The Statue of Liberty

My Dear Husband had an unexpected day off last week so we figured we should go do something touristy vacationy fun. Liberty Park is a 2 hr drive for us, so off we went to see the Statue of Liberty for the first time! It was sooooo stinkin awesome! It was a gorgeous day in early Spring. It was not crowded and there were no lines. Plenty of photo opps and no rude people. As a matter of fact I think the only English we heard that day was from the Ferry employees...but their Jersey accent was so heavy that saying it was English may be up for debate :)

The New Jersey departure point is from an old train station:


We had been told that you can take the ferry to Ellis Island and Liberty Island from either New York or New Jersey, and that New Jersey would be infinitely less crowded and easier. See the photo below:


My husband took this photo from our New Jersey ferry. See all the empty benches on our ferry...see alllll the people on the New York ferry!?!?!?! Holy Moly!

The guys enjoying our leisurely ferry ride over to Ellis Island.


Outside of main building at Ellis Island


Here's schmoo with his cousins' Flat Stanley.


Inside the main bldg at Ellis Island. There were many displays, exhibits and artifacts to peruse. You could also stop and do genealogy there!


Waiting on the next ferry heading over to Liberty Island. Schmoo the photographer.


On the approach. The insides of the monument are being restored this year, so you can't go inside, but all the grounds are still open.


Flat Stanley was here!


I love the photo below. It looks like we were the only ones there looking up to Lady Liberty :)


Our only whole family photo. Wind was whipping my hair around and it's hard to get the whole statue plus people!
We were so close to NYC I could taste it. I can't believe we still haven't gone up there. AAAAAAHH!


It was seriously a perfectly awesome day and we keep talking to each other about it. Wonderful memories created!

Veggies

So I actually had a good idea :) I was supposed to bring veggies and dip to Schmoo's valentine's day party and I didn't really like the thought of two things: 1) 22 sets of kinder hands digging through the veggies and 2) Ranch flavored cupcakes, cookies, etc.

I'm sure someone has done this before, but it was an original thought for me. I poured a little ranch into the bottom of of a foil/paper cupcake liner and then put the veggies in on top. The kids, teachers and parents loved the idea and it was super convenient for serving. Enjoy :)

Random photos

This is from when Schmoo was the student of the week in his class.


This is Schmoo's first personal pan pizza that he earned doing the pizza hut "Book it" program that they offer at school. Daddy did this while he was growing up too. What other 5 year old do you know whose first choice of pizza is Mushroom? (actually he was like, "do I want green pepper? Or sausage? Or olive? Do they make shrimp pizza?" He finally settled on mushroom.)


This was the day of the primary program. This kid is getting soooo tall!

We went down to the Cape May zoo on President's Day. It was a great day because it was cool, not cold, not many people were there, and the animals were out and about! We didn't do a lot of photos, but I had to include the tiger because the big cats are my favorites. While we were at the zoo, one of the lions started ROARING! I've never heard that before and it was amazing loud and deep. It echoed throughout the zoo and I LOVED it!

We found this super duper simple recipe from Good Houskeeping or somewhere and if I were responsible I would link it here but it was from an actual paper magazine and I don't want to go find it online right now. Anyway. Chocolate lava/pudding cakes and they were divine. And so very easy. And anything I can make in those dishes is automatically awesome. (Except don't you dare suggest that I make something horrific like tuna casserole in them.)

I love Valentine's Day!

I love the whole month of February! Groundhogs, birthday, and especially Valentine's day! I love pink and red and hearts and cards and dates and chocolates, and LOVE! This year I am surprising Schmoo and Honey with a little gift or treat each day from Feb 1-14th. It's too much fun!

Happy 100th Day of School!

It's a tradition to celebrate the 100th day of school in kindergarten. The kids make shirts with 100 of something on them. We came across this idea online and thought it would be awesome. It was :)

Christmas Time :)

Don't you wish it was Christmas again? Well, it'll be around the corner before you know it! At least that the way it seems. The older I get the faster those months fly. I'll take Christmas again, but NOT December. It was the worst December on record. Schmoo was sick twice for a total of 9 missed days of school, 3 dr appts and 4 rx. Then I got Pneumonia~ 2 appts and 5 rx. Then My dh got pneumonia, same rx as me. I had to take big bad teaching exams while on codeine. My dh was furloughed, twice. We had to cancel our IVF cycle. We missed every party, event, and all good stuff.

Phew.

It ended well though! Right before Christmas my parents flew in and celebrated the holiday with us. It was a lovely lift of our spirits and we had a great time.

Schmoo and granny making the Gingerbread house

Schmoo acting out the Nativity on Christmas Eve with the awesome set his Primary teacher made for him. So sweet!

So excited on Christmas eve. We ate, read the scriptures, watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas, Schmoo opened a couple of presents, and off to bed.

We had church, as usual, at 10am. We told Schmoo that he could open all his stocking stuff before Church, but no opening presents til we got back. He was fine with that, and was even great on Christmas morning. We were all laughing as he was sitting fully dressed in the hallway with his shoes on 1/2 hour before we needed to leave for church. When we got there he kept on asking me every 5 minutes if it was time to go home, so finally I just handed him the program and he painstakingly scratched off each entry the moment someone said, 'Amen.' You have never seen someone exit the building so quickly!

Handing out gifts

Happy to see he wasn't really getting Crispix as a present.

Granny and papa opening gifts

Have you seen a happier kid? He was soooo excited to get these Legos from Grandma and Grandpa!

Santa brought lots of tracks to put together, a la Mario Kart.

Day after Christmas he wanted to eat this so badly. I told him it wouldn't taste very good but to be my guest...


This was the year of the penguin! He is obsessed with the little guys right now and they were around everywhere.


Some of his track set up

His "dia de los reyes magos" present. I like to celebrate 3 kings day, so he always gets a little something. (usually with the cashback from Toys r us.) Our upstairs neighbors gave him the red bird for Christmas, so we got him a pig and bluebird. He thought it was hilarious when he woke up on January 6th and found his presents and the "level" that we built that for him with his blocks :)

Scientist of the week

I'm so glad that at schmoo's age they are already encouraging them to do little science projects. And I'm doubly that glad that I married who I did so that when the projects get more complicated than this that I can bow out!