4th of July: Coney Island!

Celebrating the 4th of July in the city with kids in a traditional way seems to be tricky every year. It's never the idyllic backyard BBQ and fireworks that I grew up with. I've gotten over that and sometimes we head up to gma's if that's what we're in the mood for. In the past, we've picnicked, gone to the city pool, ate at Dallas BBQ for our barbeque fix, and every other year or so attempted to find a "spot" to see some firework action. These attempts are usually hit or miss, but for the most part good fun anyway.

This year was a completely new experience as we were invited to join some friends on a trip to Coney Island for the Annual Hot Dog eating contest and other such C.I. adventures. I like to get my C.I. fix in at least once a year, so I thought this was as good of a time as any! So, except for the extreme heat and gazillion other people that had the same idea, we had a really fun day. My kids pretty much can't get near a body of water and not get in it, so we did some splashing around in the water, digging in the not-so-clean sand, attempted to watch the Hot Dog Eating Contest (I got way too grossed out!), rode some kiddie rides, got ice cream and cotton candy and called it a day!

Happy 4th of July in NYC!

N & E playing "Angry Birds" on the train ride

Gabriel loving the "D" train

(we could seriously get him to go anywhere if we told him we were going on a new train!)

some splashing!

mom and the boys

Hot Dogs!!!

fearless children on the kiddie rides:

C.I. treats!

Soccer!

We signed Noah up for weekly soccer class this summer and he's really enjoying it. It's been nice to have at least one scheduled activity each week where we just have to show up and have fun and I don't have to do any planning :) He's in a small class this year, which according to him has been much better because he can get some quality one-on-one training! He said the other day, "Mommy, I'm getting so much better this year because I'm in a small class!" I was relieved because there are no boys in the class and I was worried that he wasn't going to like it as much. But I'm starting to think that he really likes being the only boy -- yikes, so competitive already! Gabey wasn't a big fan the first week and was pretty mad that he couldn't join the class. But we found Noah's old shirt from last year, brought our own ball, books, water cup, snacks, and his toy stroller the next week and now he's a fan!

here are some pics:

Gabey getting ready for class

Noah warming up!

Gabey trying to crash the class...

some one-on-one training with coach

taking a book break

water break!

"Coach, put me in!"

stickers!

Noah and Coach Everton

friday field trip #2: Rainbow City + Highline + Chelsea Waterside Park

Our second friday field trip of the summer was tons of fun. The second part of the Highline was finally opened and they celebrated by creating Rainbow City, "a 16,000 square foot interactive sculptural installation filled with colorful inflatable artworks designed to spread magic, luck, and friendship" (i.e. a super fun field trip for us!). I mean where else on this island will you find a free bouncy castle??? The kids had a great time playing with the giant balloons and bouncing around in the castle. Then we walked down the Highline to Chelsea Waterside Park (one of our all time favorite summer playgrounds -- I know I keep saying that, but it's a really good one!) and spent the afternoon splashing around and digging in the sand. Such a fun day.

Rainbow City

(view from the Highline)

G + E jumping in the bouncy castle

Noah and the giant yellow balloon

A + G post-meltdowns

cutie-pies waiting patiently in line to jump!

Noah and new-friend Gracie posing on the Highline

Noah "hanging" out at the waterpark

one way to stay cool!

lots of digging!

who needs the beach?!?

A + G playing mommy and baby

climber!

found some shade!

the monkeys

cute.

Indian Road Playground

This playground has been on our list for a long time and it's crazy that we haven't gone before this summer! It just opened up last summer, so it's brand new and it's just the perfect playground for the ages of my boys right now. It has started to get a little tricky this summer trying to find things to do where both kids are going to be happy/entertained. Sometimes it's just easier to entertain Gabey because he'll scream the loudest if he's not happy! But sometimes it's much easier to entertain Noah because I'll pretty much hear about it for the rest of forever! But this playground was great! Swings for babies and big kids, a water feature for both ages, play structures for both ages, a large sand area, picnic tables, a reasonable amount of shade, and a little nice, clean grassy area that you could actually put a blanket down on (I know, shocking for NYC!). There's enough to do for both of them and it really is the perfect size -- not overwhelmingly big, but big enough to squeeze out at least 2 hours of fun. Which is just what we did!

playdate...

After about 2 weeks of being out of school, Noah and I both needed him to have a playdate with a pal! We've been seeing a lot of our church buddies, but not so much of our school buddies, so we called Eddie K and asked him to come over for a playdate. A tent, popcorn, smoothies, and flashlights got us through the afternoon. These 2 little guys have been best buds since they were 9 months old and it's been really fun to watch them grow up together.

friday field trip #1: Brooklyn Children's Museum

Our first Friday field trip of the summer landed on a rainy day, which meant a trip to a museum! For some reason the Children's Museum of Manhattan is the WORST Children's Museum in the city. Sorry, people, I'm a hater. It's small, always overcrowded, OVERpriced, and just plain doesn't have that much to do! So, we field tripped it down to Bed-Stuy (yes, envision 3 Mormon mommies with their strollers and slew of kids schlepping through one of the worst neighborhoods in Brooklyn looking for the museum). It was quite the adventure, but oh-so worth it when we finally got there (even when we decided to ride the local train just so all the kids could have a seat...)

1st stop: NYC Pizzaria

"can I take your order?"

2nd stop: ride the mo-ped to the green house

3rd stop: gardening in the green house

3rd stop: head to the Bodega for some international groceries

4th stop: Gabey picks up his BFF, Violet

5th stop: driving NYC bus (Gabey's dream!)

6th stop: the beach!

7th stop: the aquarium

8th stop: underwater adventure

9th stop: water play!

10th stop: playground area