End of summer fun

Well Summer is drawing to an end so we're probably going to pack up Sydney's pool soon. Here are some random pics we've taken of her in the backyard. She LOVES to be outside!

New York City!

A few months ago, Craig and I were watching the All-Star game at Yankee Stadium. He started boo-hooing about how he'd never been to a game at Yankee Stadium and how this was the last season before they open the new season, yada yada yada. So (warning...I'm going to toot my own horn), being the GREAT wife that I am, I decided to SURPRISE him with tickets to a Yankees game. Needless to say he was shocked and we were off on our first trips sans baby! We got to New York City around 12:30pm. We hopped in a cab and headed to the hotel. On our way there, we got stuck in some traffic around 59th and Park, so what do I do...people watch of course!! It was a rainy day in NYC and everyone had their umbrellas out. Well as I'm watching people walk by, I realize someone looks very familiar. Lo and behold it was Matt Lauer from the Today Show on NBC! Unforunately, this was my first and last celebrity siting in NYC. After we got to the hotel, we decided to walk over to Time Square to check it out. Oh yea, I forgot to mention that this was my FIRST time to NYC so everything was new to me. Here we are posing in Time Square:

After that we had to stop and grab a slice of pizza...what's a trip to New York without pizza right??
After that we finally were able to check into our hotel and get cleaned up for the game which was that Friday night (September 12th). Before we left for the game we decided to try out this place called the Burger Joint. It's very strange because it's this little dive place in the back corner of the Le Parker Meridien hotel. This hotel is a bit more on the swanky side so you can see why a dive restaurant seemed a little out of place. Anywho, it was AMAZING and we totally felt like we knew about some little secret.

On to the game. Well like I mentioned earlier...it was a rainy day in NYC...not storming or anything, just rainy. We grab out ponchos and hit the subway out to the Bronx. Sidenote: Subways aren't scary at all like I thought they would be...it's actually a pretty neat way to get around. So we show up to the game at 6:30pm and it's supposed to start at 7:05pm. (you already see where this is going, don't you?) Here is Craig standing outside the NEW Yankee Stadium:

And here we are all decked out in our rain gear and ready to watch some baseball!

But it rained and rained and rained and rained.

And finally, at 8:30pm they called the game. Only to be rescheduled right in the middle of my fabulous dinner out Saturday night. Needless to say, we went to the game instead, and I still have a dress that needs to be worn somewhere! :)

So, since the game was canceled, we called up Craig's friend Richard (who lives in NYC) and met up with him. We had a great time catching up!

NYC is just a different place. We went and ate dinner (again...remember the burger?) around midnight that night. And apparently this isn't unusual for that town. We finally got back to the hotel around 2:30am and CRASHED! Saturday we woke up around 10am (yep! you read that right) and from there we did everything! We went to central park, Rockefellar Center, FAO Schwartz, Wall Street, New York Stock Exchange, Canal Street, saw the Statue of Liberty, and more. Here are some pics from our Saturday.

Yankees game Part II!  So we did cancel dinner plans at Mesa Grill (Bobby Flay's restaurant) and went to the Yankees game again on Saturday night.  This time the weather cooperated and we got to watch them play!  Craig can mark that off his life list now.

After the game on Saturday we grabbed another slice of pizza and headed back to the hotel room.  Once again, we were exhausted!  We just aren't night owls like we once were.  All in all, it was a fabulous trip and we had a great time!  Thank you to the Russes and Mizell's for watching our little one while we were gone!  We were very happy to see her again when we got back on Sunday!

Zoo!

Craig and I took Sydney to the Dallas zoo a couple of weeks ago. I count this as her first time though I did take her last year. She was only about 4 months old then and slept most of the time so I don't really count it. She loved seeing all the animals this time. We got there around 10am thinking we would beat the summer heat, but we were wrong. It was sooooo HOT!!! Thankfully Sydney was shaded in her stroller so it didn't seem to bother her as much as it did mom and dad. We were a little disappointed that the elephants and giraffes weren't out...what's the zoo without them?? But we did get to see a gorilla, penguins, a tiger and some other fun animals.


Checking out the elephant fountain




















Pretending to be an Otter!

Oooohhh....a TIGER!

Wearing Daddy's sweaty hat!

Mom...what are those things??

I wanna be that tall!




















This monkey is not too scary!














But this one I'm not too sure about....
(notice how she is holding on to me for dear life!)




















It's a stare off!




















Taking a break and having some juice in a butterfly chair!

Where's Sydney?

THERE SHE IS!

Fort!

The other afternoon Sydney and I were playing in her room and we kept hiding under the blankets. That gave me the great idea to build a fort with her. Now it wasn't anything extravagant but she still thought it was so much fun. I just turned her pack n play on it's side and threw a blanket over it between a bed and the pnp. She had a blast crawling in and out of it. Here's some pics of Sydney in her fort!

Let there be paint!

We FINALLY got around to painting our living room and entry way in the house. Currently the ENTIRE house is a boring ol' cream. The whole thing. We NEED color around here but that's easier said than done with a curious toddler running around. At least we got something done and we'll keep taking each project little by little.

Entry way BEFORE:


























Entry way AFTER:













Living Room Before (excuse the junk everywhere!)













(the white spots are where we had to prime over the paint we sampled before choosing a color)













Living Room AFTER:

Coloring, coloring, coloring

Sydney LOVES to color!!! The problem is that she doesn't always color just on paper. She has colored on our dining room chair, fireplace, floor and coffee table so far. Needless to say, we still let her color but we keep a close eye on her now.

Muffin Tin Monday

From left to right:
Spinach Veggie Bite (Morning Star), Bananas, Strawberry Sugar-free Jello, Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Corn, Grapes














I can't believe it, but she did NOT like the jello. Maybe it was the texture or something. She also didn't eat the corn...no surprise there. She did eat everything else though!