Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2011

Happy Thanksgiving (belated) from The Wyatt crew!  

This year was our first family trip to the Macy's Day Thanksgiving Parade.  Freddy T. and Jack have been the past 2 years, but this was Lillie and Elliott's first.  Freddy's parents were also in town and it was their first time to see the parade live.  We were up early Thursday morning and jumped in a taxi at 5:30 to head to the Upper West Side for the parade.  We met Freddy T's parents on 75th and Columbus and walked over to Central Park West to stake our spot.  By the time we got situated we were in the 2nd row of chairs (by chairs I mean we hauled our fold up/outdoor chairs with us) and we had a 3 hour wait ahead of us.  We packed snacks, blankets, and an I-Pad loaded with many episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  The kids did pretty well all things considered.  By the time the sun comes up and you get within an hour of the parade it starts getting exciting, everything before that is just doing what you can to stay warm and get out of your sleepy fog!

Gramps put Lillie up on the little box hanging on the light post so she could see.  She didn't last up there long but managed to sneak a kiss or two for Gramps.

 Jack, Elliott, and Lillie watching as the first band marches by.

The Turkey kicked things off!

 Sonic the Hedgehog made his first appearance in 20 years. 

 Diary of A Wimpy Kid

 Buzz Lightyear, big hit with our kids.  Elliott especially loves Toy Story these days.

 Pillsbury Dough Boy

 Kool Aid Man

 Sponge Bob

 Elliott is also really into Mickey Mouse.  He loved this float!

 Classic Snoopy

 And his gang!

 Ronald McDonald.  His right skate had a big hole in it, it was just hanging.  I've wondered what the float looked like by the end of the parade. 

 Elliott got real excited when this float came by.  He was up on Freddy T.'s shoulders and started naming all the characters.

 Jack mainly wanted to see Spiderman.

 Lillie enjoyed seeing Hello Kitty.

 Another classic, Smurf.

 

 Kermit the Frog.

 And last but not least, Santa came to kick off the Christmas season!

We finished off the day with an apartment full of 15 people to enjoy a great meal.  Great day and lots to be thankful for!

The Harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few...

Fall

It was beautiful here on Saturday.  A little chilly, but a perfect fall day.  Freddy T. took the kids out for breakfast so I could straighten up, or as Jack would say "Mommy, we are going to eat breakfast with Daddy.  You can stay home and do your chores."  I actually like doing my "chores" when I'm home alone :)  Anyway, on their way to breakfast they found a spot in our neighborhood with lots of leaves and played for a while.  Later in the morning I took them back out to play and to get a few pictures.  Jack told me later that night he had a lot of fun playing in the leaves not with me, but when Daddy took them.  He proceeded to tell me that  Daddy  made big piles for them to jump in and I didn't.  

 This one is funny to me because Elliott is pouting in the background.

 Sweet Elliott playing in the leaves.

 Running to jump in a pile of leaves... a small pile according to Jack :)

 Jack

 We went to the playground for a few minutes.  I told the them to run like wild kids and Lillie threw out her arms and took off.

 Jack laying in the pile shielding his eyes from the sun and Lillie throwing leaves.

A few pictures of some trees in our neighborhood.  They have been really pretty.

Happy 3rd Birthday Lillie and Elliott!

This past weekend we celebrated Lillie and Elliott's 3rd birthday.  3 years old... time has gone by fast.  Jack's 3rd birthday was fairly simple, so we stuck to that for Lillie and Elliott's 3rd.  They still aren't fully aware of what it means to have a big party.  My mom and aunt were in town, so the 7 of us celebrated together.  We had dinner at Numero 28 in the East Village and came home for cupcakes and presents.

Lillie and Elliott, you two are more and more fun each day.  You are a huge gift to Mommy and Daddy and we love you so much.  

Lillie, Elliott, and Nay Nay

 

Jack headed out the door to dinner.

 Elliott !

 Lillie and Elliott waiting for their cupcakes.

 Lillie blowing out her candles... Jack trying to get in on the action.

 We missed a picture of Elliott actually blowing out his candles, so he demonstrated for a picture.

 Lillie!

 Elliott opening up his Mickey Mouse Choo Choo Express DVD... 5 minutes later he got a hold of the case and tried to get the DVD out by himself and snapped it in half.  We replaced it at Toys R Us on his actual birthday.

 In our family when you turn 3 you get to chew gum.  Jack, being the good big brother he is, gave Lillie and Elliott their very own Bubble Tape.

 Lillie opening part of her gift from Nay Nay, 3 pairs of play high heels!

Till next year!  Happy Birthday!

Field Trip to Union Square

I had the opportunity Friday to go with Jack's class on a field trip to the Farmers Market in Union Square. It was a lot of fun!

We met at the school and got our assignment for the trip and got paired up with the kids we were responsible for and walked to Union Square. It was only about a 15 minute walk with all the kids. The purpose of the trip was to explore our senses. Each group was assigned a "sense" to explore. Our group was the touching group. We walked around the Farmers Market touching everything we could get our hands on and talking about how it felt. Each group had 5 dollars to purchase something related to the sense they were studying. Our group purchased a cactus.

Jack and his "buddy". We were in the back of the line so you can see the other kids in the class walking ahead of us.

Jack wanted me to take a picture of everything he picked up.

Here he is holding up a cactus for his friends to touch.

This was our "touch" group for the day.

Jack's Class