30th Birthday and Best Birthday Present

So I turned thirty in November. And it was pretty much a miserable day to cap off a pretty miserable week. But not because I was turning thirty, but because life doesn't stop to celebrate sometimes. Kids don't sleep, things break, other things come up people get sick, etc.

We canceled my birthday until the weekend (so technically I got to stay in my twenties for a few more days, right?) and then we had a nice little celebration a few days later.)

 John's creation of monster-big made-from-scratch German chocolate cupcakes.

And the one present I got was the only one I wanted: a break. (A break that had to be postponed until December, but still, a break!)

We left the kiddos with VERY nice friends and drove down to The City.

Did you know that you can just refer to New York City as "The City" and everyone knows what city you are talking about? Amazing.

I already got to go down to New York with Kristen just a few days after our move here, but that is probably forever lost in my 10 month blog back hole. I highly suggest visiting NYC in both the winter and summer. Two totally different experiences.

 

Checked in to our hotel and went to the Manhattan temple. Time well spent.

Then spent some time at Time Square.

 

No kids woke me up the next morning!!! Our hotel was in the Tudors neighborhood with a pretty sweet view.

 

 That shiny building on the left is the United Nations building, by the way.

 

Then we went to Rockefeller Center. Did not ice skate. Watched only.

And Top of the Rock, Which was really cool. We saw Central Park. . .

Empire State Building. . .

And the famous Big Apple Ball being prepared to drop in a few weeks.

And then we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Awesome and overwhelming. Not exactly a two-hour trip. We probably could have spent five days there.

I can't wait to go back again. So if you ever come out this way to visit, I could be your tour guide. Yes?

Nora's Butterfly Birthday Party (November)

Nora really is a trooper. She wanted to invited friends over for her fourth birthday party, but we had a reallly busy fall, and kept on postponing it week. . .after week. . .. after week.  Finally, over a month later, everything fell into place. After realizing she could not invite her cousins from Utah or her cousins from Nevada ("Why not Mom? It's just a short plane ride?"), or her friends from Milwaukee, or her friends from Ohio, she put together a nice short list of her new friends in Connecticut. 

And it was a great time. And the big plus about having it five weeks after her birthday was that I was able to get all the little girls butterfly costumes leftover from Halloween at Walmart for 90% off!  $75 worth of skirts and wings and jewelry for $7.50. And the cake was kind of a night-before-shoot-from the-hip type of thing.

Trying to take a picture of Charlie