NYC for Aaron's Birthday

We gave Aaron the option of having a birthday party or taking a trip to New York City, seeing a show and doing some touristy NY things.  He chose the trip to New York (Yay for all of us!!!  Although you know I love throwing a party!)  We had a really great time!  We left on Thursday morning after Aaron opened his birthday gifts.

We arrived in NYC around 1pm.  We drove around for a bit to get our bearings then checked into our hotel.  We decided to stay at the W in Time Square... we thought it would be fun for the kids to be right in the middle of all the lights and action.  They sat on the lounge chair by the window with their faces glued to the glass for the majority of the time we spent in our room.  They loved it!  The M&M store was right near the hotel and they had a giant screen that played little M&M clips over and over... Aaron loved it but insisted it made him "need" to eat them.

Once we settled in we grabbed the stroller and hit the streets.  We were on the corner of 47th and Broadway so it was a nice walk to Central Park.  Aaron insisted on having "street meat" for lunch (I think he must have heard us joke about this once and pulled it from the vault for our enjoyment!)

There was a really cute Holiday Market being held in Central Park which we hit up... we got Marcus a cute new hat and some other goodies.  I was obsessed with a little spice shop and could have spent an hour there but alas the kids were antsy.

Alexzndra met us at our hotel after she got out of work and we ordered in some dim sum and hung out for a while.  Aaron was  PSYCHED to see his auntie!  After she left we attempted to get some rest... I say "attempted" because it was the WORST NIGHT EVER!!!  Marcus, my dream sleeper, was awake and unhappy the whole night!  Nothing would console him.  He literally cried for 6 straight hours with a few 5-10 minute intervals of sleep which were really just a tease at that point.  Maybe it was the fistfuls of frosting from Aaron's birthday cupcake just before bed... or some new teeth... or just the strange environment.  All I know is that there was no way we could do it again the following night!

Despite our miserable night we were in good spirits the next day.  Thanks to my girlfriend, Nicole and her mad baking skills we had a delicious pumpkin bread breakfast in our room before grabbing the stroller and heading out again.  We had tickets to see the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall at 1pm so we only had a few hours to kill before changing and meeting Alexzndra.  Aaron wanted to go back to Central Park and play... we found a great playground and hung out there for a while.
Marcus had a great time in the giant sandbox and Aaron loved all the play structures.

  

After a bit we walked over to FAO Schwartz for some shopping.  That place was a mad house!

We COMPLETELY lost track of time and had to book it back to the hotel to get changed.  Alexzndra met us there and we hauled tail over to Radio City... fortunately for us it was just a few blocks.  I have the BEST memories of doing this with my parents growing up and I'm so glad we get to start memories like these for our boys.  The show was great and the boys were mesmerized!

 

 

 

After the show we walked over to Rockefeller Center to see the tree.  Impressive!  Aaron saw the ice skaters and insisted we do that the next day but in Central Park.

We did some window shopping and decided to have an early dinner near the hotel in hopes that we wouldn't miss our sleep window with Marcus.  We found a cute little Italian restaurant a few buildings down from the W and had a great meal.  Marcus passed out at the table and actually slept through the night!!  Thank God!!
We delayed check-out on Saturday and walked to Central Park again for our ice skating adventure...

Spirits are high and Aaron is pumped to get out on the ice...

Hmmm... not quite what he expected but still holding strong

Aaannnnd... let the melt-down begin!

Aaron HATED ice skating!  I insisted we take one lap around the rink so he can say he gave it a fair shot.  He was not happy with me about this... he wanted off the ice ASAP.  He kept picking up his feet forcing me to hold him up... between that and the fact that I haven't skated in 20 years, I was so sore the next day.  When we asked him if that meant that he doesn't want to play hockey when he's older he said, "do you have to ice skate to play hockey?"  When we said, "yes" he shook his head and said, "then, nope!"  :) 

One final photo at the rink... Aaron is still upset about his experience.  :)

We did a lot of walking for the remainder of the morning and took some photos around the park...

After we checked out we went to Hoboken to check out Alexzndra's apartment and meet her roommates.  It was super cute and I got LOTS of ideas for things to make her for Christmas!

Happy Birthday, Aaron John... we had a great time in the City!!!