We headed to the big Apple (NYC) on the only direct flight from Birmingham after the girlies got out of school. We did not land till 8pm EST but it gave us more time without missing to many days from school. Once we grabbed a car service we headed to our hotel. The girlies said they were tired but we were also hungry so we ventured around the hotel block and grabbed a hotdog from a street vendor then enjoyed a water fountain for a little bit before heading back to the room and finally going to sleep at 10:30. 

Girls all ready for NYC 

Waiting on our plane at the airport

And we are off

Beautiful view of the city as we flew in

First night in NYC, dinner at a street vendor

After the late night most people slept in so we did not get moving closer to 9:30. If Lisa had known they were having street vendors right outside our hotel Leia and she would had gone out earlier since they woke up a little earlier than the rest. We ended up grabbing breakfast at Starbucks and McDonald’s since the line to where we were going was extremely long and we were all hungry and didn’t want to spend much time our first morning in NYC in a line. After we filled our bellies we went to Times Square, hitting multiple stores on the way as the girls deemed. We opted to visit “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” as suggested by a friend. There were several interactive displays that we enjoyed. Both girls said their favorite part was black spinning tunnel with light. After we made our way through all the displays we headed out to grab a quick bit across the street at PAXS since our broadway tickets were just a hour away. Next up we ventured over to the theater to see Aladdin which both girls said was their favorite thing of the day. We followed this up with a trip to Macy’s on 34th street, Disney store, and more shops; Chris loved this part of the trip. We were all getting hungry and girls/their daddy were fading from long day so we grabbed a last minute reservation on Open Table at E&E Grill to stop and grab a late dinner on the way back to the hotel to call it a night. The girls our lasted Chris. He fell asleep while the girls were still talking about how much fun they had and how they were looking forward to going to the Statue of Liberty Sunday.

These sisters were ready to tackle the day

View from our hotel room

Shopping in Times Square

Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum 
   
     
   
Before we left Leia requested to get to go to Braodway and eat pizza so we delivered
 
Our Broadway Show for the trip. The girls said it was the best show they ever saw.
   
 
More shopping …. Chris was loving it
   

 
Dinner before calling it a night

Sunday morning we woke up earlier to head to Ellen’s Stardust diner for breakfast and entertainment. The wait staff took turns singing throughout the dining experience. We found out last year 20 servers left because they had been cast in a show. Of course like anything there were some better than the rest but the entertainment was great. We walked over to Rockefeller center after breakfast to go to lego store and were surprised to see the ice rink was open. Lisa and the girls took the opportunity to glide a little. Ivy learned to skate; it was her first time to ice skate. It was a fun experience. We bee lined to the boat to head to the Statue of Liberty since we only had a little time to get there. They girls did awesome sprinting with us. On the boat we grabbed the girls muffins for lunch since we totally miss judged the time and there was not any time to grab lunch. We explored the Statue of Liberty and got to go up to the pedestal. We opted for the stairs instead of elevator; Lisa was busting out laughing on way up when we all realized the number of steps. Oops, momma fail or momma win … either way we had a great time and both girls said it was the highlight of their day. After we explored the island we got back on the boat to head back. We opted to skip Ellis Island since the girls were tired, asking to go back to hotel and get something to eat. When we got back to Battery Park we sat down to figure out dinner and stumbled upon a street show. The girls loved it! Then we went to dinner at Ms Fulton which reminded us of a fast food burger joint. We hopped back on the subway from their to go get ice cream near the hotel then retired early since we had the girls running all day again and they wanted to go chill with a show before bedtime. 

Waiting for breakfast at Ellen Stardust with singing servers 

Our server sang a song from Moana for the girls

Chilling at the Rockefeller Center waiting to go into the Lego Store

 So much fun ice skating at Rockerfeller. Ivy learned to ice skate here. 

   
  
   

On the boat heading to see the Statue of Liberty




Mommy opted to walk up and down 354 stairs to get to pedestal instead of taking the elevator, daddy was really excited about it 😉 
   
Loved listening to Leia read about the statue to us all


This is a replica of the actual size of the statues foot
   
 
Grabbing a souvenir from the Statue of Liberty gift shop and finishing looking around one last time before we headed back to Battery Park

This is as close as we got to Ellis Island. We will have to catch this one next trip. 

 When we got back Leia loved watching a street show


The girls thought it was cool standing on the subway on our way back to get ice-cream
  
Ice-cream break
    

Monday morning we woke up early with daddy to go to Sarabeth’s for breakfast then Lisa and Leia walked to get girls a donut at Dunkin Donut since Leia had been asking for one everyday that we’ve been here. Seems like there is a Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts are on every corner. The girls enjoyed their donut on the bed while mommy and daddy packed up before Chris headed to a meeting. The girls requested some chill time in the room before we headed out for the day so we watched Disney in the hotel room a little bit and Leia studied her weekly spelling words her teacher just emailed before we checked out of the hotel to head to Central Park to explore a little. First up on the agenda was horse and carriage ride with Ebraham and our horse, Puzzle. The park was beautiful with the changing leaves on a beautiful fall. On our tour we found out the park is 840 acres with 54 miles of walking tracks. We were able to get off the carriage to posed in front of a fountain, lake, and bowl bridge which had great acoustics. It was beautiful listening to the singing under the bridge but Ivy  really wanted to get back to Puzzels so we did not hang out as long as mommy would have liked to before heading back to the carriage. Ivy was thrilled to get to feed Puzzle a carrot when we got back too; Leia liked it but was not as into it as much as her sister. We continued on the loop till we returned where we started then stayed around the horses petting and meeting other horses until mommy convinced the girls we should go explore. We found the kids area and the girlies had a blast playing, swinging, climbing, sliding, and just being a kid. We stayed until one of them was ready to leave and figured out it was past lunch time. We ventured nearby to a Food Hall another mom had told Lisa about at the park. It was a nice; the girls were entertained and everyone got exactly what they wanted to eat. After we filed our bellies the girls asked to walk around the city a little more and shop. As we walked we decided to see if there was any possibility that there were Top of the Rock tickets available since the girls finally agreed to go but there wasn’t availability till 6:25 and we needed to be at the airport at 6:30 so we missed that opportunity but will get it the next time. We continued shopping until the girls found their perfect souvenir each of them wanted for their trip. Once we secured the items they wanted we headed back to the hotel to retrieve our bags, grab a car, and head to the airport. We met Chris at the airport as he was checking checking in since we could not do it online due to technology glitch. Everything was running pretty smooth for this trip until a mechanical issue delayed our flight; turned out we could had gone to Top of the Rock. The girls were troopers though and did not complain about the delay. We explored the airport, played on phones, and played with animals they brougthbrought to entertain ourselves until we got home and in bed MUCH later than we’d planned.

Fun way to see the park
   
Beautiful scenery
  
  

 Always fun playing in a park. 

      
 
Hiking in the park
 
Lunch time! 


When we went back to the hotel there was some kind of convention going on so police were everywhere! Ivy got a little freaked out since there were police, police with dogs, and police with big guns at every entrance and exit. Mommy told her they were policemen just like her uncle Alex and they had the dogs and guns to keep people safe. She eventually chilled out and talked to them as we waited for our car and even got a picture with them

 One last view of NYC on the way to the airport. The car we got had a nice big sunroof to see the skyline
 

Glad daddy got to fly home with us! 

Tuesday morning the girls woke themselves up to go to school (we were going to let them sleep in) and had a great day telling their friends about the trip. Leia even got to share a slide show with her class on Wednesday. What a great memories we all got to make!