The Natural History Museum

We had planned on going back to the MET for months; had it on our calendar, Ben had the day off work...every thing was set.  We made the hour drive and pulled into the parking lot.  They search the trunk of the car before they allow you to park and when the guard came to our window, he said, "You know the museum is closed, right?"  No.  No, we did not.  We parked anyway and a brilliant idea came to me:  The Natural History Museum!  I've wanted to take the kids but it's never worked out to go.  It was perfect!  And they were slightly more interested in going than the MET.  So, we walked across Central Park, got some lunch from a food truck and went to the museum.

I may have been more excited than the kids, but we still all had fun.

Ha! When I first saw this picture Ben took, I thought that Eli had his arm around Alison, but it's actually me!  He's excited to show me the giant mosquito...

It still amazes me how exhausting just one thing in the city is.  Of everything we've done, Central Park is my favorite and I was thankful that we got to unintentionally walk through it.

It's funny being in the season when these are most of my pictures because no one wants their picture taken.  

Colin's 12th birthday

Colin really wanted to help make his cake this year...he wouldn't let me take a picture, but he had fun decorating.

It was an airplane themed birthday!

{Maya still has to lick his face in the morning}

He requested sausage, eggs and hash browns for breakfast.

When Alison and Eli woke up, he opened presents.

Alison got him a stack of Mr. Beast chocolates, that unfortunately Maya ate 3 of while we were gone!  

His big present was an acoustic guitar!

Muscles are growing around here ;)

Then we were off to the American Airpower Museum.

Can't decide which is funnier...so you get both.

Lesson learned: if an older gentleman at a museum asks if he can tell you a few things, he will follow you through the museum and tell you every detail about every exhibit.

On the bright side, Colin got to do the flight simulator for free (it's normally $10 for 7 minutes)

After a little playing with some new toys, we went out for dinner and then had cake.

The boys finished the day with watching Ghost Busters.

Sea Cliff living

Walks around Sea Cliff are still one of our favorites.  Colin wanted to recreate a picture Alison took back in California:

The Sno Cone place opened up for the summer!

New York notoriously has zero places to sit, so we had to use the steps to the Children's Library.

The Porch Pickers played a concert on the beach.

Some friends joined me for the concert and I was so thankful for their company on this gorgeous night.

Leave it to Italian friends to make you feel really tall.

It's about that time...

Orders are in and we are moving to San Diego in the fall!  Ben will be stationed at Camp Pendleton and we are looking forward to being back on the West coast.  Our house will be going on the market this week, but we've already had 2 non-listed showings.  Finding things to do when we have to be out of the house is going to an adventure.  This week, Alison went to a friends house and the boys and I went to Ralph's.  Ralph's sums up what it's been like living on Long Island...we are saying the same words, but they mean completely different things. I ordered a chocolate sundae, thinking it would be a safe order.  In my head, I should have received this:

Instead, I received this monstrosity.  The picture does not do it justice but it felt like a half gallon of ice cream with a million layers of chocolate.

It was so entertaining that I got an Eli smile!

Colin ordered a "twister", which turned out to be layers of ice cream and Italian ice, which equaled a GIANT mess.

Then we went on a little stroll down by the water.

The picture looks peaceful, but you can't hear Maya losing her mind because she want so badly to get on that beach and chase all the things.  But dogs aren't allowed on the beach and she was going crazy.  She even attempted to jump through the fence!

The boys played and even with a crazy dog, it was a beautiful evening.

Legoland!

We had the best day!

Alison is in Kansas with Aunt Beth and the cousins at Sign Camp.  While she's gone, we took the boys to Legoland, New York.  Eli has been asking to go since we moved here, so it was time to check it off our New York list.  The weather was perfect and there were less crowds the day we went.

First stop, jail.

We got an overpriced, very small lunch and then hit some rides.  The boys drove the cars...they were definitely a little big, but thankfully there was also a middle school choir group there, so they fit right in :)

Then we drove the boats.  They yelled a lot about NOT using your phones during the ride, but I had to sneak a picture...throw back to our first ride!

I also got yelled at for taking this picture:

I guess I'm not really phased by people yelling at me anymore.

Then we drove the firetruck and won the race by a landslide.

Then it was time for Mini land.

I would say this was Eli's favorite part.  We walked slowly through the land, looking at every building.

More rides:

Colin and I had a snack, while Ben and Eli rode the big coaster.

Before hitting the store, the boys built cars to race.  However, there were only 3 sets of tires to be found in this entire building! #fail

That didn't stop Eli.  He built his own tires.

It was a perfect day and one I will forever be thankful for to have with my boys.