But it sure has made it hard to move in.  Our contractors worked really hard, but it was hard to get all we wanted done in a timely manner.   The day our movers came, our contractor called us and asked if there was anyway we could move our moving day back a day!!  Help..our movers were there...what could we do??  Andy worked out a deal where the movers kept our furniture on the truck overnight and we went to a hotel to spend the night!  It was totally crazy and exhausting. 

Todd's Triumph

As Todd tells my mom, "Every day I drive down I270 and I see 27-0!"  I love my brother and am so proud of his accomplishment!  As a coach to a girl's team that knows how to bring the drama, I am so glad he can be the calm in the storm!  I love his calm rationale.  "My team only has to do what it's doing, one time longer than any other team."

American Girl in New York

I woke up that  Friday morning so excited about going to New York.  I had been waiting for this weekend for a long time.  I was so glad that my mom was going with us.  I knew it would be more fun and hoped to create some great memories with my mom and Brenna.

Our drive up to New York was uneventful.  I had a fun time talking to my Mom.  Brenna sat in the back with her two American Girl dolls, Nikkie and Rae (her just like me doll).  Before we left that morning she tried to find a car seat for her dolls!  She was just so darn cute!  She knew it too.  And we delighted in her the whole way.  Whatever she wanted about our trip to New York, mom was willing to offer her right then and there in that car.  :)

We arrived at our hotel, the Marriott, dropped our car off at Valet parking, dropped our bags off and headed out into New York!  I wanted to go somewhere fun for Brenna as her first introduction to New York.  I had heard about and seen a video on Ellen's Stardust Diner and really liked the look of it.  Ellen's is a place where hopefuls (those with stars in their eyes, hoping for a break) work as servers and sing songs to entertain the visitors.  It was the perfect place.  And we were off...walking the blocks we needed to go to get there. 

It felt so good to sit down!  And then the singing began.  It was a lot of fun.  The servers sang songs from Broadway plays.  Our server sang a few songs during our time there.  He had a really good voice and we enjoyed listening to him.  Mom thought he was cute!!  Brenna was tickled that I sent Andy a picture text, telling him that our server was my new boyfriend!  What was funny, was that he took a break in the song to ask me if I needed ketchup for Brenna's chicken fingers.  How he could think about the song and the needs of his customers in one breath, I will never know.  But after the serenading and the warm food we were ready to head back out into the rainy day.

After the diner, we headed to American Girl.  We walked the blocks back to 5th street where the American Girl doll store was located.  Brenna was so good about walking.  She never complained the entire weekend, except once, I will get to later.  We walked into the American Girl doll store and were immediately assaulted by the American Girl doll world.  Being the mother of a daughter, I was well aware of the different girls and their stories.  I wasn't sure what my mother thought about it all though.  It was a little overwhelming.  We sort of wandered through out the store at first to get our bearings.  We checked our wet coats and umbrellas so we wouldn't have to carry them.  We saw the doll hair station and we saw the picture studio.  We looked first and then went back to where we wanted to be.  Brenna's eyes were as big as Christmas time.  She wanted this and she wanted that!  I had to reign her in.  :)  We spent about 2 hours walking around, getting Brenna's doll's hair done.  The hair stylist who did the doll's hair was really great.  She made it so fun for Brenna, talking to her about her dolls and about how to keep their hair looking shiny.  Nikki and Rae's hair looked so beautiful after she was done.  We had a dinner reservation for 7:30 and we were done shopping by 5:30.  We had been there for almost 3 hours and we had emptied out our wallets. 

We decided to go back to the hotel and rest for a little bit.   Once we got there and looked at the address of Dylan's Candy Bar, we knew that if we really wanted to go, we were going to have to go right then!  Brenna was adamant about wanting to go and so we did!  In the rain, with our umbrellas, about 12 blocks away.  Again, Brenna's eyes were alight when she entered the store, it was overwhelming to see all of the candy in a row, waiting to be eaten.  It was 3 stories of candy:  red, orange, blue, yellow, green, purple--it was visual eye candy as well.  The treats that looked the best to me were the cupcakes on the third floor!  They had about 33 flavors of cupcakes--cookie dough, red velvet/cheesecake, chocolate, german chocolate and oh so much more!!  We loved it!

We made the trek back, in the rain and chill, just in time to make our dinner reservation!  We had a great time eating dinner together at the American Girl cafe.  On the table were these table topper conversation starter cards.  Mom had a fun time asking the questions of Brenna.  The one that stood out to my mom was Brenna's answer about where she likes to go for quiet.  "In a tree," Brenna said.  My mom thought that was really something.  I knew of the magnolia tree Brenna must have been thinking of and wasn't surprised by her answer.  After dinner, we walked back to the hotel.  We were tired by this time and ready to get in bed and cuddle.  Brenna wanted to sleep with me.  She was asleep pretty quickly.  We were on the 15th floor.  Looking out the window, made butterflies dance in my stomach.  I noticed there was a rope hanging from teh top of the building down as far as I could see.  I was glad to know the windows were bolted shut and Brenna couldn't get out to climb down the ropes; I wouldn't put it past her, that's for sure. 

We woke up on Saturday, ready for a nicer day!  But boy did we wake up to heavy rain.  Luckily it didn't dampen our spirits! We were excited for Mary Poppins!

We checked out of the hotel.  We were able to keep our luggage checked in at the hotel.  The hotel concierge fell in love with Brenna and gave her an American Girl doll bed that he was auctioning off.  Brenna was sooooo happy!  To have gotten a new doll along with new outfits and then....a new bed!  She was over the moon.  After getting the bed, we headed out to breakfast.  I wanted to go to the Magnolia Bakery, but when we got there and found no seats, I knew it wasn't going to work.  So, we headed out again in the rain.  We found a wonderful New York deli and ate breakfast there.  I knew Andy would really like it and wished he were with us.  While we were eating breakfast, we realized that Brenna's Ugg boots, while cute, were not keeping her feet one iota dry.  She hadn't complained at all yesterday about the walking, but I knew we needed to get her new shoes if that were going to be the case today.  Talking with my mom, we decided to forego Ground Zero as we wouldn't be able to see anything in the rain anyway!  We will do that next time.  Our next thought was to try the Top of the Rock, but when we got there and realized how grey it was, we knew we wouldn't be able to see anything.  So, we thought to get Brenna's shoes.  We went to Saks Fifth Avenue and couldn't believe that they didn't sell children's shoes!  We weren't sure where to go.  One of the cashiers told us about a place called  Puddle Ducks that she thought would work.  When we walked up to the store, it said on the front of the store "the Millionaires Discount Store."  Oh boy, I thought, but it turned out to be a really eclectic store with hit or miss items.  I was able to find Brenna leather Tretorns, only one size too big!  She talked Mom into buying her a hat!  She did look cute in it though.  What made Saturday so hard was the wind and the rain.  Together, they made it pretty dismal!  But Brenna was such a trooper.  Although, I don't know how much she really saw of New York from the inside of her umbrella!

One funny moment happened when we tried to get some respite from the wind and rain!!  We pulled over for a moment and then the wall started to move.  We realized it was a driveway.  The wind kept blowing our umbrellas inside out, so my mom set her umbrella down to fix Brenna's.  Then when the driveway opened and we saw a delivery truck needed to get out, however, something magnetic turned on in the driveway, and her umbrella resting on the door, began popping its metal spokes.  One, pop, two pop, three pop!  It was amazing to watch and happened in the space of a second.  I looked at my mom, she looked at me, and then we laughed!!  As we walked all over the city, we saw so many broken umbrellas on the street.  That darn wind made it so much more to bear!  Mom was such a trooper and walked with her hood up and let me and Brenna use the umbrellas!!

After that we went to meet Luke, my cousin, at Sardi's for lunch before we went to see Mary Poppins!!  We really didn't think that Luke would show up since it was raining sooooo hard, especially if he had Kamea with him.  Sardi's was a fun restaurant on Broadway.  And we were so excited when Luke walked in.  We had a really fun lunch, catching up with him.  He sounds like he is blending in to New York easily enough.  He is looking for a job. I hope he finds one!! 

After Sardi's it was finally time to head over to the theater!  I was so excited to see my first Broadway play.  Brenna was so tickled that it was also her first Broadway play at the age of 8 and mine at the age of....oh never mind.  We had great seats, 3rd row on the right side.  Mary Poppins was wonderful and delightful and supercalifragilisticexpialadocious!!!  Brenna seemed like she enjoyed the story.  One of my favorite pictures of the entire weekend was when she was holding her umbrella in front of the Mary Poppins sign.  See below!

After Mary Poppins we tried to get a taxi.  But, everyone else had that same idea!!  All of the theater letting out at the same time, pouring down rain= taxicab.  So, no one was having any luck getting a taxi.  And, really, I wasn't any good at whistling for a taxi!  I mean, it looked so easy on tv!  And finally, as luck would have it, our little Brenna imitated what we were doing, and our driver found her irresistable and stopped even though he was off the clock!!  Lucky, she was with us!!  We made it back to the hotel in record time and booked it out of New York to make to Todd's champsionship basketball game!  Little did we know that the New Jersey turnpike was closed shortly after we left the city.  Whew!!  We made it to Todd's game for the last quarter!!  His girls won!  Todd's team was the state champion.  It was the first time, the girl's basketball team had won the state title!!

Go Todd!!  27-0.  All the way, baby!  I think my mom was incredibly glad to be there for the win!

Our waiter at Ellen's Stardust Diner

Mom, Brenna and her new doll, Laney all enjoying dinner at the American Girl cafe in New York.

Day 2

One of my favorite pictures of the whole weekend!!!

Noah's Time on Stage

The story is even better than the pictures show!

Noah's basketball team got to play during half time at the Verizon Center in DC.  He was so excited.  What was really funny was that Andy challenged both Tobin and Noah to hug a cheerleader!  They did it.

Brenna's basketball

Noah Puts His Hand Up

Noah was able to put his hands up for caring on the RCES pillar.  He was chosen out of all of his class for the month as one who exhibited the most caring through the situations they faced.  Noah can be quite caring and I was happy to see him do it.  When I got there I also realized that his friend Annie Kate was also putting her hand up for caring too.  Noah and AK have a brother/sister relationship.  They can be soooo close and at each other's throat the next minute.  We love AK in our house.  :)  So, I had to get some pictures together.

Noah and AK putting their "hands up" for caring.

Ahhhh...the real caring comes out!

Brenna's Fairland Meet

This was a huge meet. There were contestants from all over--as far as Hawaii. I was nervous for Brenna and wanted her to do really well. I'm never sure what she thinks at times like this. I know she wants to do well, but I'm not sure if she's aware that she's getting scored, if she knows what a good score is.

I love this picture of Brenna with her coach.  She's giving Bre a pep talk before she gets ready to compete on the double mini.

The story of this picture makes me cry.  When they were finished competing, the contestants name would show up with their score.  Seeing Brenna's name was amazing and BIG!  I cried when I saw this.  I know I'm sentimental and so proud of Brenna.

Brenna's biggest fans!