Pumpkin Patch

We went with our small group this past weekend to the pumpkin patch.  The week prior to this we had a fall party at our house where we did games/crafts with the kiddos.  It was super fun.  We had the kids paint miniature pumpkins and the made these cute shirts that they all wore to the Pumpkin Patch a week later.  We had 3 legged races, scavenger hunt, bobbed for apples, cookie decorating... I believe that covers it.  Needless to say, the kids had a ball and so did the adults.  We have such an amazing small group.  Love spending time with them so much.  Here are some pics to capture the fun!

Elaina and Caitlyn painting Pumpkins - Elaina looks like she is trying to tell Caitlyn what to do.  In fact, she probably is.

Jack painting his shirt

Me and my love bug

Sweet Owen....

Amy making a shirt for her son, Alec and Andrew making one for his son, Aidan

Owen and his dad

Elaina making her shirt...

The gang painting pumpkins

Alec and Chad... and Andrew

Patrick making his shirt



How do you hold both kids at the same time?  Like this, of course!  Kevin looks like a pro at this



I forgot to mention we bobbed for apples.  I was the first to try - unsuccessfully at that.  But, Brandi and Pam got theirs.  The kids had more fun splashing in the water and making the apples splash into the water



Owen making his cookie and eating it some along the way.  I love how the black icing looks just like a mustache

Halfway through the party, Elaina decided to put her Rapunzel outfit on.... complete with crown and everything!

Caitlyn decorating her cookie

The next weekend it was off to the pumpkin patch....  The kids wore their shirts and looked totally adorable in them.  Our friends, Tami and Justin came along with their kids, Olivia and Isaac too. 

Elaina with her friends, Olivia and Olivia... the one on the right is Olivia Ford (who is 4).  Elaina calls the one of the left "Olivia Six" because she is 6.  I think Elaina thinks Olivia Ford's last name is actually "Four" so the other one would be "Olivia Six"  Too funny!

Patrick, Olivia Six, Caitlyn, Olivia Four, Isaac, and Elaina

Sweet Aidan

Caitlyn and Jack

Pam with Caitlyn

Erik and Elaina picking out a pumpkin.  The pumpkins were all green.  they had very few orange ones and the ones that were were placed there loosely and not tied to a vine.  We came home with 3 green pumpkins.  They are kind of pretty

Elaina and her green pumpkin

Elaina and Olivia with their pumpkins of choice

I thought this was a cute pic of Owen and Caitlyn finding their pumpkin

Elaina... I just think these shirts are so adorable

All the kids....Front:  Isaac and Olivia,
Middle: Jack, Olivia with Alec, Caitlyn,
Back: Elaina, Aidan, Patrick and Owen

The Stringfellow family posing for a fall picture

They had a super big slide that the kids enjoyed

And a corn box... rather the sand.  Such a great idea.

A good time was had by all....  And for the record, I LOVE FALL!!!  Until next time.......

Times Square Video

During our last walk through Times Square on our last day in NYC, my sister told me to take a video standing in the middle panning the entire place from point to point.  So, I did - just to capture the whole thing and the craziness of it all...  The same sister, Nell, decided to crash the video every few seconds to be funny.  And she gives a little message to Erik (who is in no way interested in ever going to New York City)....Take a look.

I did not know that the ball that drops every year actually stays on the top of the builiding all year (at the bottom of the poll of course).  Just something I did not know.

New York City - Day 3 and 4

Day 3.... started with a trip to the Empire State Building...  It was a spotty, rainy day so the view was a bit cloudy.  But I was so glad to have gone.  The only good news is the line to go up was super duper short so that was nice.  Here is one shot of the view...

The whole gang at the bottom when we came down

After that we headed over to Chelsea Market for lunch... or so we thought.  Chelsea Market was cool, lots of good places to eat.  We scored a great table at this great restaurant (The Green Table - not certain on the name).  Someone did not show up for their reservation so we lucked out.  As we sat down, ordered our drinks and food, my sister, Nell, said "we need to keep an eyeball on the time."  We had a boat tour reservation at 2:15.  Well, it was 1:30!!  We totally lost track of time.  We had to cancel our order, we all ate 1 meatball off of the appetizer that we ordered and we jetted over to Chelsea Pier for the tour.  Bummer - the lunch we all ordered was going to be delicious.  We found out on Yelp.com that this place had super high rating... oh well.

Over at Chelsea Pier, we got on this boat for our tour...  it was nice.  BTW - on the way to the boat, I stopped to eat a hot dog at a street vendor.  DELICIOUS!  Not quite the meal I was going to have but it worked and was something I wanted to so in the City anyways so it worked out..

The tour was great - we went all the way around the Island and got to hear cool facts about the city and it's architecture and the history behind so much of it...  I HIGHLY recommend people do this sort of tour, for sure.

A shot of South Manhattan - you can see one of the new World Trade Center towers that is being built

And, we floated right beside the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island... pretty cool.  She is a beauty.

All of us on the boat in front of the Statue of Liberty.  Really nice guy that took the pic but he did not get the Statue in the shot with us... oh well!  The boat tour provided wine and hor d'ourers... it was very nice.

Brooklyn Bridge...

Kate took my camera to get some shots of the Brooklyn Bridge... she and Abby took pics of themselves in front of it.  So, why not include them in the blog....:)

And one of Abby...

Going up the shore was pretty cool... one section of it were buildings like this

Then just a 1/4 mile up were sky rises like this.  It was interesting seeing the different types of architecture along the coast line

  DAY 4.... started with a trip to the Sunday morning Today Show.  This was SUPER fun.  My mom made a sign (below) and at first we were all like "really mom?? are you going to really flash that??"  Guess we're still embarrassed by our mom ;)  But it got us some attention...

The weather guy asked us where we were from, we told him... and then he did his outside weather spot right in front of us.... SUPER fun.  I am such a cheeseball in the film..  I waved twice.  I was so excited that he was doing his report right in front of us.  I am such a dork!  Afterwards, I was pretty happy mom did that because it turned out alright...  moms - they are always right!

This was recorded from a friend's camera recording the TV so it's kind of hard to hear.. but, he says, "these folks behind me are from the Secret City.  We'd tell you where that is but then we'd have to kill you."  HA!

All in all - a great experience.  There are some other shots of us too that were caught on camera (panning the crowd) but I won't bore you with those.  Sunday is definitley a good day to go to the Today Show.  Not a crowd there so you're sure to get on.

Next it was on to a brunch at a small restaurant in the Theatre District called Chez Josephine.  It is owned by Josephine Baker's son.  It is a way super cool place and the breakfast was DELICIOUS.  Mimosa's weren't bad either. 

A shot of the restaurant... I love the decor of this place

At our table.....

Next it was on to the show!!  We saw Wicked.  In a word (or 3).... IT WAS AMAZING!  I want to be on Broadway.  I love the hound out of this kind of stuff.  I want to see it again and again and again. 

That night (our last night), we ate NY style pizza at a joint a block from our restaurant.  I was great too.  That was the perfect way to top of the trip.  We headed back home the next day.  I was glad to get home to my family but once home I couldn't stop talking about all the things we did/saw.  I really want to go back one day... Hopefully that day will come sooner rather then later.

And, to my mom and sisters... you guys mean the world to me and I love you so much.  I am so happy to have shared this experience with you all.  I am excited about our next girl adventure (where ever it may be) with the four of you. 

Speaking of that - any of my blog readers got any suggestions on where we should head for our next trip??

New York City

This past weekend my mom and my 3 sisters packed up and headed to the Big Apple.  This was my first trip and let me just tell you, I hope it was not my last....  I will have to break this blog up into a couple different posts.  Let's start at Day 1.
When we got to New York City, before setting out to do some walking through the city.... food.  After traveling, we were pretty hungry.  After a whirlwind through Penn Station (okay, so we got lost down in the bottom somewhere), we found our luncheon destination.  We ate at Lugo Cafe which we found on the web site, Yelp.  Very cool website.  It's where we found all our eating destinations.  What did we do before SmartPhones? Anyway.  Here we are with our bellies full ready to walk the streets of NYC.

We stayed in Manhattan right beside Madison Square Garden. We walked to Times Square and around that area to Rockefeller Center, etc... stopping in and out of shops on the way.  My first impression - LOUD.  I am not into loud but it's the city so what do you do??

Top - mom and my sisses in Times Square, Bottom - me in Times Square

We stopped in the M&M store to buy our kiddos an NYC M&M treat... on the way out of the store, my sister, Abby pulled this out of her purse...

Her napkin from Lugo Cafe...  first souvenir!

Next we stopped at St Peters Cathedral (my mom the cathedral lover, had to go in)  It was nice.  I could not get a decent pic of the inside because of lighting but here is Abby, Nell, and mom outside of it

Then to Rockefeller Center.... more on this later.  We visited the Today Show on Sunday and let's just say we got a cameo on
it...  stay tuned for that.

We had tickets to the 9-11 Memorial that evening... So, it was off to that... here we are in line

The fountain of the North Tower... This was pretty surreal standing at the fountain.  It was so gorgeous and to think this was the exact spot where the building fell.  I was tearful and moved by the beauty of the fountain and the meaning behind it.  I am so glad we were able to see this...  I hope to go back when the museum is finished to see it.  Everyone should go visit this memorial

This is the South Tower... It is half way complete which I found to be amazing because at even half way up it was taller then the buildings surrounding it.  It's going to be so beautiful.

The new North Tower being built.  It's not quite as complete as the South Tower

Just some touching shots of some items left around some of the names on the memorial....

This was one of my favorite things that we did....  Like I said, everyone should go see this.

On to Day 2....

First stop... a subway ride to Central Park.  When I got off the subway and walked up the stairs my first reaction was how quite it was uptown..  I LOVED this part of town - Park Avenue, Central Park.  Awesome!  If I lived in NYC this is where I would live.  But, I need about a Bazillion dollars to do it, so not happening.

Nell and Mom....

The Park was seriously so serene and quite and beautiful.  I've heard it said before how crazy it is to have all that right smack dab in the middle of the city but I did not know just how crazy.  It is straight up nature right in the middle of all the concrete.  I mean a scene such as this with those sky scrapers in the background.. craziness!

Me and Nell

LOVE IT!!!  Turtles sunbathing on a rock.  For those of you who don't know, I love Turtles.  I try to buy a turtle nick knack where ever I go.  Good news, I found a cute one in NYC so I have another for my collection from NYC.

Kate, Nell, and mom

Next stop - lunch at Alice's Tea Cup.  This was my favorite place we ate at.  I love all the places but this was super quaint and delicious.  We had all you can eat Scones, sandwiches, tea, and cakes/cookies.  I am not a fan of scones but evidently I have not had one from here.  I now LOVES scones - if they are made correctly  Who knew???

Here we are after lunch :) Stuffed!

The next stop was the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  It was neat but not my favorite thing.  I don't know why, but I was glad we went.  After that was dinner at DB Moderne Bistro.  DELICIOUS!  We saw Mario Batali there - in his black t-shirt, bright orange shorts, and orange crocs.  It was a nice place too but he was all decked out in his usual. 

He did not look much different then this (minus the shoulder bag and his shorts were the same orange as his shoes and hair)....I thought this was his TV look but not so.  He dresses like this everywhere he goes (apparently).

That wraps up day 1 and 2....  So far, it's been fun.  Stay tuned for Day 3 and 4 :)