Bye Bye City....

Our last day in the city... We spent the day in the park, of course!  We I wanted to get the boys sketches done, buy some city pictures and watch the street performers.  Perfect weather for our last day here.

The boys got to play in a band that was pretty cool.  You can see them in the video with this link here: Nadauld Band in the Park

 We got to see Boo perform one last time...

 The boys all got sketches that we can hang in their rooms to remind them of the age they were living in NYC.

As I said, the weather was perfect... look how many people come out to the park on days like this.  We love Sheep Meadow!  I took this picture on our way to Hecsner Park (lower central park).

 I love this park in the park because you get the great view of the city while you play in the water and on the playground.  Taylor asked if it was weird for him to wear his swim suit.  Of course he is probably one of only 5 adults wearing one, but I love that he loves to play like a kid still.  I totally encourage this kind of behavior out of him.  That way, I can sit on the side and visit while the kids are TOTALLY happy! 

 Luke with his water balloon!

 This picture below is our favorite homeless man.  We nick named him Deli... because he is totally delirious.  He dances and talks and yells to himself all day long.  He is either hanging out at the park or on our street, so we saw him every day.  He was nice to us, although my boys would not let me get close enough that he could touch them for a picture.  So I just stole a shot from afar.  What would the city be without a few crazies, huh??

 The Todds threw a little going away party for a few of us families leaving the ward this summer.  It was so fun to say one last goodbye to everyone we have come to love here.  This picture with all the kids makes me happy.  Isn't the view from sheep meadow amazing?  Some of our most magical nights were spent right here, with perfect weather, perfect scenery, and perfect company.

 I forgot to get a picture with all our friends, but I was able to get one with Lynda and Ryan before the night was over.  I sure hope we can always stay in touch with these great friends.  I don't know how they do it, but they rule the city.  I have never met some one who hosts or entertains or serves or has fun like this lady and she does it all in the City!!!  Come visit soon guys... my boys keep asking when we get to see you all!

One last peek out the windows.  This is out of our front room window above.  And one from the boys room out the East.

Packed and ready... 5am is EARLY!

BYE NEW YORK CITY!!!  I hope we can come back really soon. 

Our last week of city life... sniff sniff

We have loved living in the city.  What a great experience for our family that we will remember forever.  Here we are in front of the temple/church.  I can't imagine life without the mormon culture.  Besides learning the gospel, we have made such amazing friends that have helped us learn how to love and enjoy the city.  We knew our stay was going to fly by, so to be able to hit the ground running was a big deal!

 

This is my view every sunday morning in the elevator.  Our family and stroller basically fill the old elevator to the brim!  But it's sure cute to see.

YAY... the fire flies finally came out and the boys have loved spending time in Central park searching for them and capturing them.  Below is a few pictures of the fun....

 

 One more week so we had to hit as many touristy things as we could.  Fortunately, NYC always has free events going on.  And with the mormon network, you always hear about them!  We started the day off at a smuckers event down in the Flat Iron district.  Isn't the flat Iron building amazing?  The free smuckers apples and fruit sauces where a nice treat too.

 Next we headed to the East side to take the tram ride over to Roosevelt Island.  We actually didn't do anything at the island but the tram ride over the East river was pretty cool.  The boys loved it. 

 Every since I took my mom to Serendipity's for her birthday dinner, my boys have wanted to try the Frozen Hot Chocolate.  We got 4 different flavors and the favorite was the original.  I love the peanut butter one, but the original was a close second for me.  Definitely enough to share....

 We wanted to hit the butterfly exhibit at the American Natural History Museum, but of course with my luck we missed it by a couple days.  UGH... good thing they have very cool IMAX movies to entertain us instead.  The unseen world is really cool!  The boys loved it.  Well, Nate fell asleep, but then when it was over cried for about 10 minutes that he missed it. :)  Such a bummer to be so tired.

 We grabbed some friends after school and headed downtown to the cool parks by the hudson river in battery park.  This picture above was taken seconds before Luke tried to scale the wall and a rock came loose.  OOPS... not too serious of an injury, so we headed off to another park to play and enjoy the sunset.

 We are going to miss these cute kiddos when we are gone.  Sam can't figure out where the Todd's are moving too.  He thinks everyone just comes to NYC to visit and will be going home like us.  He was really confused when their mom said they were all born here in the city and have lived here their whole lives. :)

School's out! FINALLY

Can you believe my boys made it until June 26th?  They really felt robbed that they had to go to school so long in the summer, but they actually loved going to PS 87.  They will remember NYC schools forever.  Their teachers were great and they made great friends. 

 

Lucky for Luke, in 2nd grade they were studying NYC.  So he got to learn about all the cool landmarks in the city and they did a section on the subway system.  Above is a picture with Luke in front of the subway map he mad in school.  

 His diorama was of the unisphere ... the original is in Queens, be we get to see a copy all the time here by us at Columbus Circle.

 His also put together a power point presentation with his buddy Sonny on the details of Grand Central Station.

 

Here is just a typical shot of Luke for ya!  He had afterschool Karate and on the day parents could come watch I got the time wrong.  I was SOOO MAD about it.  I was sitting in the play-yard waiting for our time and when I finally went inside, it was just finishing!  Luke said he saw me from the window (sitting outside dying of heat waiting to go in to his review), but he didn't dare tell his teacher I was there.  Oh well.... My pregnancy brain gets the best of me sometimes.  Me, Jake and Sam shed some tears that we missed it, but Luke was cool about it... I mean, look at this cool cat below.  Nothing shakes him. :)

 Below is a picture of his teachers Jeanie and Carmela.  The teachers here choose if they want to go by first names or not here.  And surprisingly to me, about 90% just use their first names.  I only got a good close up of Jeanie.. but we really loved Carmela too.

 They were so great to him and told me several times how much they loved Luke.  They thought he was the sweetest boy in class that always tried to include others.  Probably on 5 different occasions, they pulled me aside and told me of something really nice he did for them or other kids in the class and they were AMAZED at how he behaved.  It warms your heart to hear things like that, because for some reason.... we mom's don't get a lot of that behavior at home!!! 

 Here is a picture of Luke with his buddies Kai and Freddy.  He also had 2 other friends, Sonny (pictured in his power point shot below) and Ben (I never got a picture of him, dang it!).  But, luke had a play date several times a week out here.  He was sure loved by his peers.  Even the mom's of the girls in his class would come up to me and say, "My daughter just loved Luke."  Luke's class really loved the little boys too.  Sam and Nate came on a couple field trips and the students LOVED them.  I don't know if it's because they don't have lots of siblings here or what, but everyone was so cute to our "HUGE" new york family. :)  In Utah, lots of kids are just annoying, here they are a novelty.

Jake's teacher was Ms. Spencer.  She told us at the first parent teacher conference that she was known to be the hard teacher.  It has been GREAT for Jake.  He's the one that things come easy for, so to have a little challenge was good for him.  He ended up LOVING her and learning a lot.

Ms. Spencer loved Jake.  She told me that he is a perfect mix of friendly, intelligent, and funny.  She said people ask her what she looks for in a man and it would be Jake, if only he was her age. :) 

I thought that was so cute!  She told me I should write a parenting book... I told her to come find me in 30 years and we'll see how they all turn out.  I'm sure I've scarred them for life with all my faults!!  But, it just goes to show you how amazing my boys are inherently.  

They are loved by others in-spite of my parenting!

 In 4th grade this year, the kids learned about the Revolutionary War and about the founding fathers.  It was really fun because we also were able to hit a lot of patriotic sites out here on the East Coast and Jake had been studying about a lot of it in school.  Below are pictures he drew throughout the year.  He is not the natural artist, so this was good for him to be required to do.  His pictures are the top far left... the top far right, and the bottom far right.

 He also had a ballroom dance class and was asked to be presenter of the waltz in front of all the parents in the Dance Gala.

He actually quite enjoyed learning all the dances and all the kids did a great job having to be partners with students of the opposite gender.  However, it did take them a few months to get used to it!
Below is a video of him demonstrating the dance steps.

Jake's afterschool activity was basketball.  He was awarded best defensive player and the coaches came up to me to tell me they loved how much spirit Jake has and what an addition he was to the program this year. Only a handful of boys received big trophies and awards and you bet Jake was stoked to be one of them!  I have to embrace his competitiveness I guess.

 This boy LOVES SPORTS. 

 A few action shots of his all-star game below.  His team got 2nd place in the tournament which was a HUGE upset because they weren't expected to do that well.  Way to go Jake.

 A picture with a few friends of Jake's in class. 

Last day of school pictures below... just a few of the many fun kids we loved at PS 87

 Above are the Marsdens.. my boys loved them.  They are a family of soon to be 8 kids here in the city (LDS of course).  Nate attached himself to their 5 year old girl Sophia and asked me everyday if he could go to "his friend's" house to play.  We spent many hours after-school playing at the school with them.

 Of course we had to get a picture with Brandon Todd.  He is everyone's buddy here, He's only in first grade, but such a stud, all my boys love him.  Even Nate got teary eyed the other day telling me he was going to miss Brandon when we leave.

Of course, we had to grab some Italian Icees for our last day of school. These vendors make a killing because they show up right when school gets out every day and the kids all beg you get them.  I made a rule that we could get one once a week, but this last week we happened to NEED them everyday! :)  YUM!