http://www.sydkad.com/blog SydKad.com blog RSS feed Sun, 20 May 2012 12:48:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=443 Sun, 20 May 2012 12:48:00 +0000 Carrie http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=443 Palying on the pirate ship slide.

Sydney took a video of them going down the little slides.

Abby was a little timid of the crocodile slide at first but once I went down it with her once that was all her and Sydney wanted to do.  They even took turns of themselves going down it.  Way to go girls!
Here are mine, Sydney's and Abby's videos. 

I just love how Abby giggles all the way down the slide.  The video is very very very long as the camera was on the whole time they were in line so just fast forward to 7:30 and play from there.

Sydney's girl scout troop had a build a bear party on Sunday and Abby went too!  Sydney got a girl scout bear that she named Brownie.  It was cute had a smock just like hers. 

The girls had alot of fun just playing at the house.  On Monday Sydney skipped school as they were all so tired from the weekend. The spent the day playing in her room having a dance party. Thought these videos were pretty cute.

]]> http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=445 Sat, 19 May 2012 14:17:00 +0000 Carrie http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=445
Then they had a Kindergarten Dr. Seuss parade one night.  All the classes dressed up as characters from Dr. Seuss's books.  Sydney's class was Cat in the Hat. Afterwards Sydney got her picture taken with her teacher.

Then on Friday they had a school dance.  Makenzie and I went too and it was alot of fun.  There was a DJ, strobe lights and good music.  The kids had fun dancing their booties off.  We did the cupid shuffle and even the wobble!

The video is dark but you can see how much fun they are having.

This is Sydney practicing her songs for Kindergarten graduation.  I just love it!

Makenzie wanted to sing her ABC's for you.

]]> http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=444 Sat, 19 May 2012 07:49:00 +0000 Carrie http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=444
At the arcade of course Makenzie had to ride the carousel.

We played some skee ball.

And a mean round of air hockey.

The big kids did bumper cars.

Mak attempted to play dance dance revolution.
Sydney won a bunch of tickets!

Then we had cake and opened presents.  Happy Birthday guys!


I put frosting on Avery's nose ;)
]]> http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=441 Sat, 19 May 2012 07:29:32 +0000 Carrie http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=441
Andrea sent me these pictures that she took of the girls at Easter.  The first is Makenzie kissing her bestie Sofia.

This is from my Easter party. The kids caught a lizard and Alyssa put it on Sydney's head.

Then we had a playdate one morning here so Makenzie could play with her friends.  Lucy nicknamed her Hercules because she slammed the door of the playhouse so hard she broke it.

I went with Sydney and her girl scout troop to Disney on ice.  It was alot of fun!  This time we saw the Princess show. Sydney got a Tangled necklace for a souvenier.

Andrea helped me tile my front patio with slate.  Took 3 days but turned out great.  Way better than the concrete that had been there.

A cute self portrait that Sydney took of her and her sister.]]> http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=442 Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:33:00 +0000 Carrie http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=442
Day1: We left on a Tuesday before the kids had school so we arrived in Newark around 1:30.  As we were wandering around the airport trying to find the train to the city we saw a sign that said baggage claim. Jason looked at me and said, "Oh crap, we checked a bag!"  So we ran down there and our bag was the only one left on the terminal just circling around.  Thank goodness he remembered.  So after we gathered ALL our bags we found the train.  The train there was very old and the guy next to me had no teeth and wouldn't stop talking so at first I was a little frightened.  Once we got to Penn Station though we walked the few blocks to our hotel in Times Square.  We stayed at the Element by Westin.  It was very nice but wierd because most everything else on the street was not very nice.  New York was strange like that ghetto, ghetto, nice, it really made no sense.  And there was never anywhere to go to the bathroom! If there was it was usually ghetto too!  I swear I had to squat more in New York City then I ever did in Mexico. Anyways once we got to our hotel we checked in to our room and I took some pics out our window.  The big building you see is the New York Times building, Times Square is right beyond it. 
Our room, it was tiny but had a little kitchenette and a very nice bathroom.  We never cooked but the fridge came in handy.  After checking in we walked up to Times Square to get something to eat since we hadn't eaten all day.  We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe and then went shopping at the Oakley store.  From there we went down to the Subway.  It was my first time riding but Jason had rode it before when he had come to the city when he use to live in New York.  Once we figured out our stop we walked the rest of the way to The New York Stand Up club.  We saw about 10 different comedians perform one which is from the show 30 rock.  It was a really good time!  After that we walked back through times square and I took a few pictures.  Day 2:  This morning we had breakfast at the hotel as they served a continental breakfast.  Then we walked down to Chelsea market which is a specialty food market and also home of Food Network Studios.  We bought some cooking things and some chocolate to bring back the girls.
The biggest store in the market is called Amy's Bread (which I have her cookbook so I wanted to go and see her store.)  The store has glass walls so you can view them making the breads.After Chelsea Market we walked up to B&H photo and video superstore, one of Jason's favorite online stores.  Then we grabbed some lunch at a local pizza shop.  The New York pizza was good.
From there we went back to the hotel to rest up after all of our walking.  That night we went to Bobby Flay's restaurant. We rode the subway again.

IT was so delish!  I tried the blue corn pancake with duck haberno sauce.  Yummy! For dinner I had 16 spice chicken and Jason had salmon.  Dessert we shared sticky toffee pudding.  After dinner we walked all the way back to times square because we were so FULL.  It was a really long walk but very pleasant out.  From there we went to see a movie then walked around until 2 am.  It was crazy to me how many things were still open and how many people were still out on the streets.  We also sat on the famous red steps that night.
Day 3:  Today we went to see the World Trade Center Memorial.  I found all of it very interesting and the new buildings are very cool. It was kind of emotional and I think a little surreal for Jason as he had been IN the World Trade Center on September 10th, 2001.  To see it again as just a big pool must have been very strange.  Here is the new World Trade Center 1 building.  It is not complete yet but already much taller than the other buildings.
This is the first pool we saw which is the footprint of the orginal World Trade Center 2 building stood.

Next to this pool is where they are building the new World Trade Center 2 building.
This tree was called the Survivor tree as it was the only tree that survived from the original landscape.  IT was nearly dead but they brought it back to life and it is a symbol of how we will always survive.
This pool was just massive, I couldn't believe how big it was.  It is the footprint of the original World Trade Center 1 building. 
After visiting the Memorial we walked down the battery Park.  You can see the Statue of Liberty from here but it was really foggy so it looked like she was just floating out in the water.
At the park there was a huge crowd of people so we went to check out what was going on.  It was a group of street performers. 
Back in Times Square we did some more shopping and got a few things for the kids.  We visited the Hershey store.
The M&M store
The Toys R Us was 3 levels and had a ferris wheel inside plus lots of cool Lego creations.

Sat at one of the tables in the street and was amazed by everything around me.

Before we left the park and caught the Subway back we bought some food from a street cart too.  I had a lamb kebab.  Tonight we got dressed up and went to Ruth's Chris for dinner.  We had a $200 gift card so we stuffed ourselves. I had lobster bisque, filet mignon, au gratin potatoes, margaritas and creme brulee.  From there we went to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. It was a fun experience and we had a good time but I am not a musical person and I was so full I just wanted to go to sleep, lol.  When we got back to the hotel we went up on the roof and took some pictures of the city.
Day 4:  Today was Friday and we walked down to the waterfront and took a little cruise around Manhattan Island.  It was really interesting and I learned lots of history that I probably should have known already.  I took ALOT of pictures. Here we are leaving the docks near Hell's Kitchen area (upi can see Times Square off in the distance.)
The Empire state buildingThese are the vents that aerate the Lincoln tunnel.  I was a little wierded out that their were cars driving under me and under the water.
Leonardo Dicaprio lives in the top 2 floors of the middle building
It was the nicest day we had in New York, I even had flip flops on.
Now we are down by lower Manhattan.  You can see them building the new World Trade Center 1 (it is off to your left.)  World Trade Center 2 is in the middle and you can see the crane on top of it.  It is just amazing!
Here is battery park where we were yesterday.

This is where Wall Street is.
The Jersey side
The Staten Island ferry
Now we approach the famous Brooklyn bridge (you know the one from the Geico commercial.)  The pedestrian path is raised above the car lanes.  Pretty cool, huh?
Then the Manhattan bridge which has a subway track across it.  You can actually see it going across if you look close enough.
The old Nabisco factory
The slums (don't go here.)
Then we head over to the Statue of Liberty to take some pictures.  We didn't go on the Island as you cannot go inside of it right now due to repairs.
Ellis Island
Back on land we walked to get lunch which ended up being New York pizza again.  Then we bought some gifts for the girls at the American Girls Store.  We also went into Rockefeller Center but we didn't go to the top as it was $25 a person.  We did however learn NBC is housed in Rockefeller center which I thought was pretty cool.  Then we walked to Grand Central Station. 

Inside Grand Central Station
After all of this walking I was dead tired so we went back to the hotel to take a nap.  We went to a late dinner at Chevy's as it was only 1 block away.  It was really good Tex Mex and the margaritas were on special!  After dinner we decided we would try out the club a girl had reccomended to me.  We took the subway downtown and found the club.  It was on a strip of almost all bars and restaurants.  It was called Le Poisson Rouge.  It was very classy and very expensive.  If you wanted to sit at a table you had to purchase a bottle which ranged from $250-$1000.  We choose to just stand ;)  I danced and Jason moved his shoulders back and forth, lol.  It was a good time!  We left about 12:30am and rode the subway back.  The subway was happening at 1am!  There was even a guy down there playing the drums and selling his cd. 
Day5:  This morning we slept in then went to Starkbucks for breakfast and coffee.  We walked all the way to Central Park.  Then walked through about half of it.  We made it to 80th ave and we had been staying on 39th.  The park amazed me at how beautiful it was admist this huge city.
This was the Belvedere castle which was in about the middle of the park.
The view from up above.
After this we got some lunch and went to Penn Station.  We rode the train again to Newark but this time it was a double decker train which was really nice.]]> http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=438 Tue, 10 Apr 2012 11:51:00 +0000 Carrie http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=438
Sydney shows me how she can do a flip on her bar
Mak loves to swing
The egg hunt begins and the little ones get a 30 second head start

The big dogs are released



Mak finds one in the flowers and is so proud, "I find one, I find one!"
Sydney shows me all her eggs then shares some with her little sissy
Makenzie and Sofia love each other.  They are the best of friends.  Mak calls her, "My Sofi," and Sofia calls her, "Enzie."
After the hunt all the kids looked through their eggs to find the ones that said prize so they could pick something from the prize bag.  The big kids were really good about sharing with the little ones.  Then I took them all over to the dirt lot to do the confetti eggs. 
Ryan wouldn't let Gracie crack an egg on his head.  I tried to hold him down but he squirmed away.
Finally Sydney let her do it to her.
Hoppy Easter everyone!]]> http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=439 Tue, 10 Apr 2012 11:00:00 +0000 Carrie http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=439
Sydney on the other hand thinks the clues are the coolest thing ever!!!

Makenzie found her basket first with help from us and sissy.  It was in her bathtub.  She liked her build a bear but more than anything was impressed by the chocolate bunny.  She then preceded to eat all the chocolate.  I then made her breakfast but all she ate was the bacon.  The breakfast of champions right??? Chocolate and bacon! 

Sydney had about 12 clues, up and down the stairs.  The bunny gave her some pictures, some riddles and some she had to read.  All and all she loved every minute of it.  Eventually she found it in the kitchen cupboard.  She was really excited about her build a bear and can't wait to go stuff them at the store.  She also really liked the M&M packages. 

The Easter Bunny had also left them a package of Confetti eggs.  They were really excited about them so I let them crack em on the deck.  This year Mak didn't mind them being cracked on her head and thought the cracking was hilarious!  I got some really good action shots of them doing it.

After that we colored eggs as all weekend long I had been so busy we never got a chance to do them.  They colored a little more than a dozen and it took them like 5 minutes I swear.  They had fun though and when it was all over they desperately needed a bath as Makenzie's hands were green.  For some reason she just thought it was fun to stick her hand in the green one.

The finished eggs, so pretty!]]> http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=437 Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:26:00 +0000 Carrie http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=437
Makenzie with her 2 cute pigtails.


She wanted to pose with the Easter bunny

Sydney is growing up so fast.
]]> http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=436 Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:09:58 +0000 Carrie http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=436 ]]> http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=435 Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:44:00 +0000 Carrie http://www.sydkad.com/blog/?p=435 Mak sits patiently in her stroller with her shades on just happy to be out of the car.
I decide to take her over to the rides since I know there will never be enough time to get everything done that we wanted to do before it is time for Sydney to meet up for mutton bustin. Especially with these lines!  The first thing we head to is the carousel with is Makenzie's favorite ride in the whole world.  We asked Sydney if she wanted to go after we had stood in line for almost an hour but she wanted to play more games.
Grandma comes with us instead....why not we have a 190 tickets we bought beforehand and can't return.

While we are on this ride Grandpa gets in line for another one.  Unfortunatley there was only 2 rides that Makenzie was tall enough to go on.  Next year she will be able to do more.  It was the inchworm ride though and she really enjoyed it.  She thought she was such a big girl riding on this ride with me!
Then Dad and Sydney arrived back with all the stuffed animals they had won. Including a giant hello kitty! 

Makaroni was excited about the cow they won her.
Then all she wanted to do was push her cow around in the stroller and buckle him in.  Guess I didn't need those 190 tickets!
My girls went on the carousel with me one last time before it was time to eat.  
After that we headed over to get some dinner.  It was very crowded and the lines didn't move at all.  I found one line that wasn't so bad and it just happened to be my favorite place that carries the potato beef burritos. YUM!  After much more stress and alot more money we were able to get everyone fed.  Then we headed over so Sydney could be part of the Grand Entrance and do Mutton Bustin.  See the Great Mutton Bust post!  Mak sat with Grandma and Grandpa up in the stands.  She really enjoyed all the festivities.
That Friday Jason and I went to the Rodeo with Andrea and Ryan.  Ryan had scored us some nice seats and a sweet parking pass!   It was like we were VIP driving straight up to the stadium.   If only we had one of those on wednesday.  Once there we ate and tried to use up the rest of the tickets by playing games.  Jason helped Andrea and I win a stuffed animal for our girls.  Then Andrea and I rode the roller coaster.  It was actually alot more fun than I thought it was going to be.  Afterwards we were feeling brave so decided to ride another ride where they put you in a cage, spin you around, and hang you upside down....for awhile.   IT had a great view of the city, an upside down view but was actually pretty damn scary.   Andrea said she closed her eyes and the girl next to me just kept yelling, "Let me out!  Let me out!" Once in the stadium we watched the bull riding and mutton bustin along with a few other events.  Then Train preformed.  They put on a great show and we had a blast.  Thanks so much for inviting us!
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